Policy note, current as at 31 July 2026.
This is about one visa program: the talent lane.
It is about the order applications are considered in and how one criterion is assessed.
It changes no eligibility criteria.
Everything below comes from the text of the Direction itself.
As always this is provided as general information and is not provided as, intended to be, or should be taken to be immigration assistance. The information provided in this post is current as at 31 July 2026.
On 25 July 2026, Ministerial Direction 120 took effect.
It is a direction under section 499 of the Migration Act 1958, signed by the Minister for Home Affairs, and it governs the Class BX cohort: the National Innovation visa (subclass 858), and the two closed programs that came before it, Global Talent and Distinguished Talent.
It arrived in the same package as Ministerial Direction 119, which re-ordered the main skilled queue.
Direction 120 is the same idea applied to the talent lane.
What changed from Direction 112
Direction 120 revokes Direction 112, dated 6 December 2024, which in its turn had revoked Direction 89 of December 2020.
What follows is a comparison of the two instruments’ own texts, not a summary of anyone’s summary.
The five-tier order of priority is the same, word for substantive word:
Top-of-field award holders first
Then agency-nominated applicants on Form 1000
Then tier 1 sectors
Then tier 2 sectors
Then everyone else.
The tier 1 and tier 2 sector lists are identical.
Schedule A - the award list running from the Nobel Prizes to Olympic Gold - is identical.
The assessment factors in section 9, down to the early-career h-index example of 14 and the named journals and conferences, are substantively identical.
If you positioned an application under Direction 112, your position holds under Direction 120.
The actual changes sit at the edges, and each change is visible on the face of the instruments.
First, scope. Direction 112 covered the Subclass 858 visa only:
The National Innovation visa and legacy Global Talent applications lodged before 6 December 2024.
It contained no reference to the Distinguished Talent program at all.
Direction 120 defines a broader “Class BX visa” that expressly includes Distinguished Talent as it stood before 27 February 2021 - the oldest legacy cohort, closed since 2020, is now named inside the priority framework rather than sitting outside it.
Second, the application provision now treats the programs differently:
National Innovation applications are covered whether new or on hand, while Global Talent and Distinguished Talent applications are covered only where already made and not finally determined - which is the only form coverage can take for closed programs.
Please note. Direction 112 contained a drafting error: its paragraphs 8(2)(c) and 8(2)(d) pointed readers to the wrong subsections for the sector lists, an error the Department’s own systems flagged in a note on the instrument.
Direction 120 points the cross-references where they belong.
One word moved in the guidance: Direction 112 opened its assessment section with the applicant’s “internationally recognised” achievements;
Direction 120 says “recognised”. The visa criterion itself - clause 858.212(2)(a) - is untouched by both instruments, so we would not overstate the practical weight of that wording change.
Who it covers
The Direction’s application section is broad on its face. It applies to National Innovation visa applications made after commencement and to those already on hand. It also expressly applies to Global Talent and Distinguished Talent applications made but not finally determined - the leftover legacy queue is inside the framework, not orphaned by it.
The definitions carry the program history:
Global Talent as it stood before the National Innovation visa regulations commenced on 6 December 2024.
Distinguished Talent as it stood before the 2021 amendment regulations closed it on 27 February 2021.
The order does not apply to applications remitted by the AAT or ART, to matters where the tribunal has substituted its own decision, to applications that plainly cannot meet the criteria, or to family members who did not apply in combination with the primary applicant.
One further point sits on the face of the instrument: the guidance on assessing achievement applies not only to the Department’s delegates but to members of the Administrative Review Tribunal. The primary decision and the review are directed to read from the same sheet.
The queue, in order
Section 8 sets five priorities.
First: applicants who are global experts holding top-of-field international awards - the Direction’s Schedule A names the Nobel Prizes, the Fields Medal, the Abel Prize, the Turing Award, the Pulitzer, the International Booker, Olympic Gold, and others.
Second: applicants nominated by an expert Australian Government or State or Territory agency on Form 1000.
Third: exceptional achievers in the tier 1 sectors - critical technologies, renewables and low emission technologies, health industries.
Fourth: the tier 2 sectors - agri-food and ag-tech, defence capabilities and space, education, financial services and FinTech, infrastructure and transport, resources.
Fifth: everyone else.
How “exceptional and outstanding” is assessed
Section 9 is the working end of the Direction.
It tells decision makers the listed factors are not a checklist, and to look for multiple achievements.
The indicators it names are concrete:
National research grants at the level of the Australian Research Council or their overseas equivalents from UK Research and Innovation, the EU Commission or the US National Science Foundation; a PhD carried with real influence - publications in journals of the rank of Nature, Lancet or Acta Numerica, an h-index high for career stage (the Direction’s own example is an early career researcher at 14), or a research degree from a top-100 world-ranked university; recent keynotes at major international conferences; recognised intellectual property such as international patents; and earnings or a written Australian job offer at or above the high income threshold in the Fair Work Act.
For applicants nominated by a government agency, the Direction widens the lens: top-level sports and arts awards, a track record as a significant angel investor, having led an internationally reputed company to public listing, entrepreneurial activity heading toward commercialisation in Australia - particularly where linked to State or Territory incubators - and exceptional service to the Australian community all count.
What this means in practice
Nothing about eligibility has moved.
The Direction says so itself: it does not change the legislative requirements for a Class BX visa, and applicants must still meet the criteria in the Regulations.
What it sets is the order of the queue and the shape of the assessment.
If your work sits in a tier 1 sector with the receipts this Direction names, your file is read sooner.
If you are a legacy Global Talent or Distinguished Talent applicant still waiting, your application now sits expressly inside this framework.
One boundary worth stating plainly: this Direction governs the talent lane only.
The employer-sponsored and skilled programs our clients most often use - the 482, the 186 and their relatives - are governed by Ministerial Direction 119, covered in our earlier note.
Sources: Ministerial Direction 120 and Ministerial Direction 112.