A major change to visas is impacting the resourcing of projects across Australia
A change to the way Australia processes skilled visas has moved offshore applicants to the back of the queue, construction included. For infrastructure employers that have relied on overseas recruitment to fill hard roles, the fastest lever has become the slowest.
What changed in July
Ministerial Direction 119 commenced on 25 July 2026, replacing Direction 105. It sets five processing priority tiers, ranked by occupation and by whether the applicant is in or outside Australia. Onshore law enforcement and defence sit at the top, followed by their offshore equivalents, then onshore healthcare, teaching and construction. All other onshore applications come next. Every offshore application outside those categories sits last.
The Direction applies to applications lodged from 25 July 2026, and to applications already on hand that were not finally determined by that date. Coverage runs across the main employer sponsored and skilled subclasses, including 482, 494, 186 and 187.
The part that matters for construction
Construction is a priority occupation, but only when the applicant is already in Australia. An offshore construction worker now sits in the bottom tier, below an onshore applicant in almost any other field. The occupation counts for little while the person is overseas. Reported waits for offshore applicants in affected categories have stretched towards twelve months.
Two advantages regional employers have lost
Direction 119 removes regional location as a priority factor, and accredited sponsor status no longer buys a place higher in the queue. Both previously worked in favour of regional civil employers. The nuance matters: regional subclasses are still processed, they simply no longer receive priority. Regional work has lost an advantage, not a pathway.
What has not changed
Offshore processing has not stopped. Applications continue to be lodged, allocated and decided. The permanent migration program holds at 185,000 places for a third year, and the Core Skills Income Threshold rose to $79,499 from 1 July 2026. The shift is one of speed and order, not closure, and the difference is worth stating plainly in a market where the opposite has been assumed.
The Infrastructure People view
The practical response is to treat migration timelines as a planning input rather than a late fix. That means mapping, early, which roles a project genuinely needs to source from offshore, starting those cases well ahead of mobilisation, and building the rest of the plan around onshore attraction and development. Where offshore recruitment remains the right call, specialist immigration and global mobility support keeps the paperwork and the timing on track. The workforce that moves first will be the one that planned for the queue, not the one that discovered it.
“The old assumption was that if a role was hard to fill, you could bring someone in from offshore and move on. That lever is a lot slower now. The businesses that handle it well are building visa timelines into the plan from the start, rather than treating them as something to sort out once the job is already open.”
Rob Clowes, Managing Director, Infrastructure People
Navigating immigration and global mobility with confidence
With visa processing timelines becoming an increasingly important factor in workforce planning, having the right specialist support can make all the difference.
Through our partnership with Absolute Immigration, Infrastructure People provides clients with access to specialist immigration and global mobility expertise, helping businesses navigate visa and sponsorship pathways, streamline international recruitment and mobilise critical talent with confidence.
Explore our Immigration & Global Mobility services.
Sources
- Ministerial Direction 119, Department of Home Affairs: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/Visa-subsite/files/md-119.pdf
- Skilled visa processing priorities, Department of Home Affairs
- KPMG Global Mobility Services Flash Alert 2026-211
- ABC News, 5 August 2026 and 22 August 2026
