SkillSelect Update
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has conducted two invitations rounds in June on 6th and 20th respectively.
The number of invitation remained at 305 in each round. 300 were allocated to subclass 189 visa while the remaining five were for subclass 489 EOI applicants.
The minimum points to get an invitation remained at 75 points. The table below set out the allocation of invitations by point score in June’s rounds (for subclass 189 only).
For 6 June round, DHA continued to clear most of the backlogs for the pro-rata arrangement occupations, such as Software and Application Programmers, Accountants, Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers and ICT Business and System Analysts. A total of 179 invitations of this round were allocated to these pro-rata arrangement occupations. It represented approximately 59% of the total invitations of this round.
Among the non pro-rata occupations, Registered Nurses got the most number of invitations (23), followed by Other Medical Practitioners (15), Database and Systems Administrators and ICT Security Specialists (11) and Civil Engineering Professionals (10).
For 20 June, the last round in 2017/18 program year, more invitations were allocated to non pro-rata applicants. It accounted for around 48% of the total invitations sent. Among those non pro-rata occupations, Database and Systems Administrators and ICT Security Specialists got the most invitations (16), followed by Registered Nurses (13), Civil Engineers (12).
To wrap up the whole program year, there were 15,600 and 696 invitations for offered for subclasses 189 and 489 respectively. This represented a sharp cut of 49% and 48% respectively compared to that in 2016/17 program year.
The dramatic drop in EOI invitations for subclass 189 (points tested stream) was partly due to around 10,000 quotas have been reserved for a new subclass 189 (New Zealand stream) which introduced in July 2017.
Unofficial result for 11 July 2018 invitation round
Based on our statistics and data collected from other sources, we came up with the unofficial invitation number on 11 July 2018 was around 800. We saw only five of the pro-rata occupations got the invitations, which attributed to around 25% of the total invitations. These occupations include:
- Accountant (2211)
- Other Engineering Professional (2339)
- ICT Business and System Analysts (2611)
- Software Applications Programmer(2613)
- Computer Network Professional (2631)
Estimated waiting time
Based on our analysis with the following assumptions, the estimated waiting time for non-rata arrangement occupations is set out below:
Here are the assumptions for the estimation:
1) Lodgement date was 18 July 2018
2) Same occupation ceiling level as last program year
3) There will be 800 invitations in each round with 75% of the invitations go to non-pro rata occupation
Points | Approx. Waiting time for those who reached the points |
75+ | Next round |
75 | Next round |
70 | Next round |
65 | Min. 6 months |
- Accountants (2211)
- Auditors (2212)
- ICT Business and System Analysts (2611)
- Software Applications Programmer(2613)
65 points
- Electronics Engineers (2334)
- Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers (2335)
- Other Engineering Professionals (2339)
- Computer Network Professionals (2611)
State nomination update
Tasmania
Tasmania Government has changed the 190/489 requirements as follows:
For 190/489
Category 2 – Working in Tasmania, TAS Government now requires the applicants to have ongoing work for at least six months immediately prior to apply for state nomination
For 489 only
Category 4 – Family in Tasmania. First cousins are no longer eligible under this category
Category 5 – Small Business Owner. Now only for applicants already living in Australia
ACT
The ACT 190 nomination program remains closed for overseas applicants without close ties to Canberra, and is now closed to overseas applicants with close ties to Canberra.
NSW
Temporarily suspended the nomination invitation until further notice.
QLD
1) Reopen the state nomination program for 190/489 but no longer accept Interstate applications.
2) Engineering Technologist (233914) was removed from all the Queensland Skilled Occupation Lists (QSOLs) on 16 July 2018 due to the quotas have been filled. The QLD Government is no longer in a position to issue any new invitations.
SA
New occupation list for 2018/19 is available.
For details, please refer to http://www.migration.sa.gov.au/skilled-migrants/lists-of-state-nominated-occupations
VIC
1) Reopen the state nomination program for 190/489
2) New application procedures now apply to (i) ICT, (ii) engineering and building and (iii) nursing occupations.
For details, please refer to: https://liveinmelbourne.vic.gov.au/migrate/skilled-migration-visas/skilled-nominated-visa-subclass-190#applyICT
State nomination statistics for subclass 190
DHA has not released the latest figures for June 2018. As such we have stated the latest (May 2018) figures here for reference:
May 2018 | April 2018 | From July 2017 – May 2018 | |
QLD | 76 | 89 | 1009 |
NSW | 878 | 256 | 3468 |
VIC | 111 | 278 | 2789 |
WA | 1 | 0 | 1 |
SA | 69 | 68 | 836 |
TAS | 69 | 41 | 662 |
ACT | 106 | 100 | 825 |
NT | 32 | 14 | 253 |
Total | 1342 | 846 | 9843 |
Processing time after lodgement of visa
According to the DHA, the estimated visa application processing time as of 18 July 2018 for the following visas are as follows:
Subclass 189 (points-tested stream) around 8 – 10 months
Subclass 190 (state nomination) around 6 – 7 months
This is for indicative purpose only. Please bear in mind that processing times are impacted each month by changes in application volumes, seasonal peaks, complex cases, and incomplete applications.
Given the subclasses 189 and 190 visas are very competitive, you are strongly encouraged to talk to your Registered Migration Agent (“RMA”) for professional advice. For those who are looking for a RMA or are thinking of migration through Skilled migration categories, please visit our website and complete a free online assessment to book for an initial assessment with our professional migration professional.
