When we wrote on Thursday following Minister Burke’s National Press Club address, the new skilled visa processing priorities had been announced but the replacement Ministerial Direction had not yet been released. We now have it.
Ministerial Direction 121 commenced on Saturday, 19 September 2026 and replaces Ministerial Direction 119 for temporary skilled visa applications. It applies to Skills in Demand (subclass 482) applications, as well as the remaining legacy Temporary Skill Shortage subclass 482 applications. It also applies to applications lodged before 19 September that have not yet been finally determined.
Home Affairs has also updated its processing information, which gives us our first indication of what the new priorities mean in practice.
Under Direction 121, subclass 482 applications are now considered in the following order:
- Priority occupations in construction, healthcare, teaching, agriculture, aquaculture, fishing and resources, together with occupations connected with Australia’s law enforcement and defence interests. These occupations are defined in a list and include occupations in the Core Skills List.
- Specialist Skillsstream applications (certain occupations with salaries above the threshold of $146,576)
- Onshore applications – applications where the primary applicant was in Australia when the application was lodged.
- Offshore single applicant applications – lodged by a single primary applicant, with no spouse/children included in the application at any time that are not prioritised above.
- All other offshore applications – including applications where a spouse/children are included that are not prioritised above.
This is a significant change from Direction 119 because the nominated priority sectors now sit above the Specialist Skills stream and, importantly, the priority is no longer confined to applicants already in Australia.
The new Direction does not cover:
- Subsequent Entrant applications for family members lodged after the initial application;
- Nomination transfer applications;
- Applications under appeal with the ART
Practical impact – processing dates
The practical impact is already apparent from Home Affairs’ updated website. As at this weekend, the Department says it is processing:
- October 2025 applications in the newly prioritised sectors;
- July 2026 Specialist Skills applications;
- January 2026 applications from people who were in Australia when they applied; and
- October 2025 offshore applications in the lower priority groups.
This is a very substantial difference depending on where an application sits in the new hierarchy.
However, these dates should not be read as guaranteed processing times. Home Affairs specifically warns that processing timeframes may fluctuate while applications are being reprioritised and that published timeframes may temporarily move backwards.
The broader skilled temporary visa median is currently published as 98 days, but that figure combines applications sitting in very different priority groups and is therefore of limited assistance when advising on an individual 482 case.
What employers should do now
The key question is no longer simply “Is this employee offshore?”
For every proposed 482 application, employers should now be looking at three things together: the precise nominated occupation, whether the employee can qualify for the Specialist Skills stream, and whether the employee is in or outside Australia when the application is lodged.
For businesses with urgent recruitment needs, particularly those involved in construction, resources, agriculture and the other newly prioritised areas, that assessment may make a very significant difference to expected processing times.
Some examples
A construction project:
Direction 121 contains specific definitions of the occupations that qualify for the sector priorities. In construction, for example, the list includes Construction Managers, Engineering Managers, Civil Engineering Professionals, Architects, certain building and engineering technicians, construction trades, construction and mining labourers and a number of specified trades and plant operator occupations.
So the fact that somebody works for a construction company or on a major construction project is not, by itself, enough. We need to look at the nominated occupation.
What does this mean in practice?
Consider a major infrastructure project requiring several different overseas employees.
- An employer transferring civil engineers, engineering managers or other specifically listed construction professionals is likely to fall within the first priority group, whether those workers are applying from Australia or offshore.
- A Human Resources Manager or Electrical Engineer working on exactly the same project, however, is not a construction occupation for the purposes of Direction 121. That person would therefore not receive the construction priority simply because they are working on the project.
- They may nevertheless fall into the second priority group if they qualify for the Specialist Skills stream — including meeting the Specialist Skills Income Threshold, which from 1 July 2026 is $146,576. (The Specialist Skills stream is available for eligible occupations in ANZSCO Major Groups 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.)
- A construction worker whose nominated occupation itself falls within the Direction’s construction definition can also receive the first priority even if they are offshore. This is an important improvement on the practical effect of the previous Direction.
- Direction 121 also introduces an express ability for a delegate to depart from the normal priority order where there are compelling circumstances, including matters affecting community safety, continuity of essential religious, cultural or community services, or Australia’s international relations. This potentially provides another avenue in genuinely exceptional cases.
A Software Engineer
Take an employer sponsoring an offshore Software Engineer under the Core Skills stream on a salary of $120,000.
Assuming the position otherwise satisfies the Core Skills requirements, the salary is well above the current Core Skills Income Threshold of approximately $79,423, but below the Specialist Skills threshold.
Software Engineer is not one of the occupations given sector priority under Direction 121. The applicant therefore does not move into Priority 1 merely because the employer regards the role as critical, and the application does not receive Priority 2 because it is a Core Skills rather than Specialist Skills application.
Because the applicant is offshore, the application falls further down the processing order, behind priority-sector applications, Specialist Skills cases and other applicants who were in Australia when they applied. If it is an applicant with a spouse, it would fall under priority 4.
Hospitality
A Restaurant Manager earning above the Specialist Skills Income Threshold may potentially qualify for the Specialist Skills stream (Priority 2), provided the occupation and all other criteria are met. By contrast, a Chef, even if highly paid, cannot qualify for the Specialist Skills stream because chefs fall within ANZSCO Major Group 3. A Chef would fall under Priority 3 to 5 depending on their location on lodgement and their family composition.
At Ajuria Lawyers, we are working directly with our clients to assess what Direction 121 means for their existing and proposed 482 applications. The impact will depend on the circumstances of each case and, importantly, even employees in the same occupation and working for the same organisation may fall into different priority categories depending on factors such as their location at the time of application, salary, stream and whether family members are included.