September 19 2026:
MD119 Is Gone: What Ministerial Directions 121 & 122 Mean for Skilled Visa Processing
MD119 Is Gone: What Ministerial Directions 121 & 122 Mean for Skilled Visa Processing
Two days after Tony Burke used his National Press Club address of 17 Sep 2026, to flag sweeping changes to Australia’s migration settings, the Department of Home Affairs has already moved on one front: how skilled visa applications get processed.
Ministerial Direction 119 – the instrument that’s shaped skilled visa processing priorities since July – has now been replaced. As of 19 September 2026, two new directions govern the queue:
- Ministerial Direction 121 – temporary skilled visas
- Ministerial Direction 122 – provisional and permanent skilled visas
If you have a pending nomination or application, here’s what actually changed.
Why two directions instead of one
MD119 covered temporary, provisional and permanent skilled visas under a single processing order. Splitting it into two brings the priority tiers in line with how each visa type actually works – MD121 includes a Specialist Skills stream tier that only makes sense for the Skills in Demand (subclass 482) visa’s own stream structure, and MD122 doesn’t need it because none of the visas it covers use that structure. It’s a more precise instrument – and, as set out below, the priority logic itself has shifted too, not just the sector list.
Ministerial Direction 121: Temporary Skilled Visas
Covers: Skills in Demand (subclass 482) visa (and the repealed Temporary Skill Shortage subclass 482, for legacy applications).
Processing order:
- Applications in Construction, Healthcare, Teaching, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fishing or Resources, or relating to Australia’s law enforcement or defence interests
- Applications in the Specialist Skills stream
- Applications lodged while the applicant was in Australia
- Applications lodged while the primary applicant was outside Australia, and not combined with another person’s application (ie. without dependents / family members)
- Everything else
Ministerial Direction 122: Provisional & Permanent Skilled Visas
Covers: subclasses 186, 187, 189, 190, 191, 489, 491, 494, 887 and 888.
Processing order:
- Applications in Construction, Healthcare, Teaching, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fishing or Resources, or relating to Australia’s law enforcement or defence interests
- Applications lodged while the applicant was in Australia
- Applications lodged while the primary applicant was outside Australia, and not combined with another person’s application (ie. without dependents / family members)
- Everything else
What’s actually different from MD119
- Three sectors are genuinely new; three carry over. Construction, healthcare and teaching were already priority sectors under MD119 – but only for applicants who were also onshore at the time of application. Agriculture, aquaculture, fishing and resources are the real additions Burke flagged on 17 September, now written into an operative instrument.
- Sector priority no longer looks tied to being onshore. This is the change worth reading twice. Under MD119, you needed the priority occupation and to be in Australia to reach the top tier – an offshore applicant in construction, healthcare or teaching got no benefit from their occupation at all. Under MD121 and MD122, tier one is written simply as applications “relating to” the priority sectors, with no onshore qualifier attached – onshore and offshore status only starts to matter from tier three (MD121) or tier two (MD122), among applications that don’t already fall into a priority sector. On the plain wording, an offshore nomination in a priority sector may now rank ahead of an onshore nomination outside one. Worth confirming with us before you rely on it, but it’s a meaningfully different design from MD119, not just a longer list.
- The instrument is now split by visa type. You’re checking MD121 or MD122 depending on the subclass, not one direction for everything – a structural change even where it doesn’t alter your own processing order.
What this means for you
If you were told your matter’s position under “MD119,” that reference is now out of date – check it against MD121 or MD122 directly, against your occupation’s current sector status. A childcare Centre Manager application via subclass 494, for example, now sits under MD122, not MD121.
If your nominee is offshore in a priority sector, this may be materially better news than it would have been under MD119 – worth a proper check rather than an assumption either way.
This is one confirmed piece of the broader package Burke flagged on 17 September. The points test redesign, the expansion of the No Further Stay (condition 8503) to all visitor visas, international student family visa changes and the working holiday maker ballot are all still working their way toward formal instruments. We’ll keep tracking each as it lands.
If you have a pending skilled visa nomination or application, it’s worth having it checked against MD121 or MD122 specifically – get in touch and we’ll walk you through where it now sits.
This article is general information only, current as at 21 September 2026, and does not constitute legal advice. Ministerial Directions are updated regularly – always confirm the current instrument before relying on it. Source: Department of Home Affairs, Skilled visa processing priorities.
