If you have lodged, or are about to lodge, a skilled visa application for Australia, the order in which it is looked at changed on 19 September 2026. Two new Ministerial Directions, MD 121 and MD 122, replaced MD 119 and now decide which applications the Department of Home Affairs deals with first. For people working in priority industries, the shift could be good news, and it also puts more weight on having your skills documented properly.
How the new ranking works
Applications are not handled in the order they arrive. Home Affairs ranks them by government priority, and that position can make a large difference to how long a decision takes.
Temporary skilled visas (MD 121)
For the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), and the retired Temporary Skill Shortage visa it replaced, the order is:
- Applications linked to priority sectors: Construction, Healthcare, Teaching, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fishing and Resources, plus work connected to defence or law enforcement.
- Specialist Skills stream applications.
- People who were in Australia when they lodged.
- Applicants lodging alone (not combined with a partner or family) from outside Australia.
- All remaining applications.
Provisional and permanent skilled visas (MD 122)
This direction covers a much wider group, including the 189, 190 and 186 visas, the regional 491, 494 and 489 visas, and the permanent 191 and 887. Its order is a little shorter: priority-sector and national-interest cases first, then applicants who were onshore at lodgement, then single applicants who lodged offshore, then everyone else.
What it means in practice
- Priority-sector workers should generally see quicker movement than under MD 119.
- Onshore applicants now sit ahead of most people applying from overseas.
- Combined family applications lodged from overseas sit at the bottom, so allow for longer waits.
Two older directions still apply to other visas. MD 114 covers the closed Business Innovation and Investment (188) and Business Talent (132) visas, and MD 120, in effect from 25 July 2026, covers Class BX (858) visas, including the National Innovation visa.
The processing time tool on the Home Affairs immigration website is only a general benchmark based on recently finished cases. It does not look at your own file, so treat its figures as an estimate.
Why your qualifications matter more now
Being in a priority sector helps only if your application clearly shows the skills behind it. Missing or weak documents can push a file out of the faster lane altogether, and many skilled pathways, along with skills assessments, look for evidence of a recognised qualification as well as experience.
Plenty of people in construction and agriculture have years of hands-on work but no formal certificate. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) lets you put that experience forward instead of starting a course from scratch. You gather evidence such as references, payslips, photos of completed work, job sheets and any licences or tickets. A Registered Training Organisation (RTO) compares it with the units of competency in a qualification and, if it meets the requirements, issues it.
Depending on your background, that might mean comparing your experience with the Certificate III in Carpentry or the Certificate III in Civil Construction if you have worked on building or infrastructure sites, or the Certificate III in Agriculture if you have spent years on farms. Whether a particular qualification suits your visa or skills assessment depends on that pathway's own rules.
Getting your file ready
With priority now tied so closely to your sector and where you lodge, a complete application from day one counts for more than ever. List your roles with dates and duties, collect references while contacts are fresh, keep records of the work you have done, and check which qualification lines up with your experience. If you are unsure where your case will sit, professional advice before you lodge may save time later.
