Key Immigration News for the Week
1. Full subclass 189 annual quotas for every occupation this program year released
2. WA issues 2,400 invitations in a single round; Early Childhood Teacher secures subclass 190 at 75 points
3. NSW signals the next subclass 190 round; Tasmania keeps inviting; employer-sponsored salary threshold set to rise
4. Subclass 190 / 491 grants accelerating; subclass 189 primarily processing the November round
5. Weekly summary: visa grants, invitations and skills-assessment data
Breaking: Subclass 485 visa fee lifts to AUD 4,600 — already in force!
This weekend we suddenly noticed that the first-stream Subclass 485 visa application charge on the Department’s website has jumped to AUD 4,600. The site has previously “leaked” new-program-year prices early — was this another one? We checked the legislative instruments andfound that the amendment was signed on 19 February but only published now — the AUD 4,600 fee took effect immediately on 1 March. There was no advance notice and no warning; the only hint was the Department announcing a system upgrade that suspended BPAY for subclass 485 between 21 and 28 February…
So for any subclass 485 application lodged on or after 1 March 2026 the fees are:
Standard first visa:primary applicant AUD 4,600; secondary applicants aged 18 and over AUD 2,300; secondary applicants under 18 AUD 1,160;
Standard second visa:primary applicant AUD 1,810; secondary applicants aged 18 and over AUD 910; secondary applicants under 18 AUD 460
Subclass 485 subsequent entrant (secondary applicant joining after the primary is granted):AUD 4,600
The cost of getting a subclass 485 wrong has now risen sharply — applicants should prepare English test results at 6.5 as early as possible, and think twice before DIY lodgement.
1. Full subclass 189 annual quotas for every occupation this program year released
Since the subclass 189 invitation-quota algorithm was published, the question everyone has wanted to answer is how many places their own occupation gets — but with too much missing data, knowing the algorithm alone was not enough to calculate it.We have now obtained documents from the Department showing the full-year quota for every occupation group (grouped by the first four digits of ANZSCO).
Nursing tops the list at 10,390 — the only occupation above 10,000. Early Childhood Teacher has 1,027; Social Worker 876
; Secondary Teacher 2,837
Occupations with zero invitation quota:Civil Engineer (Civil Engineering Draftsperson / Technician has 130), Mechanical / Industrial Engineer, Electrical Engineer, 2339 Other Engineering Professionals, Motor Mechanic, Chef 2613 / 2611 / 2631 / 2621, Accountant, Auditor
The subclass 189 quota is the theoretical maximum the Department can issue to each occupation group this program year — it does not mean the full quota has to be used, and the Department retains broad discretion to over- or under-allocate as it sees fit. Based on the August and November round data we have calculated thatseveral occupations have already been issued more invitations than their quota — Civil Engineering Draftsperson / Planner over by about 160; Chemical and Materials Engineers over by 200+; Painter over by nearly 200; University Lecturer over by 200+; Carpenter the most extreme at 700+ over.
With February drawing to a close, we expect subclass 189 to run at least one more round — numbers will be small, but any round is welcome. Fingers crossed for a new round in March.
2. WA issues 2,400 invitations; Early Childhood Teacher secures subclass 190 at a base score of 75 points
The WA round ran over two days — 20 February covered trade occupations only, 23 February covered the remaining priority occupations.The pre-invitation count reached 2,400 — the largest single round this year.
The first wave of construction-trade invitees were mostly at 65 points, with most invitations going to interstate & overseas applicants — the in-state pool was cleared out
For the other priority occupations, the popular Schedule 2 roles were:
Architect / Architectural Draftsperson / Cafe Restaurant Manager / Construction Project Manager / Civil Engineering Technician / Primary Teacher / Secondary Teacher — most at 80 points.
Other popular Schedule 2 occupations:Social Worker / Early Childhood Teacher / Civil scores were pushed up — Social Worker 85 points, Civil 100 points, Early Childhood Teacher also needing 80 points (we do have a 75+5-point invite).
For Schedule 1, Nursing also drew a high round score of 85–90 points. Local higher-education graduates were again mostly at 80 points, while VET pathway invitees — for example Enrolled Nurses — came in as low as 75 points.
WA is very short on construction trades this year — the previous round was already a trades-only round, so if you hold one of these occupations WA is close to a no-brainer.Interstate and overseas applicants should also tick WA — a 190 base score of 60 or a 491 base score of 50 is already in the running.
Several of our clients were invited:
a 75+5 Early Childhood Teacher who moved from NSW to WA mid-last-year —compared with the subclass 189 long wait at 85 points, or the hard work requirements and high invitation thresholds in other states, the ECT pool in WA is still relatively small.
Chef who moved from SA to WA —although their score was already high at 95+15.
We also sawRestaurant Manager 75+5 and TESOL 75+5 invitations.
So if your score is lower and your occupation is on WA’s priority list, make your decision quickly — WA requires three months’ residence this year. For WA state-nomination enquiries, contact the consultant below:
3. NSW signals the next subclass 190 round; Tasmania keeps inviting steadily; employer-sponsored minimum salary threshold is set to rise
NSWhas given advance notice that the next subclass 190 round will go out in the first week of March, although the exact date has not been confirmed. The state government reminds applicants to ensure their skills assessment, bonus points and EOI are all in date — get in touch if you need help with lodgement.
Tasmaniaissued its invitations as scheduled —the 26 February round sent 40 subclass 190 invitations with a minimum score of 47 (orange pass), and 24 subclass 491 invitations with a minimum score of 41.Tasmania has 629 subclass 190 places and 154 subclass 491 places remaining. Processing is a little slow — 350 invited subclass 190 ROIs and 206 invited subclass 491 ROIs are still awaiting assessment, which is why current round sizes are modest. Assessments have reached applications lodged on 12 December.
The minimum salary threshold for employer-sponsored subclass 482 and 186rises every new program year —from 1 July 2026 it goes up to AUD 79,499, a 3.9% increase!Nominations lodged before 1 July are still at AUD 76,515 —if you are preparing an employer-sponsored application, note the new policy and lodge as soon as possible!
4. Subclass 190 / 491 grants accelerating; subclass 189 primarily processing the November round
Fresh subclass 189, 491 and 190 data is in — our FOI covers figures up to January 2026
We remain cautiously optimistic that subclass 189 has at least one more round in it
The November round ultimately saw 5,593 primary applicants lodge, so acceptance on the 10,000 invitations came in at 55.93% — broadly in line with earlier expectations. January‘s grants ran well ahead of lodgements; end-January backlog was11945 cases, leaving 7,297 quota places，gap—4648 cases; if we apply the end-of-program-year backlog of roughly7000 cases189 that the Department has “been willing to” leave in the last two program years, another2352 visa places are available — factoring in the 50–55% acceptance rate on invitations, this matches our forecast from the December-end data, so189we should see one more round.
January single-month grants rose to 1,800+.Processing has fully shifted to the August and November 2025 rounds; the data shows a large batch of December lodgements were granted — even a single-month high.At the end of January, 243 August lodgements remained unprocessed; September had 2,300+ outstanding, October 1,200+, and November and December each 3,000+.
Subclass 190 lodgements and grants both hit program-year highs
New lodgements climbed further to a high of 2,100+; grants also broke 3,000+ for the first time this year — 725 more than December — and the backlog eased to 23,000+.
The most-granted lodgement month in January was November 2024, followed by December 2025, then October 2024 and May / June 2025 — every month saw grants.
June 2023 has 204 cases left in the backlog; every month up to October 2024 has only tens to a few hundred outstanding; November 2024 to June 2025 each still carry well over a thousand; from July 2025 onward, as invitations eased off, the monthly backlog dropped back below 1,000.
Subclass 491 grants return to normal
New lodgements in fact eased back to below 900.After a steep drop in December, grants climbed back to 2,100+. Overall backlog fell further to 20,556, and end-February data in a few weeks may show it drop below 20,000.
Subclass 491 is also processed selectively each month, with June 2025 the single-month high at 215. For months up to November 2024 only a few hundred 491 cases remain in each month’s backlog; December 2024 to July 2025 each hold 1,000+, with June 2025 the peak at 2,023 — the only month over2,000.
This week’s visa grants, invitations and skills assessments
Statenomination
Canberra
Formal nomination
2026Year2Month6lodged on2026Year02Month26invited onACT 190， Architect
SA
Formal nomination
Nomi Lodged 9/1/2026, Invited on 25/2/2026. Motor Mechanic 491
WA
See the pre-invitation summary above
None this week
190 State Nominated
25 Nov 2024 Onshore lodgementACT 190, 24 Feb 2026 Granted–Web Administrator
Lodgement date:22/11/2024 / Grant date:23/02/2026
Submitted on 29/11/2024, Granted on 26/2/2026. Recruitment Consultant
491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional)
18 Jun 2024 Onshore lodgementNSW 491, 24 Feb 2026Granted–Taxation Accountant
191 / 887 Regional Permanent Residence
Lodgement date:09/05/2025 / Grant date:27/02/2026 Subclass 887 visa
Lodgement date:16/10/2025 / Grant date:25/02/2026Sales and Marketing Manager
Lodgement date:21/11/2025 / Grant date:21/02/2026 Chef
Submitted on 5/5/2025, Granted on 25/2/2026. Program or Project Administrator 186
Investor / GTI visa
Partner migration
Lodgement date:23/11/2023 / Grant date:23/02/2026 820+801
None this week
485 Temporary Graduate visa
Lodgement date:09/01/2026 / Grant date:27/02/2026
500 Student visa
Lodged 19 November 2025, granted 27 February 2026
600 Visitor visa
Lodgement date:11/02/2026 / Grant date:25/02/2026
Skills assessment
EA
Lodgement date:12/02/2026 / Grant date:24/02/2026
