Frequently asked questions - skilled visa nominations

Each year, the Australian Government provides states and territories with a quota of nomination places for the Skilled Nominated (Permanent) visa (subclass 190) and Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491). These quotas are published on the Department of Home Affairs Migration Program planning levels. 

The quotas, also referred to as ‘nomination allocations’, are the number of new primary applicants each state or territory can nominate in a financial year. 

The Australian Government determines the quotas provided to states and territories. 

You must be working in an occupation closely related to your skills assessment at the time of invitation. This is defined as being within the same ANZSCO Minor Group (3-digit code) as your nominated occupation.

For example, the following occupations would be considered closely related:

• 233111 Chemical Engineer
• 233211 Civil Engineer
• 233311 Electrical Engineer
• 233411 Electronics Engineer
• 233512 Mechanical Engineer
• 233612 Petroleum Engineer
• 233913 Biomedical Engineer.

To be eligible for Queensland nomination, your nominated occupation must be on the relevant Queensland skills list. If you are currently working in a related occupation not on the skills list, you can still apply and be assessed under your nominated occupation.

Yes. If you have full-time work rights, you may be eligible for Queensland nomination. You will need to make sure you meet all the requirements of your chosen nomination pathway.

No. We do not re-nominate any applicants in the same program year. 

We are also unable to re-nominate if you have made any errors with points. Please make sure you review your Expression of Interest (EOI) in detail to ensure your points are correct when submitting. 

When you complete your Registration of Interest (ROI) for Queensland nomination, you will be asked to choose one EOI for consideration. If you have more than one EOI, please choose the one that is most relevant to your current employment. 

No. You can use your existing EOI. Please make sure all details in your EOI are correct and current.

To be considered for Queensland nomination, you will need to submit a new Registration of Interest (ROI) once the program opens.

We will not consider EOIs that have less than 15 days before expiring. If your EOI is expiring, please submit a new EOI and a new ROI to be considered for invitation.

No. You are no longer required to select only Queensland, as your state of interest, in your EOI.

Yes. Please make sure your EOI is up to date to reflect your current circumstances. This includes if you have changed jobs or address, or if your English language test result has changed.

If you have already been invited to apply for Queensland nomination, please contact your Case Officer first to let them know what changes you wish to make to your EOI.

If you are living and working in Queensland, your EOI must list Australia as your ‘Usual Country of Residence’.

If you are working outside Australia, you should list the country where you are currently living.
Candidates living in Australia, but outside of Queensland, cannot apply as offshore migrants.

No. The date you submitted, or most recently updated, your EOI or ROI, does not impact your selection for Queensland nomination.

Please only submit your ROI once you meet all Migration Queensland requirements. We will not nominate applicants who meet requirements after the ROI has been submitted.

We will consider all current EOIs for Queensland nomination. Please make sure your details in the EOI are correct and up to date, and that the EOI is not due to expire in less than15 days.  

You will need to complete a new Registration of Interest (ROI) form on the Migration Queensland website to be considered for invitation.

Regional Queensland is defined according to the Department of Home Affairs' list of designated regional area postcodes.
Note: 491 visa holders, and their dependants, must live, work and study in an eligible postcode for at least 3 years to qualify for permanent residency.

You must live and work in a designated regional area to be eligible for Queensland nomination for the Skilled
Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491). Eligible regional postcodes are listed below: 

4019–4022, 4025, 4037, 4074, 4076–4078, 4124–4125, 4133, 4183–4184, 4207–4275, 4280–4287, 4300–4301, 4303–4498, 4500–4512, 4514–4519, 4521, 4550–4575, 4580–4895.

Migrants working and living in regional and remote Queensland will be prioritised to help support critical workforce shortages.

If your situation changes after you submit your ROI, you can submit a new ROI form. For example, if you have started a new job and your salary has changed, or if you have changed residential postcode, you can submit a new ROI.

Only the most recent ROI will be used for selection. You do not need to let us know if you make a new ROI submission.

When we conduct selection rounds, we will use your latest EOI from SkillSelect, so please make sure it is always up to date.

If you have been nominated, applied for, or hold a Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491), we will not nominate you for the Skilled Nominated (Permanent) visa (subclass 190). 

This also applies to the Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 489).  

On your ROI form, you can only choose one visa subclass, which must match the visa subclass chosen on your EOI. It is acceptable to include multiple visa subclasses on your EOI.

If you submit an ROI for the 190 subclass, and then submit a second ROI for the 491 subclass, only your most recent ROI will be considered.

No. Before submitting your ROI, you must have completed 100 per cent of your studies and meet the Migration Queensland work experience requirements. 

If you have completed your study but have not formally graduated, you may be eligible to apply by obtaining a letter of completion from your university.

No. Your skilled occupation must be on the Queensland Skilled Occupation List (onshore or offshore) to apply for Queensland nomination. 

We are unable to consider ROIs and EOIs submitted for occupations that are not on the Queensland Skilled Occupation List. 

There are no priority fields of study for the Queensland university graduates pathway. To be eligible for this pathway, you need to have completed a Bachelors Degree, Master’s Degree or PhD at a Queensland university, and graduated after 1 July 2021.

No. Your Queensland study does not need to be related to your nominated occupation. 

Your work experience must be closely related to your nominated occupation. This is defined as being within the same ANZSCO Minor Group (3-digit group) as your nominated occupation. 

Yes. The business you work for must have an office in Queensland. 

We are unable to accept candidates who work from a virtual office.

To be eligible, you cannot reside in Queensland and work remotely for an interstate or offshore company. 

To be eligible for Queensland nomination for the subclass 491 visa, your usual place of work must be in a regional area. This generally does not include working from home for a Brisbane-based company, unless there is a strong case from your employer.

If you hold a subclass 491 visa, you should confirm that you are complying with the visa conditions determined by the Australian Department of Home Affairs.

The ROI Skilled Partner question asks if your partner, included on your EOI, has a positive skills assessment for an occupation on LIN 19/051. If they do, you should answer ‘Yes’ to this question.

Your partner’s English language level is asked separately in the ROI Partner English question.

Your answer to this ROI question should reflect the answer on your EOI. 

In this case, your EOI will show your partner as a passport holder of the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand or Republic of Ireland, so this is the answer you should choose.

Yes. You can work from home if your employer has a physical presence in Queensland. 
Working remotely for an interstate or offshore employer does not meet the requirements of the Queensland program.  

If you are applying for subclass 491, your employer must have an established office location in a designated regional area.

Queensland has a large pipeline of construction projects leading up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. To ensure that all skilled migrants with construction skills can work in any area of Queensland, we will nominate building and construction workers for the subclass 190 visa unless they do not meet the Department of Home Affairs’ requirements for this visa. In those situations, the subclass 491 visa will be used. 

Some occupations on the Building and Construction Skills List are on the Australian Department of Home Affairs Regional Occupation List (ROL) and are only eligible for subclass 491 nomination.

If you can only achieve 65 points on the Australian Department of Home Affairs’ points test with subclass 491 nomination, we will consider you for subclass 491 nomination. 

No. You can only have one valid ROI at any point in time. 

To be considered, please choose which EOI and which visa subclass. Submitting multiple ROIs with different passport numbers, or passport numbers written incorrectly, may result in your application being refused.

If you submit multiple ROIs, only your most recent ROI will be considered. Adding false or misleading information to your ROI will result in your ROI or application being refused. This includes if the information was added in error.

If you are using a migration agent for your application, confirm with your agent who will submit the ROI form.

If you are using an agent for your application, confirm with your agent which one of you will submit the ROI form.
 

Yes. Casual employment can be used to meet Migration Queensland's minimum work experience requirements. 

You must have worked at least 20 hours per week, every week, to be eligible.

You can combine multiple eligible employments to meet the Queensland work requirement. 
Employment that is not related to your nominated occupation will not be considered towards your Queensland work experience requirement.  

If you are employed through a labour hire provider, the provider must be licensed to operate in Queensland. 

All labour hire providers operating in Queensland must be licensed under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017, including providers that are based interstate or overseas, but supply workers within Queensland. You will need to provide evidence that your labour hire provider complies with these licensing requirements.

We will select candidates based on factors including the years of related experience entered in your EOI.  We will only consider work experience that is declared as related to your nominated occupation on your EOI. 

To confirm your work experience you will need to provide reference letters from all employment declared for your nominated occupation. The reference letters should confirm your employment dates, job title and position duties. If these letters are not in English, a translated copy must be provided.

For self-employed applicants, please provide a Statutory Declaration outlining your work history, and supporting documents for each year of related self-employed work.

Supporting documents can be:

• Tax returns (showing your business/occupation)
• Tax invoices, with banks statements to show you received the invoiced amount
• Letters of reference from clients for work carried out.

No. All candidates are required to have at least Competent English. 

Being a citizen of and holding a passport from the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand or the Republic of Ireland is deemed to meet the Competent language requirement. 

We consider a range of factors to select and invite candidates to apply for Queensland nomination. These include your: 

• Skills and qualifications
• Work experience, salary, and ability to find and keep a job
• Location of employment
• Age
• English competency
• Partner’s skills.   

We also look to support occupations that need skilled workers the most, including in regional, rural and remote areas.

Top-ranking candidates are selected within their nominated occupation group.

Queensland selection is not based on the Australian Department of Home Affairs’ points test. We consider a range of factors, including your nominated occupation, annual salary, years of related employment experience, employment location, age, qualifications, English language ability, and partner skills. 

During each invitation round, we consider all candidates who have a valid Expression of Interest (EOI) in SkillSelect and Migration Queensland’s Registration of Interest (ROI). Please make sure you follow all Migration Queensland requirements.

We will not respond to any enquiries asking about an individual’s chance of selection or why they were not selected for invitation.

Being invited to apply for Queensland nomination is a highly competitive process. This is due to the limited number of nomination places and the high quantity of prospective candidates. As a result, there is no guarantee we will invite you to apply for Queensland nomination.

We cannot indicate the likelihood of an individual being invited to apply for nomination. This is because the pool of candidates seeking nomination is dynamic and constantly changing.

No. We cannot give priority in selection to candidates whose documents are about to expire. Please ensure your documents remain valid while waiting for invitation. You should arrange new documents or extensions before the current document expires.

You have 14 days to submit your application, which includes paying the application fee. If your application fee is not received within 14 days, your application will be closed and you will not be considered again within the program year.

f there is an error when you try to make a payment, click the 'Back' button at the bottom of your screen and try again to enter your details. If you are still experiencing difficulties with your payment, contact us.

Most payment issues are due to: 

• insufficient funds on your card, or 

• your bank stopping payment because it is flagged as a suspicious withdrawal. In this case, you will need to contact your bank.

No. You do not need to provide certified copies of your documents as evidence. 

No. The application fee is non-refundable. This includes if your application is unsuccessful or you decide to withdraw your application.

Our processing times vary. Application assessments often take 2 to 4 weeks from receipt of a completed application and payment of the application processing fee.

We are unable to answer any enquiries regarding specific timeframes for application assessments.