The Department of Home Affairs has just updated the January 2021 EOI official bulletin — the fourth EOI invitation round of the new financial year. EOI rounds are now issued once every three months: after October 2020 it jumped straight to January 2021, the next round will be in April, also the final invitation round of this financial year.
Numbers issued on 21 January 2021:
189 invitations issued: 200; 491 Family Sponsored invitations issued: 163.
Non-Go8-popular occupations:
For 189, the ceiling has reached 65 points submitted by April 2020 — in fact the October round had already reached 65 points submitted by September 2020. This again shows that, under manual processing, the Department is selectively issuing invitations by occupation: even if your occupation sits outside the Go8-popular list, this pace does not reflect the pace for your occupation, let alone guarantee your occupation gets invited at all. The Department’s real priority remains healthcare-related occupations, or a small number of occupations it considers helpful to pandemic recovery — and based on internal Department correspondence we’ve seen, this will remain the case for the rest of this financial year.
Subclass 491 Family Sponsored has progressed to 65 points submitted by November 2020 — meaning a raw score of just 50 points is enough to be invited. Last round it only reached April 2020.
Outside the Go8-popular occupations, progress data for all occupations is lumped together — but in reality, most less-popular and popular occupations received no invitations at all.Some students want to know exactly which occupations got in at 65 points, but because less-popular occupations aren’t broken out individually with exact scores the way Go8-popular ones are, there’s simply no way to know.
Go8-popular occupations
This round, occupation 2339 Other Engineering Professionals received invitations under both 189 and 491 Family Sponsored, reaching 95 points submitted by October 2020 for 189 and 70 points (raw score 55) submitted by September 2020 for 491.
In the October round, 2339’s total invitations for the financial year were shown as fewer than 20 (the exact figure wasn’t given), and after the January round it shows 32 — so while invitations are happening, on an optimistic estimate the actual number is probably only around 10 to 20.
The main occupations invited across the first four rounds of this financial year:
Across the five rounds this financial year for which official figures have now been published, a total of 1,190 Subclass 189 and 583 Subclass 491 Family Sponsored invitations have been issued.
Comparing the occupation ceiling invitation numbers between the October 2020 round and the January 2021 round, we can see that in the January 2021 round, the main occupations invited were:
–2544 Registered Nurses 127(we have many nursing clients on 85-90 points who still didn’t receive a 189 invitation in the January round, so these invitations were most likely allocated to 491 Family Sponsored instead)
–2539 Other Medical Practitioners 58
–2723 Psychologists 17
–2339 Other Engineering Professionals up from fewer than 20 in the previous round to 32
–2336 Mining Engineers 4
–2346 Medical Laboratory Scientists 1
Most other occupations — 2332 Civil Engineers, 2335 Mechanical Engineers, 2333 Electrical Engineers, 2334 Electronics Engineers, and so on — received no invitations at all this round.
Occupations with zero invitations so far this financial year:
Accountants: 0; Auditors: 0; Architects and Landscape Architects: 0; secondary school teachers, early childhood teachers, and social workers all 0; ICT occupations 2611/2613/2612/2621/2631 all 0 — still the case.
PLAN B? Still betting everything on “Plan A, Plan A”?!
The 189 PR quota for the 2020-21 financial year is only 6,500 places, covering both the points-tested stream and New Zealand applicants. As at 30 September, applications already invited, lodged, and awaiting a grant already numbered more than 5,500 — so, looking purely at the quota, there is essentially no room left for new invitations. It’s fair to say this financial year’s invitations have all been forced through for occupations in pandemic-critical shortage in response to COVID-19; students in most occupations will find it very hard to get a chance this financial year. What score do you need? How long until you’re invited? At this point, asking those questions no longer means much — the key issue is that manual processing simply isn’t giving out opportunities right now, so there’s nothing solid to project or estimate from.
Once again, we strongly recommend that students still holding out for 189 get in touch with us as soon as possible to arrange other pathways.
Queensland Small Business stream
Newstars Webinar
This Thursday!
Hit a dead end with migration? Come and consider this!
This Thursday, 4 March at 7:30pm — Newstars Webinar, a different path forward!
1. Queensland Small Business 491 policy explained!
2. What occupation? What background? What conditions? Who’s suited to this pathway!
3. Upcoming reforms — old vs new policy compared, and how to respond!
4. Key points to watch throughout the whole process!
5. Success stories shared!
Quickly press and hold the QR code below
and note: Newstars Webinar, to request to join the group!
Applicants in many occupations only reached the ceiling score because of relevant work experience, so employer sponsorship and smaller-scale investor migration are both worth considering! Employer sponsorship especially — we’ve had several recent success stories in common, popular occupations!
Just yesterday, a Taxation Accountant client had both the nomination and visa approved together under employer sponsorship!
Lodged on 24 September 2020, granted in early March — while accountants are stuck waiting elsewhere, no pathway is easy right now! Fast-track opportunities are especially rare! Make the most of this employer-sponsorship window while it lasts!
State nomination! Employer sponsorship!
Small-scale investor migration! Partner migration!
Beyond 189, PLAN B there’s a PLAN A too!
Get in touch with the relevant regional consultant below!
Sydney
Melbourne
Canberra
Brisbane
Adelaide
Hobart
Beijing
Guangzhou
Click the images below for more great articles
You don’t need a high score! Even uncommon or niche migration occupations that the market overlooks can work! No lengthy study abroad required! Here’s a “niche” pathway we recommend, with the latest success story!
Grant after grant! Newstars Beijing secured Australian GTI permanent residency for two families — 8 applicants in total — on the same day! The whole migration process took only around six months!
Light at the end of the tunnel for offshore skilled migration to Australia!? Post-pandemic, a purely offshore applicant gets a 190 permanent residency grant — a great start to the new year!
Good news from NSW! 190 invitations issued, with multiple ICT and engineering applicants invited! Several regional areas have opened 491, and there are also opportunities in Sydney and other states!
Preferential migration policies available! Extra exemptions and concessions! Available for both popular and emerging occupations! South Australia favours local graduates — how do you pick the right occupation for the best result!?
A 63-year-old applicant — well above the usual age — successfully granted an Australian part-time-study student visa!
Migration information-sharing and Q&A group
Step 1: Press and hold to add our consultant
Step 2: after adding, please
A must-read for anyone waiting on their grant!Click “Read the original article”, to find out whether you’re actually allowed to work full-time, and what to do if you’re offshore?
