For as long as the special COVID period lasted,offshore Subclass 189 was suspended for just as long. Or rather — from 2018 onwards, 65 points was no longer enough to secure a Subclass 189 invitation. With every round, points kept climbing while allocations kept shrinking, until offshore applicants without Australian study points or similar bonuseshad essentially said goodbye to 189. How many people had long since stopped ticking the 189 box when submitting their EOI?
Just recently,Subclass 189 has made a clear comeback,and it has genuinely delighted a lot of people!
Let’s first summarise the22 August / 6 October / 14 Octoberthree rounds of Subclass 189 invitations, then discuss the current situation and trends for Australia’s Subclass 189.
22 August Round Summary
On 22 August, the majority of Subclass 189 invitations went tooccupations that were popular during COVID,such as:social work, teaching, nursing, and various allied health occupations.Invitation scores ranged from 65 to 85 points! To be honest, thescores in this Subclass 189 round were generally quite low— think back to the pandemic period, when so many EOI applicants with 100 points were scrambling for a Subclass 491!
Here are some of the occupations and scores that received invitations around late August — shared for reference (not an exhaustive list):
From the data above, it is clear that Subclass 189 invited not only onshore applicants but also a round of offshore applicants! The official Subclass 189 EOI report published by the Department of Home Affairs for 22 August 2022 states thatthis round issued 12,200 Subclass 189 invitations!
This confirms that Subclass 189 has begun its gradual recovery!
6 October Round Summary
Shortly after, on 6 October, the Department of Home Affairs issued another round of Subclass 189 invitations.The number of invitations in this round was also quite substantial — a total of 12,300 invitations were issued!The invitations we received in this round were also more than in the 22 August round!
In this round of Subclass 189 invitations, for onshore applicants,in-demand occupations such as early childhood education, nursing, and social work continued to be favoured, with qualifying scores remaining low — as low as 65 points.
In addition,many offshore EOIs with low scores were invited, with a significant number in civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electronics technology, and quantity surveying,most at as low as 65 points! This invitation score is something offshore applicants would not have dared dream of in recent years. It has also overturned the long-held impression that Subclass 189 offshore applicants must compete directly against onshore applicants in a purely points-driven contest.This reflects the Department of Home Affairs’ clear preference for offshore applicants!
Below are some data points from the official 6 October report, for reference
14 October Round Summary
What excited everyone was that on 14 October, Subclass 189 issued invitations again!!! The back-to-back timing was something nobody had expected!
This round had fewer invitations, and the occupations were mostlyhigh-scoring accountants and IT occupations! Invitation scores were around 100 points!
Below are some invitation data points from 14 October — for reference~
After these 3 rounds of invitations, the recovery of Subclass 189 is now confirmed!
The darkest period for migration is essentially behind us~
Analysis
Australia’s skilled migration programme has fully recovered this financial year,and for offshore applicants who went uninvited for 2 years during the pandemic,it truly marks the arrival of a migration spring! The key point isthe invitation scores are still very low!The Migration Institute of Australia (MIA)’s 35th Annual Conference, which has just concluded, also stated:
– The Department of Home Affairs is currently focusing primarily on offshore applicants, including Subclass 189 invitations and visa processing;
– Australia is currently facing a severe skills shortage,and the government genuinely wants to prioritise attracting overseas talent to fill the gaps
– Across the two rounds of Subclass 189 invitations on 22 August and 6 October, a total of 24,500 invitations were issued, of which 12,500 went to education- and healthcare-related occupations,and the remaining 12,000 invitations were clearly focused strongly on offshore applicants— with some onshore applicants also included. Subclass 189 invitations will continue to be issued going forward, and the quota situation should be more optimistic.
From this MIA conference, it is evident that the Department of Home Affairs does indeed favour offshore applicants!
In the new budget announced on 25 October,the Subclass 189 migration quota was confirmed to increase to 32,100,an increase of nearly four times compared to the previous financial year! Furthermore,
we recommend that offshore Subclass 189 applicants with 65 points contact us to submit an EOI and give it a try! There is still a chance of receiving an invitation!
At the same time, you can also see that employer-sponsored, state-nominated, and all other visa categories have risen to over 30,000, further confirming that a full recovery is underway!
That’s all! Subclass 189 and overall skilled migration — the future looks bright!
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Subclass 189 final invitations for accountants and IT! NSW Subclass 491 adds priority pathway!Click‘Original link’ — Migration Weekly — Video Edition
