In its end-of-year briefing released late on 31 December 2025, the Department of Home Affairs confirmed that Australia’s permanent migration program will remain capped at 185,000 places for the 2025-26 programme year. Roughly 70 % of those places will again be allocated to the Skill stream, maintaining the shift toward talent attraction first announced in the 2023 review.
Officials highlighted three priority clusters: health and aged-care, clean-energy engineering, and advanced manufacturing. Updated state and territory nomination quotas will be published in February once the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases revised population forecasts. Although the overall ceiling is unchanged, the government will tighten English-language and salary thresholds in several subclasses to ‘‘sharpen the focus on high-value applicants,’’ according to Immigration Minister Tony Burke.
For organisations and individuals trying to keep pace with these shifting rules, VisaHQ can step in as an on-call partner. Its Australia specialists guide users through skills assessments, employer-sponsorship filings and permanent-residence applications, all through a single online portal that tracks changing quotas in real time. Explore the service at https://www.visahq.com/australia/.
![Permanent migration cap held at 185,000 places for 2025-26 year]()
For employers the message is mixed. On the one hand, certainty over headline numbers allows workforce-planning for the next financial year; on the other, rising minimum salaries will increase cost-to-hire for regional hospitals and renewables projects already struggling with thin margins. Global-mobility practitioners should also prepare for a heavier compliance burden: the Department plans to expand data-matching with the Australian Taxation Office and issue more targeted site visits.
Home Affairs reiterated that allocations between Skill, Family and Special Eligibility streams can be re-balanced mid-year if labour-market conditions change. The government is also expected to unveil a new ‘‘Talent and Innovation’’ visa by July, merging several niche pathways into a single points-tested stream with faster processing.
Practical implications: sponsor licence holders should audit labour-market testing records ahead of the February quota release, and prospective applicants already in Australia on temporary visas may wish to lodge skill assessments early to beat a possible mid-year points recalibration.
Officials highlighted three priority clusters: health and aged-care, clean-energy engineering, and advanced manufacturing. Updated state and territory nomination quotas will be published in February once the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases revised population forecasts. Although the overall ceiling is unchanged, the government will tighten English-language and salary thresholds in several subclasses to ‘‘sharpen the focus on high-value applicants,’’ according to Immigration Minister Tony Burke.
For organisations and individuals trying to keep pace with these shifting rules, VisaHQ can step in as an on-call partner. Its Australia specialists guide users through skills assessments, employer-sponsorship filings and permanent-residence applications, all through a single online portal that tracks changing quotas in real time. Explore the service at https://www.visahq.com/australia/.
For employers the message is mixed. On the one hand, certainty over headline numbers allows workforce-planning for the next financial year; on the other, rising minimum salaries will increase cost-to-hire for regional hospitals and renewables projects already struggling with thin margins. Global-mobility practitioners should also prepare for a heavier compliance burden: the Department plans to expand data-matching with the Australian Taxation Office and issue more targeted site visits.
Home Affairs reiterated that allocations between Skill, Family and Special Eligibility streams can be re-balanced mid-year if labour-market conditions change. The government is also expected to unveil a new ‘‘Talent and Innovation’’ visa by July, merging several niche pathways into a single points-tested stream with faster processing.
Practical implications: sponsor licence holders should audit labour-market testing records ahead of the February quota release, and prospective applicants already in Australia on temporary visas may wish to lodge skill assessments early to beat a possible mid-year points recalibration.
