The Migration Queensland Skilled Program is OPEN for the 2023 – 24 program year

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for a Queensland nomination, you must meet both the Australian Department of Home Affairs criteria and Migration Queensland criteria for your chosen visa category.

Home Affairs criteria requires you to:

• have a points-test result of 65 or higher, inclusive of state nomination points;
• have a positive skills assessment in your nominated occupation;
• be under 45 years of age;
• meet the minimum English language requirement of Competent, unless a higher level is required by your assessing authority.

Migration Queensland criteria requires you to:

 *A trade occupation is defined as an ANZSCO occupation grouping beginning with 3

 ** To be registered or licensed in certain occupations, a higher level of English is required. In these cases, it is the responsibility of the applicant to understand the language requirements of the skills assessment and registration process for their nominated occupations. Migration Queensland will not nominate anyone who has lower English language skills than is required for their occupation.

Caveats for selected occupations

• Accountants (General)
  • Only applicants employed in an accounting firm or a medium or larger sized business will receive an invitation. For this purpose, a medium sized business is characterised as a business that employs 20 people or more.
  • must be a CPA, CA or IPA, or are studying towards becoming a CPA, CA or IPA.
• Internal and External Auditors
  • must have a job as an Auditor (not an Accountant).
• Cooks and Chefs
  • No takeaway or fast-food businesses.

Important notes:

• If you have been nominated for, applied for or hold a Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491), Migration Queensland will not nominate you for the Skilled Nominated (Permanent) visa (subclass 190). This restriction also applies to the Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 489). 
• If you are eligible for both the 190 and the 491 visas, please submit one EOI and select both visa classes. Please do not submit multiple EOIs – if you do, we will select the first one in the queue and close the rest. You will be offered one invitation only.
• Businesses must have an office in Queensland; a virtual office will not be accepted.
• You will receive copies of the State Nomination Application and Settlement Funds Declaration form, if/when Migration Queensland invites you to lodge an application.
• If you have more than one skills assessment, please only submit one EOI for the occupation that best meets your current employment.
• Please ensure that you read the application process, document checklist and all explanatory notes (below) before submitting your application
• Migration Queensland handle a high volume of applications and client enquiries; enquiries about where your application is in the queue or when you will be invited to apply will not receive a response.
• Priority will not be given to invitations where documents or visas are expiring.
• Labour Hire employment: if you are employed through a labour hire provider, they must be licensed to operate in Queensland. All labour hire providers operating in Queensland must be licensed under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017, including providers that are based interstate or overseas who supply workers within Queensland. You will be required to provide evidence that your labour hire provider complies with these licensing requirements.