Invitations Issued By The Department Of Home Affairs

The Department of Home Affairs (the Department) has released the results for the latest Skill Select invitation round, which took place on 21 January 2022. These results are for the following points-based skilled visas:

Subclass 189 Skilled – Independent visa; and
Subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) Family Sponsored visa.

Invitation rounds are run quarterly for the remainder of the 2021-22 program year.

A summary of these results is provided in this article.

State and Territory Government Nominations

The number of nominations approved by State and Territory Governments for the following skilled visas have also been released:

Subclass 190 Skilled – Nominated visa; and
Subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) State Nominated visa.

State and territory government nominations are not impacted by departmental invitation rounds and occur independently of this process.

A summary of these results are also provided in this article.

You will also find links to information on the number of invitations issued for the Subclass 188 Business Innovation and Investment (provisional) visa.

Department Of Home Affairs Update

The Department has issued the following statement:

The Government is closely monitoring migration and visa settings to ensure they are consistent with public health measures, are flexible and do not displace job opportunities for Australians, so that Australia can effectively respond to the immediate and subsequent impacts of COVID-19. As such, targeted invitation rounds have occurred since May 2020.

Invitation Round Results

Total invitations Issued

The total number of invitations issued in the 2021-22 migration program year to date is set out below.

Visa subclass

July 2021

August 2021

September 2021

October 2021

November 2021

December 2021

January 2022

February 2022

March 2022

April

2022

May

2022

Jun

2022

Total issued in 2021/22

Skilled – Independent (subclass 189)

500

–

200

–

200

900

Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored*

250

–

200

–

200

650

Total

750

–

400

–

400

1,550

*The information in the above table for the subclass 491 visa is for the family-sponsored stream only. State Nominated invitations (including for the Skilled – Nominated (subclass 190) visa) are issued separately by each State and Territory Government.

Invitations issued for the Subclass 189 visa in the January 2022 round have remained the same as in the previous round in January 2022, with 200 invitations issued.

For the Subclass 491 visa – Family Sponsored stream, the number of invitations issued for the quarter has also remained unchanged compared with the previous round, with 200 invitations issued.

Points Score Cut-Off

Expression of Interest (EOI) applicants required the following minimum points scores to secure an invitation in the January 2022 round.

Visa subclass

Minimum points score

Date of effect month (last invited applicant)

Skilled – Independent (subclass 189)

September 2021

Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored

January 2022

Please refer to our article on the New Skilled Regional Visas to be introduced to read about how EOI applicants are ranked under this process.

The highest ranked applicants are the first who are invited to apply for the relevant visa. Applicants with equal scores are invited in order of when they reached their points score (this is referred to as the date of effect). EOI’s submitted with earlier dates of effect are invited first.

Based on the latest data released, the minimum points score required to receive an invitation for the subclass 189 visa in the January 2022 round remained the same compared with the previous invitation round, with 90 points required to secure an invitation. The last invited applicant submitted an EOI in September 2021, which means EOI applicants who achieved a score of at least 90 points and who submitted their EOI by September 2021 were issued an invitation in this round, reflecting a wait time of approximately 4 months.

The minimum points score needed to secure an invitation for the subclass 491 visa also remained unchanged from the previous round, with 80 points needed to receive an invitation. The results show that Subclass 491 visa EOI applicants who achieved a minimum points score of 80 and who submitted their EOI by January 2022 received an invitation in this round. This represents a wait time of less than 1 month.

As in the previous few rounds, information showing the number of invitations issued based on points score have again not been published in this round (this data had been released in previous invitation rounds).

Occupation Ceilings

An occupation ceiling applies to invitations issued under the Subclass 189 visa and Subclass 491 visa – Family Sponsored stream. This means that there are a limited number of EOI’s which can be issued for each occupation.

This has been put in place to ensure the skilled migration program is balanced and facilitates the issuing of invitations to prospective applicants across a range of skilled occupations.

Occupation ceilings are compiled based on a percentage of employment figures for each occupation. The employment figures are provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and represents the number of people employed in Australia in each occupation.

Occupation ceilings do not apply to State and Territory Nominated or Business Innovation and Investment visa subclasses.

Invitations Issued For The Most In-Demand Occupations

The table below shows that no invitations were issued in the January 2022 round to applicants in occupations which had the highest demand for places. Invitations for these skilled occupations are pro-rated to ensure availability of invitations across the program year.

The following data has been published for the latest round:

Occupation (ANZSCO code)	Visa Subclass	Minimum points score required in the 21 Jan 2022 invitation round	Latest date of effect month
Accountants (2211)	189/491	N/A	N/A
Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers (2212)	189/491	N/A	N/A
Electronics Engineer (2334)	189/491	N/A	N/A
Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers (2335)	189/494	N/A	N/A
Other Engineering Professionals (2339)	189/491	N/A	N/A
ICT Business and System Analysts (2611)	189/491	N/A	N/A
Software and Applications Programmers (2613)	189/491	N/A	N/A
Computer Network Professionals (2631)	189/491	N/A	N/A

Invitations Issued For Selected Occupations

Invitations issued in the January 2022 round were only for occupations as outlined in the table below.

Occupation	Visa Subclass	Minimum points score required in the 21 Jan 2022 invitation round
		Subclass 189	Subclass 491 (Family-sponsored stream)
Agricultural Consultant	491	N/A	80
Agricultural Scientist	491	N/A	80
Biotechnologist	491	N/A	80
Chemical Engineer	491	N/A	80
Emergency Medicine Specialist	189	90	N/A
Environmental Consultant	491	N/A	80
Environmental Scientists nec	491	N/A	85
Food Technologist	491	N/A	80
General Practitioner	189	90	N/A
Geophysicist	491	N/A	80
Life Scientist (General)	491	N/A	105
Life Scientists nec	491	N/A	95
Medical Diagnostic Radiographer	189	90	N/A
Medical Laboratory Scientist	189/491	90	80
Medical Practitioners nec	189	90	N/A
Medical Radiation Therapist	491	N/A	95
Microbiologist	189/491	90	85
Midwife	491	N/A	85
Mining Engineer (excluding Petroleum)	189	90	N/A
Neurosurgeon	189	95	N/A
Nuclear Medicine Technologist	189	95	N/A
Nurse Practitioner	189	95	N/A
Orthotist or Prosthetist	491	N/A	80
Paediatrician	189	90	N/A
Petroleum Engineer	189	90	N/A
Physiotherapist	491	N/A	80
Psychologists nec	491	N/A	80
Registered Nurse (Aged Care)	189/491	90	80
Registered Nurse (Child and Family Health)	491	N/A	80
Registered Nurse (Community Health)	189	90	N/A
Registered Nurse (Critical Care and Emergency)	189/491	90	80
Registered Nurse (Developmental Disability)	189	90	N/A
Registered Nurse (Medical Practice)	189/491	90	90
Registered Nurse (Medical)	189/491	90	80
Registered Nurse (Mental Health)	189/491	90	80
Registered Nurse (Paediatrics)	189/491	90	80
Registered Nurse (Perioperative)	189/491	90	80
Registered Nurse (Surgical)	189/491	90	80
Registered Nurses nec	491	N/A	80
Social Worker	491	N/A	80
Veterinarian	189	90	N/A

State and Territory Government Nominations

Invitations issued by State and Territory Governments for the subclass 491 and 190 visa programs in December 2021 are as follows.

Visa subclass	ACT	NSW	NT	QLD	SA	TAS	VIC	WA	Total
Subclass 190 visa	41	364	36	194	124	124	82	302	1,267
Subclass 491 visa	113	501	63	104	354	188	59	136	1,518

Total invitations issued by State and Territory Governments from 1 July 2021 to date is set out below:

Visa subclass	ACT	NSW	NT	QLD	SA	TAS	VIC	WA	Total
Subclass 190 visa	385	2,782	326	370	1,144	831	1,688	1,385	8,911
Subclass 491 visa (State Sponsored)	806	1,978	529	336	1,951	1,421	221	374	7,616

You can access the latest monthly and aggregate data for nominations issued for the Subclass 188 Business Innovation and Investment (provisional) visa at the following link:

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

More Information

Skilled Regional Visa Program

To learn more about the subclass 491 visa (as well as the Subclass 191 Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa, to be introduced on 16 November 2022, and which will enable subclass 491 visa holders to qualify for permanent residence in Australia), 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

Applications for the new provisional regional sponsored visas are now open

For more information about the subclass 491 visa specifically, please see the following articles:

Subclass 491 Regional Visa

491 Visa Adelaide