An official announcement was made by Alex Hawke, the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs on 28 October 2021 that the Australian government is creating two new visa streams specifically for Hong Kong nationals to gain permanent residency (PR) in Australia.
The two visa streams are much simpler than the other existing visa streams, which represent the Australian government’s commitment to provide further opportunities for Hong Kong nationals to gain PR in Australia.
Eligible Hong Kong and BNO passport holders will be able to:
- firstly, apply for a temporary visa through one of the existing temporary visa streams 485, 482 or 487 (each a Qualifying Temporary Visa). This Qualifying Temporary Visa will last up to 5 years (which is significantly longer than the usual duration for applicants who apply for the same visa steams but are from other jurisdictions)
- secondly, come and live in Australia and substantially comply with the conditions of the Qualifying Temporary Visa;
- thirdly, apply for one of the newly created PR visa streams, namely:
- subclass 191 (Hong Kong (regional) stream) after holding the Qualifying Temporary Visa for a continuous period of at least 3 years; or
- subclass 189 (Hong Kong stream) after holding the Qualifying Temporary Visa for a continuous period of at least 4 years.
Under each of the newly created 191 and 189 PR streams, there is:
- Age requirement
- English requirement
- Points tested requirement
- Skills assessment
- Income requirement
- Assets requirement
The new PR streams are open for application from 5 March 2022.
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