Why There Is No Single Cut-Off Score for Subclass 189, 190 and 491

“How many points do I need?” is the first question almost every skilled applicant asks about Australia, and it is the one question that has no useful single answer. The qualifying score of 65 points is what lets you into the SkillSelect pool. It is not what gets you invited out of it.

The most recent published invitation round shows the gap plainly. On 4 June 2026 the Department of Home Affairs issued 10,000 invitations for the Subclass 189, and published the minimum invited score for every occupation it invited. Those scores run from 65 points to 100. Advice that treats the 189, 190 and 491 as one process, with one number attached, is where most of the confusion begins.

Three pathways, three different invitations

Subclass 189. Home Affairs invites directly from the SkillSelect pool. Candidates are ranked by points score, and where scores are equal, by date of effect, the time and date at which an EOI reached that score. Home Affairs publishes the results of each round, including the minimum invited score for each occupation.

Subclass 190 and state-nominated Subclass 491. There is no national invitation score for either. Home Affairs allocates nomination places to each state and territory, and each jurisdiction then publishes its own selection criteria and runs its own process. Home Affairs is explicit that state and territory nominations are not affected by its own invitation rounds. Points are only one input. A state also weighs its own occupation list, work experience, English, your connection and commitment to that state, and in some cases a job offer or existing residence there. Nomination adds 5 points for the 190 and 15 for the 491, and the Commonwealth invitation follows the nomination rather than preceding it. Across the 2025-26 program year the states and territories held 20,350 nomination places between them, 12,850 for the 190 and 7,500 for the state-nominated 491. Reaching 65 points does not mean a state will nominate you.

Family-sponsored Subclass 491. A separate pathway from state nomination, and it behaves more like the 189: Home Affairs ranks these EOIs in SkillSelect and invites in its own rounds. Eligible family sponsorship carries 15 points, the sponsoring relative must live in a designated regional area, and the occupation must appear on the relevant skilled occupation list for the stream. Volumes are very small. Only 450 family-sponsored 491 invitations were issued across the whole 2025-26 program year, so this is not a fallback for a candidate who is not competitive for the 189.

What the June 2026 round actually invited

The published table for the 4 June 2026 round covers 140 occupations at eight distinct minimum invited scores. The shape of it is more useful than any single figure:

• 65 points, the floor: 15 occupations, every one a construction or building trade. Carpenter, Carpenter and Joiner, Joiner, Bricklayer, Solid Plasterer, Fibrous Plasterer, Stonemason, Wall and Floor Tiler, Glazier, Drainer, Roof Plumber, Plumber (General), Airconditioning and Mechanical Services Plumber, Electrician (General) and Electrician (Special Class).
• 70 points: Gasfitter, and no other occupation in the round.
• 75 points: 24 occupations, concentrated in health and teaching. General Practitioner, Midwife, Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, Speech Pathologist, Social Worker, Podiatrist, Secondary School Teacher and most of the Registered Nurse classifications.
• 80 points: 71 occupations. This is the single largest group in the round, which means 80 rather than 65 was the most common invited score. Engineering Manager, Construction Project Manager, Metal Fabricator, Cabinetmaker, Nurse Practitioner and four Registered Nurse classifications sit here.
• 85 to 95 points: architecture, meteorology, most surgical specialties, then life sciences and telecommunications engineering at 95, including Electronics Engineer, Telecommunications Engineer, Biotechnologist, Microbiologist and Marine Biologist.
• 100 points: Urologist, alone at the top of the round.

Two things follow. Occupations absent from the published table received no invitations at all in that round, whatever the candidate’s score. And the tie-break date of effect for the round was 24 April 2026, so for anyone sitting exactly on the minimum invited score for their occupation, date of effect decided the outcome.

So a score that is comfortable for a carpenter is not competitive for a microbiologist. The useful question is narrower than the one most people ask: what has your ANZSCO code been invited at across recent rounds, and did it appear in the table at all?

Three rounds in a year, not twelve

The round data carries a second lesson that is easy to miss. Home Affairs ran three subclass 189 invitation rounds in the entire 2025-26 program year: 6,887 invitations in August, 10,000 in November and 10,000 in June, for 26,887 across the year. The family-sponsored 491 ran twice, 150 invitations and then 300.

Invitations arrive in a small number of large batches rather than steadily each month. That changes what a mistake costs. Missing a round because your skills assessment lapsed, or because a birthday moved you into a lower age bracket the week before, is not a short wait for the next one. It can be several months, and your age keeps moving through the brackets while you wait.

Two other limits sit alongside this. Occupation ceilings cap how many EOIs Home Affairs can invite from an occupation group for the 189 and the family-sponsored 491, though they do not apply to the 190 or the state-nominated 491. And Home Affairs will invite you twice at most: if you do not apply after the second invitation, your EOI is removed from SkillSelect. An EOI can produce an invitation for up to two years after you submit it, and no longer.

Refusal and PIC 4020 are two different risks

These are conflated constantly, and the distinction matters.

The ordinary consequence of a points claim you cannot support is refusal. Your invitation states the score you must reach when the Department assesses the application, and that figure can be well above 65 depending on what you claimed. If the evidence you file supports less than that, the criterion fails and the application is refused. The visa application charge is not refunded and you return to the pool. No exclusion period attaches to that outcome.

Public Interest Criterion 4020, in Schedule 4 of the Migration Regulations 1994, is a separate and higher threshold. It is engaged by information that is false or misleading in a material particular, or by bogus documents, rather than by a claim that simply turns out to be unprovable. Where it is engaged, the Department can refuse the application and withhold most other Australian visas for three years, and where the issue goes to identity the exclusion period is longer. It can also reach members of the family unit included in the application.

Not every failed points claim raises PIC 4020. An honest arithmetic error and a fabricated employment reference are different things, and the Department treats them differently. The warning is narrower than the one usually repeated: the risk is not that a mistake automatically becomes a bar, but that claims entered without evidence behind them are where questions of that kind start.

For the specific places where points claims most often go wrong, from ANZSCO duties to partner conditions to age at invitation, see our companion piece on getting your Expression of Interest right the first time.

How we read a round for a client

Skills assessment first. We do not lodge an EOI on an occupation that has not been assessed by the relevant authority, whether that is Engineers Australia, VETASSESS, ACS, TRA or another body, because the assessed occupation is what the round table is organised by.

Then we set the target by pathway rather than by a general figure. For the 189 that means the recent invited score for your occupation, and if your occupation is not being invited at all, the answer is a different pathway rather than more points. For the 190 and state-nominated 491 it means working to the published criteria of the specific state you are targeting, because points alone do not produce a nomination. For the family-sponsored 491 it means confirming the relative’s eligibility and regional address, and being straight with you about how few invitations exist.

We also model the score as it will stand on the likely invitation date rather than as it stands today, with age brackets and expiry dates mapped against realistic waiting times. Choosing between the three pathways turns out to depend less on your score than on your occupation’s recent round history, which states are currently open to it, and whether a regional address is realistic for your family. That is the work our general skilled migration service exists to do.

The Government has said it intends to reform the points test to select for younger, higher-skilled and more English-proficient candidates. No commencement date has been legislated and no replacement test has been enacted, so the current points test and the 65-point qualifying score remain in force. Plan against current settings, and treat the reform as a reason not to lose a cycle rather than as a deadline.

Before you lodge

If you want to know what your occupation has actually been invited at, and what your score would be on the evidence you can produce, our MARA-registered advisers will work that out before anything is lodged. Our eligibility check is the place to start. If your occupation looks viable, book a consultation and we will read the recent round tables against your ANZSCO code and model the score you could evidence today.

Invitation results move with every round. The figures above are those published for the 4 June 2026 round, and they are general information rather than advice on your own case.

Sources

• SkillSelect invitation rounds, including the 4 June 2026 round table, the 2025-26 program year totals and the state and territory nomination allocations: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au
• SkillSelect Expression of Interest: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au
• Subclass 189 points-tested stream, invitation and timing rules: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au
• Points table for the Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190): immi.homeaffairs.gov.au
• Points table for the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491): immi.homeaffairs.gov.au

Related reading

• Getting Your Expression of Interest Right, the First Time
• Moving to Australia as a Skilled Worker: What to Check First
• Moving to Australia as a Tradesperson
• Why Use a Licensed Migration Agent for Australia