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Skilled Independent Visa

Subclass 189

Start The Process

Your Eligibility Assessment will be done by us

Skills Assessment

Skills Assessment Authority will assess your skills

Expression of Interest

Lodge EOI with Department of Immigration

Apply

Lodge application with the Department of Immigration

FEATURES

The Skilled-Independent visa (subclass 189) is a permanent residence visa for points-tested skilled workers, who want to work and live in Australia. It requires 65 points and allows highly skilled workers who are not sponsored by an employer, State or Territory of Australia, or family member to live and work permanently in Australia. If you wish to apply for this visa, you must first obtain a positive skills assessment from your nominated occupation, and then lodge an Expression of Interest. If this is successful, you will be invited to lodge a visa application.

Points are awarded on the basis of the factors listed in the POINTS TEST. All factors are assessed as they are at the time you are invited to apply for this visa.

ELIGIBILITY

  • At the time that you are invited to apply for this visa, you must:

  • Be under 45 years of age

  • Nominate an occupation that is included on the relevant Occupation List (MLTSSL)

  • Have your skills assessed by the appropriate Australian skills assessing authority as suitable for your nominated occupation

  • Have competent English

THE PROCESS

Anyone who wishes to apply for this visa MUST first be INVITED to lodge an application by the Department of Immigration. In order to qualify for an invitation, you must lodge an ‘Expression of Interest’ (EOI), which sets out how you meet the requirements for this visa.

STAGE 1: INITIAL ELIGIBILITY
The first step that we will take is to conduct an initial assessment of your eligibility for this visa. This involves reviewing your qualifications, work experience, English language and other circumstances, to establish whether or not you are likely to meet the relevant requirements.

As part of this initial eligibility assessment, we will consider which MLTSSL occupation(s) you are likely to be able to nominate, and whether or not you are potentially eligible for a positive skills assessment from the relevant assessing authority for that occupation.

We will then provide you with informed and comprehensive advice about your ability to meet the minimum standards that the Department of Immigration requires migrants to fulfil, in order to qualify for an invitation to apply for this visa.

Note: Our initial assessment of your eligibility does not guarantee that you will (or will not) in fact obtain a positive skills assessment, or be issued an invitation to apply for this visa. In particular, whether or not the Department of Immigration issues you with an invitation will depend upon how your points test score compares to the scores of other potential applicants, and whether or not the Department of Immigration deems your nominated occupation to be required in Australia.

STAGE 2: SKILLS ASSESSMENT

Should our initial assessment indicate that you are eligible for a positive skills assessment and EOI, we will prepare your skills assessment application.

For each skilled occupation listed on the MLTSSL, the Department of Immigration has specified an assessing authority that may carry out skills assessments for that occupation. Only a skills assessment conducted by the  relevant assessing authority will be accepted by the Department of Immigration in support of an EOI. We will provide you with a full list of the information and documents required to support your application. When you have provided the necessary details and documents, along with the required assessment fee, we will lodge your application with the applicable skills assessing authority.


STAGE 3: EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

Once you have received a positive skills assessment from the skills assessing authority, we will prepare and lodge your EOI. Although you do not need to provide supporting documents at this stage, you MUST be able to provide evidence that the information supplied in the EOI is correct at the time that you are invited to apply for the visa.

You will subsequently receive a result and points score from the Department of Immigration, which is used to rank you against other applicants who have lodged EOIs for this visa. The ranking is based partially on whether or not your occupation is a skill that Australia requires at the time your EOI is assessed. If your EOI is successful, you will be invited to lodge a visa application.

Note: The Department of Immigration retains an EOI for 2 years from the date that it is lodged. During this time, your EOI can be updated if any of your circumstances change (e.g. you obtain a new qualification or skills assessment). If your ranking changes during this 2-year period, based on either your changing circumstances or Australia’s changing skill needs, you may be issued with an invitation to apply for the visa at that point in time.

STAGE 4: VISA APPLICATION

Once the Department of Immigration has invited you to apply for this visa, we will prepare and lodge your visa application within the specified time frame, together with all of the documents that support the information that you provided in your EOI. This includes your skills assessment, English language test results, qualifications, work references and all other required documents. Should your visa application be approved, you will be granted a permanent visa. You may be either in Australia or overseas when your visa is granted.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

HEALTH

Main applicant and all of the family members must meet health requirements.

CHARACTER

You must be of good character.

You might be asked to provide police certificates for each country you have lived in for 12 months or more, over the last 10 years (calculated immediately before the time the visa application is lodged), since turning 16 years of age.

Police Certificate is valid for 12 months for the immigration purpose.

If you have a substantial criminal record, you cannot pass the character test. For example,
You have been sentenced to 12 months or more in prison.

LOCATION

You can be in or outside Australia when you apply for the visa and when a decision is made.

DEBTS

You must have repaid, or have arranged to repay, any outstanding debts to the Australian government.

VISA CANCELLED OR REFUSED

You might not be eligible to apply for this visa if you have had a visa cancelled or refused while you were in Australia.

VISA APPLICATION FEES

Base Application Charge: AUD 3,755
Additional Applicant Charge 18 And Over : AUD 1875
Additional applicant charge under 18 : AUD 940

PROCESSING TIME

8 MONTHS
PLEASE NOTE: The actual time taken by the Department of Immigration to approve an application and grant a visa varies from case to case depending upon an applicant’s particular circumstances, and the amount of supporting information that the Department requires.

COMPARISON SUBCLASS 189/190/489

SUBCLASS 189

65 POINTS

  • Permanent Residence
  • State/Territory/Relatives Points cannot be claimed
  • Occupation should be on the MLTSSL List
  • State/Territory/Relatives cannot sponsor
  • Eligible Relatives Points cannot be claimed
  • Higher points applicants (70-85) are invited
  • The limited quota for some occupations
Read More

SUBCLASS 190

60    POINTS

  • Permanent Residence
  • State/Territory 5 Points can be claimed
  • Occupation should be on MLTSSL or STSOL
  • State/Territory can sponsor but relatives cannot.
  • Eligible Relatives Points cannot be claimed
  • 65 points applicants can get invitation
  • Strict State/Territory Nomination selection
Read More

SUBCLASS 489

55 POINTS

  • Temporary Residence
  • State/Territory or Relatives 10 Points can be claimed
  • Occupation should be on MLTSSL/STSOL/ROL
  • State/Territory/Relatives can sponsor
  • Relative or State/Territory 10 points can be claimed but not both
  • 65 points applicants can get invitation
  • Permanent Residence easy pathways after 2 years
Read More


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

It depends on the occupation you nominate. For example, if you are occupation is the one whose skills assessment authority is Engineers Australia, you have to submit English language evidence at the time of making skills assessment application. If your occupation skills assessment authority is Vetassess then you must have English language evidence at the time of making EOI application as Vetassess does not require English language evidence.

No. As the name suggests, this is an Independent visa. You must score 65 points without claiming the points for State sponsorship or relative sponsorship.

Your occupation should be on the related occupation list for 189.

An EOI is managed by the SkillSelect program of the Department of Immigration. After lodging an EOI, you will need to wait for the invitation to apply from the Department of Immigration. You will be ranked according to your score on the points test.

When you submit your EOI, you will be shown your points score but will not be able to view your ranking position. This is because your ranking will change as people enter and leave SkillSelect. More points mean a better chance of early invitation.

You will be able to complete an EOI even if you do not meet the pass mark, however, you will not be eligible to be invited to apply for a visa.

Once you have completed your EOI, it is stored in SkillSelect and is valid for two years.

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Visafast has significant expertise in handling general skilled visa applications, and can help you with: Getting your skills assessed Coming up with strategies to maximise your points score Coming up with strategies to increase your chance for invitations Lodging visa applications within tight deadlines Managing your bridging visas Getting results with minimum stress and worry for you.

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