The Department of Home Affairs has pushed the next subclass 189 invitation round back by one month. Its SkillSelect previous-rounds page now lists 30 October as the date for the Skilled Independent round, replacing the earlier 30 September listing. No reason for the change was published on the page.
The shift appears on the Department's SkillSelect previous-rounds page, which shows a last-updated date of 21 September 2026. Applicants tracking the SkillSelect EOI pipeline will now need to wait until the end of October before the next tranche of invitations is issued under the 189 visa stream.
one month later than expected
An invitation round is the process by which the Department selects Expressions of Interest from the SkillSelect pool and issues invitations to apply for a visa. Rounds for the Skilled Independent subclass have historically run roughly every four to six weeks, though the Department does not publish a fixed calendar. The September date had been the next scheduled slot visible on the previous-rounds page before the update.
As previously reported, the SkillSelect invitation-round page had shown no change since 23 June 2026. The 21 September update is the first modification to the schedule in nearly three months. The EOI Insights dashboard provides a rolling view of how expressions of interest flow into the pool between rounds.
pool sits at 180,651 submitted EOIs
The rescheduling comes as the 189 EOI pool continues to grow. EOI Insights reported last month that the pool held 180,651 submitted expressions of interest as of August 2026, having added 5,401 in a single month. Over twelve months the pool expanded by 40,992, a 29.4 per cent increase. A one-month delay to the next round gives the pool additional time to accumulate further submissions before selections are made.
The Department has not issued a public statement explaining the schedule change. The SkillSelect previous-rounds page is the primary official source for round dates and outcomes. Applicants and their advisers typically monitor it alongside the Department's broader SkillSelect statistical dashboard for updates on processing timelines and invitation volumes.
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Open the dashboard to try the live version — change the month, the visa, or the occupation and watch the numbers update.
These figures are example snapshots, not live counts.
