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 many long-awaited non-priority occupations that have struggled to attract invitations in other states.
In more detail
- A wider spread of occupations was invited. Previous rounds concentrated heavily on priority and health-related occupations; this round’s occupational restrictions were less strict, and we saw more IT invitations as well as marketing, advertising and accounting invitations — fields that in some states cannot even be submitted. The common thread for these applicants is long-term relevant work experience in Victoria.
- The vast majority of invitees were onshore, and all required relevant employment. At least half the invitees had the combined package of relevant work plus work experience — including our own clients, many of whom have been working in Victoria for an extended period.
- Most invitations were for the Subclass 190; Victoria’s 491 quota for this year is limited to begin with, at only 700 places.
As at the end of November 2025, Victoria still had 2,341 Subclass 190 places and 487 Subclass 491 places remaining. Even after accounting for December’s round and this latest round, the quota is still relatively ample, enough to sustain roughly one round per month.
Among all state nominations this year, Victoria is the one state that has kept its full occupation list open for submission, setting only priority-sector preferences on top.
For applicants who plan to stay in the state, whatever your occupation, this year should bring an opportunity — and with sufficient quota still in play, there may even be some room for offshore candidates.
Now over to New South Wales (image 2)
- Compared with Victoria, NSW issued a smaller number of invitations in this round.
- Invitations were concentrated on priority occupations such as Medical Radiation Therapist and Speech Pathologist.
- Early Childhood (Pre-primary School) Teachers and IT roles such as Software Engineer and Systems Analyst were also invited, but at very high scores — Systems Analyst in particular required 105+5, meaning the base score alone is already top of the field for that profession.
- NSW remains as competitive as ever, continuing to favour high-scoring applicants whose occupations align closely with state priorities.
In the 2025–26 financial year, state quotas were only finalised late in the cycle, and states were cautious with invitations before the full allocations came through. The Christmas and New Year break also cut into the window, so invitation volumes in the first half of the 2025–26 financial year were relatively low. Just past the midpoint of January 2026, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have all now released their first invitation rounds of 2026 — and in the months ahead we should expect both more frequent rounds and larger numbers from every state.
