Data source: Department of Home Affairs, Skilled visa processing priorities. Ministerial Direction 119 commenced 25 July 2026. Retrieved 20 August 2026. Every source below re-checked against the primary page on 31 August 2026.
This is data reporting only, not migration advice.
What changed
On 25 July 2026, Ministerial Direction 119 took effect. It sets the order in which the Department of Home Affairs processes skilled nomination and visa applications.
From that date it replaced all processing priorities under Ministerial Direction 105. It also covers the Skills in Demand (subclass 482) program, which was not included under Ministerial Direction 105. That is the first time subclass 482 nomination and visa applications have sat under a processing direction.
It does not change who is eligible. No visa pathway was removed, and no points score changed. What changed is the order of the queue, and for a large group of applicants that order moved sharply against them.
The five tiers, in the Department's own words
Applications are processed in this order:
| Tier | Which applications | Where the applicant is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "nomination and visa applications that support Australia's law enforcement or defence interests" | in Australia |
| 2 | "nomination and visa applications that support Australia's law enforcement or defence interests" | outside Australia |
| 3 | "nomination and visa applications relating to construction, healthcare, and teaching occupations" | in Australia |
| 4 | "all other nomination and visa applications" | in Australia |
| 5 | "all other nomination and visa applications" | outside Australia |
Only one occupation class has a tier of its own on both sides of the border. Law enforcement and defence gets tier 1 onshore and tier 2 offshore. Construction, healthcare and teaching gets tier 3 onshore and no offshore tier of its own, so an offshore applicant in those occupations drops into tier 5, "all other nomination and visa applications" outside Australia.
That is the part worth reading twice. An onshore applicant in any occupation at all sits in tier 4, which is above tier 5. So an onshore applicant in any occupation is processed ahead of an offshore nurse, teacher or construction worker.
Which visas this covers
Ministerial Direction 119 applies to nomination and visa applications for:
- Subclass 186: Employer Nomination Scheme
- Subclass 187: Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme
- Subclass 189: Skilled Independent
- Subclass 190: Skilled Nominated
- Subclass 191: Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional)
- Subclass 482: Skills in Demand, and the earlier Temporary Skill Shortage stream
- Subclass 489: Skilled Regional (Provisional)
- Subclass 491: Skilled Work Regional (Provisional)
- Subclass 494: Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional)
- Subclass 887: Skilled Regional
- Subclass 888: Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent)
Student visas are not covered by this direction. Subclass 500 processing priority is governed separately by Ministerial Direction 115, for applications lodged on or after 14 November 2025, and by Ministerial Direction 111 for applications lodged before that date. Ministerial Direction 115 uses a three-tier system based on the education provider's progress against its New Overseas Student Commencement allocation. The two sets of directions are unrelated.
Regional location is not one of the ranking factors
The five tiers rank applications on two things only: occupation type, and whether the applicant is inside or outside Australia. Regional location does not appear. Sponsor accreditation does not appear.
The 491 and 494 visas direct skilled migrants into regional Australia. For years, regional applications carried a processing advantage tied to that purpose. Under the current direction, an offshore state-nominated 491 applicant sits in tier 5. That is the bottom of a five-tier queue, behind every onshore applicant in every occupation.
The regional visa still exists. The regional points still apply. The processing priority that once moved it faster no longer does.
It applies to applications already lodged
The Department states the direction "applies to all on hand applications."
An offshore applicant who lodged in March 2026, before the direction, did not keep an earlier place in the queue. The re-ranking applied to their file as well.
Tasmania has already changed its program because of it
Tasmania opened its 2026-27 state nomination program on 17 August 2026 with 2,050 nomination allocations, made up of 1,250 places for the Subclass 190 and 800 for the Subclass 491. Weekly invitation rounds began on 20 August 2026.
In the same announcement, Tasmania confirmed it will issue no invitations under its Subclass 491 Overseas Skilled Occupation Profiles pathway for the 2026-27 program year. It cited the Australian Government's prioritisation of visa processing for applicants in Australia.
Overseas health and teaching professionals who gain employment with a Tasmanian health provider or school remain eligible for nomination under the Subclass 190 Overseas Applicant Health or Education Sector Job Offer pathway.
Source: Migration Tasmania, Program Update August 2026, 2026-27 Program Opening. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
What the direction does and does not do
The direction sets processing order. It does not change eligibility, does not change points, and does not cap any visa category. A tier 5 application is still assessed on its merits.
The Department has not published tier-by-tier processing timeframes for skilled visas. There is no published figure showing how much longer tier 5 takes than tier 4. Published processing times for individual subclasses appear on the Home Affairs visa processing times tool. They are not broken down by Ministerial Direction 119 tier.
The planning levels moved in the same direction
The processing direction is one of two levers. The other is the Permanent Migration Program planning levels, which the Government announced for 2026-27 on 12 May 2026.
The headline number did not move. The Permanent Program has been set at 185,000 places for three consecutive years: 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. The composition underneath it did move.
| Skilled category | 2025-26 planning level | 2026-27 planning level | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skilled Independent | 16,900 | 21,090 | +4,190 |
| Employer-Sponsored | 44,000 | 58,040 | +14,040 |
| State/Territory Nominated | 33,000 | 35,500 | +2,500 |
| Regional | 33,000 | 14,110 | -18,890 |
| Talent and Innovation | 5,300 | 3,500 | -1,800 |
| Total Skilled Migration Program | 132,200 | 132,240 | +40 |
Source: Department of Home Affairs, Permanent Migration Program planning levels. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
The Regional category, which carries the Subclass 491, fell from 33,000 places to 14,110. That is a reduction of about 57% in a program whose total skilled allocation barely moved. The places went to the Employer-Sponsored and Skilled Independent categories.
These are planning levels, not grant counts. They set how many places each category may deliver, not how many visas were issued.
The Government also stated that it will allocate 129,590 of the 185,000 places to migrants already living in Australia, plus 300 for Special Eligibility. It gave the same reason Tasmania gave: prioritising applicants who are already onshore.
So the processing order and the planning levels now point the same way. Ministerial Direction 119 changes who gets looked at first. The planning levels change how many places are there to be looked at. Regional is the category where both moved against offshore applicants at once.
Sources
- Department of Home Affairs, Skilled visa processing priorities (Ministerial Direction 119, commenced 25 July 2026): https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-processing-times/visa-processing-priorities/skilled-visa. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
- Department of Home Affairs, Student visa processing priorities (Ministerial Directions 111 and 115): https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-processing-times/visa-processing-priorities/student-visa. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
- Department of Home Affairs, Permanent Migration Program planning levels: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/migration-program-planning-levels. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
- Department of Home Affairs, State and territory nomination allocations: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/state-and-territory-nomination-allocations. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
- Migration Tasmania, Program Update August 2026, 2026-27 Program Opening: https://www.migration.tas.gov.au/news. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
StudyVisaHub is not a registered migration agent and does not provide immigration assistance. This article reports published Australian Government information and is general information only.