We have just received our invitation to apply for our Skilled Work - regional (subclass 491) state and territory nominated visa for SA, is there anything I should be doing to prepare for the application going in? We are waiting on the kids new passports but I can’t find much information about what else I need to do

Congratulations on the invite

Hopefully at this stage you have covered all the prep, and it's just a case of submitting the application.

Info here - https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visa...lication#HowTo

Thank you! That was helpful.

I’m hoping all we need to do now is the medical examinations and the biometrics. We had originally applied tor the 190 back in Jan 2019 but never heard anything. Edited our visa and considered another state and we have breezed through the EOI and state nomination in 2.5 weeks! I know the next stage will take much longer but with how quickly things have moved this time around, I want to be fully prepared 😆

How old is the skills assessment? Skills assessments have different validity periods - ACS is only 2 years, but others are 3 years. The assessment would need to be valid when you lodge the application I think.

Also - if you claimed points for English, test results are only valid for 2 years I think so worth checking.

My husbands English test has expired already but his skills test is still valid until the end of May. This is our final push, if it’s not successful this time round then it wasn’t meant to be. Although, I’m hopeful that things will work out with our SA application. Im sure I read somewhere that as long as it’s valid when you apply for the visa, it still stands during the processing time. We haven’t heard anything about our EOI to NSW so not as confident about that application.

So if the English test expired, did you claim points for English in the EOI or not?

No we didn’t. We considered my husband retaking the test but as it was time sensitive and the available apts weren’t for a while, we just went ahead without

You should be all good then.

They used to say to wait until asked to do medicals, but don't know if that's still the case.

It varies depending upon the visa (and suggested processing times) and individual preferences - but medicals do still expire after 12 months so many people do either delay them a while or wait until they are requested.

Thank you both! Is it worth while to contact GP for medical background so we have this information to hand, or is this something that is just done in the medical examination process?

Probably not necessary for visa medical unless you have something in your history that might need more info.

Visa medicals are only conducted by certain clinics - https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help...locations/list

We used the bridge clinic as it was close to where we were living - https://www.bridge-clinic.com/austra...sa-applicants/

The second link should have some info on what you need to do