Australia: monthly international arrivals in Australia by visa group 2021

In June 2021, a total of 3,610 people entered Australia on a permanent skilled visa. From February 2020 the number of international arrivals in Australia plummeted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared with the month of October in the previous year, which totaled nearly 800,000 visa entries, a total of just over 10,000 visa entries occurred in October 2020.

Australian visa types

The Australian immigration program manages a range of both permanent and temporary visa applications. The most common single visa type is the higher education sector visa, used by international students to study at Australian universities, this is followed by the two most common tourist visa types, visitor and working holiday visas. Of the permanent visa types, the skilled visa category is by far the most popular, with more and a million permanent migrants living in Australia on this visa category at the last Australian census in 2016.

The impact of Coronavirus on travel

With the rate of infection in China climbing steadily in early February 2020, the Australian government began to implement travel restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus. These measures began with the closing of borders to foreign nationals arriving from China and by April 2020 these restrictions had been extended to all foreign international travelers. Domestic travel also saw a drastic fall in traffic, even before the Australian states and territories began restricting interstate travel. The number of domestic travelers in April 2020 had dropped to just a fraction compared to the previous year.

Monthly number of international arrivals in Australia in 2019 and 2021, by visa group (in 1,000s)

Characteristic	Permanent Family Visas	Permanent Skilled Visas	Permanent Other Visas	Temporary Student Visas	Temporary Skilled Visas	Temporary Visitor Visas	Temporary Work Visas	Temporary Other Visas
June 2021	2.8	3.61	2.73	0.47	1.32	3.44	0.27	5.42
May 2021	3.16	3.83	2.94	0.4	1.48	3.33	0.21	4.65
April 2021	2.62	2.69	1.78	0.28	1.15	2.45	0.15	4.09
March 2021	2.53	2.41	1.76	0.23	1.29	1.95	0.16	3.29
February 2021	1.73	2.13	1.39	0.2	1.02	1.51	0.13	2.21
January 2021	1.63	2.75	1.73	0.48	1.22	1.52	0.1	3.82
December 2020	2.16	2.72	1.86	0.23	1.31	1.98	0.1	2.05
November 2020	1.65	1.81	1.49	0.2	1.22	1.97	0.12	2.18
October 2020	1.32	1.71	1.29	0.13	1.13	1.8	0.11	2.53
September 2020	0.95	1.12	1.01	0.08	0.68	1.02	0.06	1.72
August 2020	0.88	0.94	0.85	0.05	0.47	0.91	0.05	1.4
July 2020	0.88	1.03	1.2	0.04	0.27	0.9	0.04	1.72
June 2020	1.54	2.19	1.78	0.06	0.19	1.16	0.04	2.07
May 2020	1.26	1.64	1.19	0.04	0.19	0.75	0.03	0.94
April 2020	0.99	1.38	1.45	0.03	0.16	0.85	0.04	0.57
March 2020	14.7	20.22	26.64	61.88	9.39	195.78	13.43	23.4
February 2020	26	44.7	55.2	125.39	15.69	448.41	23.36	39.5
January 2020	33.08	84.8	88.6	96.42	34.77	506.54	24.62	54.35
December 2019	20.27	34.77	46.03	40.79	15.99	803.17	19.33	28.57
November 2019	22.73	38.38	52.1	40.53	17.62	592.13	24.42	34.73
October 2019	24.46	44.87	65.04	54	20.56	510.75	26.78	38.85
September 2019	23.9	41.57	55.42	47.64	20.53	459.98	28.12	33.93
August 2019	24.42	41.34	54.23	57.86	20.81	549.93	21.2	30.39
July 2019	22.1	48.57	59.6	150.69	22.28	479.86	16.42	35.02
June 2019	23.02	40.21	52.34	47.72	19.75	449.15	19	29.36
May 2019	25.01	42.98	55.25	36.81	19.64	457.89	20.72	30.16
April 2019	24.33	49.17	57.56	46.48	22.89	490.81	19.3	33.86
March 2019	24.03	39.16	46.54	75.71	19.33	597.38	23.82	35.39
February 2019	26.73	50.32	52.96	191.56	19.36	630.83	23.91	39.2
January 2019	35.75	85.67	83.3	94.69	38.82	478.93	26.64	47.3

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Release date

July 2021

More information

Region

Australia

Survey time period

January 2019 to June 2021

Supplementary notes

For confidentiality, estimates have been rounded to the nearest 10. As a result, sums of the components may not add exactly to totals.

Total does not include Australian or New Zealand Citizens.

Explanation of various visa types can be viewed on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) website.

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