📙 Daily Activity Report: 16 Mar 2026 This report summarises...

📙 Daily Activity Report: 16 Mar 2026

This report summarises visa grants, S56 requests, and invitation activity for 16 March 2026, based on crowdsourced data from the Australian skilled migration community.

Visa Grants

S56 Trends

Trends and Patterns

Priority Occupation Processing: Health occupations (Registered Nurses, Social Workers) continue to demonstrate expedited processing under Ministerial Direction 105. Notable examples include a TAS 190 RN Aged Care grant processed in under one month (16 Feb 2026 → 16 Mar 2026) and an offshore RN (NEC) processed in approximately 1.5 months despite an S56 request.

Non-Priority Occupation Processing: Non-priority occupations show processing times ranging from 3 to 15 months. ICT occupations (Software Engineers, ICT Project Managers, Developer Programmers) lodged in December 2024 received grants in March 2026, indicating approximately 3-month processing times. Trade occupations (Fitters, Gas Fitters) show longer processing times of 8-15 months.

S56 Request Patterns: S56 requests remain focused on employment evidence and police clearance certificates. One applicant reported proactive PCC updates, which may have contributed to a direct grant outcome. Employment evidence requests now specifically include income tax returns in addition to standard ATO income statements and superannuation documents.

Direct Grants: The majority of grants reported today were direct grants with no S56 requests, particularly for applications lodged in late 2024 and early 2025. This suggests improved processing efficiency for complete applications.

News and Updates

Victoria Partner Skills Assessment: Victoria has accepted expired partner skills assessments following legal submissions. Initially, VIC required updated and valid skills assessments, but after legal representation, they approved nominations where partner skills assessments had expired. This represents a significant policy clarification for applicants claiming partner points.

Useful Resources

No external URLs were referenced in today's comments.

⚠️ Disclaimer: This blog post is an AI summary of the comments below and may be refreshed as more comments arrive. Due to the nature of crowdsourced and AI-generated content, mistakes and discrepancies are possible. This information should be consumed with caution.

📊 Data Limitations: This report represents crowdsourced data and is therefore a subset of total visa activity. Only the Department of Home Affairs has complete grant data for all subclasses.

Useful Links

👨🏻‍🏫 Book IELTS 💾 FOI 🧮 Calculator 🗳️ FY2025-26 Guide to Australian PR

📗 FY2025-26 Migration Planning Levels 🔖 Frequently Asked Questions 📞 Useful phone numbers and emails 📋 Visa Application Document List 🏘️ Guide to Housing, Jobs and Community 📲 Whatsapp Groups ☎️ Book Consultation to explore your 189/190/491 Skilled Visa Options