From the beginning of December, fully vaccinated international students will be able to enter Australia without requiring any additional permits, but they may still be needed to undergo quarantine depending on which state they land in.
Through the Commonwealth Government’s announcement today, around 150,000 current student visa holders will be able to return to Australia from Dec. 1, 2021.
Key Takeaways:
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International students who are fully vaccinated will be able to enter Australia without requiring any additional permissions, but depending on which state they land in.
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From Dec. 1, 2021, about 150,000 existing student visa holders will be eligible to return to Australia.
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Australia is also expecting to welcome back tourists from Japan and South Korea.
Humanitarian, student, economic, and temporary and provisional family visas will all be available.
According to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the development could happen because 85 percent of the population is fully vaccinated already. Prior to boarding their aircraft, passengers on the scheme must be double-vaccinated and have a PCR test.
Australia’s universities, which rely on international students for a substantial portion of their funding, have been pleading for the safe and full return of their students.
The latest announcement has been welcomed by higher education institutions and education groups. More than 130,000 students had been locked out because of the more than 18-month-long border closure.
International students who have been vaccinated and have a valid visa will no longer require an exemption to travel to Australia, but they will be subject to the quarantine policies of the state or territory they are visiting.
Moreover, international students will not be counted toward passenger caps in jurisdictions that do not need quarantine.
For instance, international students will board a charter flight back to Sydney on Dec. 6 as part of a pilot program aimed at revitalizing the city’s lucrative international education sector. Two hundred and fifty students from 15 nations will board the plane, including Canada, China, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam.
A second flight, transporting students from India and other regions of South Asia, will arrive on Dec. 24. Following that, flights are scheduled to come every two weeks.
From next week, Australia is also expecting to welcome back tourists from Japan and South Korea.
According to Karen Andrews, Minister of Home Affairs, inviting travelers and temporary visa holders back would help the tourism industry recover even more.
It can be recalled that what used to be a vibrant tourism industry with over 1 million Australians employed in the sector has lost 600,000 – almost half of the total workers contributing to the country’s tourism sector.
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