The Australian PR Points Test, Factor by Factor

Overseas skilled employment maxes at 15 points. Australian skilled employment maxes at 20. Applicants add these and conclude they could reach 35.

They cannot. The combined skilled employment score is capped at 20 points.

So an applicant with eight years overseas (15) and three years in Australia (5) scores 20, not 20 — coincidentally the same. But an applicant with eight years overseas (15) and eight years in Australia (20) also scores 20, not 35. Beyond the cap, additional years are worth nothing to your score.

The practical consequence: if you are already at the cap, more experience does not help and your effort belongs elsewhere — English, a partner assessment, or nomination.

A second trap sits underneath this one. "Skilled" employment means employment your assessing authority accepts as skilled, not total years worked. For ACS applicants the skill-met date deduction removes two to six years before counting starts. Claim assessed years, not calendar years.

Two things about this table drive strategy.

Age is assessed at invitation, not at EOI lodgement. If you turn 33 while sitting in the pool, your score drops by 5 and your rank falls with it. If you turn 40, it drops by 10.

The cliffs are hard. Crossing from 32 to 33 costs 5 points instantly. That is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to know your dates. An applicant eleven months from a bracket change should be accelerating everything else — English, partner assessment, nomination applications — rather than waiting to see what happens.

There are three ways to score here, and they are mutually exclusive:

• 10 points — you are single, or your partner is an Australian citizen or permanent resident
• 10 points — your partner has Competent English and a positive skills assessment in an occupation on the same list as yours, and is under 45
• 5 points — your partner has Competent English only
• 0 points — neither

The middle option is the one couples miss. Ten points for a second skills assessment is often better value than anything else available, particularly if your partner is an engineer or an ICT professional and the assessment is straightforward for them.

Run the arithmetic before deciding: the cost of a partner's skills assessment and English test against ten points, versus what those ten points do to your rank in your occupation. For applicants sitting five points below a recent cut-off, it is usually the fastest available move.

If you need more points, work in this order:

1. Superior English (+20 from Competent, +10 from Proficient). Cheapest, fastest, entirely in your control. Most engineers who sit at Proficient have not seriously prepared for Superior.
2. Regional nomination (+15). The largest single bonus. Requires a genuine commitment to a designated regional area — which covers everywhere except Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, including Perth, Adelaide and Newcastle. See the 491 guide.
3. Partner skills assessment (+10 or +5). Often overlooked, frequently decisive.
4. State nomination (+5). Requires your occupation on that state's own list and meeting its criteria. See the 190 guide.
5. NAATI community language (+5). Real work, but a permanent 5 points.
6. Professional Year (+5). Only relevant if you are already onshore.

Model your own position in the points calculator, which shows the effect of each change on your total.

Sixty-five is the minimum to lodge an EOI. It is not a pass mark, and treating it as one is the most common misunderstanding in Australian skilled migration.

Invitations go to the highest-ranked candidates within each occupation's ceiling. If your occupation is being invited at 85, a 65-point EOI will sit in the pool for its full two years and expire without an invitation. Nothing has gone wrong — you were simply never in contention.

What to do with that: read the Department's published invitation round results for your occupation group, find the recent minimum invited, and compare it honestly with your score. If the gap is more than five points, patience is not the answer — points are. See how to read the invitation data.

Engineering occupations have historically been invited at lower scores than accounting or some ICT occupations, because the ceilings have been generous relative to the pool. That is an advantage worth knowing about, not a guarantee.

Most self-calculated scores are too high, and the errors repeat.

Counting calendar years instead of assessed years. "Skilled employment" means the years your assessing authority accepts as skilled. ACS applicants lose two to six years to the skill-met date deduction before counting begins; Engineers Australia applicants should hold a Relevant Skilled Employment Assessment before claiming employment points at all.

Counting employment outside the ten-year window. Skilled employment is counted within the last ten years. Work from fifteen years ago does not add points however relevant it was.

Missing the combined cap. Overseas and Australian employment add together to a maximum of 20, not 35.

Claiming a qualification that is not recognised. Educational points depend on the qualification being assessed as comparable to the Australian level claimed. A masters that has not been assessed is not automatically 15 points.

Using age at lodgement. Age is scored at invitation. If you will cross a bracket while waiting, your planning score should reflect the lower figure.

Assuming partner points without the assessment. The 10-point partner category requires a positive skills assessment for the partner, not merely a relevant degree.

Score yourself conservatively. An honest 75 that survives the visa stage is worth more than an optimistic 85 that collapses under evidence.

A competitive score gets you invited. It does not, by itself, get you a visa. The other criteria sit alongside the points test and each can stop an application independently.

• A valid skills assessment in your nominated occupation, current at the time you lodge.
• Occupation on the relevant list for the subclass you are applying for.
• Under 45 at invitation.
• Competent English as a minimum, regardless of how many points you claimed for it.
• Health requirements for every applicant, including non-migrating family members in some cases.
• Character requirements, with police certificates from every country you have lived in for the relevant period.

Health and character are the ones applicants plan for least and that take longest, because both depend on third parties with their own queues. Begin thinking about them when your score becomes competitive, not when the invitation arrives with a 60-day clock attached.