Three visas, and the steps your employer has to take differ between them. Start with whichever side of it you are on.
Temporary. The employer nominates a position and the visa is generally connected to the nominated occupation and sponsor. Condition 8607 also contains a limited mobility period if sponsored employment ends.
Read moreSubclass 186Permanent from the day it is granted. Three streams: Temporary Residence Transition, Direct Entry and Labour Agreement. The nomination is made under regulation 5.19, not section 140GB.
Read moreSubclass 494Provisional, five years, regional. A pathway to permanent residence through the subclass 191.
Read moreEverything on this page applies across all three visas. Each one also has its own guide: the subclass 482, the subclass 186 and the subclass 494.
| Subclass 482 | Subclass 186 | Subclass 494 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa type | Temporary | Permanent on grant | Provisional, regional, five years |
| Employer nomination | Yes, under s.140GB | Yes, under reg 5.19 | Yes, under s.140GB |
| Approved sponsor needed | Yes – approved work sponsor | No separate sponsorship application | Yes – standard business sponsor for the Employer Sponsored stream |
| Regional requirement | No | No | Yes, and a regional body advises on the salary rate |
| Permanent residence | Not itself permanent | Permanent | Pathway through the subclass 191 |
| Labour Agreement stream | Yes | Yes | Yes |
A labour agreement works differently again. It is its own arrangement, not another kind of sponsorship application.
Migration Act 1958 s.140GB · cl 482.212, 494.213, 186.223; reg 2.72C, reg 5.19
The job title is not what decides it – the actual duties are. Calling someone a manager, a chef or an engineer does not make the position eligible if the day-to-day work does not match that occupation.
The occupation you nominate then decides which list the nomination has to appear on, which authority can assess your skills, what counts as relevant experience, and once you hold the visa, what work you are allowed to do.
Occupation lists are legislative instruments, and they are amended. The list that governs your nomination is the one in force when the nomination is made.
Core Skills Occupation List (482) · occupations and assessing authorities (186) · occupations (494)
Possibly. A No Further Stay condition has to be waived before another substantive visa can be granted onshore, but for a sponsored pathway there is a route that does not turn on hardship.
Condition 8503 may be waived where the holder has a genuine intention to apply for a subclass 482, 186, 187, 188, 191 or 494, or a General Skilled Migration visa. Condition 8534 has an equivalent route with one extra requirement: the holder must have completed the course the visa was granted for.
After a waiver on that route, an application for a substantive visa is valid only if it is for one of those same visas. Conditions 8535 and 8540 have no such route and run on the general compelling-and-compassionate test instead.
Migration Act 1958 s.41(2A), s.46 · reg 2.05(4AA), reg 2.05(5A), reg 2.07AG
Only your employer can.
A nomination refusal is reviewable, but the Regulations say who may ask for that review, and for a nomination it is the person who made it. The nominee has no standing.
An application lodged in the wrong name is not valid, and the clock does not pause while that is untangled. If your nomination has been refused, your employer is the one who has to act, and the time limit is short.
The common reasons nominations and visas are refused are set out in our employer sponsored refusals guide.
reg 4.02(4)(d) and 4.02(5)(c); reg 4.02(4)(e) and 4.02(5)(d)
Send us the complete decision letter and notify us how it reached you. Some visa refusal, nomination and sponsorship decisions may be reviewable by the Administrative Review Tribunal. Whether review rights exist, who is entitled to apply and the applicable deadline depend on the particular decision and circumstances. Review time limits can be strict, so the decision letter should be checked promptly.
Representing you at the Tribunal is work a registered migration agent is authorised to do. Bring the letter in with its date as early as you can.
There is more in our general FAQ.
For the 186, the criteria require that the nomination has not been withdrawn and that the position is still available to you when the decision is made. For the 482 and 494, the nomination approval must not have ceased.
It goes to whether the visa can be granted at all. What is left open to you depends on where the application has got to, what visa you hold now, and how long it has to run.
cl 186.223(3)–(4), 186.233(4)–(5); cl 482.212(1)(c), 494.213(1)(c)
No, where the visa criteria require an approved nomination – which they do for the 482, the 494 and the 186.
The nomination and the visa application can be lodged at or around the same time, and often are. But the visa cannot be granted unless the nomination has been approved and that approval has not ceased or been withdrawn.
cl 482.212(1), 494.213(1), 186.223(2)–(3)
If you are holding a letter from the Department or the Tribunal, assume there is, and check the date on it today. Time limits in migration matters are short and generally cannot be extended.
If you are not sure whether something is a deadline, ask.
Before choosing a visa, get these seven things on the table: your actual duties (not the job title), the occupation those duties match, the salary and work location, your age, your qualifications and relevant experience, whether a skills assessment is required, and your current visa and any restrictions on it if you are in Australia.
Then one more: whether the employer wants a temporary worker or is prepared to nominate you for permanent residence. That last answer usually decides whether the conversation is about a 482, a 186, a 494 or a labour agreement.
Possibly, but sponsorship does not override your current visa conditions or any bar on applying. A No Further Stay condition, the section 48 bar, or the timing of the employer’s nomination can each stop a valid onshore application.
If your visa is close to expiry, treat the validity question as the urgent one and check it before anything is lodged. There is more on No Further Stay in our visitor and short stay guide.
Migration Act 1958 s.48 · Schedule 8, condition 8503
Sometimes, and not automatically.
A 482 is temporary, but an eligible worker may later qualify for the 186, most often through Temporary Residence Transition. A 186 is permanent residence on grant. A 494 can lead to the subclass 191 after at least three years if the 191 requirements are met.
Do not take a temporary visa on the assumption that permanent residence follows. Age, the occupation rules, your employment history and the law in force at the time all matter, and the 186 has an age limit that the 482 does not.
Both of you. An employer-sponsored visa is not a single application – it is up to three decisions, each made separately, and each can be refused on its own:
Your visa cannot be granted unless the nomination has been approved and that approval is still on foot. If the nomination is refused, only your employer can take that refusal to the Tribunal.
No. Asking for, offering, receiving or providing a benefit in return for sponsorship is an offence under the Migration Act.
It also affects the visa itself. For all three subclasses the criteria require that you have not engaged in that conduct in the previous three years, unless the Minister considers it reasonable to disregard it.
If someone has asked you for money to sponsor you, raise it with a registered migration agent before you pay anything.
Migration Act 1958 ss.245AR–245AU · cl 482.213, 186.212A, 494.215
Sponsorship comes apart at one of three things: the business, the position, or the worker. These are the questions employers ask us most often about the first two.
For a standard 482, and for a 494 in the Employer Sponsored stream, yes. The visa criteria require that the person who made the nomination was an approved work sponsor when the nomination was approved, and for the 494 Employer Sponsored stream the Regulations require a standard business sponsor other than an overseas business sponsor.
For a standard subclass 186 Direct Entry or Temporary Residence Transition nomination, no separate sponsorship application is lodged. See the section above for where those two differ.
cl 482.212(1)(b), 494.213(1)(b) · reg 2.72C(5)(a)
There is no universal figure for any of the three. The Regulations do not set a turnover floor, a minimum number of employees or a minimum trading period that applies across employer-sponsored nominations.
What they do require is that the business is lawfully and actively operating, that the position is genuine, and that the business can employ the person and pay the salary. Size and history are evidence going to those questions, not tests of their own. A newer or smaller business is not excluded; it usually has more to prove.
Potentially. Nothing excludes either by category. Regulation 5.19 expressly contemplates a nominator that is a partnership or an unincorporated association.
The evidence carries more weight in these cases: that the business is lawfully and actively operating, that there is a genuine need for the position under the nominator's direct control, and that it can pay at least the market salary rate.
Neither is barred by relationship or by existing employment. The nomination still has to satisfy every requirement that applies to it, and the position still has to be genuine.
A related-party arrangement tends to attract closer attention to whether the position exists independently of the visa. That is a question about evidence, not eligibility.
Yes, and it is the requirement most nominations actually turn on.
Sponsorship is for a position the business genuinely needs. The Department can look at what the business does, its structure and staffing, the duties of the role, how it fits the operation, the financial position and whether the role makes commercial sense.
If the job title sounds eligible but the actual duties do not match the nominated occupation, that is a problem. The duties decide the occupation, not the title.
cl 482.212(2), 494.213(2) · reg 2.72C(12), reg 5.19(9)
Labour market testing asks the employer to show it has tested the Australian labour market before nominating an overseas worker, unless an exemption applies to the nomination.
We have not printed a period here. The advertising requirements are set by legislative instrument and are changed from time to time, so a number that is right today is wrong later. What matters for your file is the requirement in force when the nomination is lodged, and the advertising has to be done before that.
Often, yes. Labour market testing applies to some employer-sponsored nominations unless an exemption applies.
The Department’s current summary is that it involves advertising the position in Australia for at least four weeks in at least two advertisements.
Those two facts are not the whole test. The timing, the content of the advertisements and whether an exemption applies all have to be checked against the rules in force when the nomination is lodged. An old advertisement will not necessarily do.
Home Affairs – options for employers
Two separate questions, and clearing one does not clear the other.
First, the market rate. The annual market salary rate is what an Australian citizen or permanent resident earns, or would earn, for equivalent work in the same workplace and location. If there is an equivalent Australian worker, their terms are the evidence. If there is not, the applicable award and reliable market evidence do the work.
Second, the income threshold. For nominations lodged 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027:
These are floors, not the answer. If the genuine market rate for the job is higher, the higher rate is what has to be paid. Where the salary is under AUD 250,000 the Department requires the employer to have determined the market rate correctly, to pay no less than it, and for both the market rate and the worker’s earnings – excluding non-monetary benefits – to be at least the relevant threshold. Labour agreement terms can differ.
Where an award or other industrial instrument covers the occupation, the salary cannot fall below what that instrument would pay an equivalent Australian worker. So a nomination can clear the threshold and still be refused because the salary is under the market rate.
For a 494 in the Employer Sponsored stream the Minister must also have been advised by a regional body about whether the nominee would be paid at least that market rate.
None of this discharges your obligations under workplace law. Those run in parallel.
Thresholds are indexed every 1 July. These were checked on 13 October 2026.
Home Affairs – salary requirements to nominate a worker · reg 2.72(15)–(17), reg 2.72C(15), reg 2.72C(18)–(20) · IMMI 18/033 ss.7–8, made under reg 2.72
The nomination training contribution charge is the nominator's, and the nomination cannot be approved unless any debt for it has been paid in full.
Do not ask the worker to fund sponsorship costs. It is an offence to ask for or receive a benefit in return for a sponsorship-related event, and it is an offence to offer or provide one. A 186 nomination must carry a written certification from the nominator about whether it has contravened that provision, and a 186 applicant has to satisfy a criterion about the same conduct. Get advice before any reimbursement arrangement, in either direction.
s.245AR · reg 5.19(2)(fa), reg 5.19(2)(g), reg 5.19(4)(da), cl 186.212A
Sponsorship approval carries ongoing obligations, and they do not end when the visa is granted. Broadly they cover keeping the Department informed of relevant changes to the business and the sponsored worker, meeting the employment and pay commitments in the nomination, and not recovering prohibited costs from the worker.
A standard business sponsorship approval generally lasts five years and can be used for eligible 482 and 494 nominations while it remains in effect.
Home Affairs – standard business sponsor · Migration Act 1958 s.140E, s.140H
It matters, and it is time-sensitive on both sides. The employer may have notification obligations, and the worker has a limited period in which to find another sponsor or another visa before their own position becomes a problem.
The worker's side of this is set out in our subclass 482 guide. Deal with both at once rather than waiting to see what happens.
It depends on the visa, and this is the single thing employers most often get wrong. Each stage is decided separately: approving the employer does not approve the position, and approving the position does not grant the visa.
Yes. Standard business sponsorship → nomination under section 140GB → visa application. The visa cannot be granted unless the person who made the nomination was an approved work sponsor when it was approved.
Yes. Standard business sponsorship → nomination under section 140GB, which for this stream also needs a regional body’s advice on the salary rate → visa application. The nominator must be a standard business sponsor other than an overseas business sponsor.
Not as a separate application, no. The employer nominates under regulation 5.19 and the worker lodges the visa. There is no standard business sponsorship application in that chain, and the subclass 186 criteria contain no approved-work-sponsor requirement. Regulation 5.19 lets a person, including a partnership or unincorporated association, apply to have a position approved.
The two streams are not the same on this point. For Direct Entry the nominator only has to be actively and lawfully operating a business in Australia. For Temporary Residence Transition the nominator must have been the standard business sponsor, or the party to a work agreement, who last identified that worker in a nomination approved under section 140GB – and must still be actively and lawfully operating. So a TRT nomination is free of a fresh sponsorship application, not of sponsorship history.
No. Access to the agreement → nomination under that agreement → visa application, for the subclass the agreement covers. A party to a work agreement is an approved work sponsor in its own right.
s.140E, s.140GB · reg 2.72C(5), reg 2.72C(18)–(20), reg 5.19(1), reg 5.19(5)(h), reg 5.19(9)(a), reg 5.19(14); cl 186.223
A labour agreement is an agreement the Minister enters in writing with a business, partnership or unincorporated association, authorising it to recruit, employ or engage people in the occupations and at the locations the agreement covers. It replaces standard business sponsorship rather than varying it.
A labour agreement may specify how many nominations are permitted, which occupations may be nominated, salary requirements, the obligations owed to the worker, the maximum period of stay, and matters going to the visa criteria themselves – including English, age, skills, qualifications and employment background, and how long a visa must be held to qualify for another one. That is the statutory basis for what people call concessions.
Nothing is automatic. What a particular agreement allows depends on its own terms and on the worker still meeting the requirements that apply. Designated area migration agreements are one kind of labour agreement, covering a defined region; the Department administers those arrangements and access has to be sorted out before the nomination is prepared.
For a 186 the labour agreement nomination is still made under regulation 5.19, and the nominator must be a party to an agreement that is in effect, specifies the occupation, and has not used up its approved nominations for the year. For a 494 the equivalent sits in regulation 2.72C.
reg 2.75C, reg 5.19(14), reg 2.72C(5)(b), reg 2.72C(21) · Migration Act 1958 s.5(1)
Sponsorship comes apart at the business, the position or the worker. These are the facts that usually show which one it is, before anyone commits time or money.
Provide us with the occupation, the proposed salary, the work location, the business and the worker’s current visa status. Those four decide most of it.
Migration South Australia has extended both of the State’s designated area migration agreements by a further four months while a new five-year statewide agreement is negotiated.
Three income thresholds moved on 1 July 2026, and the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold is now fixed by the Regulations themselves and indexed each year.
A ministerial instrument repealed and replaced the sections that set out how the annual market salary rate is determined, and it reaches nominations that were already lodged and undecided.
Provide us with the occupation, proposed salary, work location, employer and the worker’s current visa status.
These terms come up in more than one section, so they are collected here. Everything else is explained where it appears. Each one names the provision it comes from.
Everything on this page was read from the Federal Register of Legislation, which is the authorised source, on 22 August 2026. The provisions come from the Migration Regulations 1994 compilation then in force, the Migration Act 1958, and the legislative instruments made under them. Each answer ends with the provision it comes from, and the documents are linked here.
The income thresholds on this page are the figures that apply to nominations lodged 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, read from the Department’s salary requirements page and last checked on 13 October 2026. They are indexed every 1 July. The instruments themselves are in our legislation library.
Based on content from the Federal Register of Legislation at 22 August 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government legislation please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au. Federal Register material is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Also cited on this page:
Still general information. Reading the provision is not the same as knowing which version applied to your application, how the Department and the Tribunal have interpreted it, or what it means for your circumstances. That is what advice is for.
