189, 190 & 491 Invitation Rounds: Latest News, Occupations & Points
Emigrate Lawyers · Skilled migration news desk
Australia’s skilled visa invitation rounds, in one place.
Follow subclass 189, 190 and 491 developments across every state and territory. Find the latest verified updates first, then explore historical rounds, occupation scores and what the figures mean for your next step.
Latest invitation news
Newest dated updates appear first. A program opening, a nomination invitation and a visa invitation are different events. Our labels identify which event has been reported.
1 October 2026 · Tasmania · Confirmed round
Tasmania issues 72 nomination invitations
The latest Tasmanian round invited 38 subclass 190 applicants and 34 subclass 491 applicants. The published lowest selection scores were 331 and 71 respectively. These are Tasmanian selection scores, not SkillSelect points.
1 October 2026 check · ACT · Tentative timetable
ACT lists the week of 12 October for its next round
The ACT’s published 2026–27 timetable begins with the week starting 12 October 2026. Later tentative weeks start 25 January, 22 March and 24 May 2027. These dates may change; they are not results of completed rounds.
1 October 2026 check · Subclass 189 · Verification alert
Next-round date: await a consistent official update
Indexed Home Affairs notices reviewed during this update showed conflicting expected dates: 30 September and 31 October 2026. We have not verified a new completed September round. The latest historical result located for this hub is 4 June 2026, with 10,000 subclass 189 invitations. An expected date must not be treated as proof that invitations were issued.
Check Home Affairs invitation rounds · 189 coverage and evidence notes
1 October 2026 check · State program notices
Victoria, Queensland and NSW 190 display closure notices
Victoria says its 2025–26 places are filled and new-program information will follow. Queensland says its 2025–26 ROI window is closed and it is awaiting future settings. NSW’s 190 page also displays a closure notice. These statements do not establish a common reopening date.
21 August 2026 · Northern Territory · Program opening
NT opens applications for the new program year
The NT’s official notice says applications opened for all onshore and selected offshore streams on 21 August 2026, with updated criteria. Opening an application pathway is not an announcement of an occupation cut-off or invitation-volume ranking.
What do these results mean for your circumstances?
Your occupation, evidence, residence, employment and visa position matter alongside your score. Ask Emigrate Lawyers to assess your skilled migration options.
190 and 491: all states and territories
This tracker records what could be verified on the check date. “Not verified” means we could not establish a current result from the material available; it does not mean no invitations occurred. Older rounds remain historical even where newer statistics have not been released.
New South Wales invitation rounds
Latest check: the 190 page displays a closure notice while next-year settings are reviewed. NSW says its 190 round dates are not announced in advance. We have not verified a current occupation-by-occupation invitation table or top-ten ranking.
NSW 491 has distinct pathways, including an invitation pathway and pathways allowing eligible applicants to apply directly. Do not apply a 190 closure notice or an individual applicant’s score to every 491 pathway. Confirm the notice for your particular pathway.
Victoria invitation rounds
Latest check: the official homepage says 2025–26 is closed with all places filled. Information about 2026–27 is to follow. An older program page still appearing in search should not override the closure notice.
Victoria uses an EOI and a separate Registration of Interest. No verified current round-level top-ten occupation or minimum-score table was located in this review. A priority-sector list describes selection priorities; it is not evidence that every listed occupation has received an invitation.
Queensland invitation rounds
Latest check: Migration Queensland’s ROI page says the 2025–26 window is closed and available places were filled. It is awaiting advice on future settings. Already-submitted invited applications are addressed separately in that notice.
No current official occupation-by-occupation invitation score table was verified here. An occupation’s eligibility requirements must not be presented as the score of the last applicant invited. We track reopening notices, stream changes and published results as separate updates.
Western Australia invitation rounds
Latest check: current round details could not be verified from the official program page during this review. An indexed May 2026 priority-trades results document was located, but its file could not be retrieved. September activity reported elsewhere is not reproduced as a confirmed official round.
WA’s “last invited” publications should be read with their stream, residence category, ranking order and EOI date. A points figure detached from these details can mislead. The WA occupation table will be expanded when the official document is accessible and its columns can be checked.
Migration WA program and round documents · Migration WA news
South Australia invitation rounds
Verified historical round: 21 May 2026 — 161 subclass 190 and 77 subclass 491 invitations, totalling 238. The release reports ANZSCO sub-major groups rather than individual occupations or point cut-offs. A newer official round was not verified in this review.
See the ranked group table below. Do not read a group total as the number of invitations for one occupation within that group.
Tasmania invitation rounds
Verified round: 1 October 2026. The 190 total comprises seven Gold and 31 Green invitations; the 491 total comprises 34 further invitations with no Gold invitations. The published ROI pools after the round were 900 for 190 and 591 for 491.
Migration Tasmania also reports assessment thresholds separately. Those figures must not be substituted for a particular round’s invitation score. No occupation-volume top ten is supplied in this release.
Australian Capital Territory invitation rounds
Verified historical round: 11 June 2026. The ACT page lists 66 Canberra-resident critical-skill 190 invitations, three small-business-owner 190 invitations and doctorate-stream invitations of eight for 190 and five for 491. The listed overseas critical-skill categories received zero.
Occupation rankings are in the ACT’s separate PDF. The figures below are Canberra Matrix scores, not federal EOI scores. The PDF describes minimum rankings and warns that a ranking does not guarantee an invitation.
Northern Territory nomination updates
Latest verified opening: 21 August 2026 for all onshore and selected offshore streams. The NT states it has received its full 2026–27 allocation. Applicants must check the updated criteria for their stream.
No public round-level occupation ranking or last-invited points table was verified in this review. An open nomination program does not establish how quickly an individual application will be decided. The NT specifically says nomination before a visa deadline cannot be guaranteed.
Subclass 189 invitation rounds
The federal 189 round is separate from state nomination. Home Affairs also reports family-sponsored 491 invitations through its federal round publications; that stream must not be combined with state-nominated 491 results.
Historical baseline: 4 June 2026, 10,000 subclass 189 invitations. This total was located in indexed official Home Affairs material. The live page’s results table did not load fully during verification, so we have not treated an expected September date as a completed round.
For the ten-occupation historical snapshot below, the June score figures were checked against a published secondary transcription by Work Visa Lawyers; they are labelled accordingly. They are not a ranking by invitation volume and do not predict the next round.
Home Affairs results · Official previous-round archive · Secondary transcription used for June occupation scores
Ten-occupation snapshots: points in previous rounds
189: ten selected occupations, 4 June 2026
Historical points snapshot, selected across trades, health, education and professional work. Source status: secondary transcription of the June results; Carpenter at 65 was also visible in indexed official material. Ordered by points, then for readability within ties.
| ANZSCO | Occupation | Reported 189 points |
|---|---|---|
| 331111 | Bricklayer | 65 |
| 331212 | Carpenter | 65 |
| 341111 | Electrician (General) | 65 |
| 334111 | Plumber (General) | 65 |
| 254412 | Registered Nurse (Aged Care) | 75 |
| 241411 | Secondary School Teacher | 75 |
| 272511 | Social Worker | 75 |
| 133111 | Construction Project Manager | 80 |
| 271311 | Solicitor | 80 |
| 261211 | Multimedia Specialist | 95 |
These are points reported for that round, not a current eligibility assessment or a promise of selection. Nursing specialisations are separate occupations; do not substitute the aged-care score for every nursing code.
ACT: ten selected occupation groups, 11 June 2026
Official PDF snapshot for Canberra residents, subclass 190, ordered by ANZSCO group. The source does not provide occupation-level invitation counts. These are minimum Matrix rankings, not a top-ten volume list.
| ANZSCO group | Occupation group | ACT Matrix ranking |
|---|---|---|
| 1341 | Child Care Centre Managers | 65 |
| 2332 | Civil Engineering Professionals | 110 |
| 2412 | Primary School Teachers | 65 |
| 2414 | Secondary School Teachers | 70 |
| 2544 | Registered Nurses | 105; date shown: 2 March 2026 |
| 2613 | Software and Applications Programmers | 130 |
| 2725 | Social Workers | 65 |
| 3312 | Carpenters and Joiners | 100 |
| 3411 | Electricians | 90 |
| 3513 | Chefs | 125 |
The date accompanying Registered Nurses is retained from the PDF. Other streams and overseas applicants have separate columns; these values must not be transferred to them. Read the full official ranking and its notes.
South Australia: highest-volume invitation groups
Round: 21 May 2026. Ranked by combined 190 and 491 invitations. These are broad ANZSCO sub-major groups, not individual occupations. All groups tied at the top-ten boundary are included, giving 11 rows. The source does not publish points for these groups.
| Rank | ANZSCO group (short label) | 190 | 491 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 · Health | 59 | 7 | 66 |
| 2 | 23 · Design, engineering, science & transport | 31 | 10 | 41 |
| 3 | 32 · Automotive & engineering trades | 8 | 21 | 29 |
| 4 | 24 · Education | 20 | 2 | 22 |
| 5 | 33 · Construction trades | 11 | 10 | 21 |
| 6 | 34 · Electrotechnology & telecommunications trades | 18 | 1 | 19 |
| 7 | 41 · Health & welfare support | 0 | 9 | 9 |
| 8 | 27 · Legal, social & welfare | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| =9 | 22 · Business, HR & marketing | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| =9 | 26 · ICT | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| =9 | 31 · Engineering, ICT & science technicians | 2 | 4 | 6 |
Source: South Australian Government · Group labels shortened for readability. No individual occupation ranking can be inferred from this table.
Previous-round archive
The archive preserves the event date. A recent website check does not make an older round new.
| Event date | Jurisdiction / stream | Result or event |
|---|---|---|
| 1 October 2026 | Tasmania 190 / 491 | 38 / 34 nomination invitations |
| 21 August 2026 | NT nomination | Program opening; not an invitation round |
| 11 June 2026 | ACT | Historical round; see categories and Matrix scores above |
| 4 June 2026 | Federal 189 | 10,000 invitations; occupation snapshot above |
| 21 May 2026 | South Australia 190 / 491 | 161 / 77 nomination invitations |
Future confirmed rounds will be added above older entries, with their source and score system. Corrections will identify the affected entry rather than silently relabelling an old figure as current.
How to read invitation points without being misled
Compare the same score system
A number is useful only when you know what it measures. SkillSelect points, Canberra Matrix rankings and Tasmanian selection scores are different systems. They cannot be ranked against one another to decide which state is “easiest”. A Tasmanian score of 331 is not a federal points-test score.
Separate eligibility from selection
A published minimum eligibility requirement tells you whether you may enter a pathway. A historical invitation score records a past selection outcome. Neither establishes that an applicant will receive the next invitation. The relevant stream, residence category, occupation, evidence and program settings all need to be considered.
Separate invitations, nominations and grants
An invitation to seek state nomination is an opportunity to submit a nomination application. Nomination approval and a subsequent visa invitation are further steps. A visa grant is a separate decision. Similarly, annual nomination allocations, program planning levels and monthly nomination approvals should not be described as invitations issued in a round.
Keep the round date and source date
A results page may be updated weeks after the event. Our archive uses the round date; the news feed also identifies when a status was checked. Where a source publishes “less than five”, that should remain suppressed rather than be converted into an exact count.
What to prepare while waiting for an invitation
- Audit your claims. Match your claimed qualifications and employment to the documents you can provide. Resolve discrepancies before an invitation arrives.
- Check your occupation. Record the exact code and assessment outcome, rather than relying on a similar job title.
- Review the correct pathway. Check both the visa and state criteria, including residence, employment and any ROI requirements.
- Monitor document validity. Keep track of English evidence, skills assessments and changes to your circumstances.
- Keep a separate visa-expiry plan. Do not assume an invitation will arrive before your current visa expires.
- Assess alternatives. Compare realistic options on their requirements and evidence, rather than choosing solely from last round’s lowest score.
Read our general skilled migration guide, skilled occupation list guide and individual migration services.
Invitation round questions
Which state is inviting at the lowest points?
There is no reliable single answer across all states. Published scores may use different systems and apply to different streams, occupations or residence categories. Compare like-for-like results, then check whether you meet that pathway’s criteria.
Are the ten occupations above the most invited in Australia?
No. The 189 and ACT tables are selected score snapshots. SA publishes group-level volumes, which support a ranked group table. We will only describe individual occupations as the most invited where published counts support that claim.
Does an occupation missing from a table mean it received no invitations?
No. A selected table is not exhaustive. “Not published”, “not verified” and “zero” mean different things. Zero should only be used when the relevant source expressly reports zero for that category.
Do state 190 and 491 rounds follow the 189 timetable?
No. Home Affairs’ federal round publications and state nomination processes are separate. Always check the relevant state or territory program as well as SkillSelect.
Can I rely on scores posted in social-media groups?
Individual reports can signal activity but may omit nomination points, residence status, stream details or evidence. They cannot establish an official minimum score or total invitation count. This hub labels secondary material and does not treat anonymous reports as confirmed results.
How often is this hub checked?
Daily source checks are scheduled to identify new results, openings, closures and corrections. Verified material changes are added to this hub. The visible “last checked” date records the most recent completed review, not a guarantee of real-time coverage. Government publication delays and access issues can affect the available information.
Will matching a previous score guarantee an invitation?
No. A past score is a historical observation. Selection settings, available places and the applicant pool may change. An assessment should consider your entire circumstances and the evidence supporting your claims.
Sources and update standards
We prioritise Home Affairs and the eight state and territory migration authorities. Each substantive update should carry an event date, source link and a clear status: confirmed result, tentative schedule, program notice, historical result or unverified information. Secondary transcriptions are identified where used.
Occupation-volume rankings require comparable counts. Score snapshots retain the jurisdiction, subclass, stream and score type. We do not manufacture missing cut-offs, turn an occupation list into an invitation list, or claim a complete national top ten from partial data.
General information: this hub is a news and research resource, not personal legal advice. Requirements and selection practices can change. Historical results do not guarantee nomination, invitation or visa grant.
Build your next step around your own circumstances.
Emigrate Lawyers can help you understand your evidence, nomination options and the practical implications of invitation updates.
Madhab Kharel
Principal Lawyer & Director, Emigrate Lawyers
Madhab Kharel is the Principal Lawyer and Director of Emigrate Lawyers, an Australian law firm assisting clients across Australia and internationally. His migration law practice includes Partner Visas, Protection Visas, visa refusals and cancellations, Administrative Review Tribunal matters, health and character issues, Schedule 3, Section 48, sponsorship limitations and employer-sponsored migration. He regularly advises clients with complex immigration histories and matters requiring detailed legal submissions and evidence strategy.
