Category: Australia

Subclass 491 visa: five years living, working and studying in a designated regional area. Which cities count, the 191 pathway and 2025-26 places.

Compare Australia’s state nomination programs across NSW, Victoria, Queensland, WA, SA and Tasmania, and what to check before you apply from the UAE.

Living in the UAE with Australian PR? Here’s how the RRV subclass 155/157 works — the three eligibility tiers, the AUD 1,475 fee, and what to prepare.

Ministerial Direction 119 (in force 25 July 2026) ranks Australian skilled visa applications by occupation and location. What it means for UAE applicants.

Blog posts still quote “PTE 65 = Proficient English” for an Australian skilled visa, and people book their test around that number. It is out of date. On 7 August 2025, the Department of Home Affairs overhauled the entire approved English-test list and every score table for Australian visas: Competent, Proficient and Superior English all moved, test by test, skill by skill. If you are studying an older table right now, including ones still circulating on other sites, you may be preparing for a score that no longer applies. At…

The mistake we see most often with teachers planning a move to Australia is assuming an AITSL result means you’re approved to teach. It doesn’t: AITSL’s skills assessment is for your visa, not your right to stand in front of a class. That’s a separate approval, issued by the state or territory where you’ll work, with its own timeline and forms. At a glance Two gates, not one: AITSL’s Teacher Migration Skills Assessment is for the visa; separate state registration (NSW’s NESA, Victoria’s VIT, and others) is required before you…

An audit senior in DIFC finishes a late file review, opens a new tab, and starts reading about Australia. It’s one of the most common searches we see from finance professionals in the UAE — accountants and auditors are, on paper, exactly what Australia’s skilled migration program is built for. The occupation codes are open. The assessing bodies are ones many of you already hold membership with. What’s less often explained is how two different Australian occupation lists work, and why the accounting codes are more competitive in practice than…

If you work in software, data, networks or cyber security in the UAE and want Australian permanent residence, the Australian Computer Society (ACS) assessment comes first. Its outcome sets how many of your years count for the 189, 190 and 491 points test. The timing matters because the June 2026 subclass 189 round listed no software, programming, analyst, database or network occupation, and the states that nominate ICT workers are between program years. The workable plan for late 2026 is a clean ACS outcome paired with a state or employer…

If you are an engineer living in the UAE and want Australian permanent residence through the 189, 190 or 491 visa, two things sit at the centre of the process: a skills assessment from Engineers Australia, and a Department of Home Affairs points score of at least 65. Engineers Australia updated its fee page for 2026 to 2027 on 2 July 2026 and applies specific English minimums to applications submitted from 1 January 2026, so figures copied from earlier years will mislead you. This guide sets out the position as…

The Australian points test decides whether your Expression of Interest for a subclass 189, 190 or 491 visa is invited. The threshold is 65 points, but in the 4 June 2026 round many professions were invited at 80 or above, and the next 189 round is expected by 30 September 2026. Below is the Home Affairs points table as at August 2026, the scores actually invited, and a worked calculation for a typical UAE profile, so you can check your own number before you lodge or update an EOI. At…