The Pacific Engagement Visa (192): the ballot, who can register, the job offer that must follow selection, and what the visa gives

MARN 1576536

What the visa is

The Pacific Engagement Visa, subclass 192, was created in 2023 and first balloted in 2024 as a permanent migration pathway for the Pacific island countries and Timor-Leste, distinct from the temporary Pacific labour scheme and from the skilled programme; it allocates up to three thousand permanent places a year by a ballot, so that the chance of a place does not depend on skills, points or an employer's sponsorship, and then requires the selected person to show the things a settled migrant needs, a job, health, character and enough English to get by. The programme is run by the Department of Home Affairs with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which publishes the participating countries and their allocations before each ballot, and the visa is granted in the ordinary way on an application lodged after selection. The labour agreements guide covers the temporary Pacific labour route on the employer side.

Who can register

• A citizen of a country participating in that year's ballot, holding a valid passport of it.
• Aged at least 18 and not more than 45 at the time of registration.
• Born in a participating country, or with a parent who was born in one.
• Not an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and not a New Zealand citizen, as the rules exclude them.
• In the home country, in a third country, or in Australia on a temporary visa.

Each person registers once per ballot, and a couple register separately, each with their own chance, or one registers and includes the other as a family member if selected. A person who does not meet the age or citizenship criteria at registration is not selected, and a registration that misstates them is a registration that fails at application.

The participating countries and allocations

The countries that take part change from year to year as each government agrees to participate, and each has an allocation of places set by agreement; the Department publishes the list and the allocations before the ballot opens, and the published list for the year is the only reliable reference, since the countries in one year's ballot are not necessarily those in the next and some have joined or paused. The allocations run from a few dozen places for the smallest countries to more than a thousand for the largest, and selection is random within each country's allocation, so the odds depend on the number who register from that country against its share. The Department's Pacific Engagement Visa pages and the programme's own site carry the current list, and an applicant checks it rather than relying on a previous year.

The ballot

The ballot opens for a period of about a month each programme year, in the middle of the calendar year in the years so far, and registration is online through ImmiAccount with the passport details, the birth and parentage details, and the registration fee, which is small, set at twenty-five dollars at the time of writing and published each year. Registration is not an application and does not need documents beyond the identity details; the documents come at application. After the ballot closes the Department selects registrants at random within each country's allocation, in one or more rounds through the year as places remain, and notifies those selected through ImmiAccount. Registrants not selected in that year's ballot register again the next year, with no carry-over and no advantage from prior registration.

Selection and the window

Selection is an invitation to apply for the visa within a period the Department sets, which has been a number of months, and it is not a visa, not a right to a visa, and not a right to enter Australia; a selected registrant who does not lodge a complete application within the window loses the selection, and the place is reallocated. Within the window the registrant must obtain the job offer, arrange the health examinations and the police certificates for the family, meet the English standard, and lodge, which for a family in a Pacific country with a single panel physician is a programme of work that starts the day the selection arrives. The Department can extend the window for a selected registrant in some circumstances and says so in the notification.

The job offer

The primary applicant must have a formal offer of ongoing employment in Australia from an employer, in writing, setting out the position, the pay, the location and the ongoing nature of the work, for a period of at least a year, from an employer who is operating lawfully and who the Department can verify; the occupation can be anything, the employer does not need to be an approved sponsor and there is no labour market testing, no nomination and no skills assessment, which makes the visa the simplest permanent work-based route Australia has. The offer is genuine employment, not a letter of intent, and the Department checks the employer's existence, the position's reality and the pay's compliance with Australian law; an offer bought, or from a relative's business that has no work, is the application that fails. Pacific labour scheme employers, who know the workers and have ongoing positions, provide most offers, and a worker in Australia on the Pacific labour visa with an employer who wants to keep them is the typical grant. Where the primary applicant's partner has the offer instead, the roles can be arranged so that the partner is the primary applicant, which the consultation works out. The labour agreements guide covers the employers who run Pacific labour.

The application

The application is lodged in ImmiAccount against the selection, with the visa application charge, the job offer, the identity documents, the health examinations arranged through the panel physician in the home country or Bupa in Australia, the police certificates for each adult, and evidence that the primary applicant meets the English standard, which is a modest level, functional English as the Department measures it, shown by a test result at a low score or by education in English; family members are not required to meet it. The application is decided by an officer in the ordinary way, with the criteria assessed as at the time of decision, and a selected registrant who no longer meets the age or citizenship criteria at application, or whose job offer has lapsed, is refused. Processing has been months. The medical examination guide covers the health requirement.

Family members

The selected registrant's partner, and dependent children, are included in the application as members of the family unit, each meeting health and character, without a separate selection or a separate job offer; a partner who was separately selected can be included or can apply on their own selection. Children must be dependent in the sense the regulations define, and a child of a previous relationship needs the other parent's consent in the usual way. The family is granted permanent residence together. The family unit guide sets out who is included.

Registering from Australia

A citizen of a participating country who is in Australia on a temporary visa, including the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility visa, a student visa or a working holiday visa, registers in the ballot in the same way and, if selected, applies in Australia with the job offer, which for a labour mobility worker is commonly the current employer's; the visa is granted onshore and the applicant does not return home to collect it. The rules for each year's ballot say whether onshore registrants are included and on what terms, and the applicant must hold a lawful visa at application. A labour mobility worker whose employer will not offer ongoing work is free to find another employer who will, and the offer does not need to be from the current one.

What the visa gives

• Permanent residence from the day of grant, with the right to live, work and study anywhere in Australia, with no requirement to stay with the employer who made the offer beyond ordinary good faith.
• Medicare, and access to the settlement and social security entitlements of a permanent resident under the ordinary waiting periods, with some supports specific to the programme.
• The right to sponsor family for later visas, and a pathway to Australian citizenship after the ordinary residence period.
• A travel facility for five years, renewable by a resident return visa thereafter.
• The programme's own settlement support, including assistance with the move and the first months, as the Department describes it each year.

The honest note

Nothing an agent does improves a registrant's chance in the ballot; the registration is a form and a fee, and anyone who offers to secure selection for a price is a fraud. The place where help matters is after selection, when the window is running and the job offer, the health examinations, the police certificates, the English evidence and the family members' documents have to come together in a country where each takes time, and where a lapsed offer or a missed window loses a permanent visa that chance gave once. A selected registrant who has an employer and wants the application done right books the consultation; a registrant waiting for the ballot does not need to. The citizenship guide covers what follows permanent residence.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The subclass 192 criteria in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, the ballot provisions in the regulations and the legislative instruments that fix each year’s participating countries, allocations, registration period and fee, and the Department’s and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s published programme information, as at the date above; the participating countries, the allocations, the window and the English standard are set for each programme year and the current year’s published position governs. Outcomes depend on the ballot and on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result or improve the odds of selection (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.