Australia granted 160,052 permanent residency visas to onshore applicants in the 2020-21 Migration Program.
Applicants received the 160,052 permanent residency visas against a visa-grant ceiling of 160,000.
This intake was a significant increase from the 140,000 visas granted in the 2019-20 Migration Program.
Speaking on the migration intake in 2020-21, Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said that Australia’s well-managed Migration Program would help support the country’s economic recovery following the pandemic.
Moreover, the 2020-21 Migration Program would also create new jobs and protect the safety and security of Australians, he said.
He also explained that Australia had to draw from the pool of onshore applicants to meet its migration program target amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and global border restrictions.
China was the largest source country for PR recipients in the 2020-21 Migration Program with 22,207 PR grants, followed by India with 21,791 recipients and the United Kingdom with 12,703.
The business category was dominated by Chinese applicants, while Indians got the larger share of Skilled Independent category permanent residency visas.
In total, the Australian government granted 79,620 permanent residency visas in the Skilled category, 77,372 PR visas in the Family category, 3,006 permanent visas for Children, and 54 PR visas in the Special Eligibility category.
Of the 77,372 Family stream visas granted by Australia, 72,000 PR visas were delivered to partner visa applicants, making this Migration Program the largest for the Partner Program in 25 years.
In the skilled category, the most permanent residency visas were given to applicants under the Employer Sponsored stream, which had nearly 23,000 recipients, followed by the State and Territory Nominated stream with almost 14,000 recipients.
9,584 skilled visas were also granted under the Global Talent (Independent) program in the 2020-21 Migration Program for skilled individuals who are highly skilled in one of 10 target sectors and deemed to have the potential to be an asset to Australia.
