A report tabled in parliament and a crucial Senate crossbench voting bloc indicate any changes may still be a ways from reality.
The Turnbull Government's controversial plans to make it harder to become an Australian citizen now look unlikely to be passed in the near future.
A report from a Coalition-dominated Senate committee says Australia could be denied valuable migrants, particularly if the controversial English language test is implemented.
Liberal senator and committee leader Ian Macdonald has told Sky News he believes the bill is heading in the right direction but needs further work.
"We've recommended the bill be passed, but we have suggested that the Government should look at a couple of issues before bringing the bill to parliament. One of those was on the English language test, which the committee thought that was not appropriate. And committee members know a lot of people who would not pass that test but who have become very, very valuable citizens of Australia."
Critics of the language exam say the bill unfairly targets immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds.
But Senator Macdonald says those people are, as he puts it, cooking up "conspiracy theories."
"What we said to the Government is, 'This is good. It needs to be done. This is what the Australian people want.' There are a lot of conspiracy theories about this being aimed at particular groups, which I reject completely. And these conspiracy theories that some of the left wing were raising are just their own conspiracy projects being put into overdrive."
The Nick Xenophon Team has decided it will use its three votes with Labor and the Greens to block the bill in the Senate, though.
That decision comes after an inquiry hearing from various migrant-community representatives from around the country.
The party's deputy leader, Sterling Griff, has told SBS the party cannot accept the package as presented.
"It doesn't make sense that Australia, being such a multicultural nation built on migration, would agree or support such a regressive move, because it would effectively mean that half of us wouldn't be here now if our parents, grandparents or great-grandparents had to pass the equivalent tests."
While the Nick Xenophon Team is not completely ruling out the bill, he says it wants the English test less restrictive and the values test established by parliament, not the minister.
"Our concern with that is not, in effect, having a values test, but the minister deciding what those values are. Now we believe that that's an area which parliament should determine what Australian values are, and not the minister, because the minister's values are very much different to my values and your values."
Labor immigration spokesman Tony Burke has welcomed the news the bill would be blocked, saying the proposed changes are elitist and potentially harmful.
