Migration and Education expert Chaman Preet says August round was very disappointing for many visa hopefuls who were hoping to secure a place before the changes come into play on November 19.
"As opposed to 2490 invites issued on August 11 2018, only 100 invites were issued in August 2019. This is against the trend of invitations issued that we have seen for the past few years. August, September, October and November usually are best months and see the most number of invites being issued. It's very concerning for some visa hopefuls who would majorly be affected by the November 2019 changes," said Chaman Preet.
Department of Home Affairs runs invitation rounds on the 11th day of each month.
Source: Department of Home Affairs
Majority of invites were sent to the applicants with 85 points. The decrease is only in the subclass 189 visa invitations as the Subclass 489 Skilled Regional (Provisional) family-sponsored invitations remained at 100.
Melbourne-based migration expert Rohit Mohan believes that the government looks more focused on pushing migrants to regional areas.
"The current invitation round in August 2019 is suggesting the fact that the government is tightening direct permanent residency under independent sub-class 189. Instead, the government looks more focused on pushing migrants to regional areas. In coming days, we will see a shift to visa grants under subclass 491 and 494, which will restrict migrants to live and work in regional areas only," Mr Mohan told SBS Hindi.
Source: Department of Home Affairs
Subclass 494 and subclass 491 are the two new regional visas being introduced from November this year.
The Subclass 491 visa will replace 489 visa, which was a popular visa among skilled workers who wanted to move to regional Australia.
