Skill Select Invitation Round – 11 September 2019

Update:

Please be aware that as of 16 November 2019, the Subclass 489 Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa has been replaced by a new Subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa. This new visa has a five-year term and provides a pathway to permanent residence with a new Subclass 191 Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa, which will be introduced from 16 November 2022.

Applications under the Second Provisional Visa stream of the Subclass 489 visa continue to be accepted. To qualify under this stream, you must hold a subclass 475, 487, 495 or 496 visa at time of lodgement of your application. Be aware that these visa subclasses are no longer being granted by the Department of Home Affairs.

The changes also do affect the Subclass 887 Skilled (Regional) visa permanent residence visa pathway, which continues to be available to eligible subclass 489 visa holders.

For further information about these changes, please see the following articles:

New Skilled Regional Visas to be introduced

Skilled Regional Sponsored Visa

Further Regulations released for the new regional sponsored visas to commence from 16 November 2019

Skill Select Invitation Round – 11 September 2019

The Department of Home Affairs has published the results from the latest Skill Select invitation round, which took place on 11 September 2019. This data applies to points-tested skilled visas and business visas.

Total invitations issued

The number of invitations issued to date in the 2019/20 migration programme year are listed below.

The information noted in the above table for the subclass 489 visa is for the family-sponsored stream only. State Sponsorship invitations (including for the Skilled – Nominated (subclass 190) visa) are issued separately by each State and Territory Government (further information is provided below).

The number of invitations issued for both Subclass 189 and 489 visas in the September 2019 round have remained unchanged since the previous month. 

Points score cut-offs

The following minimum point scores were required to receive an invitation in the September monthly round (applicants are ranked according to their points score, from highest to lowest).

*This information applies to the family-sponsored stream only. State Sponsored nominations are issued by State and Territory Governments throughout the month (August 2019 monthly results are provided later in this article).

A new invitation ranking system will apply from 16 November 2019. For more information, see our article on the New Skilled Regional Visas to be introduced.

How to interpret this data?

The ‘Date of effect’ refers to the last date when successful applicants submitted their Expression of Interest (EOI), which was 3^rd August 2019 for the subclass 189 visa in this latest invitation round. The minimum points score required to secure an invitation remained unchanged compared with the August 2019 invitation round. The wait time to receive an invitation has increased from approximately 10 days to 5 ½ weeks.

Subclass 489 visa EOI applicants who achieved at least 85 points and who submitted their EOI by 15^th August 2019 secured an invitation in this latest round. This is a 5-point increase compared with the previous invitation round. The wait time to receive an invitation has seen a reduction compared with the August 2019 round, decreasing from approximately 29 to 4 weeks.

As this data shows, it remains the case that the cut-off point scores required to secure an invitation in the September 2019 round were well above the minimum 65 points needed to validly lodge an EOI for both subclass 189 and 489 EOI applicants.

The 11^th September round was the last opportunity for EOI applicants to secure an invitation for the Subclass 489 Family Sponsored Visa, with the program to close from 16 November 2019.

Invitations issued based on points score in the September round are listed below.

*This information applies to the family-sponsored stream only.

Invitations issued to subclass 189 EOI applicants decreased in the 85 and 90 points score bands and increased in the 95 band. There was also one invitation issued in the 100 points score band (and nil in the 105 band, which saw one invitation issued in the previous month). The majority of invitations were issued to applicants who scored 95 points. In the previous month, the bulk of invitations were issued in the 85 points score band (60%).

For subclass 489 visa EOI applicants, invitations decreased in the 85 points score band and increased in the 90 points score band. Most invitations issued in the September 2019 round were in the 85 points score band.

Occupations

Invitations issued for the most popular skilled occupations (where the number of places allocated falls short of demand) are outlined in the table below. To ensure a more consistent and even spread of invitations across the year, invitations are pro-rated for these occupations. Subclass 189 visa EOI applicants are ranked first, with the remainder of places (if any) being allocated to subclass 489 visa EOI applicants. Occupations ceilings do not apply to State Sponsored, Employer Sponsored or Business Visas.

How to interpret this data?

To illustrate what the above data represents, we take as an example the nominated occupation category of Computer Network Professionals (ANZSCO code 2631). The information shows that both Subclass 189 and 489 EOI applicants needed to have at least 85 points and must have submitted their EOI by 10^th July and 13^th August 2019 respectively, to have received an invitation in the September 2019 round. The data also shows that there are a total of 2,553 places available for this occupation category in the current year. So far this year, 103 invitations have been issued, leaving 2,450 places left to be allocated for the remainder of 2019/20 (ending on 30 June 2020).

Further information on occupation ceilings and invitations issued for each nominated occupation category (including for non-pro-rated occupations) up to 11^th September 2019 is available at the following link:

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skillselect/occupation-ceilings

State and Territory Government nominations

Invitations issued by State and Territory Governments for the subclass 489 and 190 visa programmes in August 2019 are listed in the following table.

Nominations increased in most jurisdictions in August compared with July 2019.

Increases were seen in NSW (which more than tripled), NT (which rose from 5 to 181 overall invitations), QLD (which increased from less than 5 to 83 nominations overall), SA (which saw a massive jump from 318 to 1,534 in total invitations issued, the majority being for the Subclass 489 visa), TAS (rising 20% overall) and VIC (which rose by approximately 90% overall). The ACT and WA experienced a reduction in nominations issued during the month (falling 23% and 53% respectively in overall invitations issued).

Total invitations issued by State and Territory Governments from 1^st July 2019 to 31^st August 2019 are listed below.

The latest monthly and aggregate data for nominations issued for the Business Innovation and Investment (provisional) subclass 188 visa and the Business Talent (Permanent) subclass 132 visa can be accessed at the following link:

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skillselect/invitation-rounds

Further Information

Please refer to our article titled ‘Skillselect Invitation round August 2018’ for further information about the EOI process: https://paxmigration.com.au/skillselect-invitation-round-july-2018/

You can also find our article summarising the August 2019 invitation results at the following link:

https://paxmigration.com.au/skill-select-invitation-round-11-august-2019/

Sources/Links:

https://paxmigration.com.au/skillselect-invitation-round-july-2018/

https://paxmigration.com.au/skill-select-invitation-round-11-august-2019/

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skillselect/invitation-rounds

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skillselect/occupation-ceilings

https://paxmigration.com.au/skilled-regional-visas/