Skilled worker seeks permanent residence through the points test

You lodge an expression of interest and wait to be invited. If your score is below the cut-off you are not refused — you simply never hear. There is no decision, no queue position, no review, and the occupation list is republished every year.

migrationAn applicant lodging an expression of interest for a points-tested skilled visa without an employer sponsor draft compare across jurisdictions

629 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

9 discrete steps
across 3 bodies

81% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

0 days saved by concurrency
vs. 629 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

queue	510d	Waiting behind unrelated work in a backlog.
applicant	74d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.
third party	45d	Waiting on an external body outside the regulator's control.
assessment	0d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.

510 of 629 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: A skilled worker seeks permanent residence through the points-tested program rather than employer sponsorship.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Obtain a skills assessment assessment Assessment of qualifications and experience against the nominated occupation.	Skills assessing authority	queue	—	90 estimate	—
2	Sit an English language test certification after Obtain a skills assessment 494d slack	—	third party	—	45 estimate	—
3	Lodge an expression of interest in SkillSelect application Not a visa application. A statement of claims against the points test, which may or may not attract an invitation. after Sit an English language test 480d slack	Department of Home Affairs	applicant	—	14 published	—
4	Wait to be invited registration Invitations are issued in rounds, to the highest scores first, until the allocation is used. after Lodge an expression of interest in SkillSelect 240d slack	Department of Home Affairs	queue	—	240 reported	—
5	Seek state or territory nomination referral only if triggered An alternative route: nomination by a state or territory against its own list and criteria. Triggered when: The applicant seeks a state-nominated visa rather than, or as well as, an independent one. after Lodge an expression of interest in SkillSelect 360d slack	State and territory skilled migration nomination	queue	—	120 reported	—
6	Invitation issued decision after Wait to be invited 240d slack	Department of Home Affairs	assessment	—	0 estimate	—
7	Lodge the visa application application Sixty days from invitation to lodge, with health, character and evidence of all claimed points. after Invitation issued 180d slack	Department of Home Affairs	applicant	—	60 estimate	Migration Act 1958 (Cth)
8	Visa decision decision after Lodge the visa application	Department of Home Affairs	queue	—	180 estimate	Migration Act 1958 (Cth)
9	The occupation list is republished decision only if triggered Occupation lists are republished each program year, and occupations move between them. Triggered when: The applicant is still waiting when the program year turns over. after Lodge an expression of interest in SkillSelect 115d slack	Department of Home Affairs	statutory	—	365 reported	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Machine-flagged questions

These are produced automatically from the dependency graph. They are questions for a practitioner, not findings. Each one needs a person who has run this process to say whether the constraint is real.

Steps that may not need to wait

Seek state or territory nomination is a referral queued behind work by a different body. Does it consume that body's output, or is it merely sequenced that way by habit?

Proposed changes

No decision, no refusal, no review — you simply are not invited digitise
A points-tested applicant pays for a skills assessment and an English test, lodges an expression of interest, and waits. If their score is below the cut-off, nothing happens — ever. There is no decision, so there is nothing to be told, appealed or reviewed.
The list is republished every year, and the person waiting finds out afterwards threshold
Occupation lists are republished each program year. A person who paid for a skills assessment against an occupation, lodged, and is waiting for an invitation can find their occupation has moved — with no decision made about them and no notification that anything changed.

Sources

Department of Home Affairs SkillSelect: an expression of interest is not a visa application; invitation determines whether a visa application may be made
SkillSelect invitation round of 4 June 2026: 10,000 invitations issued, all subclass 189; minimum invitation scores ranging from 65 to 100 points; tie-break date 24 April 2026, with earlier expressions of interest prioritised at equal scores; next round expected by 30 September 2026
2026-27 Migration Program planning levels: 185,000 total, comprising 132,240 skilled, 52,460 family and 300 special eligibility places; Skilled Independent rising from 16,900 to 21,090 places; employer-sponsored 58,040; state and territory nominated 35,500
Occupation lists republished each program year

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/au-points-tested-migration.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.