Nurses and teachers in Malaysia: Australia's new visa queue could mean a wait of up to 12 months

News · 2026-08-22 · 4 min read

If you are a Malaysian nurse, teacher or tradesperson hoping to move to Australia, or an employer hoping to hire one, the way skilled visas are processed has changed. For applicants who are still overseas, the change is not in your favour.

How the new queue works

In July, the government introduced a directive that reshuffles how skilled and employer-sponsored visa applications are processed. Instead of first in, first served, applications are now sorted into five priority tiers.

At the very top are defence and law enforcement workers. Next come construction, healthcare and teaching professionals, but only if they are already living in Australia. Everyone else applying from offshore, unless they work in defence or policing, has effectively moved to the bottom of the pile.

The result is that offshore applicants for skilled visas, including many of the nurses and teachers the country needs, face processing delays of up to 12 months, on top of any backlog that already existed.

Why location now counts as much as occupation

Because the tiers favour where an applicant is rather than what they do, an offshore nurse can be overtaken by an onshore applicant in an unrelated, lower-need job. Industry figures say a marketing manager already in Australia could clear the queue faster than a nurse waiting overseas. That raises a fair question about whether the policy targets the skills shortage or just the number of visas.

Business groups have called it a "blunt tool" and a step back from the streamlined post-COVID system towards something closer to an emergency handbrake.

Part of a wider reset

This directive follows a similar move in July that stalled processing of Working Holiday Maker visas. It also comes before a larger migration overhaul that is still being developed. The aim is numeric: bring Net Overseas Migration down from roughly 300,000 to Labor's target of 225,000 by 2028. The peak after the borders reopened was 556,000.

Other measures reportedly under consideration include removing work rights from visa holders whose protection claims have been rejected. The bridging visa group has more than tripled since 2017, from roughly 130,000 to over 413,000 people. International students now number over 528,000, up sharply from 2017. There is no agreement on how to cut migration. Some want deeper cuts to student numbers, others want backpacker visas protected for regional and farm work, and the opposition itself is divided.

What Malaysian applicants can do

Plan for a longer timeline. If you are applying from outside Australia, treat 12 months as a realistic floor, not a worst case.
Get informed advice before you lodge, since policy shifts like this can change your options overnight.
Prepare documents now. When a police certificate is requested, apply for a police clearance from the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), often called a Certificate of Good Conduct.
Arrange certified copies and English translations of Bahasa Malaysia documents where the visa rules ask for them.
Consider an English test such as IELTS or PTE if your visa or employer may need one, even though you use English daily.

The Department of Home Affairs website is the place to check the latest official information.

For employers sponsoring from abroad

Employers hiring offshore talent, especially in healthcare or education, should build the longer timeline into workforce planning straight away. Applicants who are already onshore may find their cases move faster than expected under the new tiers.

Migration settings are clearly in flux, and more changes are expected once the full overhaul is announced. Staying ahead of the shifts, rather than reacting to them, is the difference between a smooth move and a year in a holding pattern.

#visa queue #australia #malaysia #nurses #teachers #skilled visa