Remaining State Nomination Quotas & Processing Progress by State in Australia
April is almost over, and the Department of Home Affairs has finally updated state nomination quota usage as at the end of March (feature image).
Victoria will close new applications on 28 April, Canberra has skipped its April round, and NSW will issue its first round of Subclass 491 Pathway Two invitations on 28 April — that is, this week.
So how has each state progressed as at the end of March?
Canberra
266 Subclass 190 places and 248 Subclass 491 places remaining; around 200 formal invitations were approved across the whole of March.
Nearly another month has now passed, and the remaining Subclass 190 and Subclass 491 quota is optimistically estimated at around 200. The originally scheduled April round has been skipped, and the final round of this financial year will be issued in the week of 4 May.
New South Wales
768 Subclass 190 places and 469 Subclass 491 places remaining. One Subclass 190 round was issued in April, smaller in scale than previous rounds.
338 formal Subclass 491 nominations were approved in March, and close to 300 in February as well. The volume being processed is large, all going to Pathway One and Pathway Three. The first Subclass 491 Pathway Two round will be issued this week on 28 April; whether one or two rounds are issued depends on how much is left from Pathway One and Pathway Three. What is certain is that Pathway One and Pathway Three were still being approved in April, with clients receiving invitations.
Northern Territory
210 Subclass 190 places and 403 Subclass 491 places remaining. The Subclass 190 places are all going to onshore graduates or workers, while offshore Subclass 491 processing is relatively slow.
Queensland
848 Subclass 190 places and 171 Subclass 491 places remaining. Queensland approved 365 formal Subclass 190 places in a single month, catching up on pace; 45% of the quota still remains. The frequency of invitations increased in April and will be maintained in May, but competition in Queensland remains fierce. 171 Subclass 491 places remain, less than 23%.
South Australia
586 Subclass 190 places and 441 Subclass 491 places remaining. South Australia methodically issues invitations at the start of each month, but there were no major surprises in the numbers or occupations.
Tasmania
410 Subclass 190 places and 385 Subclass 491 places remaining. Tasmania updates its processing and quota position every week; the latest figures are as at 23 April (Figure 2), with 267 Subclass 190 places and 320 Subclass 491 places still remaining, plus 236 Subclass 190 and 204 Subclass 491 applications still awaiting processing before they secure formal places — so in practice there is not much quota left. Processing has advanced to nominations lodged on 2 February.
Victoria
807 Subclass 190 places and 117 Subclass 491 places remaining. The Subclass 190 figure looks substantial, but in March Victoria extended invitations to non-priority occupations and issued the largest round of the financial year, so by the end of the month the remaining proportion had already fallen below 30%. You can only admire Victoria’s efficiency — it processed nearly 500 formal Subclass 190 nominations in March alone, leading second-placed Queensland by volume. Victoria should still have capacity for one more small round.
Western Australia
991 Subclass 190 places and 449 Subclass 491 places remaining. On the numbers alone, Western Australia has the largest remaining proportion, with close to half of its Subclass 190 places — roughly 1,000 — still available. But because its processing is slow, exactly how much Western Australia has left has always been a mystery.
We previously analysed that the states would sprint from March to May, leaving June mainly for processing. As things stand, March used up close to 8,000 Subclass 190 places — 2,000 more than February — while nearly 5,000 Subclass 491 places were also used, more than 1,200 above February. There should still be plenty of invitations expected in May, so for those who are waiting, there is something to look forward to!
