[Australian Migration Weekly #275] Most states still have ample nomination quotas including VIC 190 / NSW 491! Skilled visa grants racing ahead in February! A bumper week for VET skills assessments!
1. Victoria’s February round was only a light drizzle, but there’s still plenty of 190 quota!2. Actual state-nomination usage as at the end of February — NSW is generous, and most states are at least well stocked3. A summary of recent visa processing progress — skilled migration advancing across the board!4. Australia’s twenty most in-demand occupations right now, with several in IT/engineering5. A weekly roundup of grants, invitations, skills assessments and citizenship processing progress1. Victoria’s February round was only a light drizzle, but there’s still plenty of 190 quota!Victoria did not keep pace with NSW in February; its momentum eased off, and it only released ROI invitations on the very last day of the month.The numbers dropped sharply, and the vast majority of the invited occupations were in healthcare, nursing, social work and teaching —in other words, the “ace majors” we know so well, with very low scores of course, and quite a few without claiming work experience. The invitation data we gathered is shown below:The rest we collected were alsovery niche healthcare occupations,and we only saw one other occupation,an invitation shared by a Mechanical Engineer.Those still waiting were of course a little disappointed not to receive an invitation, but the bigger worry was whether Victoria’s quota was running low — after all, Victoria’s invitation rain has been falling since last August, and even with 190 holding more than 10,000 places, could it really be?But we soon learned that Victoria had simply slowed its latest round because processing had recently become slower and a large backlog of pre-invitations had built up, so it wanted to clear the work in hand first.Because the data shows that, as at the end of February, Victoria’s 190 stillhad nearly 5,000 places left, a usage rate of 56.7%, and 491 usage was a further 10% lower — there’s still quota available. 2. Actual state-nomination usage as at the end of February — NSW is generous, and most states are at least well stockedBeyond Victoria, we also looked into the latest state-nomination quota usage in other states; the standouts were NSW 190 and South Australia.NSW 190:At the end of December NSW had used only around 30% of its quota; by the end of February usage had reached 65%. In two months it processed more than 3,500 nominations. With just over 3,000 places remaining and spread across the months ahead, it can only issue around 800 a month, so the prospect of further rounds of big releases may not be as high as before. Still, NSW’s efficiency deserves praise.NSW 491:is the opportunity everyone can seize right away;491 has used only around 22% of its quota and is especially well suited to purely offshore applicants who can’t put together a high score.Many common fields such as engineering, IT, marketing, graphic design, public relations and auditing are eligible — get in touch to assess your skills assessment and lodge!South Australia:is the only state running ahead of schedule on quota.With 65% of the financial year gone, it has already used 80% of its 190 quota and 75% of its 491 quota.Western Australia, Queensland and the ACT all still have plenty of quota in surplus, so we should see more good news ahead!For more detailed analysis, see:Latest state-nomination quota usage: NSW issued a remarkable 3,500 nominations in two months — plus state-nomination processing updates! 3. A summary of recent visa processing progress — skilled migration advancing across the board!February is over, so let’s sum up the visa processing progress so many of you care about. Overall there was plenty of good news last month;not a single skilled-migration category was left behind, including the 887 grant rain!190:at the fastest, grants reached July 2022, across all sorts of occupations; but because the 190 application volume is huge, processing only advanced for some applicants, and quite a few who lodged even earlier still haven’t been granted.For instance, for a while the 190s being granted were mainly those lodged in 2021, some faster and some slower. By the end of January the visa backlog stood at around 21,000, with the processing rate roughly keeping up with new lodgements.189:most of the grants were still for priority occupations lodged in October or even December 2022, with the occasional engineering or accounting case from November and December,but overall non-priority cases remained few and far between. December’s flood release left 189 with a 36,000 backlog by the end of January, the largest of all categories.491:there were also quite a few grants, somewhat fewer than 190 but across all sorts of occupations, with progress reachingNovember/December 2021, and some 2022 lodgements being granted too.887:the grant rain that began in mid-February is still falling every day, with no sign of slowing. Cases from 2020/21/22, families, those with a spouse and single applicants are all being granted, and the 20,000 backlog this month is expected to be at least more than halved.191:at the start of this year there were the usual 491-191 grants,but over the past month or two they’ve been less in evidence.Employer sponsored:482is fairly quick across different occupations, with sponsorship approval + nomination taking roughly 3 months,186is rather slower, with nomination + visa generally taking close to a year — and once granted it’s PR. 4. Australia’s twenty most in-demand occupations right now, with several in IT/engineering
The government recently released the twenty occupations with the most job vacancies across Australia from October to December 2022. Many are familiar faces — plenty of healthcare and IT, plus the inevitable engineering-related roles, and many of the everyday skilled trades.Migration is now Australia’s main means of filling skills shortages, so it’s foreseeable that these occupations will be “favoured” both in finding work and in migration,so do give them some targeted consideration!
1 Registered Nurses 8,3772 Software and Applications Programmers 6,2693 Aged and Disabled Carers 4,6424 Child Carers 4,2775 Construction Managers 4,2306 Motor Mechanics 3,9247 Retail Managers 3,7778 Chefs 3,7259 Generalist Medical Practitioners 3,35210 Metal Fitters and Machinists 3,13711 ICT Business and Systems Analysts 3,05312 Civil Engineering Professionals 2,87113 Electricians 2,83914 Early Childhood (Pre-primary School) Teachers 2,49315 Contract, Program and Project Administrators 2,39216 Advertising and Marketing Professionals 2,26517 Physiotherapists 1,26218 Gardeners 1,01519 Mining Engineers 95720 Database and Systems Administrators, and ICT Security Specialists 942
5. A weekly roundup of grants, invitations, skills assessments and citizenship processing progress
A roundup of Newstarsec’s recent grants and invitations across all categories: press and hold below to view — the page is updated continuously, so we strongly recommend saving it!
State nomination invitations / GTI invitation statisticsACT nomination
The 28 February pre-invitation round is set out in the table above
Tasmania nomination
TAS 491 ROI lodged 21 December 2022, TAS 491 pre-invitation received 4 January 2023, TAS 491 application lodged 30 January 2023, 491 invited 28 February 2023, Translator – 272413, 55+15
TAS 190 ROI lodged 13 September 2022, TAS 190 pre-invitation received 19 September 2022, TAS 190 application lodged 30 September 2023, 190 invited 28 February 2023, Accountant (General) – 221111, 70+5
TAS 190 ROI lodged 18 November 2022, TAS 190 pre-invitation received 16 December 2022, TAS 190 application lodged 6 January 2023, 190 invited 28 February 2023, Accountant (General) – 221111, 75+5
TAS 491 ROI lodged 16 December 2022, TAS 491 pre-invitation received 4 January 2023, TAS 491 application lodged 1 February 2023, 491 invited 1 March 2023, Accountant (General) – 221111, 70+15
NSW nomination None this week
South Australia nomination
Lodged 20 February 2023, invited 3 March 2023, occupation: Civil Engineer, onshore
Queensland nomination
190 lodged 15 February 2023, approved 2 March 2023, food technologist, onshore
Western Australia nomination
Pre-invitation 25 November 2022, WA nomination approved 2 March 2023, onshore
WA 190 EOI lodged 11 October 2022, WA 190 pre-invitation received 25 November 2022, WA 491 application lodged 1 December 2022, 190 nominated 1 March 2023, Mechanical Engineer – 233512, 75+5
Northern Territory nominationNone this week Business and investor migration invitationsNone this week
This week’s grant progress and analysis
189 Skilled Independent migration
Lodged November 2022, granted February 2023 (Registered Nurse (Aged Care) – 254412)
Lodged 10 October 2022, granted 2 March 2023, priority occupation
Lodged 11 November 2022, granted 01 March 2023 (Biomedical
