Students allowed despite Covid policies


Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday announced Australia will refund visa fees for vaccinated backpackers who arrive within the next three months.

The country — whose tight, pandemic border policies locked out its citizens, and more recently, one of tennis’s biggest stars — is encouraging backpackers to visit.

And it’s doing so because it wants to reduce labor shortages that have been made worse by Covid-19.

“My message to [backpackers] is come on down,” Morrison said this week. “You’ve got your visa, we want you to come to Australia and enjoy a holiday here in Australia, move all the way … around the country and the same time, join our workforce.”

The invitation applies to some 23,500 backpackers who already have visas to enter Australia as well as “anyone who applies for one and turns up within the next 12 weeks,” said Morrison, via the televised announcement.

Visas commonly obtained by backpackers — namely, the subclass 417 and 462 visas, known as “Working Holiday Makers” visas — let young adults who aren’t traveling with dependent children work and travel through Australia for up to one year.

Holders of these visas who arrive by April 19 can apply to have their fees of $495 Australian dollars ($358) refunded, according to Australia’s Department of Home Affairs.

International students with visas to study in Australia can also have their visa fees of $630 Australian dollars ($453) returned to them if they arrive in the next eight weeks, Morrison said.

Australian universities are currently on summer holidays, with many scheduled to restart classes between late February to early March.

Jacobs Stock Photography Ltd

The move is both “a thank you to them for coming back … but we also want them to come here and be able to be filling some of these critical workforce shortages, particularly those who are working and being trained in health care, aged care, those types of sectors,” said Morrison.   

He said “the crest of this omicron wave is either upon us now or will come upon us in states over the next few weeks” and that opening the borders to backpackers and students would support Australia with “the challenges we’ll face in the weeks and months ahead.”

To attract backpackers and students to quickly travel to Australia, the country is launching a $3 million marketing program through its tourism agency, Tourism Australia, Morrison said.  

Wanted: travelers who will work 

Worker and supply shortages caused major supermarkets in Australia to reinstate purchase limits on toilet paper, meat products and medicines.

Steven Saphore | AFP | Getty Images

The need for more help

Vaccinated eligible visa holders, including holders of Working Holiday Makers visas, have been able to enter Australia without applying for a travel exemption since Dec. 15, 2021.  

Passengers from Singapore arrive in Sydney, Australia, on Nov. 21, 2021. For the purposes of general tourism, Australia is open to New Zealanders and vaccinated citizens — but not other residents — of Singapore, Japan and South Korea.

Bai Xuefei | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

Working Holiday Makers aren’t required to have specific skills but they are restricted to the types of jobs they…



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