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^st April 2021. 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.

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.

You will also find links to information on the number of invitations issued for the following business visas below:

Subclass 188 Business Innovation and Investment (provisional) visa; and
Subclass 132 Business Talent (Permanent) 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.

PAX Migration Note

We note that the Department has previously stated that it would run quarterly invitation rounds for the remainder of the 2020-21 program year. It has not indicated that any further invitation rounds will occur in the current migration program year. We therefore expect this to be the final round to 30 June 2021.

Note this applies only to following points-based skilled visas:

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

State and Territory Governments issue nomination approvals independently of the above process. Therefore, we expect that invitations for the following skilled visas will continue to be issued for the remainder of the 2020-21 migration program year:

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

Invitation Round Results

Total invitations Issued

The total number of invitations issued in April 2021 is set out below.

Visa subclass

July 2020

August 2020

September 2020

October 2020

November 2020

December 2020

January 2021

February 2021

March 2021

April

2021

May

2021

Jun

2021

Total issued in 2020/21

Skilled – Independent (subclass 189)

500

110

350

–

200

–

500

–

1,690

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

100

150

–

163

–

160

–

743

Total

600

200

500

110

–

363

–

660

–

2,433

*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 April 2021 round have increased compared with the previous round, rising from 200 invitations in January 2021, to 500 being issued in the current round.

For the Subclass 491 visa – Family Sponsored stream, there was a reduction in invitations issued for the month, although a very minimal change, with 160 granted in the current round compared with 163 in January 2021.

Points Score Cut-Off

Expression of Interest (EOI) applicants required the following minimum points scores to secure an invitation in the April 2021 round.

Visa subclass

Minimum points score

Date of effect month (last invited applicant)

Skilled – Independent (subclass 189)

July 2019

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

March 2021

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 April 2021 round increased by 15 points compared with the previous invitation round, from 65 points in the previous round, to 80 points in April 2021. The last invited applicant submitted an EOI in July 2019, which means EOI applicants who achieved a score of at least 80 points and who submitted their EOI by July 2019 were issued an invitation in this round, reflecting a wait time of approximately 21 months.

The minimum points score needed to secure an invitation for the subclass 491 visa remained the same compared with the previous round, with 65 points needed to secure an invitation. The results show that Subclass 491 visa EOI applicants who achieved a minimum points score of 65 and who submitted their EOI by March 2021 received an invitation in this round. This represents a wait time of approximately one 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).

Invitations Issued For The Most In-Demand Occupations

The table below shows that, apart from the occupations of Other Engineering Professionals (ANZSCO code: 2339) and Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers (ANZSCO code: 2335), no invitations were issued in the April 2021 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 remainder of invitations have been issued for non-pro-rated occupations in the April 2021 round.

The following data has been published for the latest round:

Occupation (ANZSCO code)	Visa Subclass	Minimum points score required in the 21 Apr 2021 invitation round	Latest date of effect month	Invitations issued to 21 Apr 2021*	Occupation ceiling for the 2020/21 year (maximum number of invitations available)
Accountants (2211)	189/491	N/A	N/A	0	1,000
Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers (2212)	189/491	N/A	N/A	0	1,619
Electronics Engineer (2334)	189/491	N/A	N/A	<20	1,000
Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers (2335)				121	2,682
	189	80	July 2019
	491	N/A	N/A
Other Engineering Professionals (2339)				53	1,000
	189	90	May 2020
	491	70	September 2020
ICT Business and System Analysts (2611)	189/491	N/A	N/A	0	2,273
Software and Applications Programmers (2613)	189/491	N/A	N/A	0	8,405
Computer Network Professionals (2631)	189/491	N/A	N/A	0	2,245

*Please note these are total invitations issued across the subclass 189 and 491 Family Sponsored visas from 1 July 2020 to date. The Department does not release figures to show the break-up of invitations issued between these two visa subclasses. Occupation ceilings also do not apply to State and Territory Nominated, Employer Sponsored or Business Innovation and Investment visa subclasses.

You can find more information on occupation ceilings and invitations issued for each nominated occupation category (including for non-pro-rated occupations) up to 21 April 2021 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 491 and 190 visa programs in March 2021 are as follows.

Visa subclass	ACT	NSW	NT	QLD	SA	TAS	VIC	WA	Total
Subclass 190 visa	151	205	30	170	205	145	118	115	1,139
Subclass 491 visa	113	241	39	152	222	96	57	24	944

Total invitations issued by State and Territory Governments from 1 July 2020 to 31 March 2021 is set out below:

Visa subclass	ACT	NSW	NT	QLD	SA	TAS	VIC	WA	Total
Subclass 190 visa	553	568	290	619	612	499	833	351	4,325
Subclass 491 visa (State Sponsored)	274	362	210	442	606	1,048	185	73	3,200

You can access 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 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