Skilled Migration Update October 2026: Victoria Opens with 900 Places and New Fees, NSW 190 First Round, SA Opens, ACT, WA and Tasmania Invitations

If you have an Expression of Interest in SkillSelect and you are waiting for a state to nominate you for a subclass 190 or subclass 491 visa, the ground has shifted under you in the last fortnight. Victoria has opened its subclass 190 program with 900 places, introduced fees and published a points test of its own. New South Wales has opened its 190 program and already run its first invitation round. South Australia has opened Registrations of Interest, but only for one group. The ACT has handed out more than 250 invitations and pencilled in its rounds for the rest of the program year. Western Australia has issued more than 1,200 invitations in a single month and updated its occupation list. And Tasmania has published this week's round with hundreds of places still unused and a new assessment rule.

We are Nationwide Migration and Education, a Brisbane migration agency and a team of registered migration agents. We lodge state-nominated applications every week, which means these changes land on our desks before they land on yours. This article sets out what each state has changed for 2026-27, what it means for your EOI, and what you should be doing about it now. Everything here is current as at 29 October 2026. State programs change week to week, so check the state government page before you act.

Victoria 2026-27: the 190 is open with 900 places, fees apply, and the 491 is not open

Victoria's skilled nomination program for the subclass 190 opened for Registrations of Interest on 26 October 2026. For 2026-27 Victoria has been allocated900 nomination places for the subclass 190.

The subclass 491 is a different story. Victoria's 2026-27 subclass 491 places have not yet been finalised, Registrations of Interest for 491 nomination are not currently being accepted, and Victoria says further information will be published once its 491 places are confirmed. There is no date.

One eligibility point that catches people out: if you are onshore, you must be living in Victoria. Victoria has said it will not select ROIs from onshore applicants living in other states and territories, with case-by-case exceptions only for border communities. Offshore applicants are eligible and must be committed to living in Victoria if the visa is granted.

Three other things have changed with this year's program, and you need to understand all three before you lodge.

1. Registration of Interest and nomination are no longer free

In 2025-26 it cost nothing to register your interest with Victoria or to lodge a nomination application. From 2026-27, fees apply:

GST of 10 per cent applies if you are in Australia when you pay. The nomination fee is only payable if Victoria invites you and you then lodge a nomination application. The ROI fee is charged once per program year, so if you withdraw and resubmit an ROI in the same year you will not be charged twice.

These are modest amounts, but the signal matters. Victoria is filtering for applicants who are serious enough to pay to be considered, and the other states will be watching.

2. Everyone must submit a new ROI

If you submitted an ROI to Victoria in a previous program year, it does not carry over. You must submit a new ROI now that the 2026-27 program is open to be considered. Do not assume you are still in the queue. You are not.

3. Victoria has named and published its ranking system

Victoria has always ranked ROIs, but for 2026-27 it has named the system the Victorian Points Test (VPT) and published the points for each factor. The ranking factors are the same as last year. The VPT weighs seven factors:

• age

• English language ability

• years of experience in the nominated occupation

• educational qualification

• occupation skill level

• partner's skills, where applicable

• annual earnings from skilled employment in Victoria, where applicable

The heaviest weights are age (up to 300 points for applicants aged 20 to 29), English (up to 200 points for Superior English) and Victorian skilled earnings(up to 150 points). Partner skill points, up to 50, are available only if you claimed 10 partner points in SkillSelect, your partner is included in the nomination application, and your partner's occupation is a current priority industry occupation.

Two things to be clear about. First, the VPT is separate from the federal SkillSelect points test. You must still meet the Australian Government's requirements, including a minimum of 65 points on the SkillSelect test, before Victoria's ranking even matters. Second, the VPT has no pass mark. Victoria invites the ROIs with the highest VPT totals in each invitation round, so your outcome depends on who else is in the pool at the time. The Victorian Government has said it cannot advise on your likelihood of invitation and will not prioritise invitations based on personal circumstances such as age or visa expiry.

Two invitation pathways and a shorter priority list

ROIs are now considered under two pathways:

• Most competitive: the highest VPT totals across all eligible occupations are invited.

• Priority industry: the highest VPT totals within each priority industry are invited.

For 2026-27 Victoria has listed four priority industries:

• Healthcare

• Social assistance

• Education (teachers and early childhood education; early childhood teachers have additional experience and English requirements)

• Construction (construction professionals and construction trades)

Three industries that were priority industries in 2025-26 are not on the current list: new energy, advanced manufacturing, and hospitality and tourism (which was a 491-only priority last year). If you are in hospitality and Victoria was your plan, you need a second plan now.

If Victoria is your plan, do not wait. The allocation is 900 places, there is no pass mark, and the pool has been filling since 26 October. Lodge the ROI and make sure every claim in it can be evidenced.

New South Wales: the 190 is open and the first round has been held

The NSW nomination program for the subclass 190 isopen for 2026-27, and the first invitation round for the year has already taken place.

From what we have seen of this first round, most invitations went to occupations in three sectors: health, education and construction. On points, some applicants were invited at 70 points, while at the top end invitations went out at 90 to 95 points. There is no published cut-off, and NSW does not guarantee an invitation at any score, but the spread tells you where you stand. If you are sitting on 65 points and hoping NSW will come to you, this round is your reality check. Every additional point you can legitimately claim now matters.

Two further NSW changes:

• The NSW 190 Skills List has been updated.If your occupation was on last year's list, confirm it is on this year's before you rely on it. The updated list is on the NSW Government's skills lists page.

• Evidence must be ready now. NSW requires that you can provide valid evidence for every point claimed in your EOI at the time you are invited. If you cannot back a claim with a document today, fix that before the next round, not after you are invited.

The NSW nomination program for the subclass 491 remains closedon all pathways. No opening date has been given.

South Australia: ROI open, but only for onshore applicants with a visa expiring by 31 January 2027

South Australia has opened Registrations of Interest for its 2026-27 General Skilled Migration program, with a specific first cohort: people already living and working in South Australia whose current visa is due to expire by 31 January 2027. If that describes you, lodge your ROI now. This window exists for people who are running out of time on their current visa, and it will not stay open indefinitely.

Offshore candidates do not lodge an ROI.They continue to lodge an Expression of Interest through SkillSelect, and South Australia will invite suitable candidates directly from that EOI. For an offshore applicant, the SkillSelect EOI is therefore the whole application for nomination purposes. It needs to be current, accurate and fully supportable.

Invitations will go to suitable candidates from both the onshore and offshore cohorts, with a focus on six priority sectors:

• building and construction

• defence

• education

• engineering

• health

• manufacturing

High-ranking candidates in non-priority sectors may also be considered, so an occupation outside those sectors is not a closed door, but the priority sectors will go first. Every applicant, onshore or offshore, must have a current EOI in SkillSelect. The available occupations for 2026-27 are on South Australia's Skilled Occupations List, and the requirements differ between streams, so read the stream requirements before you lodge anything.

ACT: 261 invitations on 12 October 2026 and a tentative round schedule

The ACT Government held a skilled migration invitation round on 12 October 2026. A total of 261 subclass 190 nominations were issued. No subclass 491 nominations were issued in this round.

The ACT notes that the minimum matrix score is an indication only and does not guarantee an invitation.

The ACT's 2026-27 allocation of nomination places has not yet been confirmed by the Australian Government. The ACT will publish the allocation once confirmed. In the meantime, the ACT Migration Application portal remains open for RCB Support applications and Canberra Matrix submissions.

The ACT has published a tentative schedule for the remaining 2026-27 invitation rounds, with the caveat that the dates may change without notice:

• week starting 25 January 2027

• week starting 22 March 2027

• week starting 24 May 2027

If you are on the Canberra Matrix, keep it current. You do not get a warning before a round.

Western Australia: 1,227 invitations on 14 October 2026 and an updated occupation list

Western Australia is the busiest nominating state in the country right now. WA Migration Services issued invitations on 14 October 2026in two rounds: one for priority trade occupations in building and construction, and one for priority non-trade occupations in sectors such as healthcare and social assistance, education and training, and hospitality and tourism.

That is 1,227 invitations in a single month. Together with September's round of 1,100, WA has issued 2,327 invitations in the first two rounds of 2026-27. For comparison, WA had issued just 420 invitations by the end of October 2025, because its first round last year did not happen until October.

How WA ranks your EOI

WA publishes its ranking order, and it explains the pattern in this round. Expressions of Interest are ranked, in order, by:

1. whether you currently live in Western Australia

2. whether you live offshore or in another Australian state or territory

3. whether your occupation is in a priority WA industry sector (building and construction; healthcare and social assistance; hospitality and tourism; education and training)

4. all other WA industry sectors

5. highest EOI points score

6. oldest EOI submission date

Graduate stream EOIs are also ranked by the level of the qualification completed in WA.

What the October round tells you

Two things stand out from WA's published "last invited EOI" reports for October.

In the trades round, overseas applicants were invited at 65 points. For most of the building and construction trades on WASMOL Schedule 2, the last invited EOI was an offshore applicant on 65 points, the federal minimum, with EOIs lodged as recently as late September and early October 2026. A small number of trades were last invited at 70 or 75 points. If you are a tradesperson offshore in a building and construction occupation, WA is currently the state picking people up from the bottom of the pool, and the EOI does not need to have been sitting there for long.

In the non-trade round, almost every invitation went to someone already living in WA. In the health occupations on WASMOL Schedule 1, the last invited EOIs were WA residents on 85 to 95 points. In the Schedule 2 engineering, teaching and hospitality occupations, the last invited EOIs were WA residents on 90 points. Because WA ranks its own residents ahead of everyone else, an offshore or interstate applicant in a non-trade occupation is competing only once the WA-resident pool in that occupation has been exhausted.

WA notes that the last-invited figures do not account for caps, and that an invitation never guarantees a nomination. WA has not published its 2026-27 allocation of places. Invitations are expected monthly, but the number each month varies with the number of applications WA Migration Services is processing.

WA's occupation list has been updated

WA has updated its eligible occupation list for this program year. The WA Skilled Migration Occupation List (WASMOL) and Graduate Occupation List (GOL) are published as a live, filterable list of around 600 occupations on the WA Migration Services website, and WA says the lists may be updated from time to time. If WA is your target state, check that your occupation is still on the current list, and on which schedule, before you rely on last year's position. The schedule matters: Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 occupations carry different nomination criteria.

A new WA Defence industry stream

WA has also added a new Defence industry stream to its program, alongside the General and Graduate streams. Eligible occupations for the Defence stream will be listed on a new WASMOL Schedule 3, and the WA occupation search now carries a "Defence Stream" filter. As at 29 October 2026, WA has not published the Schedule 3 list or the criteria for the stream. If you work in defence, shipbuilding or a related trade or engineering occupation, keep an eye on the WA Migration Services page. We will update this article when the list is released.

Other WA facts worth knowing: the state nomination application fee is $200 and is non-refundable; you have 28 calendar days from an invitation to lodge; and if your EOI asks for both the 190 and the 491, WA will generally invite you for the 491 first.

Tasmania: weekly rounds, hundreds of places unused, and a new six-week rule

Tasmania is the state that shows you exactly where you stand. Its 2026-27 program opened to Registrations of Interest on 17 August 2026 with 2,050 nomination places: 1,250 for the subclass 190 and 800 for the subclass 491. Migration Tasmania invites every week and publishes the figures after each round. We covered the opening settings in our August update; here is where the program sits now.

Round of 29 October 2026

Two things stand out. First, Tasmania is not short of places. More than ten weeks into weekly invitations, 873 of the 1,250 subclass 190 places and 654 of the 800 subclass 491 places are still available, with roughly 800 and 600 registrations waiting respectively. Tasmania is inviting on its priority attributes, not on volume. If your profile matches those attributes, Tasmania is one of the most predictable nominations in the country right now. If it does not, a large pool of unused places does not help you.

Second, the assessment floor has changed. Tasmania publishes the lowest score you would need to be nominated at the time of processing. From this week that figure is a six-week rolling averageof the lowest invited scores, instead of the previous three-month average. If, during assessment, one or more of your claimed priority attributes cannot be verified and your revised score falls below both the most recent round and the rolling average, the nomination will be declined. Anyone found to have claimed attributes to inflate their score will be declined, and any Gold pass holder who does not meet the Gold priority attribute will be declined regardless of their total score. Claim only what you can evidence.

Note that Tasmanian scores (316, 75) are Tasmanian priority-attribute points, not SkillSelect points. They are not comparable to the 65 to 95 point figures quoted for NSW or WA.

Two settings from the August opening still apply: the nomination application fee is $387 ($425.70 including GST) with no charge to lodge an ROI, and Tasmania is not issuing invitations in the subclass 491 Overseas Skilled Occupation Profiles invitation-only pathwaythis program year. Overseas health and education professionals with a job offer from a Tasmanian provider or school remain eligible under the subclass 190 job offer pathway.

What this means for your EOI

Across all six states the pattern is the same: fees are arriving, priority lists are narrowing, states are putting their own residents first, and in most streams invitations are going to the top of the pool rather than the middle. WA's trades round, where offshore applicants were invited at 65 points, is the one real exception, and it shows how much the outcome depends on occupation and state rather than on points alone. Three practical steps follow.

1. Know your points on both tests.Your SkillSelect score gets you into the game. The state's own ranking, whether that is the Victorian Points Test or the Canberra Matrix, decides whether you are invited. They are not the same calculation.

2. Check this year's occupation lists, not last year's.NSW has updated its 190 Skills List. Victoria has narrowed its priority industries. South Australia has published its 2026-27 Skilled Occupations List and named six priority sectors. WA has updated its occupation list. An occupation that was a safe bet in 2025-26 may not be in 2026-27.

3. Have your evidence ready before you are invited.Employment references, skills assessments, English test results, qualification documents. The states are checking, Tasmania now declines nominations whose claimed attributes do not survive verification, and an invitation you cannot support is worse than no invitation at all.

Which state is right for you depends on your age, your English, your occupation and your work history. Working that out is our job, not yours.

Talk to us before the next round

We are Nationwide Migration and Education, a Brisbane team of registered migration agents at 320 Adelaide St, Brisbane. We handle the straightforward matters and the complicated ones: refusals, cancellations, tribunal reviews, health and character problems. If your file is messy, it is not our first messy file.

If you want your EOI and points position checked before the next NSW, South Australian, ACT, WA, Tasmanian or Victorian round, book a consultation at nationwidemigration.com.au/services or call our Brisbane office on +61 7 3726 5183. Bring three things:

1. Your current SkillSelect EOI summary, including your points breakdown

2. Your skills assessment and English test result

3. Your employment references for the occupation you have nominated

General information only, current as at 29 October 2026. Not migration advice for your specific circumstances.