In August, most of the attention was on state nomination quotas. There weren’t many ripples on the grants front — it felt like a return to priority processing for nursing, social work, teaching and medical occupations (referred to below as the four priority occupations). But plenty of people keep asking, so now that September has just begun, here’s a summary of the visa processing situation in August. At the end of the article we’ve attached the current status of each state’s nomination program。

First, a hopeful note up front — we’re looking forward to seeing general-occupation Subclass 190/189/491 grants come through in September~

The summary below is based on Newstarsec’s internal data, together with some externally shared information

Subclass 190:

General occupations: the bulk of applicationsare still sitting at those lodged in late 2022 (and a fair number lodged in the second half of 2022 are still awaiting a grant). We haven’t seen any batch grants for general occupations

The four priority occupationsare moving very quickly — we’ve had clients who lodged in May/June 2023 already granted

Subclass 189:

General occupations:there have been a handful of grants among those who lodged after being invited in October and December 2022 — not many

The four priority occupations: processing is now concentrated on those invited in May 2023

Subclass 491:

For general occupations, in July we saw quite a few applications lodged in early 2023 granted. Moving into August the shower of grants paused again, and there should still be some lodged in late 2022 still awaiting news

The four priority occupationsThe contrast with general occupations is less pronounced within the Subclass 491 cohort, because most people in the four priority occupations go straight for one-step PR, so fewer of them apply for the Subclass 491

Subclass 191:

The Subclass 191 began batch processing in early August, and has already progressed to applications lodged in July 2023. A bit like the Subclass 887, the focus is on clearing the vast majority of the backlog in a short space of time

Subclass 887:

the backlog was cleared long ago, and applications lodged now are processed fairly quickly too。

Employer sponsorship:

482is the fastest of all the skilled migration categories, and it’s getting faster and faster — sponsorship eligibility, nomination and visa processing are all quick, and many are even approved together, with all occupations treated equally. From lodgement to grant, a result within 3 monthsis something most applicants can expect.

186DEis also accelerating — over the past two weeks we’ve had a run of nominations lodged in October or November 2022 approved

Parent migration:

Subclass 143 RFIrequests have reached applications lodged on 9 May 2017

Subclass 103:the Queue Date is mid-September 2011 for receiving the payment notice

Subclass 870:sponsorship eligibility takes 1-2 months, and the visa itself takes 1-3 months each

Partner visas:

820 and the Subclass 309 are still relatively quick and accelerating, on a 6-9 month cycle. The Subclass 100 and 801 are slower, with plenty of 1 year+ waits

GTI:

the wait after an invitation is at least a year and up, and visa processing has slowed right down too — recently it’s been quite normal to hear nothing for 3 months+

Subclass 188 and 888:

In an earlier quarterly meeting between the MIA and the Department of Home Affairs, it was said that going forward they would deploy more staff to work through the business and investor migration backlog, but we haven’t seen much improvement yet — we’ll wait and see

Visitor visas:

results are coming through within a week or two. Processing has loosened up — we’ve had many overturned-and-granted cases, as well as clients coming purely for a holiday in Australia all granted smoothly. Get in touch to find out more

Subclass 485 and 500:

both around 2-3 weeks

Subclass 408:

grants come within a few days. Over the past couple of days many lodged on 31 August have been granted a one-year period — they were the cohort who got in just before the new policy took effect.

A few basic facts:

– Subclass 190/491 processing has nothing to do with which state issued the invitation

– there’s no longer any clear difference in grant progress between onshore and offshore applicants

– there’s no consistent data showing that applications including a partner are granted more slowly than those without

– chasing up a grant is about as effective as praying for one to come through sooner

To reiterate, the visa processing progress above is for reference only. Processing is case by case, and within the same occupation it’s perfectly normal for grants to come through out of lodgement order.

It’s been a week or so since the state nomination quotas were announced, and every state has now responded. Most are processing applications that had already been invited beforehand, or are heads-down studying the new policies and lists.

For a summary of the current state nomination situation, see below:

In a nutshell — here’s hoping everyone gets their grant in September!

Past articles worth a read

WA Issues 487 Invitations in Its First Round — Including Offshore and Interstate Applicants! Competition Is Fierce in Tasmania This Year!

Confirmed! The Subclass 408 COVID stream is scrapped from 1 September — but there’s a transition period

A Detailed Look at the Skills Assessment Requirements for the Subclass 482 Employer Sponsorship! Can Mandatory Skills Assessments Be Waived?

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August Recap! Real Processing Progress on Subclass 189/190/491, Parent Visas and More — Plus the Latest State Nomination Status at a Glance!

WA Issues 487 Invitations in Its First Round — Including Offshore and Interstate Applicants! Competition Is Fierce in Tasmania This Year!

Confirmed! The Subclass 408 COVID stream is scrapped from 1 September — but there’s a transition period

A Detailed Look at the Skills Assessment Requirements for the Subclass 482 Employer Sponsorship! Can Mandatory Skills Assessments Be Waived?

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