The Department of Home Affairs has released its latest visa processing time reference in early December as expected — the final update of 2025.
Updated: Three States
Holiday Schedules
Adding Queensland, Victoria and South Australia，For the other states, the Department, and skills assessment bodies, see:End-of-Year Holidays Are Here | Holiday Schedule Summary: Department of Home Affairs, State Governments & Skills Assessment Bodies — Save for Reference!
Victoria: Shutdown from 22 December to 9 January (covering the surrounding weekends). Responses will slow and throughput will drop during this period.
Queensland: Standard shutdown runs from 25 December to 1 January. If your documents or visa expire and you need a formal nomination pre-invitation before 5 January, contact the state government as soon as possible. Queensland issued a small invitation round on 15 December — recipients of those pre-invitations can lodge nomination materials by 9 January.
South Australia: Office closes at 12 noon on 24 December and reopens at 9 am on 2 January. ROIs and formal nomination materials can still be lodged during this period. If you need to contact the state government, please do so before the holiday.
Skilled Migration
189
50% took 10 months, one month slower; 90% took 11 months, one month slower.
Subclass 189 applications are processed in lodgement order. The bulk of the December 2024 and November 2024 cohort is largely cleared, and we are already seeing many August 2025 invitees who have lodged now in processing.
190
50% took 17 months, two months faster.
90% took 27 months, one month slower.
491
50% took 21 months, one month slower.
90% took 28 months, one month slower.
The bulk of 190 and 491 processing in October was still for applications lodged in June–July 2023, but processing is not strictly in lodgement order — applications from 2024 and even early 2025 are being picked up out of sequence.
491 to 191
50% took 7 months, same as before.
90% took 15 months, one month slower.
Subclass 191 grants reached 12,000 in the first four months of the 2025–26 financial year, but volumes gradually dropped from July to October — by October they were below 1,000. Processing has not stalled completely, but we are no longer seeing the concentrated grant waves of earlier in the year. The dual-track approach also continues: we are seeing both late-2024 applications and early-2025 applications being processed.
For more on 189 / 191 / 190 / 491 processing, see our earlier FOI-based data:Latest Skilled Migration Visa Data! 190 / 491 Grants Up Sharply, 191 Tops 12,000 Grants in Four Months, August-Round 189 Acceptance Near 70%!
887
50% took 7 months, three months faster.
90% took 20 months, two months slower.
Subclass 887 is not as slow as the official figures suggest — most grants currently come through in 3–4 months, barring extreme cases. The 887 backlog and application volume are both low, so the data can be skewed by outliers.
858GTI
50% took 18 months, eight months slower.
90% took 25 months, seven months slower.
Subclass 858 is currently processing applications lodged around mid-2024.
858NIV
The Department has now also released grant data for the new 858 NIV (National Innovation Visa) stream.
50% took 4 months.
90% took 6 months.
The NIV stream really is fast — this week we had a client invited in June, lodged in August, with the whole family granted in mid-December.
Employer-Sponsored
482 SID core skills stream-visa
50% took 4 months, one month slower.
90% took 7 months, one month slower.
482 SID Nomination
50% took 81 days, 25 days slower.
90% took 7 months, one month slower.
482 SID has slowed recently and is broadly processing applications lodged around mid-2025.
186DE
50% took 8 months, seven months faster.
90% took 19 months, one month slower.
186TRT
50% took 12 months, one month faster.
90% took 19 months, unchanged.
Subclass 186 overall is speeding up, now processing around mid-2024. DE and TRT streams are running at similar speeds, with DE slightly faster. A recent pattern: once the nomination is approved the visa follows quickly, and regional positions are approved very fast — we have had 186 DE cases with both nomination and visa granted within a year.
494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional
50% took 8 months, one month slower.
90% took 12 months, one month faster.
407 Training Visa
50% took 9 months, unchanged.
90% took 11 months, one month faster.
Subclass 407 has not had many grants — processing is still broadly around mid-2024.
Family Stream
Parent Migration
Document requests for Parent visa 143 & 864 applications have been moving quickly. When we updated in October, progress was at late June 2018;as of early December, it has already moved forward to early August 2018,and document-request notifications have been coming through reasonably fast recently.
101 Child Visa
50% took 22 months, unchanged.
90% took 28 months, three months faster.
Partner Stream
820 Stage
50% took 16 months, unchanged.
90% took 23 months, three months slower.
801 Stage
50% took 9 months, one month slower.
90% took 22 months, four months faster.
309 Stage
50% took 14 months, same as last update.
90% took 24 months, two months faster.
100 Stage
50% took 10 months, unchanged.
90% took 21 months, unchanged.
Partner visa processing overall is tracking normally. The TR stage has moved into mid-to-late 2024 and slowed slightly recently; the PR stage has moved into early 2025 and has actually been granting faster lately. The Partner visa backlog as at 30 June sat at 95,000. Year on year, the Department processed fewer Partner applications last year — they indicated more time was spent clearing older and more complex cases.
Whichever visa you are applying for, lodge sooner rather than later — if you meet the criteria, submit as quickly as possible and do not delay a day. Contact us if you need help!
Newstarsec Group Introduction Video
(filmed in 2021)
The Formula for Calculating 189 Per-Occupation Invitation Numbers Revealed for the First Time! Canberra Issues a New Round; State-Nominated Visa Processing Picks Up Speed!
Latest Skilled Migration Visa Data! 190 / 491 Grants Up Sharply, 191 Tops 12,000 in Four Months
189 Issues 10,000 Invitations | Round-Specific Invitation Numbers for the “Big Four” and Other Common Occupations, With Estimate Table!
Migration Information Group
2025
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Step 2: After adding,
follow the Newstarsec WeChat official account
and send [search + number only] in the chat box to view articles
No. 01— Australia’s most popular skilled migration pathways: 189, 190, 491
No. 02— Work-to-migration in one step: employer-sponsored 482, 186, 494
No. 03— Study first, migrate later: recommended majors and courses
No. 04— High school / Gaokao / undergraduate study pathways
No. 05— Essential for student migrants: the 485 Temporary Graduate visa
No. 06— Plan immediately after PR: parent migration and visas
No. 07— Master of Marriage: partner migration
No. 08— Pivot to Hong Kong: Quality Migrant and Professionals schemes
No. 09— A must for parents / relatives / friends visiting: the 600 visa
No. 10— Weekly updates on grants / invitations / skills assessments and success stories
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