Skill Select Results February 7th, 2018

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Skill Select Results February 7th, 2018

The Department of Immigration has released the analysis of the 7th February 2018 round results (Expressions of Interest) for the visa subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) and 489 (Skilled Family Sponsored). EasyMigrate’s Principal Migration Consultant Mr Cyrus Mistry has reviewed these results:

Broad Overview: Once again, the number of invitations provided by the Dept of Immigration is very low and disappointing.  – only 305 which is the same as the last round of invitations! Once again, not a single “Accountant” was invited! The total number of invitations for this financial year (July to February) has been 13,551 so I expect that in the remaining financial year (Feb-June 2018) there is likely to be some increase in the number of invitations provided by the Department of Immigration.

Once again for this latest round of invitations under the subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) visa, only 300 invitations were issued. Only 5 invitations under the subclass 489 (Skilled Family Sponsored) visa were issued, at 80 points. This is a decrease of about 2250 invitations per month compared to the October 2017 invitations,  1105 invitations less than the November 2017 round and 305 invitations less than the December 2017 round (December was a poor month for invitations anyway, with only 610 invitations offered). Please note that these figures do not include invitations under the state-nominated subclass SC190 and state-nominated SC489.

For this round, most invitations (216) were to applicants who have 75 points. Another 31 invitations went to persons with 70 points.  There were NO INVITES to applicants with 60 or 65 points. 44 invites were to applicants on 80 points with 9 invitations going to applicants having 85 points or more.

I wish to highlight once again 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. I wonder when DIBP will wake up to this reality and make necessary adjustments in their reporting.

For the occupations subject to pro-rata arrangements, Accountants did not get any invitations. I am hoping that DIBP recommences invitations for “Accountants” soon. Accountants have been excluded from some Oct-Nov 2017 rounds also!

Electronics Engineers got invited at 70 points with the date of effect 25-10-2017, so they seem to have about four months waiting in the queue.

Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers got invited at 70 points with date of effect 31-10-2017, this date has gone “backward” since the last invitation and is probably because of the “invitations” that do not get taken up and re-appear as a “re-invite” in subsequent rounds (see my paragraph above regarding this issue).

Other Engineering Professionals got invited at 75 points with the date of effect 31-01-2018. In the last round, this date was a “2016” date and I had mentioned that it seems to be an aberration – I was right. This has now been corrected on the DIBP website. The new date 31-01-2018 is quite significant – waiting in the queue is down to less than one month but only for 75-point holders!

ICT Professionals (Business and Systems Analysts, Software Programmers and Network Professionals) got invited at 75 points with visa date of effect ranging between 22-01-2018 and 31-01-2018 – about 1 month’s waiting in the queue, but the good news is only for 75-point holders.

7 February 2018 Invitation round:

The table below (published by Department of Immigration – now renamed Depart of Home Affairs) shows the number of invitations issued in the SkillSelect invitation round on 7 February 2018.

Invitations issued on 7 February 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 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 600 600 300         12900
Skilled – Regional Provisional (subclass 489) 210 256 93 57 10 10 10 5         651
Total 2210 2256 3593 2557 1410 610 610 305         13551

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.

7 February 2018 results

The following graph shows the points for clients who were invited to apply in the 7 February 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 31/10/2017 6.14 pm
Skilled – Regional Provisional (subclass 489) 80 3/01/2018 2.25 am

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 7 February 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 28/11/2017 3:58 pm
2334 Electronics Engineer 70 25/10/2017 7:21 pm
2335 Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers 70 31/10/2017  2:37 PM
2339 Other Engineering Professionals 75 31/01/2018  9:03 PM
2611 ICT Business and System Analysts 75 22/01/2018  7:06 PM
2613 Software and Applications Programmers 75 31/01/2018  1:52 PM
2631 Computer Network Professionals 75 30/01/2018  3:01 AM