The Department of Home Affairs has announced that invitations to apply for skilled visas will now be issued once a month, rather than every two weeks.

Under the points test skilled migration program in Australia those who want to move to Australia and who have a skilled occupation submit an Expression of Interest, after having secured a migration skills assessment.

Having lodged an EoI for the points tested subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) and 489 (Skilled – Family Sponsored) pathways invitations are issued to intending migrants based on the points claimed, the occupation nominated, and the date the EoI was submitted.

In so doing the Australian Government can limit visas to those with the most points – who tend to be those with most experience and who are in their late 20s/early 30s – and to those who have good English language skills.

This is known as the SkillSelect model.

Since the SkillSelect model was introduced EoIs have been issued every two weeks.

The Department of Home Affairs has announced today that EoIs will be issued on the 11th of each month:

SkillSelect invitation rounds for Skilled – Independent (subclass 189) and Skilled – Regional Provisional (subclass 489) will occur once each month, on the 11th day of each month, effective 11 August 2018.

There is no change to the overall number of invitations provided each month.