The Government of New South Wales (Sydney) announced that from 1st November the quarantine and cap for overseas arrivals will be removed for fully vaccinated Australia citizens and permanent residents and their immediate families. The TGA-approved vaccines can be found here. The NSW Government is due to issue further information about arrivals testing requirements in the coming days. Australian travellers who are not fully vaccinated will be limited to 210 people per week and will be required to comply with mandatory 14-days hotel quarantine.
At the moment, Australian citizens and Permanent residents are able to bring their immediate family to Australia. The immediate family includes spouse/partner, child (or guardian). The Australian Prime Minister announced today that the Government will be looking at expanding the definition of ‘immediate family’ to include the parents of Australian residents and citizens from 1st November. Many parents were desperate to travel to Australia during the pandemic to see their children and grandchildren. The move will be welcomed by many families.
Other visa holders, such as skilled visa or student visa holders, international visitors travelling under an ETA or other Tourist visas are not allowed to travel to Australia (or NSW) under the new arrangements. The Prime Minister advised that the Government is hoping to be in a position to make decisions regarding other visa holders down the track though no specific dates have been provided.
The move will help Australians stranded abroad to reunite with their families after months of separation. The change will also benefit the local economy. The NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said “We know businesses in regional NSW were getting ready to welcome people back, but it’s important we get this right so that we can have greater confidence the vaccines will do their job – and that when we re-open travel to the regions, they can remain open and that businesses have continued support in the meantime. We thank people for their patience.”
With NSW opening borders, there is hope the NSW Government will re-open nominations for Skilled Migrants from overseas. Currently, nominations are only available to 190 and 491 visa applicants already based in NSW. We will provide further updates on the NSW Skilled Migration Nominations once announcements have been made.
Are you looking at travelling back to NSW Australia with your family? Contact us for advice on Australian Partner Visa, Child or Adoption applications: [email protected] or call on 0207 427 5290.
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