The MATES pre-application ballot aims to give eligible Indian nationals equal access to MATES. The ballot provides a fair and transparent process by randomly selecting people to apply for the visa.
Through the ballot, the Australian Government will allocate 3,000 temporary visa places for primary applicants per program year. Primary applicants may bring
members of the family unit, who will not be counted towards the 3,000 places.
To be able to apply for the Subclass 403 MATES stream visa, you must first register in the MATES ballot. If you are randomly selected in the MATES ballot, you can then apply for the visa. To find out if you can register in the ballot, see
Ballot eligibility.
There is a ballot registration fee of AUD25.
Ballot status
The status of the ballot may change during a program year. This will depend on:
- when registrations opened
- how many registrations we receive
- how many selections have occurred
- whether we extended the registration and/or selection periods.
PENDING – The ballot is pending commencement or opening.
ACTIVE – The ballot is open and you can submit your registration.
CLOSED – The ballot period is closed. You cannot submit further registrations and the selection process is pending for this ballot.
EXPIRED – We have finalised selections for this ballot. We will not make any further selections from this ballot.
Ballot registration period
The table below shows the open and close dates for the MATES ballot registration period for program year 2024-2025. It also shows the status of the ballot.
| Registration Open Date | Registration Close Date | Ballot Status |
|---|
09/12/2024
| 07/01/2025
|
CLOSED
|
Ballot selection period
The table below shows the open and close dates for the MATES ballot selection period. This is when we can randomly select registrations for the ballot during program year 2024-2025.
| Selection Open Date | Selection Close Date |
|---|
| 08/01/2025 | 30/05/2025
|
