Skill Select EOI Invitation Results for April 4th, 2018

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Skill Select EOI Invitation Results for April 4th, 2018

On 7th May 2018, the Department of  Home Affairs has released the analysis of the 4th April 2018 “Skill Select” invitation results (Expressions of Interest – EOI) for the visa subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) and 489 (Skilled Family Sponsored). EasyMigrate’s Principal Migration Consultant Mr Cyrus Misty has reviewed these results:

Broad Overview: Once again the Dept of Immigration (now Department of Home Affairs) has released only 305 which is the same as the invitation-rounds since November 2017! Once again, not a single “Accountant” was invited! The total number of invitations for this financial year (July to April 2018) has been 14,771 so I am hoping that in the remaining financial year (May-June 2018) it is likely that there will be some increase in the number of invitations provided by the Department of Immigration… but I am beginning to lose hope.

Why only 305 invitations at each round? Why did this start happening from November 2017? To me, the “November 2017” date has significance because Dept of Immigration takes about 8 months to process SC189 / 489-Family-Sponsored applications so it would not affect their statistics till June 2018!! But this slow-down will certainly affect their statistics in the 2018-2019 financial year. So is this a deliberate attempt to slow-down the “pipeline” in preparation for some dramatic changes to be announced in July 2018? I hope I am wrong but I expect dramatic changes will be announced in July 2018!

Once again for this latest round of invitations under the subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) visa, only 300 invitations were issued, at 70 points or above. Only five invitations were issued to SC489 Family-Sponsored applicants – 2 at 80 points and 3 at 75 points. 

As I have mentioned in my previous newsletter, This is a decrease of about 2250 invitations per month compared to the October 2017 invitations,  it is about 1105 invitations less than the November 2017 round. The December 2017 round, January 2017 round, February 2017 round, March 2018 round and April 2018 round. All of these have been very low with the number of invitations, with only 610 invitations per month (305 invitations x 2 invitation-rounds each month). My estimate is that the current rounds are only at about 25-30% of the usual monthly track-record before October 2017.

Please note that these figures do not include invitations under the state-nominated subclass 190 and state-nominated “Regional” subclass 489.

For this round, most invitations (190) were to applicants who have 75 points. Another 34 invitations went to persons with 80 points. 13 invitations were given to applicants having 85 points.

63 applicants were invited at 70 points. There were NO INVITES to applicants with 60 or 65 points.

As I have mentioned before – when the number of invitations are so low, then anomalies creep in – let me explain. My estimate is that about 15% of the “invitations” usually do not get taken up (because of the applicant’s changed circumstances). These “invitations” expire after 60 days and lead to a “re-invite” in the next round of invitations (maximum two invites). When the number of invitations is reduced by DIBP to a paltry 300 (instead of the usual 2000-3000 per month) then these “re-invitation” tend to skew the results and give inaccurate statistics.

For the occupations subject to pro-rata arrangements, Accountants did not get any invitations on 4th April 2018. However, “Auditors”, “Company Secretaries” and “Corporate Treasurers” got invited at 80 points, with a cut-off date of 03-02-2018. I am hoping that Department of Immigration recommences invitations for “Accountants” soon. Accountants have been excluded (or dramatically reduced) since Oct-Nov 2017 invitation-rounds!

Electronics Engineers got invited at 70 points with the date of effect 03-12-2017, so they seem to have waited ONLY FOUR MONTHS IN THE QUEUE! Unfortunately, this is only for 70 point applicants, all others lost out.

Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers got invited at 70 points with a date of effect 23-11-2017.

Other Engineering Professionals got invited at 75 points with the date of effect 21-03-2018. The new date 219-03-2018 is quite significant – waiting in the queue is down to TWO WEEKS but only for 75-point holders! As the number of “invitations” increase over the next few rounds, this is a good sign for other engineers who are waiting at 70 points and 65 points.

ICT Professionals (Business and Systems Analysts) got invited at 75 points with visa date of effect 13-02-2018.

ICT Professionals (Software and Application Programmers) got invited at 75 points with visa date of effect 13-03-2018.

ICT Professionals (Computer Network Professionals) got invited at 75 points with visa date of effect 28-03-2018.

So for ICT professionals, there is about 1 to 2 month’s waiting in the queue, but the good news is only for 75-point holders.

04 April 2018 Invitation Round

The table below (published by Department of Immigration – now renamed Depart of Home Affairs – DoHA) shows the number of invitations issued in the SkillSelect invitation round on 04 April 2018.

Invitations issued on 4 April 2018

Visa Subclass Number
Skilled – Independent (subclass 189) 300
Skilled – Regional (Provisional) (subclass 489) 5

During 2017-18 program year the following numbers of invitations have been issued:

Invitations issued during the 2017-18 program year

Visa subclass Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June Total
Skilled – Independent (subclass 189) 2000 2000 3500 2500 1400 600 600 600 600 300 14100
Skilled – Regional Provisional (subclass 489) 210 256 93 57 10 10 10 10 10 5 671
Total 2210 2256 3593 2557 1410 610 610 610 610 305 14771

The above figures do not include invitations issued for State and Territory Government nominated visa subclasses. State and Territory Governments nominate throughout the month for specific points tested skilled migration and business innovation and investment visas.

4 April 2018 results

The following graph shows the points for clients who were invited to apply in the 4 April 2018 round.

Invitation process and cut offs

The highest ranked clients by points score are invited to apply for the relevant visa. For clients who have equal points scores, the time at which they reached their points score for that subclass (referred to as the date of effect) determines their order of invitation. Expressions of Interest with earlier dates of effect are invited before later dates.

SkillSelect first allocates available places to Skilled – Independent visas (subclass 189) and then the remaining to Skilled – Regional (Provisional) visas (subclass 489). If all places are taken up by subclass 189 visas then there will be no invitations issued for subclass 489 visas in these occupations.

Visa Subclass Points score Date of effect
Skilled – Independent (subclass 189) 70 5/12/2017  12:00 PM
Skilled – Regional Provisional (subclass 489) 75 7/10/2017  10:59 PM

Due to high levels of demand, and in keeping with previous years, the below occupation groups will be subject to pro rata arrangements to ensure availability of invitations across the program year.

Point scores and the dates of effect cut off for the pro rata occupations in the 4 April 2018 invitation round

Occupation ID Description Points score Date of effect
2211 Accountants N/A N/A
2212 Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers 80 3/02/2018  4:10 PM
2334 Electronics Engineer 70 3/12/2017  7:31 PM
2335 Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers 70 23/11/2017  3:45 PM
2339 Other Engineering Professionals 75 21/03/2018  1:15 PM
2611 ICT Business and System Analysts 75 13/02/2018  1:17 AM
2613 Software and Applications Programmers 75 13/03/2018  7:57 PM
2631 Computer Network Professionals 75 28/03/2018  2:22 PM