On 18 September 2026, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke signed two new Ministerial Directions — Direction 121 and Direction 122 — which took effect on 19 September, replacing Direction 119 after less than two months in force. It follows the 17 September migration overhaul and again reshapes how skilled visas are prioritised for processing.
The core change: 482 is now separated out
Direction 121 governs temporary skilled visas — the Skills in Demand (482) and legacy Temporary Skill Shortage (482). Direction 122 governs provisional and permanent skilled visas — subclasses 186, 187, 189, 190, 191, 489, 491, 494, 887 and 888. Both apply to new applications and to applications already on hand, so cases already in the queue may have been reprioritised.
Direction 121: five priority tiers for the 482
- Applications relating to Construction, Healthcare, Teaching, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fishing and Resources, or Australia's law enforcement and defence interests
- The Specialist Skills stream of the Skills in Demand visa
- Applications where the applicant was in Australia when they lodged
- Applications where the primary applicant was outside Australia when they lodged and whose application is not combined with another person's at any time
- All other applications
Direction 122: four priority tiers for PR and provisional visas
- The same priority sectors, or law enforcement and defence interests
- Applications where the applicant was in Australia when they lodged
- Applications where the primary applicant was outside Australia and not combined with another person's
- All other applications
The big win: onshore vs offshore no longer matters for priority sectors
Under the old Direction 119, priority depended on both occupation and location, pushing offshore priority-sector applications toward the back. The new framework places priority sectors — now expanded to include agriculture, aquaculture, fishing and resources — in Priority 1 regardless of whether the applicant is onshore or offshore. For local employers, especially in construction, recruiting skilled workers from overseas, that's a genuine improvement, and offshore applicants in these sectors move substantially forward in the queue.
What it means for you
If your nomination or skilled visa is in the queue and your occupation sits in one of these sectors, your processing order may now be materially higher — and because the change applies to on-hand cases, now is the time to recheck which tier you fall into.
📩 J&R Migration are registered migration agents and can help you work out which tier your occupation and application fall into, and what the change means for your timeline.
General information only and not migration advice. Verify current Home Affairs requirements at the time of lodgement.