Ministerial Direction 121 and 122: Who Gets Their Skilled Visa Processed First From 19 September 2026

Australia re-sorted its skilled visa queue on 19 September 2026. Ministerial Direction 121 now sets the processing order for the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), and Ministerial Direction 122 does the same for the permanent and regional skilled visas, including subclasses 186, 189, 190 and 491. Both replace Direction 119, which lasted eight weeks.

The change that matters most: if your occupation is in construction, healthcare, teaching, agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, resources, law enforcement or defence, your application now sits at the front of the queue whether you applied from inside or outside Australia. For everyone else, applying from inside Australia still comes first.

Applications already lodged and still waiting are re-sorted under the new order, so your place may have moved even though you did nothing.

What changed on 19 September 2026?

Direction 119 was one rule covering eleven visa subclasses and the employer’s nomination (the sponsorship paperwork an employer lodges before a 482 or 186 visa). It has been split in two.

Direction 121 covers only subclass 482 visa applications. Direction 122 covers the other ten subclasses: 186, 187, 189, 190, 191, 489, 491, 494, 887 and 888.

Both were signed on 18 September 2026 and started the next day. Neither covers nominations. Direction 119 told visa officers which nominations to decide first; the new directions are silent on them, and as at 21 September 2026 the Department has not published a separate order for nominations.

Three other things changed:

• More priority sectors — agriculture, aquaculture, fishing and the resources sector join healthcare, teaching and construction. Law enforcement and defence are also in the top tier.
• A Specialist Skills tier for the 482 — applications in the Specialist Skills stream (the Skills in Demand stream for jobs paying at least $146,576 a year) get their own tier, second only to the priority sectors.
• A compelling-circumstances rule — a visa officer must move an application out of order where compelling circumstances apply. Direction 119 had no such rule.

Who gets a 482 visa processed first under Direction 121?

Direction 121 puts subclass 482 applications in five tiers. The visa officer works from the top down.

1. Priority-sector occupations — the applicant’s nominated occupation is in construction, healthcare, teaching, agriculture, aquaculture, fishing or the resources sector, or relates to Australia’s law enforcement or defence interests. Inside or outside Australia makes no difference here.
2. Specialist Skills stream — the applicant is applying under the Specialist Skills stream of the Skills in Demand visa. Again, inside or outside Australia makes no difference.
3. Everyone else who applied from inside Australia — the main applicant was in Australia on the day the application was lodged.
4. Everyone else who applied from outside Australia, on their own — the main applicant was overseas when they lodged, and no family member’s application has been combined with theirs.
5. All remaining applications — including overseas applicants whose family members applied with them.

Family members who apply together with the main applicant share that applicant’s tier. The order applies to the visa application only. Whether the visa is granted still depends on the usual criteria: the occupation, the salary, the skills assessment and the sponsor’s approval.

Who gets a 186, 189, 190 or 491 visa processed first under Direction 122?

Direction 122 uses the same logic with four tiers, because there is no Specialist Skills stream in these visas.

1. Priority-sector occupations — the same nine sectors as Direction 121, inside or outside Australia.
2. Everyone else who applied from inside Australia.
3. Everyone else who applied from outside Australia, on their own — not combined with a family member’s application.
4. All remaining applications.

The ten visas covered are the Employer Nomination Scheme (186), Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (187), Skilled Independent (189), Skilled Nominated (190), Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) (191), Skilled Regional Sponsored (489), Skilled Work Regional (491), Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (494), Skilled Residence (887) and Business Skills (888).

Where a visa subclass is capped for the program year (the government sets a maximum number of grants under section 85 of the Migration Act), Direction 122 says the same order decides who gets a place first.

Which jobs count as a priority sector?

Both directions define the sectors by occupation code, not by industry or employer. Your nominated occupation (the ANZSCO code on the nomination or skills assessment) decides it. The definitions are the same in Direction 121 and Direction 122.

• Construction — every construction trade (ANZSCO group 33) and construction and mining labourer (group 82), plus construction and engineering managers, architects, civil engineers, building and civil engineering technicians, safety inspectors, sheetmetal and structural steel workers, concrete and stone machine operators, crane and earthmoving plant operators, and electricians (341111 and 341112).
• Healthcare — every health professional (ANZSCO group 25) and health and welfare support worker (group 411), plus medical scientists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers, medical technicians, aged or disabled carers, nursing support workers and personal care assistants.
• Teaching — school teachers (group 241), child care centre managers, school principals, faculty heads, university lecturers, vocational education teachers and child care workers.
• Agriculture, aquaculture and fishing — defined by what the position does rather than by code: growing and harvesting crops; fishing, breeding, raising or managing livestock, poultry or seafood; farm support work such as animal health, irrigation, quality assurance, inspection or supervision; and slaughtering, boning, slicing, processing or inspecting primary produce for sale.
• Resources — a position that directly supports exploring for, extracting or producing minerals, oil and gas or coal, including mine closure and rehabilitation. The direction lists mining engineers, geologists and geophysicists, drillers, miners and shot firers, mining production managers, surveyors and spatial scientists, metallurgists, fitters, fitter-welders and metal machinists.
• Law enforcement — police officers (unit group 4413) nominated by the Australian Federal Police or a state or territory police force. A private security role does not count.
• Defence — work delivering AUKUS Pillar I (nuclear-powered submarines) or Pillar II (advanced capability); or a position nominated or sponsored by the Australian Defence Force or the Department of Defence; or a position with a letter of support from either, where the work is at a defence facility or supplies defence materiel or technology.

Two things follow. A nurse is in; a hospital administrator is not. A carpenter is in; a project manager outside unit group 1331 is not. The full lists are in the definitions section of each direction on the Department’s skilled visa processing priorities page.

Does it still matter whether you applied from inside Australia?

Only outside the top tier. Under Direction 119, a nurse who applied from Tehran or Manila sat two tiers below the same nurse applying from Melbourne. From 19 September 2026 they sit in the same tier, at the front. That is the change offshore applicants in the priority sectors have been waiting for.

If your occupation is not in a priority sector, the old pattern holds. An applicant who lodged from inside Australia is processed before one who lodged from overseas, and an overseas applicant whose partner or children applied with them sits in the last tier of all.

The test is where the main applicant was on the day the application was lodged, not where they are now.

What happens to applications already lodged?

Both directions apply to every application that had not been decided by 19 September 2026. Nothing continues under Direction 119. An application lodged in June 2026 is sorted the same way as one lodged today.

A few categories sit outside both directions. They do not apply to applications sent back by the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) for a fresh decision, or to applications where the ART has already substituted its own decision.

They also do not apply to applications that plainly cannot meet the visa criteria, or to family members who applied separately from a main applicant who was in Australia at the time.

Can a visa officer skip the queue?

Yes, and in some cases they must. Both directions require the visa officer to depart from the standard order for a particular application where they are satisfied it involves compelling circumstances.

Direction 121 gives three examples: circumstances affecting community safety, the continuity of essential religious, cultural or community services in Australia, and Australia’s international relations. Direction 122 is limited to the first two.

This is a narrow door. It is written for cases like a religious leader whose congregation has no one else, or a worker a police service cannot wait for. It is not a general way to ask for faster processing.

Do you need to do anything?

For most applicants, no. The re-sort happens inside the Department. Three checks are worth doing:

• Check the occupation code on your nomination — the tier is decided by the nominated occupation, not the job title. An occupation that sits just outside a priority group stays in the general queue.
• Keep the application decision-ready — a priority place is lost quickly if the officer has to write to you for a police clearance, a health examination or an English test result.
• Do not withdraw and re-lodge — an application lodged before 19 September 2026 is already sorted under the new order. Re-lodging costs a second visa application charge and buys nothing.

If you are overseas, outside the priority sectors and your family applied with you, expect the longest wait of any group.

Whether it is worth bringing the family application forward separately, or waiting to add them after grant, depends on your visa and your family’s situation; that is a question for advice, not a general rule.

What does this mean for employers?

A nomination is no longer covered by any processing direction, so nomination timing is now the part of the process the Department has said least about.

Once the visa application is lodged, three things decide its tier: the nominated occupation, the stream (Specialist Skills sits in its own tier), and where the applicant was when they lodged.

For a business recruiting from overseas in construction, health, teaching, agriculture or mining, the change is direct. An offshore candidate in one of those occupations is no longer behind every onshore applicant in the country. For an overseas candidate in any other occupation, the wait is unchanged and still sits behind the onshore queue.

Frequently asked questions

This article draws on a Migration Institute of Australia (MIA) member notice and official government sources, fully rewritten for Arta Migration readers.