Jump to content

Comments on Expressions of Interest for the SC190 and SC491 Skilled Independent Visas


TeeTMI

Recommended Posts

The Prime Minister has today announced that the government intends to begin opening the international borders to skilled migrants as of the 1st December 2021.  Whilst the broader details are not yet available I thought it might be useful to point out the current situation with the points required to receive an Invitation for a SC189 or SC491 (Family sponsored).  NB: the State Territory invitations operate differently.

 

For those of you that started looking at immigration to Australia during COVID-19 you may not have seen the Expression of Interest system in action and I thought I would provide a bit of an overview on points. 
Whilst only 65 points are required to submit an Expression of Interest in a SC189 or SC491(FS) there is significant competition for these visas.  When you submit an Expression of Interest it goes into a pool of would be applicants waiting for an invitation to apply for a visa.  The completion for these visas is such that the government introduced a system of periodical (e.g. monthly, quarterly) quotas of invitations.  Historically (pre-COVID), the order in which invitations were made to individuals who had submitted an Expression of Interest was first to those with the Highest number of points in the EOI Pool and then where there were more individuals than the quota of places to those who had submitted an Expression of Interest with the earliest date.    
NB: in addition to this some occupations are highly popular and in order that they are not overrepresented in the invitation these are offered on a Pro-rata basis and often require a higher points score. 

 
During COVID-19 whilst the borders were closed SC189 invitations were limited, mainly to onshore visa applicants in specific priority/critical occupations.  The numbers of invitations issued in each round was much reduced from the normal numbers seen.  

On 29 Oct 2021

Invitations were made to SC189 Expressions of Interest with  90+ points (selected priority/onshore EOI's submitted prior to 11/2020)

Invitations were made to SC491 (Family Sponsored) Expressions of Interest with  80+ points (selected priority/onshore EOI's submitted prior to 04/2020)

 

Historically (pre-COVID) competition had become strong and the number of points required to receive an invitation for a SC189 visa:

  • between July to December 2017 between 65 and 75 points were required
  • between Jan to Dec 2018 holders with EOIs of 70 and 75 points
  • 11 July 2019 - 80+ points (EOI's submitted prior to 13/05/2019)
  • 11 Aug 2019 - 85+ points (EOI's submitted prior to 01/08/2019)
  • 11 Dec 2019 - 95+ points (EOI's submitted prior to 30/11/2019)
  • 10 Jan 2020 - 90+ points (EOI's submitted prior to 02/10/2019)
  • 11 Feb 2020 - 90+ points (EOI's submitted prior to 16/11/2019)
  • 13 Mar 2020 - 90+ points (EOI's submitted prior to 29/01/2020)
  • 11 Apr 2020 - 95+ points (EOI's submitted prior to 25/03/2020)

 

It is not known what the required points score will be to obtain an invitation once Invitations for these visas get back to normal - however given the competition pre-COVID it is wise to try to obtain as high a points score as you can to make yourself as competitive as possible.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...