Migration advisers received fresh statistics on 13 July 2026 when Work Visa Lawyers published Department of Home Affairs figures for the Skilled Independent (subclass 189) invitation round held on 4 June 2026. A total of 10,000 invitations were issued, with minimum points thresholds ranging from 75 for engineers to 85 for accountants and auditors. Health-care and teaching professions again dominated invitations, underscoring the government’s focus on critical skills. The round is the first since the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT) was indexed on 1 July, rising 3.8 % to A$79,499. Employers must now budget higher base salaries to secure talent once invited candidates lodge applications. Immigration lawyers urge companies to audit salary bands quickly; nominations lodged with outdated figures risk refusal or costly re-nomination. Notably, Home Affairs reaffirmed that the next invitation round ‘is expected by 30 September 2026’, suggesting a possible quarterly cadence rather than the ad-hoc pattern of recent years. This greater predictability is welcome news for global mobility teams planning January 2027 start dates. Demand remains intense: SkillSelect still holds more than 240,000 Expressions of Interest scoring 70 points or above. Experts say that unless the government expands planning levels in the October Budget, cut-off scores are unlikely to drop. For multinational employers, the message is clear—sponsorship pathways such as the Skills-in-Demand (subclass 482) visa remain critical stop-gaps while high-scoring permanent-residency hopefuls wait for scarce invitations.
Source: Work Visa Lawyers
