( Insights · The points test )
Sixty-five is the floor, not the finish
Every factor of the skilled points test (age, English, experience, education and the rest) explained interactively, straight from Schedule 6D.
( How it works )
A ledger of your circumstances
The points test is the selection engine of the points-tested visas: Skilled Independent (189), Skilled Nominated (190) and Skilled Work Regional (491). It is set out in Schedule 6D, Migration Regulations 1994: a fixed ledger of factors, each rewarding a circumstance the framework values: youth, English, skilled experience, education, and ties that suggest you will thrive.
Sixty-five points makes you eligible to lodge an expression of interest. It rarely makes you competitive: invitations go to the highest-ranked candidates within the room each occupation is given. Two details are widely missed: the combined skilled employment score is capped at 20 points no matter how long your career, and every claim is assessed on evidence at the time of invitation, not on hope.
( Build a score )
Stack your circumstances toward the line
Choose the circumstances that resemble yours and watch the tower rise. The dashed line is the eligibility floor; the colours are the factors doing the lifting.
Age at invitation
English language
Skilled employment – overseas (last 10 years)
Combined with Australian employment, capped at 20 points.
Skilled employment – in Australia (last 10 years)
Combined with overseas employment, capped at 20 points.
Highest qualification
Specialist education (research masters/doctorate in STEM, 2 academic years in Australia)
Australian study requirement
Professional Year in Australia
Credentialled community language
Study in regional Australia
Partner status
Nomination
Indicative and educational only - every factor is assessed on evidence at the time of invitation, several carry detailed definitions, and reaching 65 places you in the pool rather than guaranteeing an invitation.
( The other half of the story )
A high score enters the pool. Priority decides who leaves it.
The points test ranks candidates, but FOI-released departmental documents show that 189 invitation rounds run on a tiered occupation model, with ceilings that give some occupations twenty times the room of others. Your score and your occupation’s tier work together, and reading them together is how realistic strategy is made.
Read: how 189 invitations are actually prioritised →Source: Migration Regulations 1994.
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