[Australia Migration Weekly #276] Accounting/IT/Engineering Invited at 65 Points for Subclass 190! Subclass 189 Invitations Still Coming! Interpreting/Mechanical/HR Back on the NSW Subclass 190 List! More Great Opportunities for Offshore Applicants!
1. Hope Rekindled: the Department says Subclass 189 invitations will still be issued in the second half of the financial year2. More Opportunities: Interpreting/Mechanical/HR/Finance occupations return to the NSW Subclass 190 list!3. Accounting/IT/Engineering invited at just 65 points — WA opens the floodgates again! 4. Even Easier: the Northern Territory slashes thresholds to welcome offshore applicants!5. Roundup of the week’s grants, invitations, skills assessments and citizenship processing progress1. Hope Rekindled: the Department says Subclass 189 invitations will still be issued in the second half of the financial yearThis week we obtained a shared copy of the Department’s internal discussion paper, which contains fairly detailed planning for Subclass 189 across the full financial year. The goodnews is that the Department does plan to issue Subclass 189 invitations in the second half of the financial year; the slightly less good news is that the volume won’t match the first half (smaller rounds).There is also broad direction on occupation selection. The paper states that every round will issue invitations to onshore and offshore applicants in health and education related occupations. For other occupations, onshore and offshore applicants will in principle be selected uniformly by score, with SkillSelect internally setting appropriate caps on some popular occupations. However, it doesn’t specify which occupations, or what counts as “appropriate”.
We then got a rare look at theSubclass 189 EOI backlog for popular occupations (as at 23 November 2022). The figures below cover both onshore and offshore applicants.
Accounting occupations (2211) have more than 11,000 EOIs in total, with 3,161 at 90 points or above and 1,914 at 95 points or above. Of those 11,000 EOIs, 9,713 are general accountants,with the score distribution shown below. ICT occupationshave close to 26,000 EOIs, with the 75/80/85/90 point bands all fairly crowded: 16,115 at 80 points or above, 11,525 at 85 points or above, 7,459 at 90 points or above, and 2,303 at 95 points or above. Engineering occupationshave close to 20,000 EOIs, with more people concentrated in the 70/75/80/85 point bands: 9,846 at 80 points or above, 6,624 at 85 points or above, 3,513 at 90 points or above, and 1,090 at 95 points or above.For all other occupations, most applicants sit at 65–75 points, and generally there are far more onshore applicants than offshore. After December’s big round, which then drew in a large wave of new lodgements, the current Subclass 189 backlog will be far more crowded in every occupation. If the Department sticks strictly to its earlier plan, there should still be something to look forward to in the remaining four months of the second half — at the very least, not everyone’s hopes will be met.Or to put it another way, if you’re mainly counting on Subclass 189, you probably won’t see a big round of tens of thousands of invitations. So overall, state nomination remains Plan A for most people, with Subclass 189 of course a viable backup.For more analysis, along with the specific data from the first four rounds of the first half, see:Department internal communication paper revealed → Subclass 189 invitations will still be issued in the second half! But… If you’d like advice on or want to learn more about Subclass 189 or state nomination, get in touch with our team below!
2. More Opportunities: Interpreting/Mechanical/HR/Finance occupations return to the NSW Subclass 190 list!This week NSW quietly changed its list again. Last time the main upside was for Subclass 491; this time it concerns Subclass 190. The number of occupations affected is small, but they’re fairly common ones.
These occupations can now apply for NSW Subclass 190, both onshore and offshore:
1344 Other Education Managers1492 Call or Contact Centre and Customer Service Managers2221 Financial Brokers2222 Financial Dealers2231 Human Resource Professionals2335 Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers2346 Medical Scientists2412 Primary School Teachers2526 Podiatrists2724 Social Professionals (the occupation group that includes interpreters)3241 Panel Beaters3331 Glaziers5111 Contract, Program and Project AdministratorsOccupations that have temporarily left the NSW Subclass 190 list:1334 Manufacturers2334 Electronics Engineers2345 Life Scientists2415 SpecialEducation Teachers2511 Nutrition Professionals2533 Specialist Physicians2711 Barristers3621 Forists5996 Insurance Investigators,loss Adjusters and Risk SurveyorsMechanical engineering and interpreting are well known to everyone, while occupations like finance broker, human resource professional and contract/project administrator are ones many offshore applicants can get assessed for. So with nearly four months left in this financial year, make the most of it and get your skills assessment done to seize the opportunity — NSW still has more than 3,200 places left until the end of February. To learn more about NSW Subclass 190 nomination, add: Also from NSW,the Hunter RDA region says its quota for this financial year is no longer sufficient, so it has stopped accepting new Subclass 491 applications.Hunter, where Newcastle is located, is one of the most popular choices; although NSW Subclass 491 grants overall have been modest this financial year, Hunter may have carried a large share of them earlier on. That said, NSW still has many other RDAs to choose from, and you can also apply directly to the state government. 3. WA invites from as low as 65 points — accounting/engineering/IT and many other occupations land at ultra-low scores!On Friday WA issued its March invitations as scheduled, and this round held an even bigger surprise. The general stream issued 1,900 pre-invitations for Subclass 190, the graduate stream issued 600 pre-invitations, and as in the last round no Subclass 491 invitations were issued.The general stream Sch 2, which covers a large number of common occupations, issued 1,600Taxation accountant/management accountant — both invited at an EOI of 65 pointsICT — 2611/2613/2631 and many other popular ICT occupations were all invited at 65 pointsEngineering occupations were also at 65 pointsFor the invitation scores of all occupations, see:
WA Subclass 190 application requirements – A six-month job offer in the nominated occupation within WA– Applicants in WA/interstate/offshore can all lodge an application (though so far invitations have mainly gone to those located in WA)– Language at least four 6s – An EOI score of at least 65 points– A skills assessment for the nominated occupationSo as long as you’re willing to move to WA, the chance of being invited is very high! A low-score Subclass 190 invitation is an opportunity not to be missed — get in touch with our team below for an assessment and plan!
4. Even Easier: the Northern Territory slashes thresholds to welcome offshore applicants!
The usually low-key Northern Territory (NT) suddenly relaxed its offshore applicant pathway this week. Because the NT mainly issues Subclass 491 invitations to offshore applicants, this is likely the state government making a move to attract people after seeing it still had 938 Subclass 491 places left until the end of February.
– First, the minimum work-experience threshold for offshore applicants going through NT nomination drops from 3 years to 1 year (unless a particular occupation has special requirements)
– Second, many occupations can apply for the priority occupation pathway
– Finally, a new regional-category relative pathway has been established
Basic requirements for the NT offshore pathway
– Language at a minimum of four 6s (PTE accepted)
– An EOI score of 65 points
– Settled offshore
– A skills assessment
– At least one year of relevant work experience in the nominated occupation
Once these are met, you can choose from three pathways.The priority occupation pathway should suit most applicants: if your occupation is on the
list and you have the corresponding skills assessment, you can lodge an application (some occupations must meet additional work requirements, marked with * below)
Occupations that can apply for this pathway include
-Various ICT occupations, such as Computer Network and Systems Engineer/Developer Programmer/Software Engineer
-Conference and Event Organiser/Contract Administrator
-Graphic Designer/*Marketing Specialist
-*Interpreter/Vocational Education Teacher
-Technical Sales Representatives nec
Even the Northern Territory has joined the race for talent. With four months left in this financial year, there are still plenty of opportunities — offshore applicants, what are you waiting for?
One more update onSA state nomination: at a recent online information session, SA indicated thatits skilled migration programme will give priority to applicants in certain in-demand skills and fields, including education, engineering, ICT and more,and that when assessing offshore applicants, what matters most to them is skilled work experience and English ability, followed only then by the EOI score. That said, SA has already used 80% of its Subclass 190 quota for this financial year, and 75% of its Subclass 491 quota.
5. Roundup of the week’s grants, invitations, skills assessments and citizenship processing progress
A roundup of Newstarsec’s recent grants and invitations across various categories: press and hold below to view. The web page is updated continuously, so we strongly recommend saving and bookmarking it!
State nomination invitation/GTI invitation statisticsCanberra (ACT) state nomination
None this week
Victoria state nomination
This week, clients in occupations such as electronics engineering, EP, ET and accounting who received pre-invitations in January obtained their formal nominations
Tasmania state nomination
Developer Programmer – 261312, 75+5
Invited to lodge nomination on 3 February 2023, lodged nomination on 9 February 2023, nomination invited on 6 March 2023
