Most comparisons of Canada vs Australia immigration put the two published minimums side by side. Both are misleading. Australia says 65 points and has not invited an ICT professional near that number in years. Canada has no minimum at all, only whatever the last draw happened to clear.
What actually decides this is your occupation, and it decides it sharply enough that two people with identical scores should apply to different countries.
Australia: the real cutoffs, by occupation
The subclass 189 Skilled Independent visa is permanent residence with no sponsor at all, which makes it the most attractive thing on offer in either country. The official minimum is 65 points. Here is what invitations have actually required:
| Occupation group | Points that received an invitation |
|---|---|
| Trades: stonemason, tiler, carpenter, plasterer, gasfitter, glazier | 65, the published minimum |
| Healthcare | 75 to 80 |
| Engineering | 85 to 90 |
| ICT | 90 to 95 |
Thirty points is not a rounding difference. It is the difference between qualifying on your own and needing a doctorate, superior English, a partner with skills assessment and state nomination on top. If you are a tradesperson, Australia is the single best immigration offer in the developed world and you should treat it that way. If you are in ICT, the 65-point figure is doing you real harm by looking achievable.
For scale on volume: the SkillSelect round on 4 June 2026 issued 10,000 invitations, and November 2025 issued 10,000 as the first round of the programme year. See our guide to the subclass 189 and the 186, 189 and 190 compared.
Canada: the pool is not the point any more
Canada abandoned the idea of one queue. There are now ten active Express Entry categories for 2026, and which one you fit decides your score requirement far more than your profile does:
- French language proficiency, 19 August 2026: 5,000 invitations at CRS 382.
- Healthcare and social services, 4 September 2026: 3,500 invitations at CRS 475.
- General rounds: roughly 500 to 530.
A CRS of 430 is hopeless in a general round and comfortable in a French draw. That is the whole strategy: stop trying to raise your score by ten points and get yourself into a category instead. For most people the cheapest category to enter is French, and a year of it beats anything else you can do in the same time.
Two changes that invalidate older advice. Every renewed category now requires 12 months of qualifying experience rather than six. And a job offer no longer adds CRS points, since arranged employment was removed from the scoring in March 2025. If a consultant is pricing an offer as a way to raise your score, they are selling something that no longer exists. Detail in the 2026 category draws and how Express Entry works.
What it costs to get there
| Canada | Australia | |
|---|---|---|
| Work permit or visa charge | CAD 155, plus CAD 85 biometrics | AUD 4,015 for subclass 482, and AUD 4,015 again for each dependant aged 18 or over |
| Salary floor for employer sponsorship | An LMIA-backed offer at the prevailing wage | AUD 79,423 Core Skills Income Threshold from 1 July 2026 |
| Route with no employer | Express Entry, and it leads to permanent residence | Subclass 189, and it leads to permanent residence |
| Licensing and recognition | Provincial, and Red Seal for trades | State-based for most trades and health professions |
Australia’s charges are the highest in the developed world for a work visa and rose from AUD 3,210 on 1 July 2026. Canada’s are trivial by comparison. That gap is worth several thousand pounds for a couple and it rarely appears in these comparisons at all.
The lever both systems bury: regional nomination
Both countries devolve part of the decision to a province or state, and in both it is the single largest score movement available to you. It is also the part people research last.
In Canada a provincial nomination adds 600 CRS points. That is not a boost, it is a decision: nomination-only rounds clear above 700 precisely because everyone in them holds the 600. If you have a nomination you are effectively already invited, and if you do not, no amount of language testing catches up with someone who does.
In Australia the equivalent is smaller but still decisive at the margin: state nomination on a subclass 190 adds five points, and a regional subclass 491 adds fifteen. For an ICT applicant staring at a 90-point cutoff, fifteen points from a regional commitment is the difference between applying and not.
The trade-off is real in both cases. You are agreeing to live somewhere specific, often outside the big cities, usually for a defined period. Whether that is a cost or a benefit is personal, but it should be a decision you make deliberately rather than one you discover after two years of collecting points. Our guides to the subclass 190 and Canadian provincial pathways cover how each works.
So which one
| If you are | Apply to | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A tradesperson | Australia | Invitations at 65 points, permanent residence, no sponsor needed. Nothing else comes close |
| In ICT or engineering | Canada | Australian cutoffs of 90 to 95 are out of reach for most. A Canadian category, usually French, is achievable |
| In healthcare | Either, and probably Canada | Australia invites at 75 to 80; Canada runs dedicated healthcare and physician categories |
| Already speaking French | Canada, decisively | CRS 382 in August 2026 is the lowest bar in either system |
| Bringing a family | Canada, on cost | AUD 4,015 per adult dependant against CAD 155 |
What to do next
- Find your occupation on both lists, the Core Skills Occupation List and Canada’s NOC. Everything is decided by the code, not the job title.
- Look up what your occupation group actually cleared, not the published minimum.
- Start the skills assessment or credential recognition now. In both countries it is separate from immigration and slower than it.
- If you are near a category boundary, close the gap rather than grinding points: French for Canada, a state nomination for Australia.
- Price the whole family, not the applicant. Australia charges per adult and it changes the answer.
Related: immigrating to Canada, applying for visa jobs in Australia and the easiest English speaking countries compared. Browse shortage jobs with visa sponsorship on our board.
Last checked September 2026. Invitation cutoffs are set round by round and are observations rather than rules; Australian thresholds indexed on 1 July 2026. Confirm current figures before applying.
