01: More than one path
There are two main pathways to migrating to Australia: temporary visas and permanent migration.
Within these two pathways are several different avenues for coming to live in Australia.
Temporary immigration covers a number of visa categories including international students, skilled workers and people on working holidays.
New Zealand residents also fall under the temporary immigration category and have their own set of rules to comply with if they wish to become permanent residents.
To become a permanent resident, immigrants can apply under the migration program or the humanitarian program.
But even under these two programs there are multiple pathways.
Australian National University senior migration law academic Marianne Dickie told SBS News migrating to Australia was so complicated most people needed the aid of a migration lawyer or agent to navigate the process.
"For most people it's not just filling in forms, it's knowing which path to take," she said.
"There's 5000 migration agents in Australia. It's really complicated and the law changes all the time. It's hard, it's expensive and it takes time."
Source: DIBP
02: International student visas
To study in Australia, international students are required to apply for one of a number of different student visas.
The visa covers those wishing to study full time at a recognised educational institution.
The visa allows a guardian to accompany someone on a student visa if the student is under the age of 18.
The guardian must be aged over 21 and be a parent or otherwise authorised guardian of the student.
For those who have finished their studies and wish to stay in Australia and work temporarily there is the temporary graduate visa, .
Source: Migration: the economic debate (Committee for Economic Development of Australia)
03: Skilled migration
Australia accepts temporary skilled migrants across a range of industries under various different visas.
These general skilled migration, visas for the offshore oil and gas industry and visas for entrepreneurs, business owners and investors.
One of the most well known, and politically controversial, working visas is the 457 visa.
This visa allows employers to recruit workers in specific occupations to fill roles that cannot be filled with Australian employees.
However, due to recent political concerns over the number of 457 visas being issued, it was announced the program would be subject to possible changes.
These changes could include reducing the number of occupations eligible for 457 visas and how visa holders will be allowed to stay in Australia after their employment ends.
Federal Labor is pushing for tighter restrictions around the issuing of 457 visas to force employers to employ local workers instead.
04: Working holiday visas
The working holiday visa program () encourages travellers to use their time in Australia as a form of cultural exchange.
People aged between 18 and 30 can apply to come to Australia for 12 months and work for up to six months and study for up to four months.
Those applicants who have worked in an eligible regional area for a minimum of 88 days are then eligible to apply for a second 12 months on a working holiday visa.
However, a recent Fair Work report found these visa holders, particularly those with poor English language skills, were vulnerable to abuse and exploitation at the hands of some employers in regional areas.
The report found the visa holders, who are often backpackers, were often forced to work for poor or no pay and were threatened with the potential loss of the second visa if they did not do comply with illegal conditions or requests.
05: Permanent migration program
Of these places, 128,550 are allocated for skilled migrants, 57,400 for family migrants and 565 for "former residents who have maintained close ties with Australia".
They can be sponsored under the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme, or they can have lived in a specified regional area for two years and worked in that area for a minimum of one year.
The sponsorship scheme is designed to allow eligible relatives to sponsor family members to join them in the regional area.
Secondary applicants, including children, can be covered in these applications.
Other paths to permanent residency include the family stream and the business skills stream, Australian National University senor migration law academic Marianne Dickie told SBS News.
She said the time it took to get various permanent visas approved could vary widely and the family pathways could take the longest.
Applications for are placed in a queue and once the allocation for that year is exhausted, no more applications will be approved, but will remain in the queue.
"Parent [visas] are hard, children [visas] are not as hard and partner's visas have gone up to $6000," Mrs Dickie said.
Partner visas were two year provisional visas that were reviewed after two years to ensure that couple was still together before the partner was allowed permanent residency, Mrs Dickie said.
She said visas for other family members were given the lowest priority and could take two or three years to get approved, and carers visas could take even longer.
"You have to prove the person need you to care for them for three years but it can taken 10 years to get it approved," she said.
Information on the government's website indicates remaining relative and aged dependent relative visa applications could take up to .
Businesses visas were often , Mrs Dickie said, particularly for people who exactly filled the government's skilled migration criteria.
"With the skilled stream people have to put in an expression of interest that they want to migrate to Australia and it goes into a pool and the government scoops the pool and selects people to approve," she said.
"It can be really fast from the point or it can take up to a year."
But she said the regional sponsorship stream could be the faster option for people wishing to move to Australia.
"It really depends on the individual, sometimes they're better off going into regional sponsorship," she said.
"They seem a better option unless you're a really highly skilled hit-the-nail-on-the-head person."
Things like language and health checks can delay all sorts of permanent migration visa approvals, Mrs Dickie said.
06: Refugee and humanitarian program
In addition to this the government provided funding for another 12,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict to come to Australia.
Mrs Dickie told SBS News the government chose refugees registered with UNHCR and living in refugee camps to come to Australia.
She said the government tended to focus on particular countries each year, recently taking refugees from Burma and several countries in Africa like South Sudan.
The government will only grant protection visas to refugees and asylum seekers who arrived "lawfully", often with the help of a migration agent.
These people are then given assistance to apply for protection visas under the Immigration Advice and Application Assistance Scheme (IAAAS).
People who arrive by boat are not eligible for the IAAAS scheme and will be put through off-shore processing, currently carried out in detention centres on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea and in Nauru.
There are continuing questions over the legality of the Manus Island processing centre, which may soon be forced to close after the Papua New Guinea High Court ruled its operations unconstitutional.
The government continues to pursue deals with countries to resettle refugees who arrive in Australia by boat.
Humanitarian visas can take years to process, often because mandatory health checks delay the the process, Mrs Dickie said.
"Humanitarian entrants coming under the family reunion or sponsored criteria may need to travel through very unsafe regions to undergo their health assessments," she said.
"Many are put through the process more than once because the health assessment only lasts one year and the delays make them invalid."
The government also offers temporary protection visas and safe haven enterprise visas under the humanitarian program that take at least six months to process once an application is lodged.
