As of 1 July 2018, the Department of Home Affairs is putting up the points to be eligible for a skilled visa subclasses 189, 190 and 489 to 65 points from 60 points previously. What does this mean?
Over the immigration year from July 2017 to June 2018, the number of invitations issued for the skilled migration visas 189 and 489 were substantially reduced from the previous years. And for these two visas, almost no one was invited with less than 70 points throughout the year as there was a lot of people queued in the system with high points. This means that although eligibility for the 189 and 489 relative sponsorship visas may have been at 60 points, but no one under 70 points was invited.
So, the new eligibility of 65 points will not make much difference to those people applying under the skilled migration 189 and 489 relative sponsorship streams.
However, there were a lot of people over the immigration year July 2017 to June 2018 that could only reach 55 points on their own and 60 with state nomination and were invited through the state nomination 190 pathway. This now means that anyone sitting on 55 points may only be eligible for regional sponsorship or they will have to find a way to increase their points score.
For anyone who is sitting on 50 points and was going to apply for the 489 regional sponsorship, these new changes will significantly affect your chances of getting an invitation as you will no longer meet the minimum eligibility criteria. If this is you, you will need to find another 5 points to reach the minimum eligibility for the visa.
It is still very competitive out there and these changes only take effect from 1 July 2018, so if you were lucky enough to receive an invitation recently with only 60 points, congratulations, as you would have been one of the last.
Keep up to date with further changes implemented by the Department of Home Affairs by bookmarking our site and checking in every now and then to see if there is anything new.
If you are not sure how these new changes affect you and you are worried about your future in Australia, get in touch with Get Your Visa on 08-9388-9193 and we will assess your circumstances, qualifications and experience to check to see if you are still on the right path and give you peace of mind.
