Study in Australia: news and analysis
Deadline changes, policy shifts, and application news as they happen.
RSS feedAustralia bars most international students from bringing family: the September 2026 migration overhaul explained
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced sweeping visa changes on 17 September 2026, including a family ban for most student visas that will hit Nepal and India hardest, a course-progression crackdown, a visitor visa "no further stay" condition, Working Holiday ballots, and equal points for construction trades.
65 points gets you into the pool, not a skilled visa
The 65-point pass mark lets you submit an Expression of Interest. It is not the score that gets invited. In the most recent round the minimum invited score ran from 65 for many trades to 100 for the most competitive occupations.
Ministerial Direction 119: how skilled visa processing is now ranked
Since 25 July 2026, Ministerial Direction 119 has set the order Home Affairs processes skilled visas in, ranking them by occupation and by whether you applied onshore or offshore.
The 4 June 2026 SkillSelect round: 10,000 invitations for the 189
The third and final subclass 189 round of the 2025-26 program year issued 10,000 invitations on 4 June 2026, holding the quarterly pattern. Trades cleared near 65 points; ICT and accounting still needed the high 90s.
What we're watching: pressure to overhaul the points test
The Migration Strategy flagged the points test as outdated. What a redesign might reward, and why we are not expecting it soon.
The 189 invitation rounds are now quarterly, not monthly
For the 2025-26 program year the Department shifted subclass 189 invitation rounds to a roughly quarterly cycle, with larger batches each time.
2025-26 state nomination allocations: 20,350 places for the 190 and 491
The Department confirmed 12,850 places for the subclass 190 and 7,500 for the 491 across all states and territories for the 2025-26 program year.