SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results for 11th April 2019

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SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results for 11th April 2019

On 23rd April 2019, the Department of  Home Affairs (DoHA) has released the statistical analysis of the 11th April 2019 “Skill Select EOI Invitation Round” results. This is for persons who lodged Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the General Skilled Migration or “GSM” visa subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) and subclass 489 (Skilled Family Sponsored).

EasyMigrate is a leading Australian migration agent, based in Perth, Australia. EasyMigrate’s Migration Consultant Mr Cyrus Mistry (our principal immigration consultant in Australia) has reviewed these SkillSelect results – see his comments below.

 

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Broad Overview:

Recent SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round news: From 1 July 2018 the “pass mark” has been increased from 60 to 65 points. New applicants can lodge their Expression Of Interest (EOI) with 65 points or more. Other applicants who submitted their EOI before 30 June 2018 with 60 points will continue to stay in the queue.

Recent SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round news: Department of Immigration (now DoHA) has announced that from Financial Year 2018-2019 there will be only ONE ROUND OF SKILL SELECT INVITATIONS PER MONTH – usually around the eleventh of the month.

Our Recommendation: Most applicants with 60 or 65 points are not getting invited at all since the last 18 months or so. Many 70-pointers are also not getting invitations for a long time.

SOLUTION: apply for state-nominations also, in parallel. We have many clients who were waiting for a more than a year, so we did a file-review and recommended a suitable state-nomination option. Many of them got invited for permanent residency WITHIN 2 to 3 MONTHS!

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Summary:

Next round will be 11 May 2019. Commentary regarding that Skill Select invitation round will be published by EasyMigrate as soon as those statistics are made available to the public by the Department of Immigration.

Compared to the last invitation round (11 March 2019) which gave 1,500 invitations, this recent skill Select round gave out only 100 invitations! Compare this to 4,350 invitations during the “boom” months that we had between September 2018 and November 2018.

The exact number of invitations on 11th April 2019: 100 invitations in the Skilled Independent SC189 subclass and 10 in the Family-Sponsored Subclass 489. My analysis is that the “quota” for the year 2018-2019 is running out and the Department of Immigration is adjusting the figures to keep the final year count within the recently announced “reductions”.

For this round, most invitations (49) were to applicants who have 80 points.

There were no invitations to persons with 70 points (compared to 884 in March 2019, 848 in Jan 2019 and 32 in February 2019).

Thirty-one invitations were given to applicants having 85 points.

Only twenty invitations were given to persons with 90 points or more. 

This time, there were NO INVITES to applicants with 60, 65, 70 or 75 points.

Occupations Analysis:

The cut-off for Skilled Independent (SC189) was 80 points, cut-off date 15-03-2019.

The cut-off for Skilled Family Sponsored (SC489) was 80 points, cut-off date 12-10-2018.

This is now the thirteenth round of invitations where DoHA has re-commenced inviting Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers! For Accountants, the invitation threshold has gone up to 90 points as compared to the last round of 11 March 2019 (It had come down to 80 points in January 2019). The cut-off date is published as 10-04-2019 which means that all “Accountant” applicants with 90 points or more who applied for their Expression of Interest (EOI) before 10-04-2019 got invited. In the previous month, the date was 09-03-2019! For the other occupations listed above, the cut-off points-score has gone up to 85, and the cut-off date is 14-12-2018 (in the last round of invitations this was 19-07-2018).

Accountants, Auditors etc. had been excluded (or dramatically reduced) since Oct-Nov 2017 invitation-rounds, so this is an excellent ongoing sign that the demand continues!

Electronics Engineers got invited at 80 points with the date of effect 11-03-2019. In the October 2018 invitation round, 70-point holders were also invited, but not anymore. So this is due to a combination of factors: an increase in the number of applications received by the Department of Immigration and reduced number of invitations.

Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers were previously invited at 70 points with a date of effect 04-02-2019. But new invitations for April 2019 stop at 80 points, with cut-off date 07-03-2019.

Other Engineering Professionals got invited at 80 points with the date of effect 31-12-2018.  

ICT Professionals (Business and Systems Analysts) got invited at 85 points with the visa date of effect 10-04-2019.

ICT Professionals (Software and Application Programmers) – the pass mark had previously remained steady at 75 points with the visa date of effect 13-02-2019. Unfortunately, the pass mark has gone up to 80 points from 11 April 2019, the cut-off date is 12-03-2019.  

ICT Professionals (Computer Network Professionals) got invited at 80 points with the visa date of effect 14-03-2019 – this moved forward by one week.

So for most ICT professionals, there is now a substantial waiting in the queue for their Expression of Interest to be converted into an “invite”.

If the number of invitations goes up in future general skilled migration program invitations, then more occupations with 70 and 65 points are likely to be invited. But I do not think that is likely to happen in the immediate future.

Please note that the EOI date resets each time an applicant does an “upgrade” or change, e.g. additional points for age, extra points for work-experience, successful NAATI test, etc.

In my earlier articles, I was hoping that the number of “invitations” rises over the next few rounds – BUT I WAS WONG. IT HAS REDUCED DRASTICALLY for this month compared to “boom” months! This is not a good sign for all occupations who are waiting at 70 points and 65 points. This may be a slowdown due to financial-year adjustments – based on the July2018-June2019 quota.

Historical Analysis:

The number of monthly invitations used to hover around the “two thousand-plus” mark for last few months and were even lower between November 2017 and June 2018 at about 305 “SkillSelect” invitations per fortnight for the EOI applicants! 

For July 2018, 1,010 invitations had been issued to persons who had lodged their Expression of Interest (EOI). This was better than the 610 invitations being issued from Nov 2017 onwards until June 2018. But still a lot less than the 2,000-odd invitations that were being issued per month before October 2017. Until January 2019 the number of invitations was regularly above the two-thousand mark. In the 11 August 2018, AND the 11 September 2018 SkillSelect results were above the two-thousand mark – then jumped up to 4,340 invitations on 11 October 2018 and 11 November 2018 invitations. December 2018 and January 2019 invitation-rounds have seen a drop-back to the 2,000+ levels and reduced further since February 2019 and March-2019 invitation-rounds.

The total number of invitations for the last financial year (July 2017 to June 2018) was 16,296.

Based on July 2018,  August 2018September 2018,  October 2018November 2018,  December 2018  January 2019  February 2019 and March 2019 figures, the total number of EOI applicants invited for this financial year (July 2018 to April 2019) Has been 22,720.

To arrive at the end-of-year figures we use the formula (22,720 divided by 10 multiply by 12) = approx. 27,260 per year which would still mean a substantial increase in Subclass 189 and Subclass 489 (Family) invitations compared to the previous financial year 2017-2018. 

But recent announcements by the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA) point to a further slow-down in the number of “general skilled migration” (GSM) invitations.

The effect of “re-invitation” continues to plague the SkillSelect invitations program. In my previous articles, I had mentioned about the effect of “re-invitation”. Many applicants have moved on to other countries or changed their plans but have not removed their Expressions of Interest (EOI). So they get invited, but they do not apply within the next 60 days. These applicants usually get “re-invited” as per the Dept of Immigration rules one more time! I estimate this figure to be as high as 30-40% in many occupations. This seriously affects the program. For example, out of the 1,500-odd invitations in March 2019 only about 900-1000 get taken up! This is something that the Department of Home Affairs has not been able to tackle yet.

For this latest round of invitations under the subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) visa, only 100 invitations were issued, at 80 points or above. Only ten invitations were issued to SC489 Family-Sponsored applicants –at 80 points or above… so as you can see, the SC489 FAMILY-SPONSORED applicant needs to have scored 70 points “independently” plus the 10 points from their family-sponsor. 

On our EasyMigrate website, we have the statistics. My ongoing analysis for the  October 2017 invitations; the November 2017 invitation round and the December 2017 round are available. January 2018 roundFebruary 2018 roundMarch 2018 round, April 2018 roundMay 2018 Round, the two x June 2018 rounds, the 11th July 2018, 11th August 2018   the 11 September 2018,  October 2018November 2018,  December 2018  January 2019,  February 2019 and March 2019 invitation rounds are also available on our website. 

I estimate that the Nov 2017 to June 2018 rounds were only about 30-40% of the usual monthly track-record before October 2017, but from July 2018 the invitations are on par with the good months up to September 2017 in previous years, and the two rounds of October 2018 and November 2018 EXCEEDED our expectations.  But the December 2018round and January 2019 has halved to 2,500 invitations. Now February 2019 and March 2019 are FURTHER REDUCED to 1,500 invitations, and April 2019 is a disappointing 100 invitations only.

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

Invitations issued on 11 April 2019

The table below shows the number of invitations issued in the SkillSelect invitation round on 11 April 2019, as published by the Department of Home Affairs:

 

Visa subclass Number
Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) 100
Skilled Regional (provisional) visa (subclass 489) 10

During 2018-19 program year the following numbers of invitations have been issued:

11 April 2019 results

The following graph shows the points for clients who were invited to apply in the 11 April 2019 round.

Graph showing the points for clients who were invited to apply in the 11 April 2019 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.

Visa subclass Minimum points score Date of effect
Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) 80

15/03/2019  9:40 am

Skilled Regional (provisional) visa (subclass 489) 80

12/10/2018  6:31 am

Point scores and the dates of effect cut off for the pro rata occupations in the 11 April 2019 invitation round.

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.

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.

Occupation ID Description Minimum points score Latest date of effect
2211 Accountants 90 10/04/2019  10:04 pm
2212 Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers 85 14/12/2018  4:04 pm
2334 Electronics Engineer 80 11/03/2019  4:54 pm
2335 Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers 80 07/03/2019  3:45 pm
2339 Other Engineering Professionals 80 31/12/2018  8:56 pm
2611 ICT Business and System Analysts 85 10/04/2019  2:49 pm
2613 Software and Applications Programmers 80 12/03/2019  3:40 pm
2631 Computer Network Professionals 80 14/03/2019  6:56 pm

Invitations issued during 2018-19 program year

Visa subclass Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Total
Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) 1,000 2,490 2,490 4,340 4,340 2,490 2,490 1,490 1,490 100     22,720
Skilled Regional (provisional) visa (subclass 489) 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10     100
Total 1,010 2,500 2,500 4,350 4,350 2,500 2,500 1,500 1,500  110     22,820

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.