Skills in Demand (482) visa: sponsors, pay and length

What the Skills in Demand visa is

The Skills in Demand visa began on 2024-12-07 and, according to Home Affairs’ 2026 program report, is now the main way Australia brings in temporary skilled workers. It has three streams: Specialist Skills, Core Skills and Labour Agreement.

Unless the nomination is under a labour agreement, it goes in the Specialist Skills stream when the occupation is in ANZSCO Major Group 1, 2, 4, 5 or 6 and the nominee’s annual earnings reach the specialist threshold. Otherwise it goes in Core Skills, for an occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List, which has 456 occupations.

Income thresholds: what pay is needed

For nominations lodged between 2026-07-01 and 2027-06-30, the Core Skills Income Threshold is AUD 79,423 and the Specialist Skills Income Threshold is AUD 146,576. The Core Skills amount also applies to 186 nominations. The thresholds are indexed every 1 July by the rise in average weekly ordinary time earnings, if there is a rise.

The threshold that applies depends on the date the nomination is lodged, so the 2026 increase does not reach nominations lodged earlier. Earlier Core Skills amounts were AUD 76,515 (lodged 2025-07-01 to 2026-06-30) and AUD 73,150 (2024-12-07 to 2025-06-30).

The annual market salary rate and income threshold tests are not applied when the nominee’s annual earnings will be AUD 250,000 or more.

Who can sponsor

The employer needs approval as a standard business sponsor, which Home Affairs lists as the sponsorship for sponsoring a worker on a Skills in Demand 482 visa. To be approved, a business must be lawfully operating, have no unresolved adverse information and, if it operates in Australia, state in writing that it has a strong record of employing local labour and will not discriminate in recruitment. The application fee is AUD 420, and an approval usually ends 5 years after it is granted.

The sponsor must also nominate the position. The job must be genuine and full-time (the Minister can disregard the full-time requirement where that is reasonable), the business must be able to pay at least the annual market salary rate each year, and the sponsor must not pass sponsorship, nomination or recruitment costs on to the worker.

Nomination steps and costs

A nomination is lodged online with form 482N and an AUD 330 fee. The training contribution charge is AUD 1,200 per year of proposed stay if the sponsor’s annual turnover is under AUD 10,000,000, and AUD 1,800 per year otherwise.

Labour market testing means advertising the position in Australia for at least 4 weeks in at least 2 advertisements, within the 4 months ending on the day the nomination is lodged. If the intended annual earnings are under AUD 96,400, the advertisement must state the salary.

Select positions, including jobs paying AUD 250,000 or more a year, skip advertising and need a written submission explaining why no suitable Australian or eligible visa holder is readily available.

How long the visa lasts

The employer proposes the length of stay in the nomination, and it can be 1, 2, 3 or 4 years unless that would conflict with Australia’s international trade obligations. A Core Skills visa holder can stay up to 4 years, or up to 5 years with a Hong Kong passport.

The visa cannot be extended. To keep working for the same employer, the employer must lodge a new nomination and the worker must apply for a new visa, which can be done in Australia while holding a substantive or bridging visa. A nomination approval lapses 12 months after it is given unless a visa application based on it is still undecided.

Home Affairs says a holder who has been laid off and is unemployed has up to 180 days to find a new employer or arrange to leave Australia. Work must start within 90 days of arriving in Australia if the visa was granted outside Australia, or within 90 days of the grant if it was granted in Australia.

What the worker needs and pays

For the Core Skills stream, Home Affairs states the requirement as at least 1 year of relevant experience within the last 5 years. It may be full-time, part-time or casual, but part-time or casual work must add up to at least 12 months of full-time work. It need not be continuous. The applicant also needs adequate health insurance for the whole stay.

Applicants must take an approved English test and reach 5.0 in each IELTS component, unless exempt. Citizens who hold a passport from Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK or the US are exempt, as are people with 5 years of full-time study in English-medium secondary or higher education.

For a 482 application that is not in a nil-charge class or the Pacific-regional group, the first-instalment visa charge is AUD 4,015 for the main applicant, AUD 4,015 for each additional applicant aged 18 or over and AUD 1,005 for each applicant under 18; the second instalment is nil. Under Direction 121, 482 applications in priority sectors are processed first, then the Specialist Skills stream.