As state nomination programmes for the new financial year progressively get underway, both New South Wales and Victoria have announced new policies and application arrangements this week.
In NSW, invitations for Subclass 190 state nomination are expected to be issued in the week beginning 19 October. NSW is continuing to use the EOI system this year and has also adjusted its occupation list, with 2251 Advertising and Marketing Professionals returning to the Subclass 190 list.
NSW 190 invitations expected to start next week
NSW 190 invitations are expected to be issued in the week beginning 19 October.
Overall, the application requirements remain unchanged. Applicants must meet the relevant NSW residence or employment conditions, principally having lived in NSW for at least six months or currently living outside Australia.
Applicants working in NSW in a job related to their nominated occupation can be exempt from the six-month residence requirement.
Applicants must also have an occupation on the NSW Subclass 190 occupation list for the 2026–27 financial year and hold the corresponding skills assessment.
2251 Advertising and Marketing Professionals returns
NSW has updated its Subclass 190 occupation list for the 2026–27 financial year. One notable change is the return of 2251 Advertising and Marketing Professionals.
Applicants whose occupations fall within occupation group 2251 can review their skills assessment, work experience and EOI circumstances to further establish whether they meet the NSW 190 application requirements for this financial year.
The image below shows the complete NSW 190 list for the 2026–27 financial year.
No need to lodge a duplicate NSW EOI
NSW is continuing to use the EOI system this year.
If you have already lodged a NSW EOI, you can generally continue using it without lodging a new one, provided it has not expired and your occupation remains on the NSW 190 occupation list.
For Subclass 491, all application pathways remain closed. The 491 occupation list and subsequent opening arrangements are yet to be updated. Under the previous financial year’s policy, the occupation list mainly affects Pathway 2 for Subclass 491.
Victoria state nomination: planned opening on 26 October
Victoria held a state nomination policy briefing on the 15th this week, providing further clarification of the policies previously published on its website.
As at 2 pm on 15 October, the Victorian Government had still not received its final state nomination allocation for this financial year.
The application channel is currently scheduled to open on 26 October, with invitations then to be issued once a month in principle.
Please note that applicants already in the ROI pool must also lodge a new ROI; they cannot simply reuse their ROI from the previous round.
Choose either a Victorian 190 or 491 ROI
Victoria continues to apply the principle of one ROI per person.
Applicants cannot lodge both a 190 and a 491 ROI at the same time; they must choose one of the two categories.
One of the core principles of Victoria’s new VPT (Vic Plan and Training) system is to select young and skilled candidates. This direction has some alignment with the skilled migration points system reforms being pursued by the federal government.
ROI fees are charged by financial year. If an applicant withdraws an ROI for any reason and lodges another in the same financial year, they do not need to pay the fee again.
Victoria ranks its two invitation streams separately
Victoria currently divides invitations into two main streams.
In the non-priority stream, all occupations are ranked together, with selection based in principle on competitiveness and points.
The priority stream ranks each priority sector separately, then compares applicants’ competitiveness within the same sector.
This means that different priority sectors do not simply compete in a single points pool. For example, a nursing applicant with 500 points does not need to be compared directly with a construction project manager with 600 points within the same occupational field.
The respective proportions of non-priority and priority invitations in each round have not yet been finalised, mainly because the state nomination allocation for this financial year has not been finalised.
Onshore applicants are not a separate official priority in Victoria, but can earn more points
In principle, Victoria has not explicitly stated that there is a fixed invitation priority between onshore and offshore applicants.
However, the state government explained that onshore applicants can access more relevant points categories and may therefore be more competitive in practice.
Past nomination outcomes show that approximately 80% of Victorian nominations went to onshore applicants and around 20% to offshore applicants. There were approximately 90,000 applications in Victoria’s ROI pool in the previous financial year.
Competition for Victorian state nomination in the new financial year will therefore need to be assessed once actual invitation data is available.
Victoria’s salary points requirements remain unchanged
The requirements for claiming salary points in an ROI are expected to remain the same as in the previous financial year.
The applicant’s occupation must be at Skill Level 1 to 3 as specified by Victoria. Claiming salary points does not strictly require the applicant’s job to be directly related to the nominated occupation.
Victoria will bring its salary calculator back online, allowing applicants to use the official tool to check their salary points.
The 50 partner points do not require the partner to work in their nominated occupation
Victoria has also further clarified its requirements for partner points.
Applicants wishing to claim 50 partner points do not need their partner to actually work in the occupation covered by the partner’s skills assessment.
Provided the partner meets the relevant skills assessment requirement and has English scores of 6 in each of the four components, eligibility can be considered under the EOI points rules. The partner is not required to be currently working in that occupation.
The additional English and employment requirements for early childhood teachers mainly apply to the primary applicant. Secondary applicants do not need to meet the same additional requirements.
Onshore and offshore work experience can be combined
Victoria does not simply separate Australian and overseas employment when calculating the work experience required for the nominated occupation.
For example, an applicant with 1.5 years of Australian work experience and 1.5 years of overseas work experience, or two years of Australian experience and one year overseas, can have this counted by the Victorian Government as three years of work experience, attracting the relevant 40 points, provided the other requirements are met.
Actual invitation data will be published
Victoria plans to publish invitation outcomes for different points bands once it has accumulated data from enough invitation rounds.
However, ROI invitations involve a dynamic competitive process, so it is difficult to predict accurately the likelihood of an invitation at a particular score without sufficient actual invitation data.
In other words, at the start of the new financial year, before enough invitation data is available, relying solely on historical scores is not a reliable way to assess the likelihood of an invitation this year.
A six-month wait applies if nomination is refused after an ROI invitation
If an applicant receives an ROI invitation and subsequently lodges a state nomination application, but that nomination application is ultimately unsuccessful, the applicant faces a six-month waiting period.
They must therefore wait six months before lodging another ROI.
Applicants must still carefully prepare their nomination documents after receiving an ROI invitation and ensure they meet Victoria’s specific state nomination requirements. An ROI invitation should not be taken as a guarantee of state nomination.
What should NSW and Victorian applicants prepare now?
NSW 190 invitations are expected in the week beginning 19 October, while Victoria currently plans to open ROI applications on 26 October.
Applicants preparing to seek NSW or Victorian state nomination can now check in advance whether their skills assessments, English results, work experience and EOI and ROI documents meet the latest requirements.
Victoria in particular has revised its ROI selection and priority stream rules this year. Until the final allocation and actual invitation data are released, applicants’ competitiveness still needs to be assessed against their individual circumstances.
