MIGRANTS WITH A PROVISIONAL VISA

Some migrants who are included on the Department of Social Services (DSS) Settlement Database (SDB) are on a pathway to permanent residency and hold a temporary or provisional visa. In 2010-11, most migrant taxpayers with a Provisional visa held Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) visas. This type of visa is granted to international students who have recently graduated from an Australian educational institution and it allows these graduates to work in Australia temporarily while they continue on their journey to permanent residency.

There were 42,959 tax returns submitted by migrant taxpayers with a Provisional visa in 2010-11, 98.8% of whom were onshore applicants. This high rate is mainly due to the requirement of the 485 visa that the applicant be in Australia when submitting their application.

Sources of income	2009-10 Median Income (a)	2010-11 Median Income
	$	$
Employee income	20 035	25 334
Own unincorporated business income	7 280	7 922
Investment income	65	105
Other income (excl. Government pensions and allowances)(b)	0	14
Total income (excl. Government pensions and allowances)(c)(d)	20 521	25 978
(a) In 2010-11 dollars adjusted using changes in the Consumer Price Index.
(b) Includes Superannuation and annuities and Other sources of income. Data for superannuation and annuities are understated. See Explanatory Notes for more information.
(c) Persons may have more than one source of income.

(d) Totals may not exactly match the sum of components due to rounding.
Source: Personal Income Tax and Migrants Integrated Dataset (PITMID), 2010-11.


The majority of migrant taxpayers with a Provisional visa in 2010-11 were born in Central and Eastern Asia (79%). The highest concentration of migrants were born in India (18,046), followed by China* (4,304) and Nepal (3,715). Migrant taxpayers with a Provisional visa from Nepal had the highest median Employee income ($31,061) and Total income ($31,553) in 2010-11. Provisional migrant taxpayers born in South Korea had the highest median Own Unincorporated Business income ($12,521) whilst those born in Malaysia had the highest median Other income ($751). Provisional visa holders who were born in China* had the lowest median Total income ($15,639).

Figure 1 presents a world map highlighting the population concentration by country of birth of migrant taxpayers with a Provisional visa in 2010-11. Almost 80% of all migrant taxpayers with a provisional visa were born in only 10 countries in Asia.


Notes

Changes in income from 2009-10 to 2010-11 are in 2010-11 dollars, adjusted using changes in the Consumer Price Index.

*China excludes Special Administrative Regions (SARs) which comprise Hong Kong and Macau (SARs of China) and Taiwan.

Other income (excluding Government pensions and allowances) includes transfer or trust income; foreign investment fund and/or foreign life insurance assurance policy income (in 2009-10 only); controlled foreign company income; foreign salary/pension income; other net foreign source income; and other (including superannuation and annuity income). Data for superannuation and annuities are understated. See Explanatory Notes for more information.