PR Points for Age: The Three Birthday Cliffs

Every other factor in the skilled migration points test rewards something you did — a test you sat, a job you held, a degree you finished. Age is the one exception. It is worth up to 30 points, it is the largest single factor in the table, and it moves against you on a fixed date whether you do anything or not. This is what the three cliffs actually cost, when they land, and what is realistically worth finishing before each one.

The three cliffs

Part 6D.1 of Schedule 6D scores age in five bands, all assessed in whole years at the time of invitation. There is no rounding in your favour and no partial credit for being close to the next band up.

Notice the shape: points actually rise on the way in — from 25 at 18 to 30 at 25 — and then fall in three unequal steps on the way out. The full table sits alongside every other factor in the points table, factor by factor.

Measured at invitation, not lodgement

This is the rule that makes age different from every other cliff-edge factor in the table, and it is worth stating without any hedging: your age points are calculated on the day you are invited to apply, not the day you submitted your Expression of Interest. The EOI you lodge shows a score calculated from the facts as they stood that day — including your age then. The Department does not freeze that score. When your turn comes in the queue, months or years later, it recalculates every factor against the facts as they stand then.

The arithmetic of each cliff

Put a number on each step rather than leaving it abstract:

Each cliff is worse than the last, both in points lost and in how little is left afterwards to make up the difference. Losing 5 points at 33 is recoverable — it is roughly what a single English retest can restore. Losing 15 points at 45 is equivalent to losing the entire community language row three times over, and there is no single factor in the table that replaces it in one move.

The trap of an EOI ageing in the pool

Combine the two facts above — invitations are ranked within a queue, and age is measured at invitation — and the trap becomes obvious. An EOI submitted at 32 with 30age points looks strong on the day it is lodged. If it sits in the pool for eighteen months because the applicant’s occupation is oversubscribed, and the applicant turns 33 somewhere in that window, the EOI is invited — if it is invited at all — at the lower score, without any notice that the number has changed. Nothing in SkillSelect flags this to you in advance; you find out when the invitation calculation comes back different from what you expected.

How competitive a score actually needs to be right now matters here specifically because of this trap: if your occupation is running well above 65 and you are within a couple of years of a birthday, waiting is not a neutral choice. It is a bet that you get invited before the calendar moves against you.

Before 33

This cliff costs the least (5 points) and is usually the easiest to plan around, because turning 33 with 30 points still leaves 25 afterwards — a real fall, but not a catastrophic one. If a birthday is close and your score is not yet comfortably above your occupation’s recent range, the fastest realistic wins are an English retest (proficient adds 10 points, superior adds 20) and, if you speak a second language, a CCL pass (5 points for one test, with no minimum age and no qualification to finish first).

Before 40

This is the most expensive cliff in isolation — 10points — and it lands at an age where several of the fastest levers (English, CCL) have often already been pulled by anyone who read this page before 33. What is still realistically available in the run-up to 40: finishing a skills assessment if it has been delayed, chasing a partner’s English and skills assessment if that has not been addressed (worth up to 10 points on its own — see the partner points guide ), and actively pursuing a state nomination, which adds 5 points for a 190 and does not depend on your age at all.

Before 45

Losing 15 points at once is the largest single event in the entire points test, larger than any qualification, any experience band, and larger than English moving from competent all the way to superior. If 45 is close and your score depends on age points still being there, treat it as the deadline it is: everything on the "what to bank" list below that is not yet finished should be finished before this birthday, not after it, because there is no factor left in the table big enough to absorb a 15-point loss on its own.

Already past 45

Age points are zero from 45 onward under the general points test — that figure is Schedule 6D, not a guess. It is not, on its own, the end of the road. Every other factor still applies in full: English, experience, qualifications, the community language credential, a partner’s position and a nomination can still add up to a genuinely workable score without any age points at all, and some employer-sponsored or state-specific pathways are not built on this same points test in the first place.

What to bank, in what order

Ranked by how quickly each one can realistically land, not by how many points it is worth:

A worked example

Two applicants with identical qualifications and experience, one submitting an EOI at 32 and the other at 34, both eventually invited eighteen months later:

Same underlying facts, same outcome once the calendar caught up — the only difference is which applicant knew to expect it. The points calculator will show you the same thing for your own birthday before it happens rather than after.

Quick check

Frequently asked questions