Australia's Next Skilled Visa Invitation Round Expected by September 30 as Graduate Visa Numbers Surge 170%
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What the next 189 round means for applicants
The department has updated its SkillSelect page to confirm the round will be conducted by the end of the month, though it hasn't given an exact date. Anyone with an active Expression of Interest is being encouraged to check it over before then: whether the nominated occupation still lines up with recent invitation patterns, whether points claims are accurate and documented, and whether skills assessments and English test results are still valid.
The last round, held on June 4, offers a useful preview of what to expect. It issued 10,000 invitations, with a tie-break date of April 24. Healthcare, education, social work, and some construction trades did relatively well, with some registered nurses, teachers, and social workers getting invited at around 75 points, and some construction trades occupations around 65.
Several ICT, accounting, quantity surveying, and engineering-related occupations barely featured, a reminder that a high points score on its own doesn't guarantee an invitation, since occupation ceilings limit how many people from any one occupation group can be invited in a round.
A 170% surge in graduate visa holders
- Next 189 round: expected by 30 September 2026
- Last round: 10,000 invitations issued 4 June 2026
- 485 visa holders: 271,191 as of 30 June 2026, up 18% year-on-year
- Secondary applicants on 485: up 204% since June 2022
New Home Affairs figures show the number of people in Australia on a temporary graduate visa, subclass 485, has jumped 170% since March 2021, about three times the growth rate of student visa holders over the same stretch.
| Metric | Earlier | June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Total 485 visa holders | 228,909 (2025) | 271,191 |
| Secondary applicants | ~24,200 | 73,897 |
| 485 application fee (primary applicant) | $2,300 (pre-March 2026) | $5,750 |
Nearly 73,900 of those were secondary applicants, meaning spouses and children attached to a primary visa holder, close to 30% of the total.
Why it complicates migration reform
The government is trying to bring net overseas migration down from 295,000 in the current financial year to 245,000 in 2026-27 and 225,000 by 2027-28. The 485 surge makes that harder, because it's largely a delayed effect of the post-pandemic student intake of 2022 and 2023 working its way through the system, not something a change to today's student visa settings can quickly undo.
It's a familiar pattern in skilled-migration systems generally: a pathway designed to retain talent tends to keep growing for years after the intake that fed it has already slowed, simply because of how long visa pipelines take to clear.
Abul Rizvi, a former Deputy Secretary of the old Department of Immigration, has pointed out that the surge leaves large numbers of temporary visa holders in a genuinely uncertain position about their future in Australia, which makes them more vulnerable to exploitation.
He's also noted that many graduates on this pathway are in courses that don't match where the labour market actually needs workers, and are likely to end up in low-value, low-paid jobs rather than the careers the visa was designed to lead toward.
The fee increases build on measures the government put in place back in mid-2024 to slow this same pathway: a rule barring people on visitor or 485 visas from applying for a Student visa while still in Australia, closing a route sometimes used to extend a stay indefinitely, and a reduction in the maximum age for most 485 applicants from 50 to 35.
What's new this year is the cost: the 485 application fee has gone from $2,300 to $4,600 to $5,750 in the space of about four months, a roughly 150 percent increase that migration agents say has genuinely caught graduates off guard. The political opposition wants to go further still, with One Nation proposing to remove secondary applicants from 485 eligibility entirely, though that remains a political proposal rather than government policy.
If you're on a graduate visa pathway right now, or waiting on a 189 invitation, how much have the last year's fee and eligibility changes shifted your plans? Let us know in the comments.
Sources: Australian Department of Home Affairs, SkillSelect invitation rounds data and published visa statistics; Riverwood Migration, independent analysis of Home Affairs 485 visa data, August 2026; SBS Urdu and Monash Graduate Association, independent reporting on 485 visa fee increases, 2026.
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