Skilled Migration Invitations issued on 8 December 2022

The Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) has been closed since 8 December 2022 until 30 June 2023 as no further allocation available. Currently, only the residence stage BIIP, subclass 888 visa applications are available and can seek state/territory nomination.

The Department of Home Affairs will re-open the program in the new financial year once they announce the new business migration program.

Invitation Rounds

Invitation rounds for Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) and Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored visas will be run cyclically during the 2022-23 program year. Invitation numbers in each round may vary depending on the number of applications being processed by the Department. State or territory government nominations for skilled visas will not be impacted by the departmental invitation rounds.

Occupation ceilings for invitation rounds

An 'occupation ceiling' may be applied to invitations issued under the independent, and skilled regional (provisional) visas. This means there will be a reasonable upper limit on how many Expressions of Interest can be invited for skilled migration from an occupation group. This ensures that the skilled migration program remains balanced and continues to invite intending migrants across a variety of skilled occupations.

Occupation ceiling values are based on a percentage of stock employment figures for each occupation. Employment figures are provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and represent the number of people employed in Australia in each occupation.

Occupation ceilings do not apply to State or Territory Nominated or Business Innovation and Investment visa subclasses.