July 24 2026:
Direction 119: New Priority Processing arrangements for Skilled Visas

Direction 119: what it means for your visa application.

If you have a skilled visa application or an employer nomination waiting with the Department, this affects you. The good news is that there is nothing you need to lodge, pay or fix.

Direction 119 commenced on 25 July 2026 and replaced Direction 105, which had set skilled visa processing priorities since December 2023. It changes the order the Department works through applications. Importantly, it applies to applications already lodged and still waiting, not only to new ones. So if you applied months ago and you are still waiting, your position in the queue has shifted, quietly and without notice.

Here is what changed and what it means for you.

How the queue works now

Two things set your position. Your occupation, and where you were on the day the application was lodged.

That second one is worth pausing on. It is your location when you applied, not where you are today. If you applied from overseas and have since arrived in Australia, that does not lift you.

From first to last, the order is:

The same order applies to employer nominations, based on where the nominee was when the nomination went in.

There is one consequence here that catches people out. The healthcare, teaching and construction uplift only exists for applicants who were already in Australia. A registered nurse applying from overseas sits in the fifth group alongside everyone else offshore. There is no priority tier for offshore healthcare, teaching or construction.

Direction 119 covers nominations for subclasses 186, 187, 482 and 494, and visa applications for subclasses 186, 187, 189, 190, 191, 482, 489, 491, 494, 887 and 888. Subclass 482 is inside this framework for the first time, having sat outside Direction 105 altogether. State and territory nomination for 190 and 491 is not covered.

Check your occupation code, not the label

“Healthcare,” “teaching” and “construction” sound like whole sectors. They are not. Each is a defined list of ANZSCO groups, and a good number of roles you would naturally describe as healthcare or construction sit outside them.

Construction takes in construction trades workers, construction and mining labourers, construction managers, architects and landscape architects, civil engineering professionals, architectural, building and surveying technicians, safety inspectors, other building and engineering technicians, sheetmetal workers, structural steel and welding trades workers, machine operators working with clay, concrete, glass and stone, crane, hoist and lift operators, earthmoving plant operators, and electricians in both the general and special class occupations.

Healthcare takes in health professionals, health and welfare support workers, medical scientists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers, medical technicians, aged or disabled carers, nursing support workers and personal care assistants.

Teaching takes in school teachers, child care centre managers, school principals, vocational education teachers, child care workers and university lecturers.

Police and defence are narrower again. The police occupations only attract priority where the sponsor is the Australian Federal Police or a state or territory police force. Defence covers AUKUS Pillar I and Pillar II occupations, and specified Defence Force roles sponsored by the ADF or the Department of Defence.

If your occupation sits near one of these lists without being on it, you are in the fourth or fifth group. It is worth checking the code rather than working from the job title.

What Direction 119 leaves alone

Your eligibility. The Direction says so expressly. The skilled occupation lists have not changed and every requirement in the Act and Regulations still applies in exactly the same way. Being in the fifth group affects how long you wait and nothing else. Your application is as strong today as it was last week.

If you employ sponsored workers

The commercial reality is that offshore recruitment timelines have become harder to predict. Sponsoring someone overseas in an occupation outside the priority groups now means waiting behind every onshore application in the country. Better to build that into your planning now than to discover it when a start date arrives.

Two things will help. Check the ANZSCO code before you promise anyone a start date, because the gap between the third and fifth group can turn on a single unit group. And if you are weighing comparable onshore and offshore candidates, the processing difference is real and worth putting on the scales.

If you are waiting on your own application

Do nothing. There is no form, no fee and no re-lodgement. If your application is undecided, it has already been re-sorted.

Please do not travel on the strength of this. Your position was set by where you were on the day you applied, and arriving in Australia now will not change it.

Do check your occupation code. If you were in Australia when you lodged and you work in healthcare, teaching or construction, you may be sitting better than you think.

Talk to us

If you have an application or a nomination on hand and you want to know where it now sits, send us your lodgement details and we will work it out and tell you what it means for your timing.

For employers with a pipeline, we can go through your current sponsorship applications with you and flag the ones that are exposed.

One conversation, a straight answer, quickly.

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Our migration team is available to support you. Contact MB Lawyers Immigration to discuss your circumstances.

This is general information about a change to visa processing priorities. It is not legal advice and does not take your circumstances into account. Please get in touch for advice on your own matter.