Bridging Visa B Migration Update!

You might not know this, but there are currently over 420,000 temporary residents stuck in Australia on bridging visas. And that is a direct result of a completely broken immigration processing system. Bridging visas only exist because you apply for a new visa or appeal while you're already in the country waiting for a decision. And the government takes two years to process spouse visas, two years for appeals, up to a year for ENS applications and work visas are sitting around for three to 10 months, which explains why the number of people on bridging visas has skyrocketed 400% in just the last decade. The real joke is that the government created this massive backlog and it's now cashing in by tripling the bridging visa B fee from $190 to $575. Think about that. We charge $250 for a tourist visa to come in, and more than double that if you actually want to leave. People on the basic bridging visa A have to apply for the expensive bridging visa B just to travel overseas and during peak times like Christmas, it takes over three weeks to process, which makes you wonder, why we even need them? Wouldn't it be way simpler to just remove bridging visa B entirely and add travel permissions directly to the bridging visa A? Because I swear, I read something about freedom of movement, but apparently human rights takes a back seat to charging ridiculous fees for people who want to visit their families. If the government actually wanted an efficient system, they would simply extend all reissued current visas with an open date like the bridging visa A already does. We can keep the penalty visas for people who actually break the law, but the bridging visa A is for law-abiding migrants whose only mistake is waiting on the government to do their job and screwing them over is a terrible policy. Have a great day.