Skilled Visa Refused? Your 189, 190 and 491 Options
Updated: 5 August 2026
Three different things get called a skilled visa refusal, and only one of them is real. An EOI that never draws an invitation has lapsed, not been refused. An unsuccessful state nomination is not a refusal either. Only a lodged 189, 190 or 491 application can be refused, and your refusal letter names the review right and the deadline.
Quick Facts: after a skilled visa refusal
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Was it actually a refusal? | Only a lodged visa application can be refused. An EOI lapses. A nomination is decided by the state |
| Review body | Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), which replaced the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in 2024 |
| Review deadline for skilled refusals | 28 days from notification, in Australia or overseas. Your refusal letter states your exact deadline |
| Most common cause | A points claim that could not be evidenced at decision time |
| Time to lodge after an invitation | 60 days, or the invitation lapses |
| Can you reapply? | Usually yes, unless a ban applies or the section 48 bar catches you |
| Review fee | The ART charges a fee, reduced on hardship grounds, refunded if it decides in your favour |
| Fresh application charge | See the fee schedule |
Work out what actually happened first
Before you plan anything, name the situation you are in. The three look similar from the outside and have almost nothing in common.
Nothing happened to your EOI, and that is the point
An Expression of Interest is not a visa application. It is a profile sitting in the SkillSelect pool, ranked by points score, with the earliest date of effect breaking ties between people on the same score. If the rounds keep passing you by, no case officer has looked at you and no decision has been made. There is no refusal letter and no review deadline running.
An EOI runs for two years from submission, or from your most recent date of effect if you have updated it, then drops out of the pool automatically. You are notified, and you can submit a new one immediately. No penalty, no limit on how many you lodge. Read how SkillSelect and the EOI pool work if this is you.
The harder version is an invitation you let go. You have 60 days to lodge after an invitation. Miss it and the invitation lapses, your EOI returns to the pool, and nothing guarantees it gets picked again. Still not a refusal, but it costs you real time.
A state said no to your nomination
The 190 and 491 both need a nominator. State and territory nomination is a separate application to that government, decided against its own criteria on top of the federal ones. NSW selects straight from the SkillSelect pool, the ACT runs its Canberra Matrix, South Australia has its own points matrix, and Victoria and Tasmania lean towards applicants already living there.
If a state does not nominate you, the Department of Home Affairs has refused nothing, because you never had a visa application on foot. That decision belongs to the state that made it, so that is who you talk to about it. Most states also want only one active nomination application at a time, and some treat applying everywhere at once as a reason to say no.
Your lodged application was refused
This is the real refusal. You were invited, you lodged through ImmiAccount inside the 60 days, a case officer assessed the claims, and the answer was no. You get a refusal letter. It names the criteria you failed and states whether review is available and by when. Read it three times, then follow our step-by-step guide to a refusal.
Your review rights, and how fast the clock runs
Refusals of 189, 190 and 491 applications are reviewable by the Administrative Review Tribunal. Our review time limits guide puts the skilled deadline at 28 days from notification, the same whether you were in Australia or overseas when you were notified. Some offshore decisions are excluded from review, so confirm on your own refusal letter that review is available to you. Character decisions under section 501 are far shorter, as little as 9 days.
The clock starts at notification, not at the date on the decision. It runs in calendar days, so weekends and public holidays are inside the count.
| How you were notified | When the clock starts |
|---|---|
| In person | The day it is handed to you |
| Email or ImmiAccount | The date it is sent, or the next working day |
| Post within Australia | 7 working days after posting |
| Post outside Australia | 21 days after posting |
Deadlines come from the Migration Act and the regulations, and the ART has no general power to extend them. A late application is rejected however strong the case is. Do not wait until the last day.
The ART conducts merits review, which means a fresh decision on the facts rather than a check for legal error. You can put in evidence that was never part of the original application. That is the reason review is worth anything at all. Hearings are inquisitorial, so the member asks the questions and no government lawyer cross-examines you. The tribunal can affirm the refusal, remit it to the Department with directions, or set it aside. Our full ART appeal guide covers the process.
There is an application fee, a reduced fee on hardship grounds, and a refund if the ART decides in your favour. Check the ART's current fee schedule for the amount. If money is the problem, lodge with a reduction request rather than miss the deadline.
The refusal reason most people do not want to read
Most skilled refusals after invitation come down to one thing: points you claimed that you could not evidence at decision time. The Department verifies every claim. Overclaiming is not caught in the pool, because nobody checks the pool. It is caught after the invitation, when a case officer asks for documents.
Points are assessed at the time of invitation. That single rule breaks more applications than any other, because your circumstances keep moving while your EOI sits still.
| What was claimed | What went wrong at decision time |
|---|---|
| Skilled employment | Payslips, tax records and reference letters did not cover the full period claimed, or the duties did not match the assessed occupation |
| Skills assessment | The assessment had expired before the invitation. Most are valid for three years |
| English | Results were outside their validity period when they were needed. Validity varies by test and subclass |
| Age | A birthday moved you into a lower band before the invitation issued |
| Partner points | The partner's skills assessment or English did not meet the standard the claim assumed |
| Everything | A fraud or bogus-document finding under Public Interest Criterion 4020 |
Age deserves its own paragraph, because it moves without you doing anything. The 25 to 32 band is worth 30 points. It drops to 25 from 33, to 15 from 40, and at 45 you are out of the skilled program. A birthday between your date of effect and your invitation can quietly remove points from a claim you never touched.
PIC 4020 is the serious one. A finding that you gave false information or a bogus document can result in a 3-year or 10-year ban on being granted most Australian visas. That is a different order of problem from a thin employment reference, and it is worth paying a professional to look at before you respond to anything.
Re-audit your points before you touch a new application
Do this on paper, coldly, before you choose.
Take the refusal letter and write out every points claim in your EOI. Next to each, write the document that proves it and the date on that document. Where you cannot name a document, that claim is gone. It was never yours. Add up what survives.
The minimum to enter the pool is 65 points, and that is what it is: entry to a queue, not an invitation. Virtually no 189 invitations issue at 65. If your honest total sits well below what you claimed, review will not rescue it, because the ART is deciding the same facts on the same evidence you already failed to produce. Our points threshold guide and the points calculator guide will help you rebuild the number honestly.
Not every refusal should be reviewed. If the refusal reasons are fundamentally correct, review wastes months and money you could spend fixing the underlying score. A new skills assessment or another documented year of Australian work changes the answer. Arguing about it does not.
Back in the pool, any change that raises your points resets your date of effect, so batch your updates instead of drip-feeding them. Our date of effect guide sets out what resets the timestamp and what leaves it alone.
What a refusal does to your nomination
This one genuinely depends on the state. Your 190 or 491 invitation came off the back of a nomination, and what that government does with it after a visa refusal is theirs to decide. Do not assume it survives, and do not assume it is dead. Ask them in writing before you build a plan around it. If you are weighing a switch between streams, our 189 vs 190 vs 491 comparison sets out the trade-offs.
If you are in Australia, check section 48 first
This is the trap that catches onshore applicants. If you were in Australia when the refusal happened and you do not hold a substantive visa at that point, section 48 of the Migration Act bars you from applying for most visa types while you remain here. It is not discretionary. There is no waiver for section 48 itself, it has no expiry date, and it only stops applying when you leave the migration zone.
Section 48 does not remove your review rights. If the ART overturns the refusal, the decision that triggered the bar goes with it. Lodging review while onshore also typically gives you a Bridging Visa A that runs until the review is decided. Read the section 48 bar explained before you spend money on a fresh application, and treat anyone offering to get around a statutory provision for a fee as a warning sign. No legitimate agent can override one.
Choosing between review and a fresh application
Apply for review when you hold evidence the case officer never saw, or when you are onshore and need to hold your status while you sort things out. Reapply when the refusal came down to something you have since fixed, or when you are offshore and a clean new EOI is simpler than a tribunal.
Neither route gets your money back. The visa application charge is not refunded, whatever the outcome. The refusal also sits permanently on your immigration record, so you declare it on every future Australian visa application, from any country, however long ago it was. Failing to disclose it is itself a ground for refusal.
For what a new application costs and how long decisions are taking, use the visa fees schedule and the processing times guide rather than figures quoted on third-party sites. Where a PIC 4020 finding, character issues or a section 48 problem is involved, pay a MARA-registered professional to look at it. Our guide on how to find a migration agent explains what to check first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is an EOI that never received an invitation a refusal?
No. An EOI is a profile in a pool, not an application, so there is nothing to refuse. It runs for two years from submission, or from your latest date of effect, then drops out automatically. You get no refusal letter, no review right, no deadline. You can lodge a fresh EOI straight away, as often as you like.
How long do I have to apply for review of a 189, 190 or 491 refusal?
Our review time limits guide puts skilled refusals at 28 days from notification, whether you were in Australia or overseas. The count runs in calendar days from the date you were notified, not the date on the decision. Your refusal letter states whether review is available and your exact deadline. Lodge early.
Can I lodge a new EOI while my refusal is under review?
An EOI is not a visa application, so submitting one is not the same as applying again. The catch comes later. An invitation is worthless if the section 48 bar stops you lodging, and an exclusion period does not stop you applying but does stop a visa being granted. Check your position first.
Does a skilled visa refusal stop me applying again?
Usually not. There is no mandatory waiting period. But a reapplication built on the same evidence gets the same answer, so the new claim has to be materially different. Two things do stop you: the section 48 bar, if you were refused onshore without a substantive visa, and any exclusion period, which prevents a visa being granted.
Will my skills assessment still be valid if I reapply?
Check the date on it. Most skills assessments are valid for three years, and validity varies by assessing authority. If yours expired before your invitation, that alone can explain the refusal. You cannot lodge a valid application on an expired assessment, so renew it before you submit a new EOI rather than after an invitation arrives.
What happens to my state nomination after a 190 or 491 refusal?
That is a decision for the state or territory that nominated you, not for the Department, and it is not safe to assume either way. Contact the nominating state in writing and ask directly before you plan a reapplication around it. Get the answer before you spend money on a fresh assessment or test.
Do I get my visa application charge back after a refusal?
No. Visa application charges are not refunded regardless of the outcome. The ART application fee works differently: a reduced fee is available on hardship grounds, and the fee is refunded if the tribunal decides in your favour. Check the ART's current fee schedule for the amount before you lodge.
