September SC189 invite happening? Window into the migration world 07 Sept 2026
Why even ask if there will be an invite round in September. The Governments own website (SkillSelect) has a banner saying that a SC189 invite round is expected by 30 September 2026. So there will be a round in the next three weeks, right?
Well trying to predict what the Government will do around Migration is a bit like playing Fantasy Footy wearing a blindfold. Anything you get right is probably as much luck as judgement. In the last six months or so the Government have increased visa fees by 25%, effectively closed the SC407 training visa as an onshore path and radically reshaped the processing priorities. All with minimal notice and all unexpected.
That said the decisions and timing might be unpredictable, but the Government is also consistent. Everything it is doing lines up with stated objectives to reduce Net Overseas Migration (NOM). NOM is the number of people coming into the country less the number leaving the country, it is the amount of ‘extra’ people in Australia. Reducing it is now policy across all the major parties. Cutting access to ‘loophole’ visas, making migration more expensive and prioritizing onshore applicants all should help reduce NOM.
How can we make sense of this? Aren’t these things contradictory?
Well yes, a little. But the Program Planning Levels page helps explain it[1]. There are 21,090 SC189’s in the plan for this Financial Year. Priority is going to go to those already onshore (“Across both the Skilled and Family programs within the Permanent Program the Government will prioritise applications from onshore migrants, allocating 129,590 places to migrants already living in Australia”, this is out of 185,000 total places). So those 21,000 visas need invite rounds to fill.
And historically we have almost always had an invite in the first quarter of the Financial Year, going back to 2021/22, the only year we didn’t was 2023 when we had to wait until December. Apart from that the latest we have had to wait is the 5th of September.
Which was this weekend.
So we are already a little later than average. We all know that the Minister pulled out of a speech where he was expected to announce changes to policy that would further reduce NOM[2]. And the changes to processing priorities emphasise certain, key, sectors – construction, healthcare, teaching. It’s not unrealistic to wonder if adjustments are being made that could also change how invitations work.
And does that mean we will get an invite round before September 30th? I think it is fair to say it is ‘expected’. But expected is not guaranteed. I hope we will get one, but I suspect it will be later in the month rather than earlier and I wouldn’t place any bets on it.
What are the practical takeaways? To put it simply you should plan ahead. Everything in migration takes longer than you think. Getting an invite is the midpoint in a process; there is a lot of work to get to that stage and that work takes time. If you wait until you have six months left on your current visa before starting to look into points tested options, then you may be too late.
And Sponsorship / Nomination is an increasingly attractive option. Yes, you are tied to an employer, but you have much greater control over when things happen and much more certainty around your chances. There are over 58,000 places allocated to the SC186 / SC187 this year (the SC482 is outside the linked table) so I anticipate more people will be looking at employer supported pathways over the next year, as other pathways become less predictable.
This is all very much just opinion and speculation. It reflects what we know at the time of publication but shouldn’t be relied on as personal migration advice. If you would like to speak to a Registered Migration Agent about your visa options, please reach out to hello@mcdonaghmigrations.com.au.
Andrew McDonagh | Registered Migration Agent | MARN 2418484
[1] https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/migration-program-planning-levels
[2] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-04/tony-burke-national-press-club-migration-cuts/106996936