Australia’s DHA to outsource visa application services
Anticipating an increased demand for their services, Australia’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) will outsource aspects of its visa application services to third-party providers.
This decision comes as the agency faces a growing visa backlog, — tipped to soon surpass a million — skill and labor shortages across critical sectors, and the reopening of international borders.
According to the department’s data, they were able to complete an average of 27,000 visa applications a month during 2021. However, in February and March alone, more than 350,000 visa applications were filed to Home Affairs.
This represented a significant jump in requests compared to the previous year.
The DHA said that biometric information — such as fingerprints and facial images — for Australian visa applications will be collected by the private company, while their in-house staff will continue performing sovereign functions including maintaining decision-making over applications.
The changes are expected to begin in March next year. It will replace the paper-based system to align with traveler expectations for “more efficient and digitally-enabled services”.
A DHA spokesperson emphasized that this move will have no impact on their staffing numbers, both in Australia and abroad.
