The 60-day clock: what must be ready before your invitation comes
If you receive an invitation for a skilled visa, you have sixty days to submit your application. You can no longer change your details then, and if you let that deadline pass, a new invitation is not guaranteed.
5 min read
Written and checked by Auke on , against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.
After an invitation via SkillSelect, the online system of Home Affairs, you have sixty days to lodge a complete visa application online. There is one hard deadline in the Australian track, and this is it. It comes at a moment you do not choose.
Three rules that go with it:
- From that moment your Expression of Interest (EOI), your registration in SkillSelect, is frozen.
- Let the sixty days pass, and a new invitation is not guaranteed.
- An EOI stays active for only two years anyway.
Why is an EOI not an application?
An Expression of Interest is a declaration of interest. You state which visa you seek, what your occupation is, and which points you claim. You upload no documents. It is not an application, and Home Affairs says so bluntly: lodging an EOI does not guarantee you will be invited. What you put in your EOI are claims. If you are invited, you must then provide evidence for every claim you made.
That is where the trap is. Whoever claims points for a language test score or a skills assessment he does not yet have, or that has meanwhile expired, stands empty-handed at the moment of invitation. And the clock is already running.
Which three rules do people not know?
1. After the invitation you can no longer change your EOI. You may update it as often as you like (a better language score, new work experience, a new baby), until the moment an invitation arrives. After that it is frozen. Everything you wanted to improve in points must therefore have happened before that moment.
2. Let the sixty days pass, and you wait for a next invitation, which is not guaranteed. Your application is not refused, but you are back in the pool, with documents that meanwhile run on towards their expiry.
3. An EOI stays active for only two years. That counts from the day you submitted it. If you use no invitation in that time, it lapses and you start again.
| Deadline or amount | Rule |
|---|---|
| Apply after invitation | within 60 days |
| Change the EOI | until the invitation; not after |
| EOI active in SkillSelect | 2 years from lodging |
| Official minimum score | 65 points; the invitation threshold per occupation is higher |
| Fee 189 at application (2026-27) | $6,135 main applicant, $3,070 per adult, $1,540 per child |
| Age | under 45 on the day of invitation |
An invitation is not an offer that stays on the table. It is a window of sixty days. Let it pass, and there is no guarantee a second one comes.
What has to happen in those sixty days?
The application is complete or it is not. Broadly it concerns:
- the skills assessment that assesses your diplomas and work experience, valid at the time of applying;
- your language test score, also valid;
- police certificates from the countries where you have lived;
- medical examinations for everyone coming along;
- identity and civil-status documents;
- the same package for your accompanying partner and children;
- the fees, which add up per family member.
Put the lead times next to it: a skills assessment takes months, a foreign police certificate weeks.
Sixty days are not enough to arrange this. They are enough to lodge it. That is the whole point of the phases that precede it.
Why is too early as expensive as too late?
The reflex is then: do everything as early as possible. That is exactly the mistake that makes this track most expensive. Police certificates and medical examinations have a limited validity, and they must be valid when your application is assessed. Whoever arranges them at the start of his track and only gets an invitation much later may do them again. And pay again, for everyone coming along. With police certificates that is most sharply visible: they take long and they expire, and those two properties work against each other.
The step you do take early is the skills assessment: it takes longest. And your language test is the fastest way to improve your position as long as you have not yet been invited. After that it is no longer possible.
How long does your EOI stand?
A lodged EOI stays active in SkillSelect for two years. In those two years much can change: the number of invitations per round, the occupations that come up, and how you compare with the rest of the pool. After every invitation round Home Affairs publishes the lowest invited points score per occupation. That is the only honest yardstick for the question "will I make it?", not the legal minimum of 65 with which you may lodge an EOI. So look there, and look again periodically.
Practically: make sure that by the time your EOI becomes promising, you have two things:
- a folder with everything that has no expiry date;
- a plan for the things that do, with the order in which you request them as soon as there is movement.
Rules, deadlines and rounds change. When in doubt the Home Affairs site is leading, not this article.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Australia or look first in the open plan.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.
- Department of Home Affairs — SkillSelect, after submitting your Expression of Interest — immi.homeaffairs.gov.au
- Department of Home Affairs — SkillSelect, invitation rounds and the lowest points score invited — immi.homeaffairs.gov.au
- Home Affairs — SkillSelect: lodging an EOI requires no documents — immi.homeaffairs.gov.au
- Migration Regulations 1994 — Schedule 1 (189 charges) and Schedule 6D (age under 45) — legislation.gov.au
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