This Week’s Key Immigration News

1. WA — Teachers, Restaurant Managers etc. Invited at 65–80 Points

The WA March-round official report is out. The February round was delayed until after the 20th and issued 2,400 invitations;the March round was issued at the start of the month with 2,200 invitations. Both rounds followed a very similar pattern — trade occupations were invited on day one (covering interstate and offshore applicants), and other priority occupations on a later day. As a result, score thresholds across the four priority areas dropped further, with most invitations this round landing at 65–80 points.All lower-score invitations went to applicants living in WA.

Non-trade priority occupations — General Stream 2:

Architect 80; Restaurant Manager 80; Early Childhood Teacher 80; Chef 85; Civil Engineer 90; Civil Engineering Draftsperson 85; Civil Engineering Technician 80; Hotel Manager 80; Secondary School Teacher 80; Social Worker 80; TESOL 80.

For other General Stream 2 invitation scores, plus General Stream 1 and the graduate pathway, see:

Trade occupations were mostly invited at 65–70 points, and the vast majority of trade occupations also invited offshore / interstate applicants. Details:

If your occupation sits within the four priority areas and you are scoring below 85+, relocating to WA is genuinely worth considering.

2. Home Affairs Tightens the Screws: 407 Now Requires Three Separate Lodgements; 485 Threshold Raised

This week the Department of Home Affairs suddenly amended the legislation so thatthe three stages of the Subclass 407 — sponsor approval, nomination, and visa — must now be lodged separately. Sponsorship must be approved before the nomination can be lodged, and the nomination must be approved before the visa can be lodged. As one of the very few extension options available after a Subclass 485 expires, the 407 pathway has essentially been closed off.Current processing times for the three stages are not short — conservatively, each stage takes around six months. Asking applicants and employees to start preparing an extension 1.5–2 years in advance is simply not realistic. Post-485 extension options have again been reduced by one.

We subsequently noticed thatthe Subclass 485 policy was also significantly amended in February. The case officer guidelines now redefine the 2-year study requirement as follows:if multiple courses are combined to meet the 2-year study requirement, the new course must commence in the same year as, or the year immediately after, the previous course in order for the study periods to be aggregated. This requirement previously applied only to the Graduate stream (GD), but now applies to all courses. In practice, if you studied in Australia several years ago and then took a new course after a gap of several years, the earlier study period can no longer be counted.

Good extension options after a 485 expires are now very limited. From graduation and the early stages of the 485 onwards, you should push hard to obtain your skills assessment and a high English score in order to leave as much time as possible to secure an invitation. Once you find a job, it is also worth raising employer sponsorship with your employer as early as possible.

3. Official Processing Times Updated — 491/190/189 All Sped Up

In early March the Department of Home Affairs published updated indicative processing times. Compared with the February update:

482 SID nomination:50% within 4 months (about 1 month slower); 90% within 8 months (1 month slower).

186DE：50% within 14 months (3 months faster); 90% within 21 months (1 month slower).

For a summary of other mainstream visas, see:189/190/491 Processing All Sped Up; Employer-sponsored Slowed Down

4. TAS 190 Temporarily Only Issuing Gold Pass; ACT Small-scale This Round; QLD Also Sending Invitations

Tasmaniaissues invitations every Thursday. Although weekly invitation numbers have been modest since entering 2026, with 190 and 491 invitations typically going to Orange Pass applicants, this week was especially light: only 14 invitations were issued for the 190 (and only to Gold Pass applicants), while the 491 issued 19 invitations, continuing with Orange Pass applicants.

On Friday the Tasmanian state government announced:the 190 will temporarily invite only Orange Pass applicants; applicants of other colour grades may continue to lodge, and the state government will provide further updates in the coming weeks as the situation develops. At the same time they haveindicated that Green Pass applicants can expect to be invited within six months of lodging their ROI,，but formal nomination may not be issued until the 2026–27 financial year.The 491 will continue to invite applicants across all colour grades, albeit in reduced numbers.

The Tasmanian government appears to be pre-emptively managing allocation usage. As of the end of January, Tasmania had not over-used its allocation ahead of schedule.

ACT (Canberra)issued its scheduled Matrix invitations this week. Based onour own clients plus external sources:invitation numbers this round were modest.See the figures below; we will wait for next week’s official report for confirmed numbers.

Queenslandalso issued ROI pre-invitations this week.One of our clients — a Construction Project Manager on 85+5 — received a 190 invitation (onshore applicant). For others, see: