State Nominations Reopen for Australia

If you are applying for a skilled visa this will be much welcomed news – Australia’s state nominations are reopening!

States and Territories have received a very small number of allocations under the 491/190 visa programmes. These allocations will cover the period until the Federal Budget is released on 6 October 2020.

State Nominations Reopen

The 491/190 state nominations are currently limited to those occupations providing critical skills. The Department determine critical skills as those required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services to Australia. This also includes those supporting the delivery of services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery.

Australia’s critical skill sectors

Critical skills include those:

Providing critical or specialist medical services, including air ambulance, medical evacuations and delivering critical medical supplies
With critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services (such as in medical technology, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, engineering and mining, supply chain logistics, agricultural technology, food production, and the maritime industry)
Delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery (such as financial technology, large scale manufacturing, film and television production and emerging technology), where no Australian worker is available

Source: https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/critical-skills-and-sectors

When to apply

Applications are expected to open at the end of August 2020. You can monitor our website for details or check State Government and Territory websites.

Spaces will be extremely competitive, as those applying will far outweigh the number of spaces available. Moreover, we anticipate that onshore applicants will be given priority as strict travel bans and international flight caps remain in place.

We recommend moving forward with your skills assessment and English test in preparation for states reopening. You can also draft your EOI and collect all relevant documents to ensure you are ‘application-ready’.

If you wish to discuss your visa options you can book a consultation with our Registered Migration Agent.