Employer Nomination Scheme (186) and regional 494 visa

Two employer routes toward permanent residence

The Employer Nomination Scheme (186) is a permanent visa with three streams: Temporary Residence Transition, Direct Entry and Labour Agreement. Every stream needs an employer to nominate the position. The visa lets the holder travel to and enter Australia for 5 years from the grant date.

The regional employer route (494) is a temporary provisional visa that lets the primary holder travel to, enter and remain in Australia for 5 years from the grant date. Home Affairs says designated regional areas for the 494 include all of Australia except Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and holders may live, work and study only in them.

The permanent 191 visa gives 491 and 494 holders their own route to permanent residence once they have held the visa for 3 years and meet the other requirements.

186 Temporary Residence Transition

In this stream the applicant must have held a 457 or 482 visa (including a Skills in Demand visa) for a total of at least 2 years in the 3 years before applying, unless the Minister has set different periods for specified groups. They must also have worked at least 2 years full-time in Australia for an approved work sponsor within those 3 years, not counting unpaid leave, in an occupation for which the visas were granted.

The applicant must usually be under 45 and have competent English, unless a class exempted by the Minister applies. The visa application must be made no more than 6 months after the nomination was approved. Where pay is below the earnings exemption amount, the annual market salary rate and the worker’s pay (excluding non-monetary benefits) must both be at least the Core Skills Income Threshold, which is AUD 79,423 for nominations lodged between 2026-07-01 and 2027-06-30.

186 Direct Entry and Labour Agreement

Direct Entry needs at least 3 years of full-time work in the nominated occupation at the skill level it requires, and a suitable skills assessment, which must be valid or issued no more than 3 years before the application. The age and English tests are the same as in the Temporary Residence Transition stream.

In the Labour Agreement stream the employer must be a party to a labour agreement in force that names the occupation. The agreement, not the regulation, sets the qualifications, experience and English requirements.

The regional 494 route

An Employer Sponsored stream 494 nomination must be for a genuine full-time job in a designated regional area, likely to exist for at least 5 years, with a standard business sponsor that is not an overseas business sponsor. A regional certifying body must advise whether the worker will be paid at least the annual market salary rate.

The occupation must be on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List or the Regional Occupation List. Where pay is below the earnings exemption amount, the annual market salary rate and the worker’s pay (excluding non-monetary benefits) must both be at least the temporary skilled migration income threshold, which is AUD 79,423 in the regulations.

The applicant must be under 45, have competent English and have worked at least 3 years full-time in the nominated occupation, unless the Minister has set an exemption. A suitable skills assessment is also needed, one not made for a 485 visa and still valid or no older than 3 years, unless the applicant held a 457 or 482 for that occupation that already required such an assessment.

After a 494 is granted

During the regional residency period, a 494 holder must live, work and study only in a part of Australia that was a designated regional area when the nomination was made. The holder must work only in the nominated occupation and only for the nominating employer in regional Australia, and Home Affairs warns the visa might otherwise be cancelled.

The holder must tell Home Affairs within 14 days of a change of address, email, phone, passport details, or an employer’s address or work location. Unless the holder has held the 494 for 3 years, the 132, 186, 188, 189, 190, 191 (Regional Provisional stream) and 858 visas cannot be granted, and a valid partner (820) application cannot be made.

A 494 holder cannot use the 186 Temporary Residence Transition stream, because that stream requires a 457 or 482 visa. For the 191, tax assessment notices for 3 relevant income years are needed, showing taxable income of at least the amount the Minister sets.

Costs and processing order

A 186 nomination costs AUD 540 for Direct Entry, and for Temporary Residence Transition or Labour Agreement jobs outside regional Australia; those two streams have no fee when the job is in regional Australia. The 186 training charge is a single AUD 3,000 if the sponsor’s annual turnover is under AUD 10,000,000 and AUD 5,000 otherwise. There is no fee for lodging a 494 nomination.

The first-instalment visa charge on both the 186 and the 494 is AUD 6,140 for the main applicant, AUD 3,070 for each extra applicant aged 18 or over and AUD 1,535 for each under 18. Applicants with a Pacific-regional passport pay AUD 5,035, AUD 2,515 and AUD 1,260.

Under Direction 122, 186 and 494 applications are processed in this order: priority sectors (construction, healthcare, teaching, agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, resources, law enforcement and defence), then onshore applicants, then offshore applicants not combined with another person, then all others.