Insights
Plenty of applicants have been spooked by the recent news that Perth may be removed from the regional areas list, but the truth is that WA’s state nomination program has performed solidly over the past few years. Even if Perth’s status changes, it does not mean WA’s 190/491 programs will close their doors. Today we share two recent and very
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This past week, the news that “Perth may be removed from the regional list” has been circulating widely, and many applicants who are already in Perth or about to head there have been asking us about it. In this article we aim to explain the full background and the potential impact. The “sudden” news is not actually sudden The broader
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Victoria and New South Wales both released their first invitation rounds of the new year today. Starting with Victoria (invitation data shown in the header image), the state is still running one round per month. The last round was in early December; this round covers a broader range of occupations and issues more invitations than the previous few rounds, including
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South Australia was the first state to issue invitations in 2026 — invitations went out yesterday, and the official gazette was released today (see the header image). Not much change from the previous round: around 300 invitations issued, with the majority going to Health, Education, Design Engineering & Science, Transport, and Construction Trades; IT received almost all 491 invitations, with
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The 24-25 Migration Report has arrived later than usual — typically released around October, this year’s edition was not published until late December. There are still plenty of takeaways; here are the highlights. The report only covers capped visa categories — it does not include 191/888/801/100. India tops skilled migration India’s numbers continue to climb year on year, now exceeding
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With the holiday season almost here, as usual we have put together the closure dates for the Department of Home Affairs, the state nominating bodies, and the skills assessment authorities, so you can plan ahead. On a side note, I will be on leave from 20 December to 4 January and back on 5 January. Of course, you are still
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Iscah has released another big update — proposed reforms to the Skilled Migration points test and to the regional migration settings are due to be submitted to the government early next year. The multi-year state nomination plan has stalled, and the federal government still wants flexible control over the annual invitation allocation. The recommendations will be submitted early next year
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Today we’re sharing a case where we successfully appealed a Student visa refusal and secured a 5-year Subclass 485 work visa (see cover image). Client background The client holds a Hong Kong passport and earlier in the year lodged a Student visa renewal application through another agent. The Department of Home Affairs requested a medical examination, but the previous agent
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Our monthly routine update on the 189/190/491 data. Thanks to the 190Grant database, this time we have data up to the end of October 2025 (lead image) — and we have 191 data too! Source data shown in Images 2-3 A closer look Subclass 189 (Image 4) 1,439 applications were lodged — 1,696 fewer than September — so primary-applicant lodgements
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Western Australia issues 1,800 invitations! Plenty of priority occupations invited from as low as 80 points! Western Australia had already flagged that invitations would go out in early December, and they arrived on Friday afternoon as promised! What’s more, the official report was released within an hour of the invitations being sent — very prompt. This is the second round
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