2016-2017 Australian Migration Programme: Key Statistics for the Year in Immigration

The migration programme is designed to meet Australia’s economic and social needs. For the 2016-17 migration programme the planning levels have been set at up to 190,000 places, the same as previous years.

For 2015-2016 the managed migration programme had 189,700 places allocated within the 190,000 planning level. The breakdown is as follows:

• 128,550 places for skilled migration (67.7%)
• 57,400 for family migration (30.2%)
• 308 for migration under the Special Eligibility stream

3,512 Child places were allocated outside the managed migration programme.

The major source countries in the migration programme were India (21.2%), China (15.3%) and the United Kingdom (10%).

The skilled migration numbers include the following visa subclasses:

• Employer Sponsored visas
◦ subclass 187 Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) visa -12,269 places
◦ subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) visa – 35,981 places
• General Skilled Migration (GSM) visas
◦ subclass 189 Skilled Independent visa – 43,994 places
◦ subclass 190 Skilled Nominated visa – 24,650 places
◦ subclass 489 Skilled Regional Sponsored visa – 4,196 places
• Business Innovation and Investment visas – 7,260 places
• Subclass 124/858 Distinguished Talent visas – 200 places

Temporary visas such as visitor visas, student visas, working holiday visas and the subclass 457 Temporary Work (Skilled) visa are not included in the annual planning levels. Read More...