Australian Immigration Daily News

Today, Legal Training Australia hosted a seminar with NSW Government discussing the State Nomination Programme for 2020/2021.

As we are all aware, State Nomination is competitive process, with criteria changing based on the economic needs as well as ensuring that Australian Citizens and PR holders are offerded jobs in the first instance.

The following update was provided by Zane Rebrojna in relation to NSW State Migration hosted together with Ross Ahmadzai from Legal Training Australia.

-        At this stage, the 132/188 visa programme remains closed, NSW is hopeful that both subclasses will re-open on 1 July 2020 however there is no guarantee in relation to the exact date or the number of places available as the final number of places allocated for next financial year will be determined by Home Affairs.  In most cases the numbers asked by NSW align with the numbers allocated by DHA which is good news, for this year however the programme allocation is exhausted

-        It is unlikely that there will be any major changes to 132/188 visa programmes, agents and applicants are encouraged to check the NSW website for further details

-        https://global.nsw.gov.au/ is the new initiatiative launched by NSW government.  For all the latest updates, agents and applicants are encouraged to visit this website

-        At present there are approximately 60,000 EOI lodged in the system for NSW.  NSW will continue to be very selective in terms of who is invited to apply.  Onshore applicants will be given priority.  Whilst the standard processing time is 12 weeks for NSW nomination, assuming all of the documents are in place, the nominations can be finalised much sooner

-        Unfortunately there is no way to expedite an application on compelling or compassionate reasons (e.g. applicant’s current visa is due to expire), applicants will need to make arrangements to apply for another visa if applicable

-        NSW is hoping to open up the 491 visa shortly. The criteria are published on the website.  Due to NSW bushfires and COVID19, there have been some major pushbacks in relation to the 491 visa being rolled out in NSW.  This is being acknowledged and both agents and applicants are being asked to be patient during these times (it is likely that the programme will open up in the new financial year)

-        The NSW skilled occupation list will remain more or less the same, certain occupations may be added or removed as we continue to assess the damage caused by COVID19

We thank NSW Government for their update, and we look forward to working with the state governments in the near future.  For any questions, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .