How to apply for an Australian work visa with SkillSelect?

Skill-Select-for-civil-engineers-consultanz-recruitment-civil-engineer-smiling

graduates, skilled migrants, SkillSelect,

3496 views

What is SkillSelect?

SkillSelect is an online service that helps the Australian government to regulate its skilled migration programme according to Australia’s economic needs. It significantly reduces the visa processing time and allows employers to find skilled workers while reducing advertising and recruitment costs.  

Who can apply via SkillSelect?

Skilled applicants who are interested in undertaking work in Australia can submit an EOI (Expression of Interest) through this service. An EOI is not a visa application, and there is no fee to create or submit an EOI in SkillSelect, but you are asked to submit some information, such as:

  • basic personal information
  • nominated occupation
  • work experience
  • study and education
  • level of English skills
  • details of a skills assessment, related to your nominated occupation
  • business and investment experience.

For some programs, you may be required to participate in a skills assessment or appropriate points test. Applicants can then be found, nominated for a skilled visa or invited to lodge a visa application. To see if your occupation is eligible please see the skilled occupation list.

What happens after you submit an EOI?

Both complete and incomplete EOIs are stored and valid for 2 years. Incomplete EOIs are not eligible to receive a visa invitation. You can access your information and update it, however, once you have received an invitation to lodge a visa application, you cannot amend the information submitted in the EOI anymore.

When should you update your EOI?

You may want to update your EOI if:

  • you have gained new work experience
  • you have gained a higher qualification
  • you have improved your English language ability, or
  • your family make up has changed.

Can your EOI be removed?

Your EOI will be removed if:

  • if you receive 2 invitations and you don’t lodge a visa application in response to either of these invitations, or
  • if you receive an invitation to lodge a visa application for a permanent or provisional visa and are subsequently granted that visa.

What happens when your EOI is successful?

You will receive an invitation from SkillSelect to lodge a visa application and you will have 60 days to do it online before the invitation expires.

Does everyone who completes and EOI can apply for a visa?

No, not everyone. Unfortunately, you will also not receive any updates on the progress of your EOI. You might need to check the invitation rounds results to see what scores were required to receive an invitation. Before you lodge your EOI, you should check the occupation ceiling.

What is an Occupation Ceiling?

An ‘occupation ceiling’ may be applied to invitations issued under the independent (189 visa), and skilled regional (491 visa). This means there will be a reasonable upper limit on how many EOIs can be invited for skilled migration from an occupation group. This ensures that the skilled migration program remains balanced and continues to invite intending migrants across a variety of skilled occupations. Occupation ceiling values are based on a percentage of stock employment figures for each occupation. Employment figures are provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and represent the number of people employed in Australia in each occupation.

Skilled occupation list

​​​​​​The following visas are available to individuals who are qualified to work or train in an eligible skilled occupation in Australia and can meet all other requirements:

All information comes from the Australian Government The Department of Home Affairs under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence.

Last updated: 27.01.2022

Disclaimer and Exclusion of Liability

Information provided on this web site “Site” by ConsultANZ, is intended for reference only. The information contained herein is designed solely to provide guidance to the user and is not intended to be a substitute for the user seeking personalized professional advice based on specific factual situations.

This Site may contain references to certain laws and regulations which may change over time and should be interpreted only in light of particular circumstances. As such, information on this Site does NOT constitute professional migration or legal advice and should not be interpreted as such.

While visa applicants do not have to use a migration agent to lodge a visa application with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, many individuals applying for an Australian visa may prefer to enlist the services of a trusted professional.

The Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) keeps an up-to-date list of registered migration agents.

^ Back to top