Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

The current median processing time for Dependent Child (Subclass 445) visa applications in 2011-2012 migration program year to 30 April 2012 is 212 days or 7 months.

There is no annual cap on the number of Dependent Child visas. The visa is, however, subject to planning levels in the Migration Program which is determined annually by the Government as part of the Budget. My Department has a responsibility to ensure that the numbers of visas granted overall and within each visa category are in accordance with the agreed planning levels. Departmental resources are allocated to ensure that the planning levels are met over the course of the program year.

The planning level for Child category visas, which includes Dependent Child visas, in the 2011-2012 migration program year was 3 450 visa grants, an increase of 4.5 per cent from the previous program year.

On 8 May 2012 the Government announced a further 11.6 per cent increase in the size of the Chid category for the 2012-2013 migration program year. The planning level will be 3 850.

The table below shows visa application lodgements, grants, refusals and withdrawals or otherwise finalised from persons from high risk and low risk countries.

High risk countries are those countries whose nationals are not eligible for an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) to be issued for travel to Australia. The Department's current list of low risk countries, that is ETA-eligible countries, is below:

Information about reasons that applications are refused is recorded on individual files but cannot be aggregated to provide caseload-wide statistical reporting.

The timeframes for processing Subclass 445 visas is based on expected demand and complexity of processing. These timeframes incorporate the likelihood of clients needing to undertake health and security requirements and existing pipelines for deciding cases. A review is currently underway to review processing timeframes for the processing of Subclass 445 visas lodged inside and outside Australia.