The excited first four refugee families, including 12 children, who received- their Australian visas from Immigration Minister Peter Dutton in Jordan, will arrive in Australia before Christmas.
But the rest of the extra 12,000 refugee places would take "some time" to allocate and it was uncertain when the final allocation under the expanded humanit-arian visa program would take place, Mr Dutton said.
The minister welcomed the future- Australian residents - all of whom have undergone rigorous security, identity and health checks - at the Australian embassy- in Jordan. 
The two sons of local government worker Faris Sora and Diana Shaheen, who are Assyrian Christians from Ninewa in Iraq and have cousins in Australia, spontaneously kissed Mr Dutton on the cheek to thank him. "You will be able to play with your cousins when you get to Australia," he told the boys, aged 8 and 5.
The other families are Basher Kujah, a Sunni Muslim butcher from Homs with his wife, Khaw-lah Al Ahdab, and three children; Marwan Alkhdah, a Sunni Muslim motorcycle mechanic and his wife, Shareen Al Asaf, and five children from Daraa in Syria; and a Christian family from Baghdad, biologist Hanan Proty and project manag-er Osama Butti, with their two teenagers.
Mr Dutton said the humanit-arian program would reflect a broad range of backgrounds. "The families we met today were -excited about receiving docu-ment-a-tion and they dressed up for the experience. They put a brave face on a very dark past," he said.
"They came from Mosul, an area of high volatility and threat from Islamic State; families from Syria as well - and we know four million have left Syria - their stor-ies properly told demonstrate worthiness in the program. But there will be others with more acute backgrounds and stories â€¦ There is a mixed bag when dealing with individual cases and you will see a broad range of people." Mr Dutton said he saw relief on the faces of parents as well as expectations and anticipation.
"It does warm your heart to know that you are representing a country that has been very generous and Australians have been very open in their support of the government's announcement. It was a very humbling experience." The Butti family told The Australian that, as practising Christ-ians in Iraq, they had been increas-ingly uneasy at the security situation there and the consistent threats by Islamic State.
They decided to flee their home after threats to Mr Butti, who had been overseeing a project for government troops within the heavily fortified Green Zone area of Baghdad. He would organise recreation-al activ-ities for the troops who were on leave for four days, "to relax before they went back to their units".
But it was the paralysing fear that young Mina, then aged 10, would be kidnapped and killed that spurred the family decision to flee to Jordan. Mina was the only girl in her class who didn't wear a hijab and had been warned she would be targeted because of that.
"I was so scared. ISIS was killing lots of girls, especially Christian girls," Mina said, revealing a recurring nightmare that Islamic State would attack her house in the middle of the night.
Ms Proty's sister Samah, who lives in Sydney, sponsored the family's application and was -wildly excited that the family received their official documents. Samah arrived two years ago as a refugee but Ms Proty said "she doesn't feel like a refugee because Australia is so welcoming".
The family will settle in Melbourne, where two of Mr Butti's sisters live: Afrah, who married an Australian, and Eshraq, who -migrated several years ago under the family reunion scheme.
Mr Butti asked the impossible question: "Which is the better city?" Their 14-year-old son, Saif, refused to use the services of a translator, in order to practise his English, and said he was excited about meeting a kangaroo.
His father interjected and said with a laugh: "We have been told we will see them every day when we open the window and they will be sitting on your car."The first priority, Mr Butti said, was to find a home so the children could start school at the end of   January, and then to find work.