happyisland

They will announce it when they reopen for invitations as stated on the website.

Another take on the cut to immigration numbers, makes for quite an interesting read. A cut of 20,000 is quite a big number, especially if you take into consideration that NZ visas now also form part of skilled visa quotas. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/24/the-cut-to-the-migration-program-is-more-politics-than-policy

Thanks for posting that - good explanation I wasn't aware of. I guess the big question is whether the staffing situation improved.

Is that a rhetorical question?

You can view minimum points for invitation rounds going back about 2 or 3 years on skillselect site. We're all in the same boat, I'm also waiting for the points to drop by 5 so I can get an invite. Not everyone has 75 or 80 points. 70 points will probably the minimum requirement for an invite for most (depending on occupation). Yes, the points were very high the last few months. We can't say what the minimum points will be for the next round, but one thing you can be sure of is that they'll certainly be lower than they were in the last few months - as points always reset in July. For my occupation, the points need to drop to 70 before I'll get an invite, and as they're currently on 75 they will most certainly drop again - if not now then in a month or 2 - refer to skillselect site. No need to stress about it - sit back and wait. The points will come down again.

70 points, 261312 / Developer Programmer

I'm in the exact same situation. I launched a 189 and 190 EOI - would like to go to QLD, but might not get a 189 invite in the next year due to current high points situation. However, the way you should look at it is : the 190 is a stepping stone to get to where you want to get. It's a case of I wait for the 189, I might not get a visa at all, and if I get an EOI for the 190 I will highly likely get an invite in the next few weeks (my points will drop by 5 in September 2019). I'd rather get an OZ visa than not at all.

I would most certainly launch an EOI for both a 189 and 190. It doesn't cost any extra and increases your odds quite a bit on the 190 as you get an extra 5 points. My understanding is that only 2.5% of the occupation ceiling are allocated to accountants vs 6% for other occupations. Have a look here to see how long you'll wait on 75 points vs 80 points for an Accountant (that is if invites are sent out, as they stopped invites for accountants a while back). http://www.iscah.com/unofficial-skill-select-results-20th-june-2018/

Effectively, 489, 189 and 190 visas need 65 points to get an invite from 1 July 2018. https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2018L00920/Explanatory%20Statement/Text

Can anyone tell me what the current waiting times are for a developer programmer 261312? I launched an EOI with 70 points NSW.