There is no magic wand to immediately fix all the Department of Home Affairs issues, but new Minister Leon Schreiber says he has identified clearing visa backlogs, improving the departments IT systems and restoring dignity to its processes as priorities.
In his first act as Minister of Home Affairs just one day after taking office, Schreiber extended the temporary concession for foreign nationals awaiting the outcome of visa, waiver or appeal applications.
He said the waiver was an opportunity to start to address the visa backlog, which stood at 143 000 applications.
Its important to use the window to make sure that the backlog is substantially reduced, if not cleared.
Its a huge number of people that are impacted and these are people who are trying to follow the law. They are trying to go through the right processes and they risked facing adverse consequences if the extension was not granted.
