Changes to Australian migration law and policy, dated, each one naming the legislative instrument or official source it comes from.
Employer sponsored
Three income thresholds moved on 1 July 2026, and the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold is now fixed by the Regulations themselves and indexed each year.
A ministerial instrument repealed and replaced the sections that set out how the annual market salary rate is determined, and it reaches nominations that were already lodged and undecided.
Registrations of interest for Queensland’s State Nominated Migration Program are closed, and Migration Queensland has published no opening date or allocation for 2026–27.
The Minister announced two changes at the National Press Club on 17 September 2026. Neither is in force, neither has a commencement date, and no instrument has been made.
The fee to review a migration decision is now $3,727 and a protection decision $2,293, and the new fees apply to any fee paid on or after 1 July 2026 even where the application was lodged before that date.
From 1 June 2026 the Administrative Review Tribunal must decide reviews of most student visa refusals without holding an oral hearing.
From 1 July 2026 a concessional application charge applies to holders of a passport from any of thirteen Pacific-regional countries, and to student applicants from ten named South-East Asian countries.
Send us the visa you hold or have applied for, the date it was lodged and any notice you have received. A change in the law does not always reach back to an application already on foot.
