Temporary Residence Transition
For people already working for the sponsor on a 457 or 482. No skills assessment criterion, but the nominator has to be the business that last nominated you.
Subclass 186 · Employer Nomination Scheme
The subclass 186 visa.
Permanent from the day it is granted. Which of the three streams applies to you decides almost everything else.
- Permanent?
- Yes, on grant
- Age?
- Under 45 at application, unless exempt
- Main streams?
- Temporary Residence Transition, Direct Entry, Labour Agreement
- TRT work history?
- 2 years in the 3 before you apply
- Direct Entry?
- Skills assessment + 3 years full-time
- Sponsorship needed?
- No separate application
General information about the subclass 186. It is not advice about whether you or a particular position would qualify. The three streams have different requirements and the one you are in is decided by your employer’s nomination.
Some requirements – the English score, the exemptions, the assessing authorities – are set by legislative instrument and change. No Worries Migration is an Australian migration practice, not a law firm, and nothing on this website is legal advice.
Three streams.
Direct Entry
A current skills assessment and three years of full-time work in the occupation. Open to a 482 holder too, if they meet the requirements.
Labour Agreement
Where the employer holds an agreement covering the occupation. Age, English and experience can come from the agreement.
Am I eligible?
What are the requirements for a 186 visa?
There are common criteria that everyone has to meet, then the requirements of whichever stream you are in.
The common ones cover licensing where the occupation requires it, that the position will give you the employment described in the nomination, that you have not been involved in payment-for-visa conduct, and the public interest and special return criteria.
On top of those, each stream sets its own age, English, skills and nomination requirements. The stream is chosen in the employer’s nomination, not by you.
Which stream am I in?
Three: Temporary Residence Transition, Direct Entry and Labour Agreement.
Temporary Residence Transition is for people who have already held a 457 or 482 and worked for the sponsor. Direct Entry asks for a skills assessment and three years of work – and it is not closed to 482 holders: nothing in it makes a current or previous 482 a disqualifier. Labour Agreement applies where your employer holds an agreement covering the occupation.
The employer’s nomination has to identify the subclass and the stream when it is lodged, so the choice is made before your visa application exists.
Do I have to be under 45?
At the time of application, yes, unless you are in a class of persons specified by the Minister in an instrument, or – in the Labour Agreement stream – the agreement itself specifies a different age.
It is measured at the time of application, not at nomination and not at decision. If you are approaching 45 on a 482, that date is the one to plan around.
Do I need competent English?
For the Temporary Residence Transition and Direct Entry streams, yes at the time of application, unless you are in a class specified by the Minister in an instrument.
Competent English is a defined term. You have it if you sat a test specified by the Minister, within the three years before you applied, and achieved the score specified in the instrument – or if you hold a passport of a type the Minister has specified. The score and the accepted tests are in the instrument, not in the Regulations.
Do I need a skills assessment for a 186?
For Direct Entry, generally yes. The relevant assessing authority must have assessed your skills as suitable for the occupation, the assessment must not have been one obtained for a subclass 485, and it has to be current: within its stated validity period, or not more than three years old if it does not state one.
For Temporary Residence Transition the Regulations do not impose a skills assessment criterion. That is one of the practical differences between the two streams.
Temporary Residence Transition: how long do I have to have worked?
Two years, inside the three years before you apply. Two separate requirements have to be met, and both are measured over that same three-year window.
First, you must have held a 457, a 482 (either the Temporary Skill Shortage or the Skills in Demand version), or an eligible bridging visa, for a total of at least two years. Second, you must have been employed by an approved work sponsor in the occupation that visa was granted for, for a total of at least two years, full-time and in Australia. Unpaid leave does not count towards the second one.
The two years do not have to be continuous. The Minister can specify different periods for particular people by instrument, and a different rule applies where the occupation is one specified under regulation 2.72(13).
Direct Entry: how many years of work do I need?
Three years. You must have been employed in the occupation for at least three years on a full-time basis and at the level of skill the occupation requires, unless you are in a class specified by the Minister.
The Minister can also require you to demonstrate the skills necessary to perform the tasks of the occupation, in the manner the Minister specifies.
I hold a 491 or 494. Can I go straight to the 186?
Not immediately. If you hold a regional provisional visa, or your last substantive visa was one, you must have held it for at least three years at the time of application, unless circumstances specified in an instrument apply.
In the Labour Agreement stream the agreement itself can specify a shorter period.
Does my employer need to be an approved sponsor?
Not as a separate application. A 186 nomination is made under regulation 5.19, which lets a person – including a partnership or unincorporated association – apply to have a position approved. Nothing in it requires the nominator to be an approved sponsor, and Division 186.2 contains no approved-work-sponsor criterion.
Direct Entry and Temporary Residence Transition differ here. For Direct Entry the nominator only has to be actively and lawfully operating a business in Australia. For Temporary Residence Transition the nominator must have been the standard business sponsor, or work agreement party, who last nominated you under section 140GB – so a TRT nomination is free of a fresh sponsorship application, not free of sponsorship history.
Applying
Can I apply for a 186 from within Australia?
Yes. You may be in or outside Australia when the visa is granted, but not in immigration clearance.
If you are in Australia without a substantive visa, check the section 48 bar before lodging – it limits which visas can validly be applied for, and it is decided by your status rather than by the 186 criteria.
How long after the nomination is approved do I have to lodge?
Six months, and it applies to Temporary Residence Transition and Direct Entry alike. The visa application has to be made no more than six months after the Minister approved the nomination, and the position has to still be available to you.
This is about the timing of the application, not the decision. An approved nomination is not a standing invitation: if the six months passes, the employer starts again.
What salary does the nomination have to meet?
For subclass 186 nominations lodged 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, the Core Skills Income Threshold of AUD 79,423 applies. It has applied to 186 nominations lodged on or after 7 December 2024.
The nomination also has to meet the annual market salary rate where that applies. The threshold is a floor, not permission to pay below the genuine rate for the job. Labour agreement terms are checked separately.
Checked on 23 August 2026; thresholds are indexed every 1 July.
Can my family be included?
Yes. A member of your family unit can be granted a 186 on the secondary criteria. They have to meet their own public interest and special return criteria, and for Direct Entry the health criterion applies to family members whether or not they are applying.
Once you hold it
Is the 186 permanent straight away?
Yes. The 186 is a permanent visa from the day it is granted. There is no provisional stage and no second application.
What is time-limited is the travel facility: the visa permits travel to and entry into Australia for five years from grant. That is about re-entry, not about your permanent residence, and it is renewed through a resident return visa.
Are there conditions on a 186?
Very few. If you are outside Australia when it is granted, a first entry date is specified, and condition 8515 may be imposed on a family member granted on the secondary criteria.
There is no work condition tying you to the employer, unlike the 482.
Do I have to stay with the employer after the 186 is granted?
The Regulations impose no condition requiring it. The nomination has to be genuine when it is decided, and the position has to be available to you, but the visa itself does not tie you to the employer once granted.
That is a question about the nomination being genuine at the time, so it is worth being straight with your employer about your intentions rather than treating it as a technicality.
If something goes wrong
What if the nomination is refused?
The nomination and the visa are separate decisions and the visa cannot be granted unless the nomination has been approved and has not been withdrawn.
A reg 5.19 refusal is a reviewable migration decision, and the Minister must give the nominator written reasons and a statement to that effect. The review right belongs to the nominator. Our refusals and review guide sets out who may apply.
cl 186.223(2)–(3), 186.233(3)–(4) · reg 5.19(15), reg 4.02(4)(e)
What if I turn 45 before I apply?
The age is tested at the time of application, so turning 45 before you lodge is decisive unless you fall within a class specified by the Minister in an instrument, or the Labour Agreement stream applies and the agreement sets a different age.
If you are on a 482 and approaching 45, work backwards from that date: the nomination has to be lodged and approved before your application can be made.
Terms used on this page.
Three terms that decide most 186 questions. Everything else is explained where it appears.
- Regulation 5.19 nomination
- The employer-side application for a 186. A person, including a partnership or unincorporated association, applies to have a position approved. It identifies the position, the person, the occupation and the stream, and it is a different instrument from the section 140GB nomination used for a 482 or 494.reg 5.19(1)–(2)
- Competent English
- A defined term, not a general standard. A test specified by the Minister, sat within the three years before you applied, at the score specified in the instrument - or a passport of a type the Minister has specified.reg 1.15C
- Regional provisional visa
- A 491 or 494, broadly. If you hold one, or your last substantive visa was one, you generally have to have held it for three years before a 186 application can be made.cl 186.232A
Reviewed by Arash Barinder Singh (Arsh Dhillon). Registered Migration Agent, MARN 1467301. No Worries Migration, Southport, Queensland.
Last reviewed 23 August 2026
Where this comes from.
Read from the Federal Register of Legislation on 23 August 2026: the Migration Regulations 1994 compilation then in force, Schedule 2 Part 186 in full, regulation 5.19 in full and regulation 1.15C, together with the Migration Act 1958. Every clause number on this page is a link.
The English score, the classes of person exempted from the age and English requirements and the assessing authorities are set by legislative instrument rather than by the Regulations, and they change. We name the test and link the instrument instead of printing a figure. The instruments are in our legislation library.
Based on content from the Federal Register of Legislation at 22 August 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government legislation please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au. Federal Register material is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Still general information. Reading the provision is not the same as knowing which version applied to your application, how the Department and the Tribunal have interpreted it, or what it means for your circumstances. That is what advice is for.
Talk to a registered migration agent
Tell us where you are up to.
Whether you are at the very start, waiting on a decision, or holding a refusal letter, start with a conversation about where things stand.
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