Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) 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.

In the 186/187/494 exemption instrument the high income threshold is not a Home Affairs figure but takes its meaning from section 333 of the Fair Work Act 2009, so it moves whenever the Fair Work amount changes.

Under Fair Work Regulations reg 2.13(3) the high income threshold for each 1 July is last year's figure multiplied by the ratio of the average weekly ordinary time earnings (seasonally adjusted, full-time adults) in effect on 1 July this year to that in effect on 1 July last year, with the ratio taken to 3 decimal places and never below 1, and the result rounded to the nearest AUD 100 with exact AUD 50 multiples rounded up.

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.

The primary 494 holder carries conditions 8578 (report address, email, phone, passport, employer address and workplace location changes within 14 days), 8579 (live, work and study only in a designated regional area), 8580 (provide address evidence within 28 days of a request), 8581 (attend an interview) and 8608 (work only in the nominated occupation for the sponsor); secondary holders get the same except 8608.

Condition 8579 ties a 494 holder's regional-area duty to the nomination in force: the area is the designated regional area at the time of the first nomination, and if a later nomination is approved and the holder starts work in that new position, a new regional residency period begins on the day work starts in the new position, measured against the area at the time of that later nomination.

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.

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.

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 relevant nomination was made.

A 494 Employer Sponsored nomination must be for a position in a designated regional area, from a standard business sponsor that is not an overseas business sponsor, for a genuine full-time job likely to exist for at least 5 years.

The employment terms must not expressly rule out extending the job, and a regional certifying body for the area must advise whether the worker will be paid at least the annual market salary rate.

In the 494 Employer Sponsored stream the applicant must be under 45, have competent English, and have been employed in the nominated occupation for at least 3 years full-time at the required skill level, unless the Minister has set an exemption.

The 494 applicant needs a suitable skills assessment that was not made for a 485 visa and is still valid or no older than 3 years, unless they held a 457 or 482 for that occupation that already required such an assessment.

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.

For the 494 Labour Agreement stream the work agreement must authorise a 494 worker, the applicant must be under 45 or under the age the agreement sets, and needs at least 3 years of relevant work unless the agreement specifies a different period, with skills, qualifications and English as the agreement specifies.

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.

The high-income age exemption for a 186 Temporary Residence Transition or 494 applicant requires at least 2 of the last 3 years employed in positions tied to an approved nomination, with earnings in each of those 2 years at or above the high income threshold as it applied at the end of that year, plus at least 2 years on a 457 or 482 visa.

The instrument that lists 494 Employer Sponsored exemptions (LIN 19/216 s 8) exempts some applicants only from the age limit and from the skills and employment-history tests, and names no class exempt from the competent English requirement.

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.

Home Affairs says a 191 applicant must hold an eligible subclass 491 or 494 visa for at least 3 years before applying and must have complied with that visa's conditions for the whole time it was held.

Clause 191.222 requires copies of tax assessment notices for 3 relevant income years and taxable income in each of those years at least equal to an amount the Minister specifies by legislative instrument, for all applicants or for classes of applicants.

A 494 holder cannot use the 186 Temporary Residence Transition stream, because a TRT nomination requires the identified person to hold a 457 or 482 visa (or a linked bridging visa), and the regulation defines a regional provisional visa as a 491 or 494 visa, which is not on that list.

A bridging visa A granted on a valid in-Australia application for an Employer Nomination (Class EN), Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Class PE), Skilled Work Regional (Class PS) or Regional Employer Nomination (Class RN) visa carries nil conditions, so no work-limiting condition attaches while the application is decided.

A 494 holder who is a family-unit member of the primary holder is bound by the same regional-residence condition: during the regional residency period they must live, work and study only in a part of Australia that was a designated regional area when the primary person's nomination was made.

A 494 holder must work only in the nominated occupation and only for the nominating employer in regional Australia, and Home Affairs warns that otherwise the visa might be cancelled.

A secondary 494 applicant gets the same visa conditions as the primary holder except condition 8608, the sponsor-specific work condition, so the primary conditions 8578, 8579, 8580 and 8581 carry over to family members.

A Subclass 494 Employer Sponsored applicant needs competent English at the time of application, unless circumstances the Minister has specified by instrument apply.

A Subclass 494 Employer Sponsored applicant needs a suitable assessment from the relevant assessing authority that was not made for a 485 visa and is within its validity or no older than 3 years, unless they qualify through the previous 457/482 route or specified circumstances.

The permanent Migration Program sets the Employer-Sponsored category at 58,040 places for the program year starting 1 July 2026, up from 44,000 in each of the years before.

Applications lodged for the 494 visa were 5,240 in 2024-25 and 2,575 in the first half of 2025-26, compared with 3,165 in 2021-22.

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 company-specific labour agreement template lets the 186 and 494 age limit be set at under 55 at the time of the visa application for nominees in Category 2 and 3 locations, with nil concessions in Category 1 locations.

For the 494 the company-specific template allows the relevant work experience requirement to be set at 2 years in Category 2 and 3 locations, with nil concessions in Category 1 locations.

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 Fair Work Commission's high income threshold is AUD 190,100 from 1 July 2026 and was AUD 183,100 for the year to 30 June 2026; the Commission says it is adjusted each 1 July.

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.

Under LIN 25/016, competent English means the Schedule 2 item 2 minimums in every component: IELTS 6 each, CELPIP General 7 each, PTE Academic 47 listening, 48 reading, 51 writing and 54 speaking, TOEFL iBT 16, 16, 19 and 19, OET 290, 310, 290 and 330, LANGUAGECERT 57, 60, 64 and 70, MET 56, 55, 57 and 48, and Cambridge C1 Advanced 163, 163, 170 and 179.

A test taken before 7 August 2025 still counts for Competent English if it falls within the 36 months before the visa application and reached IELTS 6 in each component, OET B in each, TOEFL iBT 12 listening, 13 reading, 21 writing and 18 speaking, PTE Academic 50 in each, or Cambridge Advanced 169 in each.

The Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold for the 494 and 187 visas is A$79,423 for nominations lodged between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027, up from A$76,515.

The 2025 instrument raised the TSMIT from A$73,150 to A$76,515, in line with the 4.6 per cent average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE) figure released in February 2025.

A 186 Labour Agreement applicant who holds, or last held, a regional provisional visa must have held it for at least 3 years, unless the labour agreement specifies a shorter period or the Minister's instrument lists exempting circumstances.

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.

To apply for the 191 in the Regional Provisional Visas stream, the primary applicant must have held a regional provisional visa (a 491 or 494) for at least 3 years, and these applications can only be made on or after 16 November 2022.

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).

There is no fee for lodging a nomination of an occupation for the 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa.

For a 494 nomination of a new applicant the charge is a flat $3,000 where annual turnover is under $10,000,000, otherwise $5,000; for a nomination of an existing 494 holder that base amount is multiplied by (5 minus whole years elapsed since grant) divided by 5.

Under Direction 122, 186 and 494 applications go 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.

The subclass 191 visa gives 494 holders (and 491 holders) an independent route to permanent residence once they meet the three-year regional residence and other requirements, including tax assessment notices for 3 income years showing at least the specified taxable income.

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 labour agreement employer seeking a permanent pathway is generally expected to choose either the 494 provisional pathway or the 186 permanent pathway, and ImmiAccount does not allow both nomination ceilings in one request (both can be sought only by emailing the labour agreement section).

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.

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.

The 494 occupation instrument (LIN 19/219) lists 216 occupations in the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List and 434 in the Regional Occupation List, 650 distinct ANZSCO 2013 codes with no overlap between the two, and it excludes exotic dancers from the dancer or choreographer item and brothel keepers from item 79 of the regional list.

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

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 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.