Australia’s skilled points test overhaul is still a promise, not a rule, for Indian applicants

More than 48,000 Indian nationals were granted permanent residence in Australia in 2024-25, more than from any other country, and most of the skilled arrivals passed through a single gate, a points test that has not been substantially rewritten since 2012. The federal government has spent more than two years promising to change that test. Yet as of August 2026, not one number on the grid has actually moved.

That gap between announcement and law is the first thing an Indian applicant needs to grasp. A great deal has been proposed. Very little has been enacted.

What the points test actually does

The points test ranks candidates for three visas that dominate Indian skilled migration, the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), the Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190) and the Skilled Work Regional visa (subclass 491). Applicants lodge an expression of interest, score themselves against fixed criteria, and wait to be invited to apply.

The pass mark is 65 points. Age carries the most weight, worth up to 30 points for applicants aged 25 to 32, then tapering to 25 points at 33 to 39, 15 points at 40 to 44, and nothing from 45. English is next, worth up to 20 points for Superior English (around IELTS 8), 10 for Proficient (around IELTS 7) and zero for merely Competent. Skilled employment experience and educational qualifications are each worth up to 20 points, and a skilled partner adds up to 10. Smaller awards sit on top for Australian study, a professional year, regional study, specialist STEM study and a community language, taking the theoretical maximum to 145.

Sixty-five points only buys a place in the queue.

Where the reform came from

The push to change all this began with the Migration Strategy, released on 11 December 2023 under Clare O’Neil, then Minister for Home Affairs. The strategy set out eight key actions and more than 25 policy commitments, one of which was a reformed points test to better identify migrants who drive Australia’s long-term prosperity.

The Department of Home Affairs then published a points test discussion paper on 24 April 2024, opening a month of consultation that closed on 24 May 2024 and drew 204 submissions. The department also commissioned the Australian National University to study which characteristics actually predict migrant success. The paper did not hand down a new grid. Instead it asked pointed questions, what criteria should be included, what should be removed, how age points should be redesigned to favour younger workers, and how partner points should be weighted. It noted that secondary applicants make up 55 per cent of the permanent skilled intake, and it singled out the professional year, regional study and community language awards as criteria of less obvious benefit that had become primary determinants of who gets invited.

What the 2026 budget did, and did not, do

The 2026-27 federal budget, delivered by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on 12 May 2026, kept the permanent Migration Program capped at 185,000 places, with more than 70 per cent reserved for the skill stream and a heavy tilt toward people already onshore. About 55,110 places were set aside for applicants offshore. Chalmers, who has held the Treasury portfolio through the Albanese government’s two terms and used this budget to press a productivity agenda, confirmed the government would optimise the points test, which it said selects almost two-thirds of permanent skilled migrants, to favour younger, more highly skilled and more educated applicants.

What the budget did not contain was any new weighting, any revised pass mark, or any commencement date. Responsibility for turning the promise into regulation now sits with Tony Burke, who became Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration in July 2024 and kept the role after the 2025 election. Burke oversees the migration program and the visa caseload, but his department has published no reformed grid. The one change that did take effect on 1 July 2026 was unrelated to the points test, the Core Skills Income Threshold rose from 76,515 dollars to 79,499 dollars and the Specialist Skills Income Threshold from 141,210 dollars to 146,717 dollars, a 3.9 per cent lift that applies to employer-sponsored visas such as the subclass 482 and 186, not to the points-tested 189, 190 or 491.

How the weightings could shift

Read against the discussion paper, the likely direction is clear even if the detail is not. Age points would probably move to a smoother, Canada-style sliding scale that rewards early-career applicants and softens the cliff faced by people over 40. Strong English looks set to matter more, given the department’s finding that points-tested migrants who report speaking English very well earn some 30 per cent more over a decade than those who report speaking it not well. Partner contributions may be reweighted upward. Some bonus categories may be trimmed or removed.

It is worth stating plainly what has not been decided. Widely circulated agent commentary that the pass mark will jump to 70, or that salary will earn points for the first time, goes beyond anything in the primary discussion paper, which floated neither as a firm proposal. Until a regulation is registered, these remain informed guesses.

Who gains and who loses

If the reform follows its stated logic, younger Indian graduates with high PTE or IELTS scores stand to gain, as do couples where both partners hold assessed skills. The losers would be applicants in their late 30s and 40s, and those who banked points on an Australian professional year, regional study or a community language. For the large Indian cohort in information technology and engineering, a system that rewards youth and English more heavily could help recent graduates while squeezing experienced professionals who have aged out of the top age band.

The takeaway

India sits at the very centre of this debate. Indians are the largest source of permanent migrants, the largest source of temporary skilled workers and the second largest source of international students, so any reweighting of the points test will fall hardest on Indian applicants simply by force of numbers. For now, though, the sensible course is to plan around the test that exists, not the one being promised. Lock in age points before birthdays cross a threshold, push English from Proficient to Superior where possible, and treat every headline about a 2026 overhaul as a signal of direction rather than a change in the law. The rules have been announced. They have not yet been written.