Western Australia State Nominated Migration Program: Eligibility and Visa Guide

Western Australia (WA) nominates skilled workers for two visas: the Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190) and the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491). You cannot apply to WA directly. You lodge a SkillSelect Expression of Interest (EOI), WA ranks the EOIs it has received, and it invites the people it selects to apply for nomination. Nomination then lets Home Affairs invite you to apply for the visa itself.

This guide covers the General and Graduate streams, who can be considered, how WA ranks EOIs, what the October 2026 round looked like, the documents WA asks for, and what is not yet published for 2026–27. Every figure is dated, and each is labelled confirmed, historical or unconfirmed in the status table below.

The State Nominated Migration Program (SNMP) is administered by WA Migration Services. WA sets which occupations it will nominate, how it ranks EOIs, and what evidence applicants must give. It is not the visa decision. Home Affairs makes that decision under federal law.

Seven stages stand between you and a visa, and passing one does not carry you through the next. The step-by-step list further down covers the same path in nine practical steps, including preparing evidence and what to do after the visa is granted:

The 491 gives no permanent residence on grant. WA says that if your EOI seeks both visas you will generally be invited for the 491 first, because you generally score more points for it. If you are invited for both in different rounds, only one application can go ahead. Federal rules apply to both: you must not have turned 45 when you are invited, and you need at least 65 points (Migration Regulations 1994; LIN 19/210).

The table reflects what WA’s program page and linked documents showed on 28 October 2026. “Confirmed” means a current WA statement. “Historical” means true for an earlier date or year. “Unconfirmed” means WA has not published it in the sources reviewed.

To be invited you must meet both the Home Affairs criteria for the visa and WA’s criteria for your stream. Your EOI must show that:

• you are seeking nomination from Western Australia;
• you are younger than 45;
• you score at least 65 points in the Home Affairs points test;
• you hold a current, valid skills assessment suitable for migration, in the occupation you nominate. A provisional assessment issued for a subclass 485 visa cannot be considered;
• your occupation is available for your visa subclass on the WASMOL (Schedule 1 or 2) for the General stream, or on the Graduate occupation list for the Graduate stream;
• you meet WA’s English requirement; and
• for the Graduate stream, your EOI includes your WA study details and the address and postcode of your WA campus.

WA’s summary table of the three streams:

On the program page, closely related means the occupation shares the first four digits of the ANZSCO code. WA’s FAQs, which it says form part of the criteria, also count an occupation that is consistent with a career advancement pathway, or that your assessing authority recognises as closely related. WA does not require a contract for the 491, and says applicants invited through a WA building and construction industry sector occupation do not need one either.

• Full-time means an average of at least 35 hours a week. You can combine two contracts to reach 35 hours. Casual contracts do not count.
• Timing. The contract must run for at least six months from the date of your State nomination application. If you have not yet started, the start date must be within three months of lodging, unless you live offshore.
• Contents. Both parties’ full names; permanent or fixed-term full-time; job title, ANZSCO code and duties; location; terms no less favourable than for an Australian citizen or permanent resident; a statement that the work must be performed by the employee, not contracted out; dated signatures from both parties in one document; drafted by the employer.
• Not accepted. Contracts for independent contractors or self-employment. A sole trader’s contract is considered only if the sole trader is not the applicant and the contract meets every other rule. For Schedule 1 occupations, WA says current employment or a contract may include a contracted medical practitioner agreement, a private practice partnership agreement, a locum tenens agreement or a similar employment contract. The page does not explain how that sits with the contractor exclusion.
• Schedule 1 work experience must be in place when you are invited, and counts only if gained after your qualification, in paid employment, at 20+ hours a week. A professional year or work placement does not count unless it meets those rules.
• Graduate stream study. WA measures the two years as at least 87 weeks of completed full-time study, taken from the start and end dates on your completion letters; it can span several qualifications and need not be continuous. More than 25% online study is not eligible, except for COVID-era study between 1 February 2020 and 25 November 2023 while enrolled as an onshore WA student. Credits or recognition of prior learning from outside WA cannot count.

WA classifies each occupation into an industry sector and a stream list, and marks which listed occupations are priority occupations. Of the 609 stream listings, 522 are open to subclass 190 and all 609 are open to subclass 491. 223 of the 383 occupations are listed in more than one stream, so check the list for the stream you are actually eligible for: a listing in one stream is not eligibility in another. The explorer below uses WA’s own export and, where WA published one, the October 2026 last-invited EOI for the occupation.

WA reviews the EOIs submitted through SkillSelect and invites eligible applicants. It ranks them in this order (WA program page):

1. Where you live. EOIs from people currently living in WA come first. People living offshore or in another state or territory come second.
2. Occupation sector. Priority sectors rank ahead of other sectors: building and construction, healthcare and social assistance, hospitality and tourism, and education and training. WA’s FAQ puts building and construction trades first and the other priority sectors together after them; its October PDFs list the priority sectors “in no particular order”.
3. EOI points. Higher scores first.
4. EOI submission date. Earlier first, where everything above is equal.

The same order as a flow:

The Graduate stream also ranks by the highest qualification you gained in WA: PhD or master’s, then honours or another higher degree, then bachelor’s for higher education graduates; and Advanced Diploma, Diploma, then Certificate III or IV for VET graduates. WA says up to 75% of Graduate stream nominations will go to higher education graduates and up to 25% to VET graduates.

• If your EOI ranks in several streams you may receive an invitation for each, but you can lodge only one application.
• You will not receive more than one invitation through the same EOI. If an invitation lapses, is withdrawn or declined, you need a new EOI.
• WA’s criteria say invitations are also subject to occupation ceilings and, for the Graduate stream, nomination ceilings for higher education and VET graduates, so rank and points alone do not decide an invitation.
• WA gives no feedback on EOIs that were not invited.
• If you are invited to apply for a subclass 189 visa while your State nomination is pending, Home Affairs locks your EOI, and you must choose between the two.

WA publishes invitation counts by month, stream and visa for three program years. Use the chart to compare months; every monthly total is in the table under it, and the 190/491 split appears when you hover over or tap a month. These are invitations to apply, not nominations, and WA publishes no nomination allocation, so the counts cannot show how much of a quota has been used.

September 2026 against October 2026. WA’s page shows these invitation counts for the two 2026–27 rounds so far:

Two changes stand out in our reading of the table: Schedule 1 subclass 491 invitations went from 47 to 0, and Schedule 2 subclass 491 invitations rose from 221 to 362. WA does not say why. It does not publish minimum scores or cut-offs for either round. The last-invited-by-occupation lists it does publish are single EOIs, and its page currently carries only the October 2026 lists, so a September-to-October comparison of last-invited points by occupation is not possible. WA has published earlier lists for December 2025 and March 2026 (priority occupations; trade occupations), and the occupation explorer above shows an occupation’s last-invited points across those rounds and October 2026. Each number there comes from a different stream or residence list, so a spread of numbers is not a range to aim for.

WA reported invitations on 14 October 2026 for priority trade and non-trade occupations: 1,227 invitations in total, split by stream and visa in the September and October table above. WA also publishes the last EOI invited in each occupation once ranking was complete. Examples from its October 2026 priority occupations and trade occupations lists, as printed:

These are single EOIs, not minimum scores. WA states that the information does not take into account any occupation or visa subclass caps, and the lists do not say which visa subclass each EOI was for. Your EOI’s score also differs by visa, because nomination adds 5 points for the 190 and 15 for the 491. Read the examples as snapshots of who was reached, not as a threshold to aim for.

This checker applies WA’s published requirements to your answers. It adds the nomination points (5 for the 190, 15 for the 491) to the points you enter, tests the General-stream contract and work-experience rules and the Graduate-stream study rule (87 weeks), and shows where your EOI sits in WA’s ranking. Enter your Home Affairs points before nomination points.

By lodging an application you agree to work, live and settle in WA. WA nominates an applicant only once in each program year (1 July to 30 June), and invites only once per EOI. Applications are assessed on the evidence supplied at lodgement, and false or misleading information can lead to a decline.

WA may ask for more information after you lodge, and its checklist for your stream takes precedence over this summary.

WA requires at least competent English, with the minimum score in all four components of one approved test. For tests taken on or after 7 August 2025 the minimums are:

Results from approved tests taken on or before 6 August 2025 can be used within their three-year validity until 6 August 2028, at the older score bands listed on WA’s page. Your result must be valid on the day you lodge your State nomination application. British National (Overseas) passports are not acceptable as evidence of competent English.

WA charges a non-refundable $200 application fee when you lodge. It is separate from the Home Affairs visa application charge (see Home Affairs’ Visa Pricing Estimator), skills assessment fees, English test fees and health or police checks, none of which WA sets. WA’s 28 working days applies to ‘decision ready’ applications: if WA asks for more information, your application is not decision ready until you provide it. Home Affairs’ processing time is separate.

WA’s page lists a third stream, the defence industry stream, whose eligible occupations it says are on WASMOL Schedule 3. That is all the page and its linked documents say. It sets out no eligibility requirements, no occupation list and no ranking rules for the stream, WA’s occupation search returns no occupations when filtered to the defence stream, the occupation list WA exports contains no Schedule 3 rows, and the 2025–26 criteria document covers only the General and Graduate streams. The invitation tables on the page show no defence stream line either.

Until WA publishes them, anything said about which occupations qualify or what the stream requires would be a guess. The sign-up below is for readers who want an email when we update this guide after WA publishes the stream’s details.

• Subclass 190 visa requirements, from eligibility to grant
• How to score 65 points for subclasses 189, 190 and 491
• 189 vs 190 vs 491: which skilled visa is right for you?
• Canberra Matrix invitation round: latest results, for comparison with another territory
• South Australia’s 2026–27 skilled migration update
• Victoria’s 2026–27 skilled nomination program

Want your occupation, stream and EOI claims reviewed before you lodge? Book a consultation or contact our migration team.

This is general information, not personal migration advice. WA’s occupation lists, criteria, invitation rounds and fees can change, and WA reserves the right to amend them at any time; the figures above are as at 28 October 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 Government of Western Australia.