About 45 refugees on Nauru and Manus Island have appointments with US officials over the next two days to find out if they will be accepted into the resettlement program.
US authorities sent out letters summoning refugees to appointments on Wednesday and Thursday,
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed the news on Wednesday.
He says the processing of other individuals continues and further decisions by US authorities are expected in due course.
"The resettlement arrangement demonstrates the strength of Australia's relationship with the US," Mr Dutton said.
"I want to thank the United States for their co-operation."
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said he knew about 25 refugees receiving appointment slips on Nauru and about 20 on Manus Island late on Tuesday afternoon.
"The nationalities who got interviews for Wednesday on Manus included Sudanese, Iranian, Rohingyan and Bangladesh," he told SBS World News.
When asked how the refugees were feeling, Mr Rintoul said they were hoping to get a positive answer about their resettlement.
"People were quite surprised that there was anything happen, most have given up on the idea of any resettlement where the US is concerned," he said."Obviously we’re looking at great interest what the outcome is. We’re hoping there will be positive answers for the people who have applied to go to the US.
Refugees looking at the notice posted about the US resettlement deal on Manus Island. Source: Supplied
"It’s bittersweet, it’s already pretty obvious hundreds of people will remain on Manus and Nauru, and they remain responsibility of the Australian government."
Under the Obama Administration, the US agreed to take on up to 1,250 refugees in Papua New Guina and Nauru in return for Australia taking asylum seekers from Central America.More than 1,600 refugees have expressed their interest in taking advantage of the deal.
The nationalities who got interviews for Wednesday on Manus Island included Sudanese, Iranian, Rohingyan and Bangladesh. Pictured is a notice about the program. Source: Supplied
The deal was the subject of a now-infamous phone call between Donald Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull when the US president took office in January.
Mr Trump described the deal as "dumb" but he did reluctantly agree to go through with it.
Manus Island's detention centre is expected to close by the end of October.
- with AAP