Skilled visa processing priorities from 19 September 2026: Directions 121 and 122

MARN 1576536

What a processing direction is

Section 499 of the Migration Act lets the Minister give written directions to the Department about how it performs its functions, and processing directions are the ones that tell officers which applications to consider first. They bind the Department, they are published, and they apply to applications already lodged when they commence as well as to new ones. They are about order, not outcome: a direction decides which complete application an officer opens next, and nothing about what the officer decides when it is opened. Two directions commenced on 19 September 2026, revoking Direction 119, which had governed skilled processing since 2022.

Direction 121: the 482 order

1. Priority sectors. Applications where the primary applicant's nominated occupation is in one of the nine sectors listed below, whether the applicant is in or outside Australia.
2. Specialist Skills stream. Applications in the Specialist Skills stream of the 482 that are not already in the first tier.
3. Other applicants in Australia. Applications by a primary applicant who was in Australia when the application was lodged.
4. Certain applicants outside Australia. Applications by a primary applicant who was outside Australia at lodgement and whose application is not combined with another person's.
5. All other applications.

Secondary applicants take the priority of the primary applicant they are combined with. Within a tier, applications are processed in the Department's ordinary order, broadly by date of lodgement and readiness.

Direction 122: the permanent and provisional order

1. Priority sectors. The same nine sectors, in or outside Australia.
2. Other applicants in Australia.
3. Certain applicants outside Australia, where the application is not combined with another person's.
4. All other applications.

Direction 122 covers the 186, 189, 190, 191, 491 and 494, and the legacy 187, 489, 887 and 888 subclasses still being processed. There is no Specialist Skills tier because those visas have no such stream.

The priority sectors

Construction; healthcare; teaching; agriculture; aquaculture; fishing; resources, meaning positions that directly support exploration, extraction or production and certain mine closure and rehabilitation roles; law enforcement; and defence, including positions supporting Australia's defence interests under the AUKUS arrangements. Whether an occupation falls within a sector is decided by the nominated occupation and, for employer-sponsored visas, the nominating employer's activity, as the directions define them; the consultation checks a specific occupation against the text.

Onshore, offshore and combined applications

Outside the priority sectors, where the primary applicant was when the application was lodged decides the tier: in Australia before outside. An offshore primary applicant whose application is combined with a partner's or a child's is in the last tier; an offshore primary applicant applying alone is one above. The rule is about the primary applicant's location at lodgement, not at decision, and about combination at lodgement, so adding a family member after lodging does not move an application down, and an onshore applicant who later travels does not move it up or down.

What changed from Direction 119

• The regional tier is gone. Direction 119 placed applications for regional visas and regional positions ahead of others; the new directions place a 491 or 494 on the sector of the occupation and the applicant's location like any other application.
• The sector list is expressed as nine named sectors rather than the previous healthcare and teaching priority with other categories.
• The 482 has a Specialist Skills tier of its own, below the sectors and above the rest.
• The 482 and the permanent and provisional visas are governed by separate directions, so a change to one does not alter the other.
• Accredited sponsor status is not a tier in either direction; the benefit of accreditation sits at the nomination stage and in the evidence required.

What the directions do not change

The criteria for every visa, which are unchanged. Processing times, which the directions reorder rather than shorten; a tier that is processed first is processed first out of the same number of officers. An application with a health examination outstanding, a police certificate missing or a request for information unanswered, which waits in its tier until it is complete. And the Department's capacity to process complete applications in a tier in whatever order it finds efficient. The directions decide who waits behind whom, and that is all they decide.

Reading your own place

1. Identify the direction: 482 under 121, the rest under 122.
2. Check whether the nominated occupation is in a priority sector. If it is, you are in the first tier wherever you are.
3. For the 482, check whether the application is in the Specialist Skills stream.
4. Otherwise, note where the primary applicant was at lodgement and whether the application was combined.
5. Read the current processing times for the subclass against that tier, and plan on the longer end for the lower tiers. The processing times report is updated monthly.

Moving up

An application's tier is fixed by its facts at lodgement and cannot be changed by request. What can change is the next application: an employer in a priority sector that nominates in a priority occupation, a 482 nominated at the Specialist Skills threshold, an application lodged while the applicant is in Australia rather than after they leave, a family lodged together under an onshore primary applicant rather than combined offshore. For a worker choosing between two employers or a sponsor choosing between two streams, the direction is now part of the arithmetic, and the consultation does the arithmetic. For a pending application in a low tier, the remedies for delay are the ordinary ones, set out in visa application taking too long.

Book a consultation — $330 inc. GST, credited

General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Ministerial Directions 121 and 122 under section 499 of the Migration Act 1958, commenced 19 September 2026, as summarised from the instruments and published commentary at the date above; the text of each direction governs, including its definitions of the priority sectors and the subclasses covered. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.