State of 189 As per FOI data as at 31 May 2025, 7111 visas are pending grant. June was very quiet, so we can approximate around 7000 pending as at 30 June 2025 (end of FY).
Last FY (ending 30 June 2024) ending backlog for 189 was also around 7000. The planning level was 16900. Total 189 invites issued were ~23000.
Since this FY (2025-26) opening backlog is similar to last FY backlog, the size of rounds this FY now depends on the planning levels. If the planning level is again set to 16,900, we can roughly expect 23000 invites (crude approximation), a ratio of ~1.5.
Once the new planning levels are released, as a rough estimate we can just 1.5X to get an idea of the total 189 invites to be issued in FY.
Feel free to comment below if you have any views/feedback/correction.
@gregormendel When can we expect grants to start coming through for the pending 7000 invites? Can we expect it to start from second week of July like last financial year?