Australia’s skilled migration programme has made a strong recovery this financial year,and the final quota allocations are now confirmed! New South Wales and Victoria unsurprisingly secured the largest state nomination quotas, whileWestern Australia (WA) holds firm in third placewith a total of8,140places, of which5,350 are Subclass 190(65%), and Subclass 491 has 2,790 (35%).·

WA issues invitations en masse

WA issues pre-invitations on a fixed monthly schedule. As of 25 November,WA has conducted four invitation rounds— the first round in August was a small-scale pilot with 600 invitations issued, followed by 1,453 in September. Then came an unprecedented surge in invitation volume,with October and November issuing 4,626 and 4,500 invitations respectively. Across all four rounds, 11,079 invitations have been issued in total — the highest number of any state or territory in Australia. Below is a breakdown of the invitation figures:

The relationship between WA invitations issued and final state nomination grants

So the question arises:8,140 places, and 11,079 pre-invitations have already been issued —does that mean the quota has already run out, and is even in deficit? What’s going on?Let us briefly explain the relationship between WA pre-invitations and final state nomination grants — here is a simple diagram:

This situation exists across state nomination programmes across all states. Most state nomination programmes currently operate on a

1. Issue pre-invitations

2. Applicants choose to formally lodge a state nomination application

3. The state government assesses the application and delivers an outcome

three-step process.

There is also one particularly noteworthy point:Newly introduced state nomination programmes tend to have a relatively low invitation utilisation rate.Common reasons include:

1. Applicants may not yet be familiar with the specific requirements of the state nomination,making it easy to make errors on the state nomination documents,resulting in a lower application success rate.

2. For new state nominations,potential applicants tend to have a “try my luck” mentality, and “scatter-gun submissions”are relatively common.

Lots of invitations issued, but low utilisation? What’s going on

In addition to having a large quota, WA’s other notable feature is its very low utilisation rate to date. As at end of November, the overall utilisation rate was just 10.3% — 544 Subclass 190 formal nomination places used (10.17%), and 301 Subclass 491 places used (10.79%).

As explained above, the low utilisation rate is not because the state government is reluctant to issue invitations.

If we calculate the pre-invitation utilisation rate, it comes to just 845/11,079 — a mere 7.6%?!

Is WA state nomination really that unpopular? Or is the EOI effectiveness rate that low?

So what is the real situation?

Let us walk through the following points:

1. The 845 formal nominations recorded as at 30 November are not an accurate figure

This figure likely does not include the outcomes of the more than 9,000 invitations issued in October and November. The current WA EOI invitation validity period is 28 days, with a processing cycle of approximately eight weeks — a combined total of around three months. For the 9,026 applicants invited in October and November who chose to formally lodge a state nomination application, their outcomes have generally not yet been determined, and their EOIs have not been confirmed. This data has therefore not yet been reported to the Department of Home Affairs. The working assumption is that the 845 formal nominations largely correspond to the 2,053 invitations issued by WA in August and September,so if we take 845/2,053, the nomination utilisation rate exceeds 40%.This figure is far more plausible than 7.6%,though the actual ratio is likely to fall somewhere between 20–30%.

2. Is the “EOI quality” of current WA applicants genuinely low?

Here we need to look at WA’s specific state nomination requirements this year, and consider whether applicants are indeed likely to be submitting “scatter-gun” or “let’s see” applications:

A. Offshore applicants

This year’s WA requirements for offshore applicants are:

(1) At least 1 year of relevant nominated work experience in the past 10 years

(2) For Subclass 190 applicants, a local WA job offer for the nominated occupation is also required

In terms of occupations,the occupations open to WA offshore applicants this year are predominantly healthcare-related. Across the first four rounds, WA issued 1,573 Subclass 190 invitations to offshore applicants. Given the difficulty of securing employment in Australia in healthcare roles from overseas (involving medical registration and credentialling issues),the majority of these applicants would likely be unable to obtain a job offer, resulting in a low effective application rate for this cohort. Subclass 491 does not require a job offer, so its utilisation rate will be somewhat higher.

B. Interstate applicants

This year’s WA requirements for interstate applicants can be summarised as:

(1) Meeting the minimum requirements of the Department of Home Affairs (skills assessment, minimum IELTS score of 6 in four bands)

(2) Invitations issued according to WA EOI invitation scores each round

(3) Subclass 190 invitees must provide a relevant job offer for the nominated occupation

(4) Subclass 491 invitations carry no work experience or employment contract requirement

This appears straightforward, but there is one important caveat to note: WA prioritises inviting applicants whose residential address is in WA,with the address recorded in the applicant’s EOI used as the determining factor. There has been no widespread evidence to date of invitations being extended to applicants residing interstate. For applicants whose EOI address is listed as WA, the state government’s requirement is: if an applicant’s EOI address is in WA,then at the very minimum, the applicant’s place of residence on that day must actually be in WA.This is consistent with the principle of accurately completing the EOI as required. To date, WA has issued 1,304 Subclass 190 and 2,355 interstate applicant invitations, and the utilisation rate for this cohort is very low for several reasons:

(1) Applicants who have not yet moved to WA list a WA address on their EOI, then are unable to provide proof of residence after receiving an invitation.

(2) For Subclass 190 applicants,even after receiving an invitation, they are still unable to provide a job offer within 28 days.

C. Local graduates

Local graduates received a total of 4,399 invitations across the first four rounds — nearly 40% of the total. This is the basis for my view that WA graduates this year can practically migrate without breaking a sweat. Invitation scores for local graduates are also very low, and a significant proportion of invitees are already residing in WA. Of course, graduates whose residential address is not currently in WA have also not yet received invitations, but the working assumption is that local graduates have the highest invitation utilisation rate of any cohort.

To summarise:

Cohort	EOI acceptance rate	Reason
Local graduates	High	Simple and straightforward requirements
Interstate applicants (relocated to WA)	Low	Residential address issues, unable to find a job offer
Offshore applicants	Low	Job offer issues

WA’s extraordinary invitation volumes

— will they continue?

So how should we assess WA’s current extraordinary invitation volumes — will they continue, and will the quota hold up for the full year?

My view is:

1. The overall invitation utilisation rate is still genuinely low at present,with around 20–30% being the most likely figure.Even accounting for the 9,026 invitations issued in October and November, WA would only use up approximately 2,000–3,000 quota places, leaving a sizeable number remaining.

2. The more quota places remain and the lower the uptake rate, the more likely the state government is to continue issuing invitations in large volumes,and WA’s aim in securing this large quota this year is precisely to use it all up — driving growth in international students and population inflow.(We will discuss this further in relation to WA’s current study abroad, tourism, and employment landscape next time.)

3. As invitations continue to be issued and Subclass 189 — along with NSW and Victoria — enters a competitive talent-attraction mode, the additional places these states offer will attract more applicants, and competition will not ease.So WA remains a dark-horse, low-competition option, with scoresset to continue falling — potentially well below expectations.

So, a final recommendation: WA genuinely has a large stockpile of quota places it intends to use. EOI scores for popular occupations (accounting, IT, engineering) will continue to fall — if you don’t make a move this year, you’re really missing out.

Want to explore WA state nomination?

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WA Programme Manager

Canberra Office Manager

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