People can come to Australia for a temporary stay for a range of purposes, for example, visiting Australia for tourism or attending a conference, or for more specific purposes, such as medical treatment, study, skilled work, working holidays or other specialist activities.
There are 6 main categories of temporary residents, which can cover stays of more than 3 months in Australia.
Visitor visas
Visitor visas are mostly used by people visiting Australia for:
- holidays
- tourism
- recreation
- seeing family and friends.
People may also use Visitor visas for certain short-term business activities that do not involve working in Australia.
Working Holiday Maker Program
This program allows young adults to have a 12-month holiday during which they can undertake short-term work and study.
Student visa
This visa, allows international students to come to Australia to study full-time in a registered course.
Temporary Resident (Skilled Employment) visa
This visa, allows a business to sponsor a skilled overseas worker if they cannot find a suitably skilled Australian citizen or permanent resident to fill a skilled position.
Other temporary visas
Other temporary visas include visas that allow people to:
- undertake short-term, non-ongoing highly specialised work
- enrich social and cultural development
- strengthen international relations
- provide training opportunities of benefit to Australia.
New Zealand citizens
Under the 1973 Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement, New Zealand citizens can enter and leave Australia freely and live in Australia indefinitely on grant of a Special Category visa (subclass 444).
Summary of profiles
See
Temporary visas granted by main visa category, 2023–24.
This table provides a summary of the number of temporary visas granted by main visa category in 2023–24 for each of the profiles.
Temporary visas granted, 2014–15 to 2023–24
This graph shows the change in temporary migration over the past 10 years, as a broad overview of the main visa categories.
Source: Department of Home Affairs
Note: Other temporary visas exclude Transit (subclass 771) visa, Border (subclass 773) visa and Maritime Crew (subclass 988) visa.
