On 14 May 2024, the Australian Government announced that the planning levels for the 2024–25 permanent Migration Program (Migration Program) will be set at 185,000 places.

The permanent Migration Program will help fill skills shortages in priority sectors and prioritise visa processing for regional Australia while we are building the domestic pipeline of highly skilled workers.

The 2024–25 Migration Program also recognises the strong contribution all migrants make to social cohesion. It focuses on strengthening family and community bonds in Australia.

A well-targeted, skills focussed Migration Program supplements the cohort of working-age people. It helps boost participation rates and the size of the labour force.

The 2024–25 permanent Migration Program has the following composition:

• Skill stream (132,200 places, approximately 71 per cent of the program) – This stream has been designed to improve the productive capacity of the economy and fill skill shortages in the labour market, particularly those in regional Australia.
• Family stream (52,500 places, approximately 28 per cent of the program) – This stream is predominantly made up of Partner visas, enabling Australians to reunite with family members from overseas and provide them with pathways to citizenship. Of this stream: 
  • 40,500 Partner visas are estimated for 2024–25 for planning purposes, noting this category is demand driven.
  • 3,000 Child visas are estimated for 2024–25 for planning purposes, noting this category is demand driven.
• Special Eligibility stream (300 places) – This stream covers visas for those in special circumstances, including permanent residents returning to Australia after a period overseas.

Migration Program planning levels as announced as part of the 2023–24 and 2024–25 Federal Budgets:

Source: Migration Program planning levels