February 2026 WA State Nomination Invitation Timeline and Statistics
The February invitation round from Western Australia has finally arrived. Last Friday, 20 February, saw a scattered issue of invitations for construction trades (including interstate and overseas applicants). Given the small numbers, we didn’t compile statistics at the time — then on the evening of 23 February (still within Perth business hours), a new wave of invitations rolled out.
Invitations on 23 February were more substantial — see Figure 1 for statistics
This round focused on the four priority sectors, with no invitations yet seen for non-priority occupations. Within the priority sectors, construction and engineering occupations dominated — urban planners, civil drafters, civil engineering technicians, and the like.
Key Occupations and Distribution in This WA Round
Early Childhood Success Stories
We had multiple clients receive invitations. One we particularly want to highlight is a 75+5 points early childhood teacher (Figure 2) who relocated from NSW to WA in the middle of last year. Given her older age, it took us a fair while to persuade her to make the move. After relocating, she hit the gap between the old and new financial years, and had to wait quite some time once the new financial year began — but the invitation finally came through. 75+5 is the lowest points score we’ve seen so far; higher-scoring early childhood teachers also received invitations.
Invitation Summary
Compared with the 189 stream, where even 85 points can mean a long wait, and compared with other states’ strict work-experience requirements or higher invitation point thresholds, the pool of early childhood teachers in WA is still relatively small. Applicants should start preparing early.
WA’s official report for this round hasn’t been released yet. Both the invitation volume and the range of occupations are significant — we’ll provide a fuller analysis once the complete official report is published.
