Indians are expected to rush to apply for a recently added Australian permanent visa as a result of Donald Trump imposing a US$100,000 annual fee for high-skilled H-1B visas.
The US president said on Friday he was raising the fee, which is now just US$215, in an effort to make tech companies hire local workers instead of immigrants, and the increase is set to disproportionately affect Indians, who make up 71% of approved visas. Chinese are next on 11.7%.
The announcement sparked panic in India, where prices for flights to the US doubled as visa holders rushed to return before the September 21 deadline, while tech firms like Amazon and Microsoft warned employees with H-1Bs not to leave the US. Amazon is the top H-1B recipient with more than 10,000 a year.
The fee hike has also led to predictions that India will benefit from retaining its most skilled workers, and according to local Indian media outlet The Australia Today the Albanese government’s National Innovation Visa (NIV) is also likely to be seen as an attractive alternative to the H-1B.
The permanent visa, introduced in December last year, requires applicants to have an “internationally recognised record of exceptional and outstanding achievement” in a profession, academia and research, the arts or sport.
The NIV comes with permanent residency, work and study rights, Medicare enrolment, sponsorship of relatives, and, when eligible, application for Australian citizenship, and costs just under $5,000.
“Unlike the increasingly prohibitive H-1B, the NIV prioritises high-calibre talent and leadership and actively encourages those who can make measurable contributions to Australia’s future prosperity,” academic and The Australia Today co-founder Amit Sarwal wrote on Saturday.
“The timing could not be better. India has a vast pool of highly skilled professionals accustomed to working in technology, healthcare, and research-intensive sectors.
“Meanwhile, Australia’s welcoming immigration framework for top-tier talent and its stable, high-quality ecosystem for research and innovation make it an attractive alternative for those now facing prohibitive fees and uncertainty in the US.”
The H-1B changes come after it was revealed that Australia’s permanent migration program, which is capped at 185,000 a year, was bringing in far fewer offshore permanent migrants than expected – just 12% of the intake in the 2023-24 financial year.
The Albanese government and the previous Coalition government have signed three major deals with India since 2022 that have contributed to record levels of Indian immigrants arriving in Australia.
The Indian-born population of Australia was 916,330 as of June 30 last year, up from 95,000 in 2001, according to the latest official estimates, in addition to another 200,971 “second-generation migrants” born in Australia with Indian ancestry, and 113,947 “secondary migrants” who were born in other countries but have Indian ancestry.
This puts the Indian diaspora at about 1.23 million, and the Indian-born population is expected to hit 1.1 million in 2026 as high immigration levels continue, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Header image: Anthony Albanese at Gurdwara Sahib Glenwood Sikh temple in western Sydney last year (Facebook).
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