Overview

Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) Visa (Subclass 491) allows people to live, work and study in designated regional areas of Australia for 5 years. This is a point-tested visa for skilled workers that requires nomination from an Australian state or territory government agency or an eligible relative. This visa also allows a family member (known as a subsequent entrant) of the subclass 491 visa holder (known as the main applicant) to live, work and study in Australia as long as the visa of the main applicant remains valid. It also opens up the path to apply for permanent residency, if eligible, using the Skilled Regional Visa (Subclass 191), starting from 16 November 2022

Eligibility Criteria

Application for a Skilled Independent Subclass 491 Visa is by invitation only. In order to be invited to apply, applicants must submit expression of interest (EOI) and fulfill the following criteria:

• Primary applicant must nominate an occupation on the relevant skilled occupation list and be assessed favourably by an Australian skills assessment authority
• Be nominated by an Australian state or territory government
• Aged between 18 to 45 years at the time of receiving the invitation to lodge a visa application
• Score 65 points or more on the Department of Home Affairs’ points test for general skilled migration
• Possess competent level in English language or be a holder of an exempt passport (United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and United States)
• Applicants must meet the health criteria – “One fails, all fail” policy applies
• Applicants over the age of 16 years have to meet the character* requirements
• The applicants must not owe any debt to the Australian government
• All applicants have to accept Australian Values Statement before the visas can be granted
• Not had a visa cancelled or a visa application refused* in the past

*It is important to let us know if you have had a visa cancelled or refused in the past or have a criminal record

Key Visa Entitlements

• Permanent residents are allowed to live in Australia indefinitely and can work anywhere in the country
• You are entitled to the public healthcare  and education systems of Australia
• You can sponsor family members to travel to Australia
• You will be entitled to travel out of Australia multiple times while holding an Australian Permanent Residence or Resident Return Visa
• You can apply for Australian citizenship, subject to meeting the applicable criteria

Visa Application Charges

Primary Applicant	AUD 4,115
Each Secondary applicant over the age of 18 years	AUD 2,060
Each additional applicant under the age of 18 years	AUD 1,030
Each applicant who was 18 years or more at time of application and is assessed as not having functional English	AUD 4,890

*Additional expenses for skills assessment, English language testing, state-nomination, meeting the health and character criteria will be applicable on actual basis.

**The Department of Home Affairs generally revises the visa application charges on 01st July of each year.

Processing Timelines

Processing times for applications in this visa subclass can vary significantly depending on the risk assessment level of the applicants’ country of origin and how promptly the applicants can submit the requested documents, including translations, if required. The general processing times for the visa applications in this visa subclass are given below and it does not include the time needed to process the skills assessment and state-nomination applications. The Australian government has not provided any standard processing time for this visa category

• 75% of the applications are processed within 11 months
• 90% of the applications are processed within 14 months