Employer Sponsored
Skills in Demand (482)
Sponsored work with an Australian employer across three streams, with a pathway to permanent residence through the 186 if your employer nominates you after two years in the role.
Requirements
What the 482 asks of you.
Two applications sit before yours: your employer's sponsorship and the nomination of your role. The nominated salary must meet the indexed threshold and the local market rate.
Specialist Skills stream
The stream for high-earning specialist roles. Eligible occupations span managers, professionals, and community and personal service, clerical and administrative, and sales occupations; technicians and trades workers, machinery operators and drivers, and labourers are excluded whatever the salary.
Core Skills stream
The main stream. The occupation must appear on the Core Skills Occupation List, with salary at or above the core skills income threshold and the local market rate for the role.
Labour Agreement stream
For employers party to a labour agreement with the Commonwealth. The agreement's terms govern the criteria, and can concede salary and English settings.
How labour agreements workSkills, experience and English
At least one year of full-time work experience in your occupation or a related field within the last five years, skills that match the nominated role, the English standard set for your stream, and any licence or registration the occupation demands.
Your sponsor carries the program costs
Sponsorship, nomination and Skilling Australians Fund levy costs belong to your employer. Sponsors are barred from recovering them from you, at any time and in any form. The same bar covers costs of recruiting you for the nominated role.
The pathway
How we run your 482.
Sponsorship
Your employer's standard business sponsorship is prepared and lodged, or an existing approval is checked. Once approved, a sponsorship covers nominations for five years.
Nomination
The role is nominated with genuine position and salary evidence, and labour market testing where required: the position advertised for at least four consecutive weeks within the previous four months.
Visa application
Your application is lodged decision-ready with skills, experience, English, health and character evidence, together with the nomination or once it is approved.
Pathway to PR
After two years of sponsored work in the role, we assess the move to permanent residence through the 186 Temporary Residence Transition stream.
General information only, not immigration advice. Your circumstances matter. Visa requirements, fees and processing times change regularly. Facts on this page last reviewed 15 July 2026. Check current details with the Department of Home Affairs , or speak with us for advice on your situation. Website terms.
Begin with a conversation.
Speak with a MARA-registered migration agent in Melbourne about your pathway. Book a time that suits you.