Subclass 190 State Nominated Visa: How Nomination Works

This is the structural difference from a 189 and the source of most confusion.

A state or territory decides whether to nominate you, against its own occupation list and its own criteria. The Department of Home Affairs then decides the visa, against the national criteria. Both must say yes, and they are assessing different things.

The state is asking: does this person fill a gap in our economy, and will they actually come and stay? The Department is asking: does this person meet the skilled migration requirements?

You can satisfy one and fail the other. An engineer with 90 points and an occupation absent from every state list will not be nominated. An engineer nominated by South Australia who cannot evidence their claimed employment will still be refused at the visa stage.

1. Get your skills assessment and English result. Nothing works without these.
2. Lodge an EOI in SkillSelect, selecting the states you would accept nomination from.
3. Apply to the state. Most run a separate process on their own portal — a registration of interest, an application, or both.
4. Receive nomination, which triggers an invitation to apply.
5. Lodge the visa within the invitation window.

Step 3 is the one applicants miss. Selecting a state in your EOI makes you visible to it; for many states it does not constitute an application. Some search the pool and invite directly, others require their own submission, and the arrangement changes between programme years. Check the specific state's current process rather than assuming.

Being on the MLTSSL is not enough. Each state and territory publishes its own, narrower list, and attaches its own conditions.

Conditions you will encounter:

• Minimum years of experience in the occupation, often more than the national requirement
• A job offer in the state, sometimes in a specified sector
• Prior study or residence in the state
• A points floor above the national 65
• Evidence of funds, or a commitment statement

This produces a recurring frustration: an engineer with a strong score finds their occupation open in one state, closed in four, and open-with-an-unmeetable-condition in the sixth. There is no way around it other than checking each state's current list directly, in the programme year you are applying.

Engineering occupations generally fare better than most here, because state infrastructure and resources pipelines are state-funded and state-planned. But lists close mid-year when allocations run out, so timing matters as much as eligibility.

Five points sounds marginal. In a ranked pool it is frequently decisive.

Ranking is by points first, then by the date you reached that score. Moving from 70 to 75 does not improve your position within the 70-point tier — it moves you into a different tier entirely, ahead of every 70-point candidate regardless of how long they have waited.

For an engineer sitting five points below the recent minimum invited for their occupation, a state nomination is often the difference between an invitation this quarter and an EOI that expires unused.

Compare the alternatives honestly: Superior English is worth 20 but takes months of preparation; a partner skills assessment is worth up to 10 but costs money and depends on your partner's occupation. A state nomination is worth 5 and depends on a list you do not control. Most applicants should pursue more than one.

The 190 is permanent from grant. Legally you have the same status as a 189 holder — you are a permanent resident with no condition printed on the visa restricting where you live.

What differs is the commitment you gave the nominating state: to live and work there, typically for the first two years. This is a condition of the nomination rather than of the visa.

In practice that means moving early is not usually a visa-cancellation risk. But it is a genuine undertaking, states do follow up, and a pattern of nominated applicants leaving immediately is precisely what causes states to tighten criteria for everyone who follows.

If you have no intention of living in the state, do not apply for its nomination. Pursue a 189, or raise your points until you do not need one.

There is also a practical reason to mean it. Your professional network, your local referees and your first Australian employer will all be in that state. Leaving at month one discards the thing that took you a year to build.

The strategy that works for most engineers: lodge one EOI covering all three, select every state whose list includes your occupation and whose criteria you meet, and treat the 491 as the fallback rather than the last resort — its 15 points are the largest bonus available, and "regional" covers everywhere except Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Rank the states you would genuinely move to, then work through them in that order rather than applying everywhere.

Check the depth of your discipline's market there. A state that lists your occupation but has one major employer in it is a risk. Adelaide is strong in defence and systems work; Perth in resources; Brisbane and regional Queensland in resources and infrastructure; NSW and Victoria in transport and building services.

Check the cost of living against the salary. A nominally lower offer in Adelaide can leave you better off than a Sydney equivalent after housing.

Check registration requirements. Queensland requires RPEQ to provide professional engineering services; Victoria operates its own scheme. Both gate real work.

State pay and market detail by discipline is in engineering pay by state.