State Nominated Migration Program

To be granted certain skilled migration visas to live and work in Western Australia, you must be nominated (invited) by an Australian state or territory through the State Nominated Migration Program.

WA Migration Services, on behalf of the WA State Government, provides WA State nomination to eligible applicants for two visa subclasses, which gives you extra points on the Department of Home Affairs points test:

WA Migration Services: State Nomination Migration Program.

Features of the 2022—23 program

 

  • 4,950 additional allocation places available;
  • 331 eligible occupations across three streams;
  • no application fee; and
  • employment contract and work experience requirements have been removed or reduced across all three streams.

Eligibility requirements

If you would like to be considered for an invitation for State nomination, your occupation will need to be eligible under the following streams.

These occupation lists identify occupations that are considered a priority for WA and are therefore eligible for skilled migrants through State nomination.

Check your eligibility against the stream-specific requirements here   

Applicants who have a nominated occupation identified on the WASMOL or the GOL may be eligible for WA State nomination using one of the following visa subclasses:

The WASMOL is available to applicants who intend to use the General stream WASMOL Schedule 1 or the General stream WASMOL Schedule 2.

Please note that the occupations identified in these streams, as detailed in the WASMOL and the GOL, do not relate to any specific job vacancies nor represent any guarantee of a job. Both lists are updated from time to time, in line with WA industry and workforce needs. 

Overview of requirements

The following table provides an overview of the requirements for each stream of the State nominated migration program, for each of the two eligible visa types.

Stream requirements General stream
WASMOL
Schedule 1		 General stream
WASMOL
Schedule 2		 Graduate
stream
Visa type 190 491 190 491 190 491
Meet Department of Home Affairs eligibility requirements for the intended visa subclass            
​Nominated occupation is available on the relevant list            
Meet minimum English requirements             
At least one year Australian or one year of overseas work experience in nominated (or closely related) occupation     - - - -
​Full time employment contract in WA for a minimum of six months in the nominated (or closely related) occupation   -   - - -
Have obtained a Certificate III level or above qualification from an accredited WA educational institution - - - -    
Meet the two years WA study requirement - - - -    


Stream-specific requirements

For specific details about each of these requirements for the General or the Graduate streams, please refer to the information below.

1: Nominated occupation on the relevant occupation list 

The nominated occupation identified in your skills assessment must be listed as “available” on the:

  • WASMOL Schedule 1 occupation list; or
  • WASMOL Schedule 2 occupation list.

You can view the eligible occupations here

2: Department of Home Affairs requirements

You must meet Home Affairs' requirements for your intended visa subclass, being:

3: English language requirement

You must meet the minimum score for English language requirements as shown below, in all four components (listening, reading, writing and speaking), in one of the Home Affairs approved English tests listed. 

Competent English bands (test) Listening Reading Writing Speaking
International English Language Testing System (IELTS) 6 6 6 6
Occupational English Test (OET) B B B B
Test of English as a foreign language internet-based test (TOEFL-iBT)  12 13 21 18
Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) 50 50 50 50
Cambridge C1 Advanced  169 169 169 169
If you have a passport from the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, the United States of America or Ireland, you don't need to sit an English test to be eligible for WA State nomination. 

4: Work experience requirement (not applicable to General stream WASMOL schedule 2 applicants)

You must have:

  • at least one year of Australian work experience in the nominated (or closely related) occupation over the last 10 years; or
  • at least one year of overseas work experience in the nominated (or closely related) occupation over the last 10 years.

You can only count work experience gained after you received your qualification, in paid employment, where you have worked at least 20 hours per week. 

Further evidence of work experience may be requested during the application process.

5: Contract of employment (not applicable to visa 491 applicants)

You must have a contract of employment in your nominated (or closely related) occupation for full time employment in Western Australia, for at least six months from the date of your application for State nomination. Full time employment is defined as an average of at least 35 hours work per week. You are able to provide two contracts of employment to make up the 35 hours. The contract must include:

  • full names of both the employer and the employee;
  • start and end date (if permanent, only start date is required). The start date must be within three months of your application;
  • job title and related ANZSCO code;
  • job description;
  • terms and conditions of employment (such as salary, hours of work, leave entitlements and superannuation) which must be no less favourable than those that would apply to an Australian citizen or permanent resident doing equivalent work. If your contract does not describe your terms and conditions of employment, you can provide the enterprise agreement or industrial award for your occupation;
  • location of employment;
  • a statement that confirms “work specified in the employment contract must be performed by the employee and not contracted out to a third party”;
  • dated signatures from the employer and the employee; and
  • be drafted by the employer and not by the employee.
You will need to provide a copy of your contract as part of the State nomination application, and it must be provided as one document. 

We will also assess whether: 

  • an appropriate salary will be paid for the specified occupation, based on market salary rates;
  • the business employing you is genuine and operating in the location specified; and
  • as the employee, you will bear no financial risk and be provided with the relevant tools and equipment to successfully undertake the tasks required.

Independent contractors, self employment and sole traders

Employment contracts submitted by an independent contractor or for self-employment do not meet the above requirements and are not suitable to apply for WA State nomination. Employment contracts submitted by a sole trader will be considered in the following circumstances only:

  • the sole trader is not the stated applicant of the State nomination application; and
  • the employment contract meets all the above requirements.

View the Employment contracts(opens in a new tab) and Independent contractors(opens in a new tab) information available on the Fair Work Ombudsman or Austrade website(opens in a new tab).

1: Nominated occupation on the relevant occupation list 

The nominated occupation identified in your skills assessment must be listed as “available” on the Graduate stream occupation list related to your stream.

You can view the eligible occupations here

2: Department of Home Affairs requirements

You must meet Home Affairs' requirements for your intended visa subclass, being:

3: English language requirement

You must meet the minimum score for English language requirements as shown below, in all four components (listening, reading, writing and speaking), in one of the Home Affairs approved English tests listed. 

Competent English bands (test) Listening Reading Writing Speaking
International English Language Testing System (IELTS) 6 6 6 6
Occupational English Test (OET) B B B B
Test of English as a foreign language internet-based test (TOEFL-iBT)  12 13 21 18
Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) 50 50 50 50
Cambridge C1 Advanced  169 169 169 169
If you have a passport from the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, the United States of America or Ireland, you don't need to sit an English test to be eligible for WA State nomination. 

4: WA study requirements

You will need to have gained one of the following qualifications from an accredited educational institution in WA that meets the accreditation requirements outlined below at the time of your study.

  • A university or higher education qualification. This includes a PhD, Masters, Bachelor or higher degree (Bachelor Honours Degree, Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma); and/or
  • a vocational education and training (VET) qualification at a Certificate III level or above.

You also must have studied at an accredited WA educational institution, full time and face to face, for at least two years (the educational institution determines whether a course is full time or part time). You can use study from different qualifications to make up the two years, including:

  • university/higher education. 
  • VET (Certificate III level or above); and/or 
  • English language programs. 

The onus is on the applicant to provide evidence to show two years of living and studying in WA. Additionally, the awarding institution must have met the accreditation requirements.

If, due to COVID-19, you were required to complete some of your studies online, you will need to show evidence that you were enrolled as an onshore WA student during this period. 

Evidence required 

You will need to provide the following evidence:

  • award certificate/s;
  • a record of your results, such as transcript/s or a statement of attainment showing two years full time study in WA; and
  • a letter from your education provider confirming your study duration and study load, start and completion date. If you studied at multiple institutions, to fulfil the two year study requirement, a letter must be provided from each education provider. 

If you were studying under an Australian student visa, you will also need to provide:

  • confirmation of enrolment/s (COEs) and/or student visa grant notice for the duration of your two years of WA study; and
  • if any study from your full time course was completed at a reduced study load, evidence demonstrating this was approved by your awarding education provider.

To meet the WA study requirement for the State nominated graduate stream, you must have completed your studies at an accredited educational institution (or institutions) in WA. The institution must have been accredited at the time of your relevant WA studies. To be considered accredited, the educational institution (including providers of English language programs) must be: 

Please refer to our list of WA accredited educational institutions below, for further information.

In addition: 

The institution types may be as follows.

  • English language program provider (ELP)
  • Vocational education and training (VET)
  • Higher education (HE)
  • University (U)

The applicant must confirm their enrolling educational institution is considered an accredited provider at the time of study.

If your institution is not listed below, you can search on the training.gov.au website(opens in a new tab) or TEQSA website(opens in a new tab) to see if it was accredited at the time of your studies.

Listed below are the current WA accredited educational institutions with a WA campus, and whether they are accredited as an English language program provider (ELP); or for vocational education and training (VET); higher education (HE); or university (U).

CRICOS
number		 Institution trading name/s Accreditation Website
    ELP VET HE U  
​02398A Academies Australasia Institute       ​academies.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00958A Alphacrucis College      ​ac.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03782G AMA College       ​amacollege.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
​03703M Apeiro Institute      apeiro.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02645B Australia-International Institute of Workplace Training       aiwt.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
​02813B Australasian Academy of Cosmetic Dermal Science        aacds.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02813B Australian College of Beauty Therapy       ​nicheeducation.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03375M

Australian College of Christian Studies Ltd

  

    ccs.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
​03071E Australian College of Dance       ​alg.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03800K ​Australian College of Management and Innovation Pty Ltd       ​acmi.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
​02813B Australian College of Specialist Makeup       nicheeducation.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03071E Australian College of Sport & Fitness       alg.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02650E Australian College of Theology       actheology.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03402B ​Australian Institute of Language and Further Education     ailfe.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03071E Australian Learning Group       alg.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
​03255G Australian Professional Skills Institute        apsi.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03437B ​Australian Technical College Western Australia       ​atc.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03691K ​Australian Tertiary Institute        atiaus.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03522E Babel International College (WA)     bic.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00463B Canning College     canningcollege.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00219C Central Queensland University     cqu.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03057C College of Sports & Fitness       csf.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02042G Curtin College       curtincollege.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00301J Curtin University       curtin.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02899B DNA Kingston Training       dnakingstontraining.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
01312J Edith Cowan College      edithcowancollege.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00279B ​Edith Cowan University       ​ecu.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02925E ​Education Training and Employment Australia        ​etea.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
01070M ​EF International Language Schools        ef-australia.com.au(opens in a new tab)
03275D Empyrean Education Institute       ​eei.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00231G Endeavour College of Natural Health, College of Natural Beauty, FIAFitnation     endeavour.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03567C Engineering Institute of Technology Pty Ltd       eit.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02898C Everthought College of Construction        ​everthought.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03564F Global College Australasia      ​globalcollege.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03407G ​Institute of Health & Management Pty Ltd     ihm.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
​03386G Institute of Health and Nursing Australia       ​ihna.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
​03345F ​International Institute of Business and Technology Australia        ​iibt.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03594M International Institute of Planning and Management       ​iipm.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02426B Kaplan Business School Pty Ltd       ​kbs.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03425F Keystone College of Business and Technology     kcbt.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02543G ​Kingston International College      kingstoncollege.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02139J ​Language Links        ​languagelinks.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03636F ​Lead College Pty Ltd       ​leadcollege.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03274E Lexis English Perth       ​lexisenglish.com(opens in a new tab)
03459G Lexis TESOL Training Centres       ​lexis-training.com(opens in a new tab)
03468F Macallan College Pty Ltd     macallan.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00061J ​Milner International College of English       milner.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00125J Murdoch University       murdoch.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00289M Navitas English        navitasenglish.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03431G New England School of English        ​nec.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03431G ​New England College Perth       nec.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03420M NIT Australia       ​nitaustralia.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03733E Open Colleges School of Health       opencolleges.edu.au/school-of-health(opens in a new tab)
03802G Pal Education       majorblueair.com.au(opens in a new tab)
00986G Perth Bible College        pbc.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03282E Perth College of Beauty Therapy       perthcollege.com.au(opens in a new tab)
03051J ​Perth College Of Business and Technology Pty Ltd     pcbt.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02368G Perth International College of English       ​pice.com.au(opens in a new tab)
00066D ​Phoenix Academy     ​phoenix.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00312F ​SAE Creative Media Institute       sae.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03528K Sero Institute     seroinstitute.com.au(opens in a new tab)
03391M Sheridan College Inc       ​sheridan.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03548F ​Skills Australia Institute       skillsaustralia.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03328G Skills Institute Australia     ​skills.qld.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
01241G Southern Cross University      ​scu.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03047E Stanley College   stanleycollege.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
01701G Sterling Business College        gillscollege.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00197D Stott's Colleges, Australian Surf Industry Training School, Front Cooking School, Melbourne Language Centre, Affectors Academy   acknowledgeeducation.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03376K Swan Institute Australia     swan.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02948J Sydney College of Divinity        ​scd.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00020G TAFE International Western Australia     ​tafeinternational.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03016A Taylor Weir School of Hairdressing       ​taylorweir.com.au(opens in a new tab)
03091A The One International College       ​theoneintlcollege.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
01032F The University of Notre Dame Australia   ​nd.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
00126G The University of Western Australia   ​uwa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03721J Ti Education and Training Pty Ltd     ​tieducation.com.au(opens in a new tab)
02200J Victory Life International Bible Training Centre       vlibtc.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02471G ​Western Australian Aviation College       ​waaviationcollege.com.au(opens in a new tab)
03548F Western Australia College lnternational       ​skillsaustralia.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
03188C West Australian Institute of Further Studies      waifs.wa.edu.au(opens in a new tab)
02123F YWAM Training Perth       ywamperth.org.au(opens in a new tab)

How to apply for WA State nomination

Please note that to be eligible for an invitation in the WA State Nominated Migration Program, you must meet both: 

Before starting your application, you will need to check whether your occupation is available on either the WA Skilled migration occupation list (WASMOL) Schedule 1 or 2, or the Graduate occupation list.

Check the eligibility of your occupation here  

 Current processing time for applications is 28 working days.

 

State Nomination Migration Program

SkillSelect is an online platform by Home Affairs that enables skilled workers who are interested in migrating to Australia to record their details to be considered for a skilled visa through an EOI. Lodging an expression of interest (EOI) through SkillSelect is the first step. Your EOI must include the following details.

Please check the accuracy of the information entered in your EOI on SkillSelect. If you provide false or misleading information as part of your State nomination application, your application may be declined. Read the Terms and conditions for more information. 

If your EOI is amended during the application process, resulting in a reduction of your points score, evidence must be provided to substantiate the points claimed in your EOI.

You will need to provide documents with your EOI, to show you meet the WA State nomination criteria.

Documents must be valid at the time of lodgement. Read the Terms and conditions for more information.

Any documents you submit should be high quality copies of the original.

Once the assessment of your application begins, you may be asked to provide further information by email.

WA Migration Services reviews EOIs that have been submitted through SkillSelect, and invites eligible applicants to apply for State nomination based on the WA State nomination criteria(PDF document - opens in a new tab)[PDF 309 KB]. 

If you are eligible for an invitation through multiple streams, you will receive an invitation for each stream you are eligible for. However, you will only be able to lodge one application for State nomination through your chosen stream. If multiple EOIs are ranked at the same level, invitations will be issued based on the EOI submission date.

If your EOI indicates you are seeking State nomination for both the subclass 190 and subclass 491 visa, you will generally be invited for the subclass 491 visa in the first instance. This is because you will generally have a higher EOI points score for this visa. 

Read more about our invitation rounds

If you are invited by WA Migration Services to apply for State nomination, you will receive an email with a link to the application form. 

To submit your application, you must read and agree to the terms and conditions.

You have 28 days to complete your application.

To be approved, your application must meet the WA State nomination criteria, which includes additional requirements depending on your intended stream. You will be notified of the outcome of your application via email.

View the criteria for WA State nomination here

If an applicant has been nominated for any skilled subclass (either 190 or 491), they cannot be nominated again in the same program year.

If your State nomination application is approved, WA Migration Services will nominate you in SkillSelect and you will then receive an invitation from Home Affairs to lodge an application for your intended visa.

Please note that State nomination does not guarantee your visa application will be granted.

If you are invited to apply for your intended visa, you can lodge your application through Home Affairs' online service IMMI.

Find out more about IMMI here(opens in a new tab)

You have 60 days to complete your visa application.

Home Affairs will assess your visa application against specific requirements.

Your visa application will only be granted if all requirements are met.

If your visa is granted, you will then be required to meet your long term commitments to living and working in WA. For people not yet residing in WA, this includes:

  • moving to WA within three months of receiving your visa, and complying with applicable border rules at the time;
  • registering your arrival with WA Migration Services;
  • living and working in WA for two years upon arrival; and
  • completing surveys upon request, for this two year period.

For people already residing in WA, this includes:

  • registering your visa grant date with WA Migration Services;
  • living and working in WA for two years following your visa grant; and 
  • completing surveys upon request, for this two year period.
     

 Register your arrival or visa approval(opens in a new tab)

Applicants have the opportunity to request a review of their WA State nomination outcome.

To request a review, please complete the Request for Review of Decision​​ form below and email it to migration@dtwd.wa.gov.au

All review requests must be submitted to WA Migration Services within 14 calendar days of the date of the email advising your WA State nomination outcome.

  Download the Request a review of decision form here(PDF document - opens in a new tab)[PDF 233 KB]

Eligible occupations

Here you can check whether your occupation is available and eligible for your intended visa subclass and stream.

You can search by entering your occupation name in the box below. If you want to narrow your search results, you can choose an occupation category as well. All matching results will be then displayed.

If you would like to see the full list of eligible occupations in each of the WASMOL or Graduate streams, or by visa type, please select from the Choose a stream and/or the Visa type options.