Western Australia released its first invitation round of the 2026 New Year on 12 January, and this round was dedicated exclusively to blue-collar construction trades — construction trades being the top priority among WA’s priority occupations this financial year. Unlike the FY25-26 first round, this round issued 1,155 invitations.

1,135 invitations to a single sector

To put 1,135 in perspective: in December’s round, all priority sectors combined received only 1,800， — now more than a thousand have gone to a single sector, which is extremely rare across the many streams of state nomination. The bulk went to the general stream, and within that, 819 went to the Subclass 491 visa.

Recruiting from across Australia and worldwide

You may wonder: does WA really still have that many carpenters, bricklayers and tilers waiting to secure PR?

Not really, right?

WA is recruiting worldwide — every occupation invited via the general stream in this round has been opened up to applicants offshore and interstate.That doesn’t mean there are no in-state invitations — the official report records the lowest priority tier invited, and offshore/interstate sits below in-state, so if offshore/interstate applicants were invited, in-state ones certainly were too.In other words, applicants who lodged a WA EOI from Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, mainland China and elsewhere have all been invited.And more of them were invited from offshore — WA may well have exhausted the interstate pool, given that every state and the Subclass 189 are all competing for candidates.

So, can you be invited if you’re interstate or offshore?

If your occupation is high enough on the priority list, there’s still a chance.

Invitations issued at 65-75 points

Bricklayers, joiners, painters, roof plumbers, roof tilers, plasterers, wall and floor tilers, stonemasons, fibrous plasterers and the like were all invited at 65-70 points…

We’ve said it many times — once blue-collar construction trades complete a skills assessment, they rarely need to compete on points through any current Australian skilled-migration pathway. In this WA round, the majority of invitees were sitting on 65 EOI points.

Given that most of the invitations were for Subclass 491, an applicant only needs to reach 50 points on their own — at most 60 — to secure PR, which is the bare minimum threshold for federal skilled migration.

WA is helping applicants break through the minimum-points threshold

Other state-nomination streams and the Subclass 189 all invite at 65 points. To compete for candidates, WA has stopped leading with “direct-to-PR” as the headline selling point.Instead, it is selecting more low-point applicants and issuing a large volume of 491 invitations. If 65 points gets you a 491 invitation, an applicant only needs 50 points on their own — a strategy aimed squarely at ultra-low-point applicants who can’t reach 60 on their own, because WA genuinely needs people on the ground doing the work.

That said, this may push the round’s acceptance rate below normal, as some invitees may decide to hold out for 189/190 instead.

If you’re considering the blue-collar construction pathway

the best-fit candidates are

onshore in Australia

on a higher-education student visa

with six months to a year left on the course

whose current field offers no or poor migration prospects

If you have already started or applied for the 485 visa, or if you’re an offshore applicant of study age, contact us for a case-by-case eligibility assessment.