Ragab Youssef was already frustrated by how long it was taking to process his application for a permanent residency visa.
Then the federal government announced it was going to prioritise offshore visa applications, to get more people coming to the country.
It was the last straw for the 34-year-old, who organised a protest in Adelaide's CBD on Sunday attended by "hundreds" of similarly angry visa applicants.
"It's not fair to me," he told the ABC.
"[I am] supporting the Australian economy, paying my taxes, doing the hard work, and not getting any subsidy or help from the government, and at the end of the day, my visa takes longer to be granted just because I've stayed here."
Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles announced the department was prioritising processing of offshore temporary skilled, student and visitor visas late last month.
The reallocation of resources was required "so more people could travel to Australia and contribute to economic growth, and assist with labour shortages", a statement from the government at the time said.
It said staff previously working on travel exemptions had been redirected to visa processing along with staff from elsewhere in the department working overtime.
Mr Youssef said the backlog of visa assessments was leaving families already in Australia anxious and uncertain about their futures.
The mining electrical engineer, originally from Egypt, said that since he lodged his application for an 887 Regional Skilled visa in October 2020 the expected processing time had increased from 22 to 25 months.
The 887 visas are for people who have lived for at least two years and worked for a year full-time in a specified regional area.
Mr Youssef, who moderates a private 887 applicants' Facebook group with about 9,000 members, said there were a range of hardships involved in waiting for permanent residency.
Bridging and temporary visas were less stable and not having permanent residency made finding work more difficult, he said.
"They are not able to work by not having access to childcare subsidies," he said.
"Thousands of university students have been left without [Commonwealth financial] support that they should have been eligible for."
It's unclear what impact the prioritisation of offshore visa applications will have on processing times for onshore applications.
The Department of Home Affairs has not responded to the ABC's inquiries.
Why permanent residency is important
Zita Cai, a member of Mr Youssef's Facebook group, said she had been waiting for her permanent residency approval for over 19 months.
Ms Cai obtained received a master's degree in 2017 after studying for two years and since then has been working as an office manager while running her own flower shop in Adelaide.
"Without the [887] visa, I will face problems in buying my house because as a foreign buyer, I have to pay a 7 per cent foreign citizen stamp duty surcharge," she said.
"It's a huge amount of money.
"If you want to settle in a country, you will feel more secure after having your own house."
For Dipesh Khanal, a nurse in Toowoomba in Queensland, permanent residency would mean recognition of his contribution to the community.
Mr Khanal, who came to Australia from Nepal in 2007, applied for an 887 visa in September 2020 after working for three years at an aged care facility at Parkes in central NSW.
He said the government's decision to prioritise offshore visa applications was "really gut-wrenching".
"We have invested our time and everything in the regional community, working in a critical sector during the pandemic," the 44-year-old told ABC.
"I don't know what they're doing."
Chasing faster processing backfires
Yiwen Huang, who has been waiting for a 190 visa for over two years, came back to Australia from China because she thought it would mean her application would be processed more quickly.
The 190 visa, also known as the Skilled Nominated visa, is a permanent residency visa that requires applicants to be invited by the state government and have their skills, such as teaching, identified as an occupation in demand by the Department of Home Affairs.
Ms Huang lodged her application in 2019 and returned to China to wait.
But the 28-year-old was told the onshore assessment might be faster than the offshore one, so she bought an air ticket and returned to Adelaide in early June this year.
"My application status changed from offshore to onshore," she said. "It means I will be affected by the new policy."
She said she had been rejected for a job at a university in Sydney because her visa status was temporary.
"I am working as a relief teacher for pre-schools and primary schools now," she said.
"Without the 190 visa, I cannot pursue my favourite jobs."
'There is no deprioritising'
Migration Institute of Australia national president Julie Williams said she understood how the onshore visa applicants felt, but "the priority has to be somewhere".
Ms Williams said the federal government had been left with "a huge backlog" of visa applications due to the COVID border closures.
"There is no deprioritising, the government is simply looking at adding to our pool of skilled workers by bringing in offshore skilled migrants," she said.
"With unemployment levels at an all-time low and businesses desperate for more skilled workers, the only way to quickly increase the pool of skilled workers is to bring them in from overseas."
Kirk Yan, a Melbourne-based migration agent, said that giving offshore applicants priority was reasonable because the market was crying out for an increase in the overseas labour force.
"During the pandemic, onshore applicants had much more priorities than offshore ones, which occupied about 80 per cent to 90 per cent of visas granted during this period," he said.
"The advantage of being onshore applicants is that they have bridging visas after submitting permanent residency applications, allowing them to at least work in Australia and enjoy the Medicare."
Could processing times put off potential migrants?
But Mr Yan warned that the government also needed to balance the onshore and offshore applications to avoid driving potential migrants away.
"The government should consider onshore applicants who have experienced an unreasonably long waiting period, " he said.
"The long waiting period makes the applicants feel frustrated. Some future applicants may hesitate and give up."
Ms Williams said the government was already aware that Australia was competing with other countries for the pool of skilled and talented migrants.
"It is important that the government gets the post-pandemic settings right to maximise the potential of our country," Ms Williams said.
