Australia’s 2025-26 Migration Program keeps the total permanent places at 185,000, with the majority allocated to the skilled stream. This is a signal that Australia continues to prioritise attracting skilled workers amid labour shortages across many industries.
How is the Australian 2025-26 Migration Program allocated
The total permanent migration cap for the 2025-26 program year is kept at 185,000 places, unchanged from the previous year. The allocation structure continues to lean heavily toward the skilled stream.
- Skilled stream: 132,200 places, accounting for around 71% of the program.
- Family stream: 52,500 places, accounting for around 28%.
Theo the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the skilled stream has consistently accounted for the largest share in recent years.
What’s new in the planning approach
From 2025-26, the Australian Government has extended the migration program planning horizon from 1 year to 4 years. This change helps states and territories forecast long-term labour needs more stably.
In addition, a new visa group for talent and innovation has been introduced, consolidating the previous talent-related categories.
What this means for skilled applicants
Maintaining more than 132,000 places for the skilled stream is the basis for streams such as Skilled Independent (subclass 189), Skilled Nominated (subclass 190) and Skilled Work Regional (subclass 491) to continue issuing invitations. Competition remains high, so your points score and having a suitable occupation are the deciding factors.
If you are interested in Australian migration, you should complete your skills assessment and English test early so you are ready when invitation rounds occur. The M2W team will update program figures for coming years.
Read more: Overview of Australian migration · What is the MLTSSL? Australia’s skilled migration occupation lists, STSOL and ROL 2026
