If you sponsor overseas workers under the Subclass 482 or Subclass 186 programs, a change commenced on 25 July 2026 that is worth understanding now rather than when your next nomination is sitting in a queue. Ministerial Direction 119 has replaced Direction 105, and it changes how the Department of Home Affairs decides which nominations and visa applications get looked at first.

The short version is that two things employers had come to rely on are gone. Regional area priority has been removed, and accredited sponsor priority has been removed. Neither status now buys a nomination any advantage in the queue, regardless of how helpful they were previously.

So what decides priority now? Two things, in this order. Occupation comes first. Law enforcement and defence occupations sit at the very top, followed by healthcare, teaching and, newly added under Direction 119, construction. Everything else, which is the bulk of nominations for most employers, falls into a general category behind those. Location comes second. Within each occupation group, onshore applications are now prioritised ahead of offshore ones.

For a construction employer, this is a genuine improvement. If your nominee's occupation sits in that category, you have moved up the order in a way you wouldn't have under the old Direction 105 settings.

For most other employers, the honest position is that a nomination that previously got some benefit from being in a regional area, or from your accredited sponsor status, no longer receives any queue advantage from either. The occupation itself is what matters now, and if it's not law enforcement, defence, healthcare, teaching or construction, the nomination sits in the general pool, with onshore versus offshore location as the only remaining factor before the standard order.

Direction 119 applies to nominations and visa applications already on hand, not just new lodgements, and it now expressly covers Subclass 482 nominations under the Skills in Demand program, along with 186 and 494 programs. Combined visa applications receive the same priority as the primary applicant.

If you have a current nomination in progress, or are planning one, it's worth having a conversation about where it now sits under the new order and what that means for a realistic processing timeframe. Get in touch with our team to talk through your specific situation.