SkillSelect Invitation Rounds 2026: Latest Results, Occupation Scores and What They Mean

The latest SkillSelect invitation round on Home Affairs’ website was held on 15 October 2026. It invited 20,000 Expressions of Interest (EOIs) for the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), with minimum scores of 65 to 100 points across 159 occupations. Home Affairs updated both round pages on 2 November 2026, which is a different date from the round, and we checked them on 3 November 2026. It is for anyone with an EOI in SkillSelect, or thinking of one.

Below you will find what the round shows, what its numbers mean and do not mean, how the invitation process works, how subclass 189 and subclass 491 (Family Sponsored) differ, and what to do next. We do not predict future rounds, because Home Affairs publishes no date for the next one.

Home Affairs shows this round on its Invitation rounds page. The table below reports only what that page states.

Home Affairs also warns how to read the occupation results: a result can mean that no EOIs were available to be invited, or that EOIs were available but did not meet the parameters to receive an invitation.

Three dates matter, and they are not the same thing:

A page can be updated after a round, and an update date does not tell you what changed. Here the round was on 15 October and the footers show 2 November. The round is the 15 October round.

Two further points from the same page:

• Its 2026–27 program-year table shows 20,000 invitations for subclass 189 in October and 0 in every other month, and 0 for subclass 491 (Family Sponsored) in every month. Home Affairs says these figures do not include state and territory nominations, which are reported separately.
• The page states no date for the next round. It says only that rounds are run periodically during the program year. We could not confirm any future round date, and we do not predict one.

SkillSelect is the Australian Government’s online system for skilled workers who want to express their interest in applying for a visa to live and work in Australia. You need to be invited to apply for a skilled visa. Submitting an Expression of Interest (EOI) with your work experience and qualifications tells Home Affairs that you want to be invited. An EOI is not a visa application, and it does not guarantee an invitation.

An invitation round is a point in time when Home Affairs invites the highest-ranked EOIs to apply for a visa. Home Affairs says it runs invitation rounds periodically during the program year for two visas: the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) and the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored. It adds that not everyone who submits an EOI will receive an invitation, and that the number of invitations and occupations in each round varies with the needs of the Australian economy and the number of applications Home Affairs already has on hand.

Your EOI stays active in SkillSelect for 2 years from when you submit it (Home Affairs: after you submit your EOI). You can update it before you receive an invitation, and Home Affairs says to update your details if your circumstances change, because this may affect your points score. You cannot update an EOI that has already received an invitation.

For the subclass 189 and the subclass 491 (Family Sponsored), Home Affairs invites the highest-ranked EOI by points score first. If EOIs have equal scores, it uses the time and date at which each EOI reached its score for that subclass, which it calls the “tie break date” or “date of effect”. The EOI with the earlier date of effect is invited first.

Home Affairs also says that an occupation ceiling may apply: an upper limit on how many EOIs it can invite from an occupation group. Ceilings do not apply to the Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190) or the subclass 491 (State and Territory Nominated). In its visa guidance, it says it invites you for the 189 if you score enough points and there are places available for your occupation.

Other conditions apply at the time of invitation. You must be under 45, you must score at least 65 points, and you must have at least competent English (Home Affairs: subclass 189 points-tested stream). Home Affairs also says you must have a suitable skills assessment for your occupation.

Home Affairs invited 20,000 EOIs for the subclass 189 and published the lowest score invited in each occupation, with a tie break date for each. What the results show for the 159 occupations:

• The most common minimum score was 65 points (44 occupations), followed by 70 and 80 points (36 occupations each).
• 15 occupations had a minimum of 90 points or more. The highest were ICT Security Specialist and Urologist at 100 points. Electronics Engineer, Marine Biologist and Zoologist were at 95.
• The page shows occupation names only, with no occupation codes, so we show the names exactly as Home Affairs prints them.

What this tells you: in this round, for each listed occupation, the lowest-scoring EOI Home Affairs invited had the score shown. What it does not tell you: how many EOIs were invited in any one occupation (only the 20,000 total is published), who is in the queue, or what any future round will do. A minimum of 65 does not mean that 65 points is enough in that occupation next time, and a minimum of 100 does not make 100 a requirement.

Home Affairs lists the 4 June 2026 round on its Previous rounds page: 10,000 invited, and 140 occupations with minimum scores of 65 to 100. We compared the two lists. They are two data points, so we describe the differences and do not claim a trend.

• 137 occupations were on both lists. In 78 the minimum score was lower on 15 October, in 50 it was the same, and in 9 it was higher.
• The most common minimum score was 65 points in October (44 occupations) and 80 points in June (71 occupations). In June, 15 occupations were at 65 points.
• The largest rise was Clinical Psychologist (75 to 90) and the largest fall was Welfare Centre Manager (85 to 65).
• 22 occupations are on the 15 October list but were not on the 4 June list, and 3 were on the 4 June list but not on the 15 October list. An occupation missing from a list is not necessarily closed: Home Affairs says a result can mean no EOIs were available or none met the parameters.

Home Affairs does not say why scores differ between rounds. The October round invited twice as many EOIs as June, but we cannot say from the published data that the size of a round caused any score to move, so we do not draw that conclusion.

The explorer repeats Home Affairs’ published table in a searchable form. Home Affairs gives occupation names only, with no occupation codes, so match your occupation by name against your skills assessment. Not sure which one fits? Book a 30-minute consultation.

The results tell you where your occupation’s published minimum sat in one round. They cannot tell you whether you will be invited.

• On 65 points: 65 is the lowest score that can be invited, and in this round 44 of the 159 occupations had a published minimum of 65. Search your occupation in the explorer. If its minimum was above 65, EOIs on 65 points in that occupation were not within the invited group that round.
• On 80 points: 125 of the 159 listed occupations had a published minimum of 80 or lower, and 34 had a higher one (85 to 100). Check your own occupation’s row, and its tie break date if your score equals the minimum.
• Either way: an occupation that is not on the list is not necessarily closed, because Home Affairs says a result can mean no EOIs were available or none met the parameters. Your outcome also depends on your date of effect and on any occupation ceiling.

Why do minimum scores differ so much between occupations? Home Affairs says the number of invitations and occupations in each round varies with the needs of the Australian economy and the applications already on hand, and that an occupation ceiling may limit how many EOIs it invites from an occupation group. It does not publish a more detailed explanation, so we do not offer one.

A simple way to read the table: a lower published minimum means the lowest-scoring EOI invited in that occupation, in that round, had a lower score. It does not mean that occupation is easier, that a lower score will be invited next time, or that anyone on that score will be invited. Two applicants with the same points can have different outcomes, because the earlier date of effect is invited first, and because their occupations may have different outcomes.

A real example from the data: Actuary’s minimum fell from 90 in June to 85 in October, while Electrician (General) was at 65 in both rounds. Those are published facts about two rounds, not a forecast for either occupation.

This round’s table gives a tie break date for each occupation, in day, month and year. Home Affairs defines it as the date and time an EOI reached its score for that subclass, and the EOI with the earlier date is invited first when scores are equal. Reading the dates for what they are:

• 120 occupations show a tie break date in 2026 and 37 show an earlier date; two more are printed with an incomplete year (see the data notes). The earliest is 8 November 2024 (ICT Security Specialist, minimum 100 points), and the latest is 18 October 2026 (Pathologist, minimum 70 points).
• A tie break date is not a deadline and not a “cut-off” date you can aim for. Home Affairs does not explain what its per-occupation column shows beyond calling it the tie break date, so we read it only as the date it publishes for that occupation.
• Earlier summary tables on the Previous rounds page put one tie break under a “month and year” heading for the whole round (the 4 June 2026 table prints a full date under that heading). The 15 October summary table no longer has that column, and the dates appear only against each occupation.

Home Affairs’ page has a few oddities. We report them as printed and have not corrected them.

• Repeated rows. Medical Diagnostic Radiographer and Medical Laboratory Scientist each appear twice in the 15 October list with identical figures. We count them once, which is why the page’s 161 rows are 159 occupations.
• Incomplete years. Two tie break dates are printed with a three-digit year: Environmental Manager (13/10/206) and Forester (01/07/206). We show them as printed and do not guess the year.
• A date after the round. Pathologist’s tie break date is 18/10/2026, three days after the round date of 15 October. The page does not explain it.

If any of these matters to you, check Home Affairs’ page directly and ask your migration agent.

Home Affairs reports how many EOIs it invited in each round. Its Previous rounds page goes back to 2020; the six most recent rounds are:

Source: Invitation rounds and Previous rounds.

An invitation count is the number of EOIs invited to apply. It is not the number of visas granted, it is not the total number of places in the skilled migration program, and a past count does not set the next round’s size. Home Affairs says that getting an invitation does not mean you will be granted the visa. The rounds are not evenly spaced and the list is short, so we do not call the numbers a trend.

Home Affairs includes the subclass 491 – Family Sponsored in its invitation rounds, so a round could invite EOIs for it. In the numbers published on the current pages:

• The 15 October 2026 and 4 June 2026 round tables show no subclass 491 row.
• The 2026–27 program-year table shows 0 for subclass 491 (Family Sponsored) in each month from July to June.
• The 21 August 2025 and 13 November 2025 rounds invited 150 and 300 EOIs, and the 5 September 2024 and 7 November 2024 tables show 0.

A missing row alone would not tell us the number invited, but the program-year table does: it shows 0 for subclass 491 (Family Sponsored) in every month of 2026–27, including October. Subclass 491 (Family Sponsored) is a different pathway from the state or territory nominated 491, which is covered below.

Not every skilled visa works the same way. Home Affairs’ departmental invitation rounds cover only two of them. State and territory nominations “will not be affected by the departmental invitation rounds”, and governments manage them in line with their own priorities.

For the 190, Home Affairs says it will invite you only if you are nominated. The 491 is not permanent residency: it lets you stay for 5 years, and Home Affairs says holders can apply for permanent residence after 3 years from the time the visa is granted, if eligible, through the Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa (subclass 191) (see the subclass 491 page for the criteria).

Keep the two subclass 491 pathways apart. The Family Sponsored pathway is the one in Home Affairs’ invitation rounds. The State or Territory Nominated pathway starts with a nomination and is not part of the departmental rounds.

State and territory nominations are reported separately. Home Affairs’ table for 1 July to 30 September 2026 shows:

Home Affairs’ table shows “<5” in some cells, which we read as fewer than five. These figures count nominations, not departmental invitations. For how one state invites, see our guides to Western Australia, the ACT and South Australia, and our state nomination hub.

Home Affairs’ published reasons are limited, so we state only those:

• EOIs are ranked against each other, so a higher-scoring EOI is invited first.
• For equal scores, the EOI with the earlier date of effect is invited first.
• Places must be available for your occupation, and an occupation ceiling may apply.
• The number of invitations and occupations varies in each round, depending on the needs of the Australian economy and applications already on hand.
• If you turn 45 after you submit your EOI but before you are invited, you will not be invited.
• The points you claim can change if your circumstances change, which is why Home Affairs tells you to keep your EOI up to date.

We cannot say why a particular EOI was not invited, we cannot assess your eligibility from this page, and Home Affairs does not publish that information. No single factor explains every case.

• Check your occupation. The results above are by occupation name, so confirm that your nominated occupation matches the one on your skills assessment.
• Keep your EOI accurate. Update it when your circumstances change (Home Affairs: your EOI), and only claim points you can support with evidence. Do not change or stretch a claim to chase a higher score: Home Affairs says the score you must meet when it assesses your application may be higher than 65, depending on your claims.
• Check your English and skills assessment. You need at least competent English at the time of invitation and a suitable skills assessment for your occupation. Check that your results and assessment are valid for when you may be invited.
• Check your age. If you turn 45 before you are invited, you will not be invited.
• Look at other pathways separately. State and territory nomination is a different system with its own rules, and employer-sponsored and other visas have their own. See our 189 vs 190 vs 491 guide, Occupation Shortage List 2026 guide and points guide.
• Check your own points. Use Home Affairs’ points calculator or our points calculator, and treat any result as an estimate.

Home Affairs says it will invite you to apply for the visa only twice. If you do not apply after the second invitation, your EOI is removed from SkillSelect. If you cannot show that you meet the points score or the other criteria, Home Affairs says not to apply.

• 189 vs 190 vs 491: which skilled visa is right for you?
• How to score 65 points for subclasses 189, 190 and 491
• Subclass 190 visa requirements, from eligibility to grant
• How to boost your PR points in 2026
• Subclass 189 guide
• Skilled migration services

Want your occupation, points and EOI reviewed? Book a consultation or contact our migration team.

This is general information, not personal migration advice. Invitation rounds, scores and requirements can change; the figures above are as at 3 November 2026. Home Affairs’ Invitation rounds and Previous rounds pages were both last updated on 2 November 2026. Global Migrations is the trading name of Global Migration & Education Solutions (ABN 22 998 014 414); our registered migration agent is Ranbir Singh, MARN 1069570. We are not part of the Australian Government. This guide has not yet been reviewed by our registered migration agent.