Directions 121 and 122: the new processing order for skilled visas

What these Directions do, and what they don't

A Ministerial Direction under section 499 of the Migration Act 1958 tells departmental delegates how to do their job. These two tell them what order to work through skilled visa applications. Both were signed on 18 September 2026 and started the next day, and Direction 121 expressly revokes Direction 119.

They do not change who is eligible. Each says that it does not change the composition of the skilled migration occupation lists, and that applicants still have to meet every requirement in the Act and the Regulations. A priority occupation gets an application looked at sooner. It does not get it approved.

They don't promise speed either. The Department says it may decide some applications more quickly than others and does not always process them in the order received (see why processing times vary).

Two Directions, two sets of visas

Two other skilled Directions remain in force. Direction 120 covers subclass 858, including the National Innovation visa. Direction 114 covers the closed 188 and 132 programs.

The order under Direction 122

For the provisional and permanent visas, the Department works through four groups, top to bottom:

The order under Direction 121

The Skills in Demand visa follows the same shape with one extra step, for the Specialist Skills stream:

A Specialist Skills application in a priority-sector occupation is caught by the first group. It only reaches the second if the occupation is outside the priority sectors.

Family members and the offshore group

Read the offshore group carefully. An applicant outside Australia only reaches it if their application is not combined with anyone else's at any time. On the wording of both Directions, an offshore primary applicant who includes a partner or child on the application falls to the last group, unless the occupation is in a priority sector. A sole applicant lodging from overseas ranks above them.

Family members combined with the primary applicant's application take the primary applicant's priority. They don't move up or down on their own.

The onshore group has no such condition. For a primary applicant in Australia, including family does not change the group.

Which occupations count

Construction, healthcare and teaching are defined by ANZSCO group, so those boundaries are firm. Agriculture, aquaculture, fishing and resources are defined by what the nominated position does, with a list of occupations they include. Law enforcement and defence depend on who sponsors the person or what the work supports.

Construction

Sub-Major Group 33 (Construction Trades Workers) and Sub-Major Group 82 (Construction and Mining Labourers), plus Construction Managers (1331), Engineering Managers (1332), Architects and Landscape Architects (2321), Civil Engineering Professionals (2332), Architectural, Building and Surveying Technicians (3121), Civil Engineering Draftspersons and Technicians (3122), Safety Inspectors (3126), Other Building and Engineering Technicians (3129), Sheetmetal Workers (3222), Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers (3223), Clay, Concrete, Glass and Stone Processing Machine Operators (7111), Crane, Hoist and Lift Operators (7121) and Earthmoving Plant Operators (7212). Electrician (General) and Electrician (Special Class) are named individually.

Healthcare

Sub-Major Group 25 (Health Professionals) and Minor Group 411 (Health and Welfare Support Workers), plus Medical Scientists (2346), Counsellors (2721), Psychologists (2723), Social Workers (2725) and Medical Technicians (3112). Aged or Disabled Carer, Nursing Support Worker and Personal Care Assistant are named individually.

Teaching

Minor Group 241 (School Teachers) and Child Care Centre Managers (1341), plus School Principal, Faculty Head, University Lecturer, Vocational Education Teacher and Child Care Worker.

Agriculture, aquaculture and fishing

An occupation where the nominated position is directly involved in primary produce production or supporting productivity. The Direction includes growing and harvesting crops. It includes fishing, and breeding, raising, managing or producing livestock, poultry, seafood and other primary products. It includes production support such as animal health, irrigation, quality assurance, inspection and farm supervision. And it includes slaughtering, dressing, boning, slicing, processing, preparing or inspecting livestock, poultry, seafood and other primary products for sale, distribution or consumption.

There is no ANZSCO list for this sector. The test is what the job involves.

Resources

An occupation where the nominated position directly supports the exploration, extraction and production of minerals, oil and gas, or coal, including mine closure, decommissioning and rehabilitation. The Direction includes Mining Engineers (2336), Geologists, Geophysicists and Hydrogeologists (2344) and Drillers, Miners and Shot Firers (7122), plus Production Manager (Mining), Surveyor, Other Spatial Scientist, Metallurgist, Fitter (General), Fitter and Turner, Fitter-Welder, Metal Machinist (First Class) and Metal Fitters and Machinists nec.

Law enforcement and defence

These two are narrower than they sound, because both depend on a specific sponsor or purpose.

Law enforcement is ANZSCO Unit Group 4413 (Police), and only where the applicant is nominated or sponsored by the Australian Federal Police or a state or Northern Territory police force. Defence covers work in relation to, or supporting, AUKUS Pillar I (conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines) or Pillar II (advanced capability development). It also covers an applicant nominated or sponsored by the Australian Defence Force or the Department of Defence, and an applicant with a letter of support from either who will ordinarily work at a defence facility or whose occupation supports the production or supply of defence-related materiel or technology.

Where the person has to be, and when

The test looks at one moment: when the application was made.

• It is the primary applicant's location. Where a partner or child was does not decide the group.
• Arriving or leaving afterwards does not change it. The Directions ask where the person was at the time the application was made.
• Family members combined with the primary application inherit the primary applicant's priority.

For an employer with a candidate already onshore on another visa, that is a real advantage, and lodging late can waste it.

The applications it leaves alone

Neither Direction applies to:

• Applications the Administrative Review Tribunal has remitted for reconsideration
• Applications where the Tribunal has set aside a decision and substituted its own
• Applications where it is readily apparent that the criteria for the grant would not be met
• Applications by someone claiming to be a family member of a primary visa holder, where they did not make a combined application with that person and the primary visa holder was in Australia when they applied
• The Tribunal itself

Separately, a delegate must depart from the order for an individual application involving compelling circumstances affecting community safety, or the continuity of essential religious, cultural or community services in Australia. Direction 121 also names Australia's international relations. Where a section 85 cap applies to a visa class, Direction 122 says the same order is used within it.

It reaches back

Both Directions apply to applications made but not finally determined before 19 September 2026, as well as to everything lodged since. A file that has been waiting has already been reordered under the new rules.

Some have moved up. An offshore applicant in a nursing, teaching or construction occupation was in the last group under Direction 119 and is now in the first. Others have moved down: an onshore applicant in an ordinary occupation now sits behind an offshore applicant in a priority sector, which was not the case before.

What changed from Direction 119

• Sector now comes before location. Under Direction 119, healthcare, teaching and construction only ranked ahead of other applications for people already in Australia, and law enforcement and defence were split by location. Now every priority-sector application sits in the top group.
• Four sectors were added: agriculture, aquaculture, fishing and resources.
• The 482 has its own Direction, with its own order and a step for the Specialist Skills stream.
• Offshore applicants with family now rank below sole offshore applicants. Direction 119 did not draw that line.
• Nominations are no longer in the Directions. Direction 119 set an order for nomination applications as well as visa applications, and left out change-of-employer nominations. Neither new Direction mentions nominations, and the Department's skilled priorities page, checked on 13 October 2026, lists no Direction for them.
• Unchanged: the occupation lists and eligibility rules, and the reach back to applications already waiting.

What it means if you sponsor people or are about to apply

• Check the occupation against the definitions, not the job title. Construction, healthcare and teaching turn on the ANZSCO code. Agriculture and resources turn on what the position involves. Titles that sound close often aren't.
• Where the applicant is at lodgement is now the second sort, not the first. Outside the priority sectors, onshore still comes before offshore.
• Including family changes the offshore ranking. For an offshore applicant outside the priority sectors, a sole application ranks above a combined one on the Directions' wording. That is one more factor in how a family application is put together, and a reason to take advice before lodging.
• Priority is not speed. A higher group means the application is picked up sooner. It says nothing about how long the assessment then takes, and a file with gaps will still stall.
• A complete application still does most of the work. The fastest thing you control is giving the Department no reason to write to you.

If you have applications already lodged, it is worth a short review of where each applicant was at lodgement, which occupation was claimed and whether family members were included. That shows which files have moved.

Sources, checked on 13 October 2026: Ministerial Direction 121 and Ministerial Direction 122, each signed 18 September 2026; Ministerial Direction 119, signed 24 July 2026; Department of Home Affairs, "Skilled visa processing priorities".

This is general information about how the Directions work. Where a particular application sits depends on the occupation, the visa and the applicant's circumstances on the day it was lodged.

General information only, current at 13 October 2026. Not immigration assistance or advice for your circumstances. Visacorp Pty Ltd — MARN 0317382 · 1799004.