How the pool works
The points test and the SkillSelect EOI pool
The points test is how SkillSelect ranks Expressions of Interest, and the minimum score that makes an EOI valid is not the score that gets invited. The published tables show how submitted and invited EOIs spread across points bands, which is a description of the pool rather than a cut-off. This article explains what the test does and how points appear in the data.
Key terms. SkillSelect is the Australian government’s online system for skilled migration. An Expression of Interest (EOI) is the form you lodge in it, and it is not a visa application. An EOI counted as submitted was still sitting in the pool when the monthly snapshot was taken; one counted as invited was holding an invitation at that moment. ANZSCO is the occupation-code list SkillSelect uses. Every figure on this site counts EOIs rather than people, because one person can lodge more than one.
The official test and what it decides
The points test scores an EOI on factors including age, English, skills assessment, work experience, Australian study, partner skills and — for 190 and 491 — nomination. Reaching the minimum makes an EOI valid; it does not make it competitive, because invitations are issued to the highest-ranked EOIs first.
The current grid lives on the Department of Home Affairs points table, and it changes. This article does not calculate anyone’s score: My Outlook is the in-product calculator, behind sign in.
In the EOI statistics
The published tables break each pool into points bands, so you can see how many submitted EOIs sit at each score and how that spread shifts from month to month. When the distribution drifts upward, the pool is getting more competitive; when the invited bands sit far above the submitted ones, the gap between “valid” and “competitive” is wide for that occupation.
None of this is a forecast. A points distribution describes who is in the pool today, and the next round will be decided by rules and volumes that the tables do not contain. Bands with fewer than 20 EOIs are suppressed, so the thinnest tails of the distribution may be partly estimated.
In the dashboard
Occupation Trends is the trial doorway and shows crowding first. The points views — Points Pressure, Invited vs Queue, Queue by Points and My Outlook — ask you to sign in. The figure below is a frozen points snapshot, not a prediction.
The guest trial covers 189 and 190 plus five occupations. The points views are behind sign in.
Reading these charts
Points Pressure shows whether typical scores in the pool are drifting. Invited vs Queue sets the invited distribution against the submitted one, and Queue by Points is a single occupation’s histogram.
For applicants
Use the distribution to understand the neighbourhood your score sits in, not to predict an invitation. If most invited EOIs in your occupation have scored well above the minimum for a year, that is useful context; it is still not a threshold you can rely on.
What happens after an invitation is issued is covered in invitation rounds.
For migration professionals
Points bands are the easiest chart to over-claim from. Show the distribution, name the month, and resist converting the top band into a “cut-off” — the tables have no such concept.
When a client asks whether an extra five points is worth pursuing, the honest answer comes from the shape of the distribution, not from a single number in the latest snapshot.
Related pages
- Invitation rounds and the invited pool
- What a SkillSelect EOI is
- Subclass 189 — Skilled Independent
- Guides: Points Pressure
- Guides: Queue by Points
Common questions
Does EOI Insights show the next 189 cut-off?
No. It shows how points are distributed across the published submitted and invited snapshots. That is a description of the pool, not an announcement about the next round, and no chart here should be read as a cut-off.
Where can I see where my score sits?
Queue by Points shows one occupation’s distribution, and My Outlook places a score inside it. Both are behind sign in; Occupation Trends, in the guest trial, gives you the crowding picture first.
Is 65 points enough?
Sixty-five is the minimum score an EOI needs to be valid, not the score being invited. The invited snapshots usually sit well above the minimum, and how far above varies by occupation and by subclass.