Skills in Demand visa

A DAMA has two tiers: a five-year head agreement between the Commonwealth and a Designated Area Representative for a defined region, and individual DAMA labour agreements with endorsed employers under that head agreement, which are generally in effect for five years.

Under regulation 2.75C a labour agreement is a written agreement between the Minister and a person, association or partnership in Australia, and it may fix the number of approved nominations, the nominable occupations, salary requirements, sponsor obligations, the maximum stay, and visa criteria such as English, age, skills and employment background and the length of a prior visa needed for another visa.

Regulation 5.42A indexes only three amounts on each 1 July: the Core Skills Income Threshold, the Specialist Skills Income Threshold and the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold, each multiplied by the indexation factor when it is above 1 and rounded to the nearest whole dollar.

The indexation factor compares the full-time adult AWOTE estimate for the middle month (November) of the most recent December quarter before 1 July (the reference quarter) with that of the previous December quarter (the base quarter).

The ABS full-time adult average weekly ordinary time earnings for November 2025, the reference figure for the 1 July 2026 indexation, was AUD 2,051.10 (seasonally adjusted), 3.8% higher than a year earlier.

The ABS full-time adult average weekly ordinary time earnings for November 2024, the base figure for the 1 July 2026 indexation, was AUD 1,975.80 (seasonally adjusted), 4.6% higher than a year earlier, which also underlay the 4.6% rise applied on 1 July 2025.

Functional English, the standard behind the second visa-charge instalment, is met if a person passes a Minister-approved test run by an approved provider, or gives prescribed evidence such as a degree, diploma or trade certificate needing at least 2 years of full-time study taught entirely in English, or is judged by the Minister at interview to have it.

The Migration Act itself says a person has functional English if they pass a Minister-approved test conducted by an approved person or organisation, or give the Minister prescribed evidence of English proficiency.

Home Affairs uses ANZSCO 2022 for the 186 and 482 occupation lists (including the CSOL) but ANZSCO 2013 for the other skilled visas' lists, such as the 494's MLTSSL and Regional Occupation List, and says a later removal of an occupation from a list does not harm pending applications.

For the 23 trades the required type of assessment is the TRA's SID Skills Assessment or its earlier TSS Skills Assessment, and for Program or Project Administrator it is VETASSESS's Skills Assessment for General Professional Occupations.

The primary 482 holder must carry condition 8607 (the work-only-for-the-sponsor limit) and condition 8501 (health insurance), condition 8303 may be added, and no further-stay bar such as condition 8503 is listed for the Skills in Demand visa.

Home Affairs lists the standard business sponsorship as the sponsorship used to sponsor someone to work for you on a Skills in Demand 482 or Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) 494 visa.

Condition 8501 is the requirement to keep adequate arrangements for health insurance for as long as the visa holder is in Australia.

The Global Talent Employer Sponsored (GTES) program is a separate employer-sponsorship route in which approved businesses sponsor workers for highly skilled niche roles through a Skills in Demand visa; it is not the National Innovation visa.

When pay is below the earnings exemption level, the employer must show the annual market salary rate was worked out correctly, that the worker is paid no less than that rate, and that both the rate and the worker's pay (excluding non-monetary benefits) meet the relevant income threshold.

The Minister must approve a nomination under section 140GB if the labour market testing condition is met (unless the nominator is exempt), any nomination training contribution charge has been paid, the nominator is an approved work sponsor and the prescribed criteria are satisfied.

The sponsor must show the position is genuine and full-time, although the Minister can disregard the full-time requirement where that is reasonable in the circumstances.

Unless the occupation is on the exempt list, the worker must be engaged only as an employee under a written employment contract, and the sponsor must give the Minister a signed copy.

The sponsor's business must have the capacity to employ the nominee for at least the nomination period and to pay at least the annual market salary rate each year.

A nomination approval for the 482 (reg 2.75) or the 494 (reg 2.75B) lapses 12 months after it is given unless a visa application based on it is still undecided, and also lapses when the sponsor withdraws it or the nominee is granted the visa.

Separately, the Act exempts nominations for specified occupations from labour market testing when the job needs a relevant bachelor degree or 5 years of experience, or a diploma-level qualification or 3 years of experience.

A 482 applicant in the Core Skills or Specialist Skills stream needs work experience in the nominated occupation or a related field amounting to at least 12 months full-time in the 5 years before applying; part-time and casual work can count if it adds up to that.

Home Affairs states the Core Skills stream requirement as at least 1 year of relevant experience, which may be full-time, part-time or casual within the last 5 years and need not be continuous.

Applicants outside the exempt groups must take an approved English test and reach the required score in each of the four components; for IELTS (Academic or General Training) that is 5.0 in listening, reading, writing and speaking.

Citizens who hold a passport from Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States are exempt from the 482 English test, as are people with 5 years of full-time study in English-medium secondary or higher education.

Other 482 English exemptions cover jobs at foreign diplomatic missions, applicants whose licence or registration already required equivalent English, and intra-company transferees earning at least AUD 96,400 from an overseas company.

A 482 applicant must have adequate arrangements for health insurance covering the whole period of the intended stay in Australia.

An applicant fails the paying-for-sponsorship test if, in the previous 3 years, they asked for, offered, received or provided a benefit in return for a sponsorship event, unless the Minister thinks it reasonable to disregard it.

In the Labour Agreement stream the work must be covered by a work agreement between the Minister and the employer; the applicant shows experience either with at least 12 months of relevant full-time-equivalent work in the 5 years before applying or with the period the agreement specifies, and the agreement also sets the skills and language requirements.

The 482 visa holder may work only in the nominated occupation and only for the sponsor, or in a position in the sponsor's business or an associated entity, unless the occupation is on an exempt list.

To be approved as a standard business sponsor 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.

A sponsor must provide terms and conditions of employment no less favourable than those given to Australians doing equivalent work at the same location, and the worker's earnings must be at least what the sponsor indicated when the nomination was approved.

The equivalent-terms obligation does not apply to a standard business sponsor when the worker's annual earnings reach the earnings-exemption amount the Minister has set by legislative instrument.

In the TRT 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.

The TRT applicant 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 held 457/482 visas were granted.

A company-specific labour agreement is meant for an employer whose skills need is not already covered by an industry agreement or a DAMA and whose occupations are not available in the standard skilled programs, and the positions must sit at ANZSCO skill level 1 to 4.

To request a company-specific labour agreement the business must be a registered Australian business in good standing that has been operating lawfully for at least 12 months, show financial viability through a statement from a chartered or certified practising accountant, and have no adverse information against it.

In the 482 Labour Agreement stream the applicant's skills, qualifications, employment background and English language proof are whatever the work agreement specifies for the occupation, and where it requires a skills assessment that must come from the relevant assessing authority and be no more than 3 years old unless it states a longer validity.

The Commonwealth may enter a work (labour) agreement only if the Minister is satisfied the other party has made recent and genuine efforts to recruit Australian citizens or permanent residents, except for Minister of Religion and Religious Assistant occupations.

For the 482 and 494, a work agreement counts only if it is a labour agreement in effect that authorises recruiting a person to be employed as a holder of a Skills in Demand 482 (or Temporary Skill Shortage 482) or a 494 visa.

For a 482 nomination in the Labour Agreement stream the occupation must be an occupation the work agreement lets the sponsor nominate, any requirements the agreement places on the sponsor must have been met, and the sponsor's approved nominations for the year must stay below the number the agreement permits.

A single instrument and score table cover both Specialist Skills and Core Skills, so the 482 English level is the same in these streams (other than for exempt applicants); an applicant must sit an approved test, may combine a resit of single components, and the test day must be within 3 years of giving the evidence.

A 482 applicant is exempt from the mandatory trade assessment if they already hold a 457, TSS or SID visa and work in the nominated occupation in Australia, work for an overseas company's established business in the same or a similar occupation and are nominated by that company or an associate, hold a commensurate qualification gained in Australia or a country not on the occupation's list, hold the required licence or registration, or met the TRA Offshore Skills Assessment Program standard.

Program or Project Administrator has its own exemption in s 7(4): the applicant needs a qualification commensurate with ANZSCO, annual earnings of at least AUD 180,000 and nomination by an accredited sponsor.

A 186 nomination (Temporary Residence Transition, Direct Entry or Labour Agreement) is approved only if, where a licence, registration or professional membership is mandatory in the state or territory, the identified person holds it or is eligible to hold it at the time of application; the 482 and 494 nomination regulations (2.72 and 2.72C) contain no licensing criterion.

A 482 applicant nominated as a medical practitioner must have qualifications that the Australian medical registration authority recognises as entitling them to practise, which is the only occupation-specific registration criterion in the 482 primary criteria.

When a 457, TSS or SID holder applies in Australia for another 482, the bridging visa A inherits conditions 8607, 8501 and 8107 that applied to the first visa, so the worker stays tied to the old nomination until the new visa is granted.

Home Affairs says that the family of a 482 Core Skills nominee, unlike the worker, is not tied to one occupation or employer: they can also live, study and work in Australia.

For a 482 Specialist or Core Skills application in an occupation and class of persons covered by the mandatory assessment instrument, the relevant assessing authority must have assessed the applicant as suitable within the specified period, or the applicant must have arranged an assessment that is not yet complete.

A secondary 482 applicant, a family member of the primary holder, has to meet only the family-link, health-insurance, nomination-listing and character criteria with no English-test criterion, and the work-limiting condition 8607 is required only for primary applicants.

Skills in Demand (482) Specialist Skills and Core Skills applicants must sit an approved English test unless exempt, and the test day must be no more than 3 years before the day they provide the evidence.

Applicants for the 482 Specialist Skills or Core Skills stream are exempt from the English test requirement if they are citizens with passports from Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK or the US, have completed 5 years of full-time English-medium secondary or higher study, or fall into some licensed, diplomatic-mission or overseas-company-transfer cases.

For 482 Labour Agreement stream applicants, the English proof is whatever manner and language test the work agreement itself specifies for the occupation and visa.

The TRA Migration Skills Assessment Program is not open to people seeking licensed occupations (air conditioning and refrigeration mechanic, electrician general or special class, plumber general) or applying for a 485 or 482 visa.

The nomination training contribution charge is nil for a 482 Labour Agreement stream nomination of a minister of religion or religious assistant.

The Skills in Demand 482 and Temporary Graduate 485 are also granted with condition 8501, so holders must keep health insurance too; the Regulations impose it in every case.

Subclass 482 (Skills in Demand) applicants must satisfy public interest criterion 4007, so a health waiver can be considered for them.

If the intended annual earnings for the position are under AUD 96,400, the advertisement must state the salary.

Select positions are exempt from the standard advertising-based labour market testing and instead need a written submission explaining why no suitable Australian or eligible visa holder is readily available. They include jobs paying AUD 250,000 or more a year, roles needing internationally recognised exceptional achievement in sport, academia and research or as a top-talent chef, medical practitioners in ANZSCO minor group 253 other than GPs and medical practitioners nec, and ambulance officers and paramedics.

Temporary skilled visa holders in Australia numbered 215,768 at 31 December 2025, 29.3 per cent more than a year earlier.

A company-specific labour agreement is a temporary measure: the employer must show that overseas workers will not exceed one-third of its total workforce and that it has a plan to train and employ Australians instead.

Sources disagree: The December 2021 labour agreement guide (Home Affairs PDF) instead set caps by location: 30 per cent in Category 1 areas, 50 per cent in Category 2 and no limit in Category 3.

The company-specific agreement template gives no salary concession in Category 1 and 2 locations and a 10 per cent reduction of the income threshold (written there as TSMIT or CSIT) only in Category 3 regional locations.

In the company-specific template the English concession is IELTS overall 5.0 with no minimum in any band for the 482 and 494 in Category 2 and 3 locations, with no concession in Category 1 locations or for the 186, and never where registration or licensing demands more.

The South Australian DAMA offers a reduced income threshold of 90 per cent of the TSMIT or CSIT for eligible occupations, an age limit of under 55 at nomination for the 186 and 494, and reduced English such as IELTS 5.0 with 4.0 in each band for the 482 and 494, but the concessions vary by occupation and are listed in the DAMA occupation list.

The 1 July 2026 indexation can be reproduced: AWOTE of 2,051.10 for November 2025 divided by 1,975.80 for November 2024 gives 1.0381, so the factor is 1.038, and 76,515 x 1.038 rounds to 79,423 for the CSIT/TSMIT while 141,210 x 1.038 rounds to 146,576 for the SSIT.

The AUD 250,000 earnings level at or above which the annual market salary rate and income-threshold tests are skipped is a literal sum in IMMI 18/033 s 5 with no indexation formula, so it only changes if the instrument is amended; section 5 was last amended by an instrument that commenced on 7 December 2024.

The AUD 96,400 line below which a labour market testing advertisement must state the salary is a fixed figure in LIN 18/036 s 8(4)(d); that instrument's text has no indexation clause.

The same AUD 96,400 appears separately in the 482 English instrument (LIN 25/082) as the earnings an overseas company's transferee must receive to be exempt from the English test, again as a literal figure without indexation.

For the 482 Specialist Skills and Core Skills streams the required result is a set minimum in each of the four components, 5 in every component for CELPIP General and 5.0 in every component for both IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training, with no overall-score condition.

The 482 minimum scores are LANGUAGECERT Academic 41 listening, 44 reading, 45 writing and 54 speaking, and Michigan English Test 49 listening, 47 reading, 45 writing and 38 speaking.

The 482 minimum scores are OET 220 listening, 240 reading, 200 writing and 270 speaking; PTE Academic 33 listening, 36 reading, 29 writing and 24 speaking; and TOEFL iBT 8 listening, 8 reading, 9 writing and 14 speaking.

For 482 applications lodged on or after 13 September 2025, a test taken before that date still counts if it falls in the 3 years before lodgement and, in a single attempt, gave IELTS 5.0 overall and in each component, OET B in each component, TOEFL iBT overall 35 with 4 in listening and reading and 14 in speaking and writing, PTE Academic 36 overall and in each component, or Cambridge Advanced 154 overall and in each component.

The 482 English minimum is IELTS 5.0 in each component, PTE Academic 33 listening, 36 reading, 29 writing and 24 speaking, and TOEFL iBT 8 listening, 8 reading, 9 writing and 14 speaking.

Under GTES, an Established Business stream employer can use up to 20 positions a year and a Startup stream employer up to 5 positions a year, and startups must be endorsed by the GTES startup advisory panel.

The Core Skills Income Threshold for Skills in Demand (Core Skills) and ENS 186 nominations is A$79,423 for nominations lodged between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027, up from A$76,515 and A$73,150 in the earlier periods.

The Specialist Skills Income Threshold for Skills in Demand Specialist Skills nominations is A$146,576 for nominations lodged between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027, up from A$141,210 and A$135,000 earlier.

For tests taken from 13 September 2025, the minimum scores for Skills in Demand include IELTS 5.0 in each skill and PTE Academic 33 listening, 36 reading, 29 writing and 24 speaking, and a single-skill retake result may be accepted.

A 482 or 494 holder may go without working in the nominated occupation for the sponsor for at most 180 consecutive days at a time, and for no more than 365 days in total during the visa period.

A standard business sponsor approval ends 5 years after the day it is granted, except that an overseas business sponsor's approval ends earlier if a later approval of that sponsor starts.

For a Labour Agreement stream nomination the proposed period of stay in the 482 nomination must not exceed the period the work agreement specifies, rather than the general 1 to 4 years.

Home Affairs says a 482 holder who has been laid off and is unemployed has up to 180 days to find a new employer or make arrangements to leave Australia.

VETASSESS currently quotes about 7 weeks for a standard skills assessment in professional occupations, and more if the application is complex or documents are missing.

VETASSESS charges AUD 1,260.60 including GST (AUD 1,146.00 excluding GST for applicants who are not Australian tax residents) for a full professional skills assessment, with an optional priority-processing fee of AUD 949.30 (AUD 863.00 excluding GST).

For ICT occupations the Australian Computer Society's General Skills pathway costs AUD 1,498 paid at the start, and ACS says an application needing no extra documents should allow 4 to 6 weeks.

Engineers Australia lists an Australian accredited engineering qualification assessment at AUD 315 excluding GST (AUD 346.50 with GST), AUD 750 excluding GST when a skilled employment assessment is added, and a fast-track option that gets the application to an assessor within 20 business days (not a guaranteed outcome date).

The Skills in Demand 482 visa has the same first instalment for every stream: $4,015 for the main applicant, $4,015 for each additional applicant aged 18 or over and $1,005 for each under 18, with no second instalment, except that applicants in a class the Minister specifies by instrument pay nil.

Pacific-regional passport holders applying for the 482 pay $3,290 as main applicant, $3,290 for additional adults and $825 for additional children under 18.

An employer must pay a $330 fee with each nomination of an occupation for a 482 (and the older 457) visa.

To be approved as a standard business sponsor, or as a temporary activities sponsor, an employer pays a $420 application fee.

The nomination training contribution (Skilling Australians Fund) charge for a 482 nomination is $1,200 per year of the proposed stay if the sponsor's annual turnover is under $10,000,000, and $1,800 per year otherwise.

Home Affairs lists the current sponsorship costs as A$420 to become an approved sponsor under the Skills in Demand program, A$330 per Skills in Demand nomination and A$540 per ENS 186 nomination (varies by stream and location).

The evidence that must accompany a standard nomination is a copy of the advertising material; for select positions it is a written submission explaining why no suitably qualified local worker is readily available.

A 482 applicant may be inside or outside Australia but not in immigration clearance, and an applicant in Australia must hold a substantive visa or a Bridging A, B or C visa.

The primary applicant's application must identify an employer nomination, which is either approved and still in force or not yet decided, and the nominator must not be barred as a sponsor.

Under Direction 121, 482 applications go in this order: priority sectors (construction, healthcare, teaching, agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, resources, law enforcement and defence), then the Specialist Skills stream, then onshore applicants, then offshore applicants not combined with another person, then all others.

Home Affairs says a 482 holder's employer may be able to sponsor them for permanent residence through the Employer Nomination Scheme (186), which is the main permanent pathway it points a Core Skills holder to; it is not automatic.

Before lodging a company-specific request the employer must consult the industry body, the relevant union and any affected community group, giving them 10 working days to respond and a further 5 working days after a follow-up if there is no reply, and requests without this consultation are returned unassessed.

Under the template, a Category 2 business shows at least two separate labour market testing attempts with national reach, and a Category 3 business at least two attempts of which one is national and one may be local, all carried out in the 12 months before nomination.

An employer must first win endorsement from the Designated Area Representative and only then lodge a labour agreement request online in ImmiAccount, and a DAMA will not be endorsed where the industry is already covered by an Industry Labour Agreement.

Getting a labour agreement is a three-stage sequence: an online request in ImmiAccount (no fee), then, once an agreement is signed, nominations of positions within the agreement's yearly ceilings, and finally the worker's visa application.

After lodgement the department assesses the request against its procedural instruction, may return incomplete requests unassessed, expects information within 7 or 14 calendar days when asked, and expects the signed agreement back within four weeks, after which it runs for five years.

A signed agreement sets yearly nomination ceilings per occupation and visa type, and an employer wanting ceilings for years four or five, or extra ceilings in any year, must ask the department for a deed of variation.

A 482 or 494 holder cannot extend the visa to stay longer: to keep working for the same employer the employer must lodge a new nomination and the worker must apply for a new visa, and that new visa application can be made in Australia while holding a substantive or bridging visa.

For a 482 Specialist Skills or Core Skills applicant who re-sits a test component on a later day to reach the required score, the instrument combines the tests from the original test day and the re-sit day.

A 482 nomination has to be accompanied by the nomination fee and by any nomination training contribution charge the employer owes.

Income thresholds are indexed every year and change on 1 July, so a nomination lodged on or after that date must meet the threshold for the new year.

Under Direction 121 temporary skilled applications go first to priority sectors (construction, healthcare, teaching, agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, resources, law enforcement and defence), then to the Specialist Skills stream, then to applicants who were in Australia when they lodged.

At 31 December 2025 thirteen DAMAs were in effect: four state or territory-led (two in South Australia, one in Western Australia, one in the Northern Territory) and nine regional ones in Far North Queensland, Townsville, Pilbara, Kimberley, South West, Goldfields, Great South Coast, Goulburn Valley and Orana, and the government is moving regional DAMAs to state and territory leadership.

Industry Labour Agreements carry fixed terms and built-in concessions for one sector, and at 31 December 2025 there were 10 head agreements (advertising, aged care, dairy, fishing, horticulture, meat, minister of religion, on-hire, pork and restaurant) with 1,600 industry agreements approved for employers.

The Applicable Circumstances List in LIN 24/089 contains several literal dollar and size tests that are not indexed: nominated earnings under AUD 180,001 (item 1), under AUD 120,000 (item 15), business turnover under AUD 1,000,000 (items 11 and 12) and fewer than 5 employees (items 12 and 13).

The Core Skills Occupation List in LIN 24/089 has 456 numbered items, each giving an occupation title, its 6-digit ANZSCO (2022) code and, for 34 of them, one or more applicable-circumstance numbers; by Major Group it holds 47 managers, 235 professionals, 141 technicians and trades workers, 23 community and personal service workers, 8 clerical and administrative workers and 2 sales workers.

Only 34 CSOL occupations carry applicable-circumstance numbers, for example CEOs and corporate general managers (1), farmers (5), Sales and Marketing Manager (6 and 12), Management Consultant (11 and 13), Chef and Cook (3 and 4) and Hospitality, Retail and Service Managers nec (16); the other 422 occupations apply with no circumstance test.

LIN 24/093 names a relevant assessing authority for each of the 456 occupations, led by VETASSESS (about 181 occupations) and Trades Recognition Australia (about 104), then the Medical Board of Australia (34), the Australian Computer Society (31), Engineers Australia (26) and ANMAC (19), with several occupations assigned to two or three bodies.

The mandatory 482 skills assessment table names 24 occupations: 23 trades assessed by Trades Recognition Australia (automotive electrician, baker, cabinetmaker, carpenter, carpenter and joiner, chef, cook, diesel motor mechanic, electrician general and special class, fitter general, fitter and turner, fitter-welder, joiner, metal fabricator, metal fitters and machinists nec, metal machinist, motor mechanic, panelbeater, pastrycook, sheetmetal trades worker, toolmaker, welder first class) plus Program or Project Administrator assessed by VETASSESS.

The trade skills assessment is mandatory only for applicants holding a passport from the country list set for the occupation, which runs from 7 countries for the two electrician occupations (Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Macau, Philippines, South Africa, Vietnam) to 15 for chef and cook (also Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Zimbabwe), while Program or Project Administrator applies to all passports.

The visas on which a subsequent temporary application charge can be levied (the "new" visa) are the Student 500 (with some exclusions), Student Guardian 590, 407, 408, the Skills in Demand 482, the Visitor 600 and 676.

The earlier visa that triggers the subsequent temporary charge can be a wide range of temporary visas, including the Working Holiday 417, Work and Holiday 462, Skills in Demand 482, Student 500 and the Tourist stream of the 600.

Nominations that attract the nomination training contribution charge are those for the 482 and 494 (temporary) and for the 186 and 187 (permanent) visas.

The Core Skills Occupation List is set out in section 6 of the Skills in Demand occupation instrument (LIN 24/089); its latest compilation (No. 3) is dated 7 November 2025 and reflects the amendments made since the instrument began in December 2024, the last being the Skilled Visa Reform Technical Measures instrument.

Home Affairs uses the 2022 version of ANZSCO for the 186 and Skills in Demand 482 (including the Core Skills Occupation List) and the 2013 version for the other skilled visas, whose lists (MLTSSL, STSOL, ROL) still use older codes.

The amended Schedule 1 and 2 visa criteria for the Skills in Demand visa apply to visa applications made on or after 7 December 2024, which leaves applications lodged earlier to be decided under the pre-change TSS criteria.

The pre-7 December 2024 text of visa condition 8607 continues to govern visas granted before that date and visas granted later on applications made before it, so existing TSS holders stay under their original work conditions while new SID visas carry the amended condition.

The 482 Core Skills Occupation List has been amended three times since it began on 7 December 2024, none of which added or removed an occupation: a caveats amendment the same day (new circumstance 16 for brothel keepers), a 14 December 2024 amendment of assessing authorities and some circumstance numbers, and a 7 November 2025 correction of the code at item 79 (Management Consultant); the 186 version was also amended on 28 March 2026 for an assessing authority.

The Government is updating Ministerial Direction 119 so that skilled visa processing prioritises sectors such as healthcare, construction, education, law enforcement, defence, resources, agriculture, aquaculture and fishing.

A March 2026 instrument lets nominating employers use an alternative method to work out the annual market salary rate where a Fair Work or state instrument applies, but only where the result is not lower than the amount under that instrument.

A new instrument updated the approved English tests and required scores for the Skills in Demand 482 visa from 13 September 2025, following the department's request for expression of interest process with test providers.

In November 2025 technical amendments corrected the ANZSCO code for Management Consultant on the Core Skills Occupation List and applied caveats 11 and 13 (small business turnover and employee-number limits) to that occupation.

Ministerial Direction 121 (temporary skilled visas) and Ministerial Direction 122 (provisional and permanent skilled visas) took effect on 19 September 2026 and replaced all processing priorities under Ministerial Direction 119.

The Skills in Demand (482) visa replaced the Temporary Skill Shortage (482) visa on 7 December 2024.

The Migration Amendment (Combatting Migrant Exploitation) Act 2026, assented to on 8 April 2026, commenced on 8 October 2026 and allows the Secretary to publish regulation-prescribed information about approved work sponsors, which the regulations may extend to the sponsor's name, ABN and number of nominations.