New Order of Priority Skilled Visa Applicants

The list was introduced in September 2020 and included 44 occupations to fast track during the Covid-19 pandemic. It included engineers, chefs, accountants, psychiatrists, programmers, pharmacists, and healthcare workers. The Department of Home Affairs will now rely on the new Ministerial Direction No. 100 to determine the priority of skilled visa applications.

Under the new ministerial direction, skilled visa applications are now being decided in the following order of priority:

1. Healthcare or teaching occupation applications;

2. For employer-sponsored visas, applicants nominated by an Approved sponsor with Accredited Status;

3. Those for a designated regional area;

4. For permanent and provisional visa subclasses, visa applications that count towards the migration program, excluding the Subclass 188 (Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional)) visa;

5. All other visa applications.

As the highest priority applicants, healthcare and education workers can generally expect their visa application to be processed in three days. The new criteria applies to these skilled visas:

The priority changes apply to skilled visa applications that are yet to be decided and new skilled visa applications.