The Department of Home Affairs has provided states and territories with reduced nomination allocations for the 2023 – 24 program year. Queensland’s number of allocations this year is 1550 skilled visa nomination allocations in total, which is significantly less than the amount that was requested. Based on this, the criteria will focus on attracting highly skilled migrants to Queensland, and MQ is considering the timing of our program opening.
This year, Queensland state nominations will be highly competitive given our limited places, and we encourage prospective applicants to also consider other visa options that may be appropriate to their circumstances. The overall migration program planning levels for this year remain high at 190,000 places, and for applicants who cannot apply or who are not nominated under state-nominated visa programs.
MQ note that all jurisdictions have received a reduced nomination allocation in 2023 – 24. See the table below for details on Queensland’s allocation.
| Subclass 190 allocation | Subclass 491 allocation | BIIP allocation | Total allocation | |
| QLD | 900 | 650 | 0 | 1,550 |
The Department of Home Affairs has provided some explanation around the reduced quotas, noting that they are using the existing pipeline of state-nominated visa lodgements to fulfil the planning levels for the program year. The Department has clarified that planning level figures relate to the total number of visa grants, including main applicants and any accompanying family members. This means that the actual number of visas the Government intends to grant in the state-nominated programs this year will be similar to the number of visas granted last program year.
BIIP allocation
The Department has also confirmed that there will be no Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) nomination allocation for 2023 – 24 across all jurisdictions. This means that Migration Queensland will not accept any new Expressions of Interest (EOI) for BIIP this financial year. Please note that MQ will continue to assess and process second-stage applications, as per usual. Although there is no BIIP available, the Global Talent visa is open with a program planning level of 5000; this may be an option for some prospective business clients.
If you are considering the Queensland State Migration program this year, I recommend contacting our professional Migration agents as soon as possible.