Skilled Work Regional visa, subclass 491
Nomination for a regional area is worth 15 points. For most applicants that single number is the difference between an invitation and five years in the pool.
“Regional” is far bigger than people assume
Most people picture a country town. In migration law, only three cities in Australia are excluded, and everywhere else on the continent qualifies.
Not regional
CATEGORY 1- Greater Sydney
- Greater Melbourne
- Greater Brisbane
Three cities. That is the whole exclusion list.
Major regional centres
CATEGORY 2- Perth, Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra
- Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast
- Newcastle, Wollongong and Geelong
Capital cities with universities, hospitals and airports, all counted as regional.
Everywhere else
CATEGORY 3- All other cities, towns and postcodes
- WA, SA, Tasmania, NT and ACT entirely
- All of regional NSW, Victoria and Queensland
Five states and territories are regional from border to border.
This is the fact that changes most people’s plans. You can hold a 491, live in Adelaide or Perth, work a city job in a city office, and still be building your three years towards permanent residence. Nepcoms has an office in Adelaide, so this is ground we know rather than a postcode list we looked up.
Two ways to be nominated
You cannot apply for a 491 on your own. Something has to sponsor you into a region, and there are only two candidates.
State or territory nomination
THE COMMON ROUTE- You lodge an EOI, and often a separate registration of interest with the state
- Each state publishes its own occupation list and its own extra rules
- Some want a job offer, some want you already living there, some want neither
- Nomination decisions commonly take two weeks to three months
Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory run the most consistently open programs. New South Wales and Victoria open and close with little warning.
Sponsorship by a relative
THE OVERLOOKED ROUTE- An eligible relative usually resident in a designated regional area sponsors you
- Parent, child, sibling, aunt or uncle, niece or nephew, grandparent or first cousin
- They must be 18 or over and a citizen, permanent resident or eligible NZ citizen
- Worth the same 15 points, with no state program to wait on
Nepali families are spread across regional Australia, and a great many applicants have a qualifying relative without ever having thought to check. It is the first question we ask.
Either route is worth 15 points. Neither is worth anything if your score is short elsewhere, so work out your points before you approach a state.
Four gates before nomination even matters
These are hard requirements, not scoring factors. Fail one and no amount of points rescues the application.
Under 45
Your age is assessed on the day you are invited to apply, not the day you lodged your EOI. Turning 45 in the pool ends it.
Competent English
IELTS 6.0 in every band, or PTE equivalent, as the floor. Proficient and Superior are what actually earn you 10 and 20 points.
Skills assessment
A positive assessment from the right authority for your nominated occupation. The 491 draws on the widest occupation list of the three skilled visas.
65 points
The minimum to enter the pool is 65, and the 15 from nomination counts towards it. It is a floor, not a target.
Sixty five points gets you into the pool. What gets you out of it depends on your occupation and your state, and in the competitive occupations the real invitation scores sit well above the minimum. We will tell you which of those two situations you are in.
What it costs, and how long it takes
The government charge rose about a quarter on 1 July 2026. Budget from the current figure, not from what a friend paid last year.
The charge
AUD 6,140 for the main applicant from 1 July 2026, 3,070 for a partner and 1,535 for each child. It was 4,910 before that date.
Around it
A skills assessment, an English test, the state nomination fee where one applies, panel medicals, and police checks from every country you have lived in.
The waiting
Nomination in two weeks to three months, then the visa itself. Recent published times put half of decisions inside six to twenty months, with the family sponsored stream moving faster than the state nominated one.
The invitation is the deadline that catches people. Once it arrives you have 60 days to lodge a complete application, and a skills assessment or a police check cannot be produced inside that window. The documents come first.
The part most agents leave out
A 491 is a five year commitment with a permanent visa at the end of it. Both halves of that sentence are worth understanding before you lodge.
The three year lock
CONDITIONS 8579 AND 8580- You must live, work and study only in a designated regional area
- The Department can ask for evidence of your addresses and workplaces, and you have 28 days to provide it
- For the first three years you cannot be granted a subclass 189 or 190
- Breaching the conditions risks cancellation and ends the 191 pathway
The 491 is not a stepping stone you can abandon halfway. Anyone who tells you otherwise has not read the conditions.
And then the 191
PERMANENT RESIDENCE- Hold the 491 for at least three years and comply with its conditions
- Lodge Australian tax returns and hold three Notices of Assessment from those years
- No points test, no new skills assessment, no new English test
- The charge is AUD 630, against 6,140 for the 491 itself
Permanent residence with no regional condition attached. From there, citizenship follows the ordinary rules.
One correction worth more than the rest of this page. You will read almost everywhere that the 191 requires you to earn a minimum taxable income, usually quoted as AUD 53,900 a year. There is no such requirement. The 2019 regulations anticipated a threshold, but none was ever prescribed by legislative instrument and none has been since. What you must produce is three Notices of Assessment. A low figure on them does not defeat a 191 application. A missing one does. Lodge your tax returns every year, from the first year, and keep the assessments.
How we run it
Four stages, across offices in Nepal and Australia, with the same team from the points check to the 191.
The honest points check
We score you properly, test whether a relative already sponsors you into a region, and tell you plainly whether your occupation and score make a 491 realistic this year or a two year project.
Skills assessment and English
We name the right assessing authority the first time, and we plan the English test around the points you actually need rather than the one you are used to sitting.
EOI and nomination strategy
One EOI, several states considered against your occupation and their published criteria, and a date of effect we protect rather than accidentally reset.
Lodgement, then the long game
We prepare and lodge inside the 60 days, then set up the record keeping for conditions 8579 and 8580 so the 191 in three years is paperwork rather than a scramble.
Common questions
Do Adelaide and Perth count as regional for the 491?
How many points do I need for a subclass 491?
Is a 491 really a path to PR, or am I stuck for five years?
Do I need to earn a minimum income to get the 191?
Can I apply for a 190 or a 189 while I hold a 491?
Free subclass 491 eligibility and points check
- We score you against the current points test, honestly
- We check whether a relative already sponsors you into a region
- We name the states where your occupation is actually being nominated
- We tell you the full cost and the realistic timeline before you commit
No obligation, and confidential.
Send us your details
We reply within one working day.
Find out where you stand before you pay for a skills assessment
A skills assessment costs hundreds of dollars and months of waiting. Twenty minutes with us first will tell you whether it is the right one.
Charges are indexed each July, occupation lists and state programs change through the year, and invitation scores move with every round. Figures checked 7 September 2026.