Late on 23 June, the Department of Home Affairs updated its SkillSelect invitation-round page, revealing that the 4 June round issued 10,000 invitations for the flagship Skilled-Independent (Subclass 189) visa—matching the record August 2025 mega-round. The minimum cut-off stayed at 65 points for high-priority trades such as bricklaying but soared to 95-plus for biotech and actuarial roles, illustrating the widening gulf in demand. State and territory nomination figures, also refreshed on the page, show Victoria (2,649) and New South Wales (2,082) leading the 190-visa league table for the 2025-26 program year to 31 May, while Western Australia surged in regional 491 nominations.
![Home Affairs Releases Mid-Year SkillSelect Data—10,000 Subclass 189 Invites in June Round]()
VisaHQ’s dedicated Australia desk can help employers and applicants navigate exactly these pathways, from optimising SkillSelect Expressions of Interest to coordinating state-nomination submissions, all through an intuitive online portal. Explore the full range of migration-support services at https://www.visahq.com/australia/
Home Affairs quietly signalled that the next federal invitation round may not occur until 30 September, giving states more space to meet local skills shortages before Canberra’s next intervention. For employers, the data confirm that federal policy remains “onshore-first”—nearly all of the 132,000 skilled places announced in the May budget are being steered toward people already living and working in Australia. Global mobility managers should therefore prioritise in-country transfers or graduate hires who can convert to permanent residence faster, rather than relying on offshore recruitment pools that face longer processing queues. Prospective migrants need to act strategically: lodging Expressions of Interest across multiple subclasses, maximising English-language points and seeking state nomination wherever possible. Competition for independent seats in popular professional occupations is likely to intensify through the rest of 2026. Agents predict that the next round’s engineering and ICT scores could crack triple digits unless overall planning levels are lifted in the October Migration Update.
VisaHQ’s dedicated Australia desk can help employers and applicants navigate exactly these pathways, from optimising SkillSelect Expressions of Interest to coordinating state-nomination submissions, all through an intuitive online portal. Explore the full range of migration-support services at https://www.visahq.com/australia/
Home Affairs quietly signalled that the next federal invitation round may not occur until 30 September, giving states more space to meet local skills shortages before Canberra’s next intervention. For employers, the data confirm that federal policy remains “onshore-first”—nearly all of the 132,000 skilled places announced in the May budget are being steered toward people already living and working in Australia. Global mobility managers should therefore prioritise in-country transfers or graduate hires who can convert to permanent residence faster, rather than relying on offshore recruitment pools that face longer processing queues. Prospective migrants need to act strategically: lodging Expressions of Interest across multiple subclasses, maximising English-language points and seeking state nomination wherever possible. Competition for independent seats in popular professional occupations is likely to intensify through the rest of 2026. Agents predict that the next round’s engineering and ICT scores could crack triple digits unless overall planning levels are lifted in the October Migration Update.
