The subclass 494 visa.

Common criteria first: the public interest and special return criteria, an approved nomination that has not ceased, a genuine intention to perform the occupation and a genuine position, no adverse information about the nominator, and no payment-for-visa conduct in the previous three years.

Then the stream. Employer Sponsored asks for age, a skills assessment, three years of work and competent English. Labour Agreement takes age, English, skills and experience from the agreement itself.

cl 494.211–494.215

Two: Employer Sponsored and Labour Agreement.

Employer Sponsored is the ordinary route and requires the nominator to be a standard business sponsor other than an overseas business sponsor. Labour Agreement applies where the occupation is the subject of a work agreement between the Minister and your employer, and that agreement authorises recruitment on a 494.

cl 494.22, 494.23, 494.232 · reg 2.72C(5)

At the time of application, yes, unless circumstances specified by the Minister in an instrument apply.

In the Labour Agreement stream the agreement can specify a different age for the occupation and the visa.

cl 494.223, 494.233

In the Employer Sponsored stream, yes at the time of application, unless specified circumstances apply. Competent English is a defined term: a test specified by the Minister, sat in the three years before you applied, at the score in the instrument, or a passport of a specified type.

In the Labour Agreement stream the English requirement, if any, is whatever the work agreement specifies.

cl 494.226, 494.234 · reg 1.15C

In the Employer Sponsored stream, generally yes. The relevant assessing authority must have assessed your skills as suitable, the assessment must not have been obtained for a subclass 485, and it must be current – within its stated validity period, or not more than three years old.

There is an alternative route: an assessment relied on for an earlier 457 or 482 in the same occupation can count, if the assessing body is the one specified for that occupation.

cl 494.224

Three years. At the time of application you must have been employed in the nominated occupation for at least three years on a full-time basis and at the level of skill the occupation requires, unless specified circumstances apply.

In the Labour Agreement stream it is three years in the occupation or a related field, or whatever period the agreement specifies.

This is a real difference from the 482, which asks for twelve months.

cl 494.225, 494.235(2)

For subclass 494 nominations lodged 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold is AUD 79,423.

The salary also has to meet the annual market salary rate, and for the Employer Sponsored stream a regional body has to advise the Department on whether you would be paid at least that rate. If the market rate is higher than the threshold, the market rate is what applies. Non-monetary benefits such as accommodation or a car do not count towards the threshold.

Checked on 23 August 2026; thresholds are indexed every 1 July.

Home Affairs – salary requirements · reg 2.72C(15), reg 2.72C(18)–(20)

For the Employer Sponsored stream, yes. The Regulations require the person making the nomination to be a standard business sponsor other than an overseas business sponsor, and the visa criteria separately require that the nominator was an approved work sponsor when the nomination was approved.

In the Labour Agreement stream the nominator is a party to a work agreement instead, which makes them an approved work sponsor without a sponsorship application.

reg 2.72C(5) · cl 494.213(1)(b)

It is a real requirement and it is easy to miss, because the Regulations do not use the words most people use for it.

For an Employer Sponsored stream nomination, the Minister must be satisfied that the Minister has been advised by a body about whether you would be paid at least the annual market salary rate for the occupation. That body has to be specified by the Minister, be located in the State or Territory where the position is, and have responsibility for that part of Australia.

The advice is a step in the employer’s nomination. It is not approval of the nomination and it is not approval of your visa.

reg 2.72C(18)–(20)

The Department’s current position is that designated regional areas include all of Australia except Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

So Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra, Darwin, the Gold Coast and everywhere outside those three capitals can be regional for this purpose, whatever people would call them in ordinary speech.

The formal definition is made by legislative instrument and can change. What fixes it for your matter is the area as it stood when the nomination was made, so check the exact work location against the rule that applied then.

reg 2.72C(6) · reg 1.15M · Home Affairs – 494 Employer Sponsored stream

Only in a designated regional area, for as long as condition 8579 applies. It covers all three – living, working and studying – and it applies to family members holding the 494 as well.

You also have to begin your employment within 90 days of entering Australia, if you were offshore when the visa was granted, or of the grant date if you were already here.

Schedule 8, conditions 8579, 8608 · Home Affairs – 494 Employer Sponsored stream

Yes. You may be in or outside Australia when the visa is granted, but not in immigration clearance. If you are onshore without a substantive visa, check the section 48 bar first.

cl 494.411 · Migration Act 1958 s.48

Yes. Members of your family unit can be granted a 494 on the secondary criteria and their visa runs for five years from the date your visa was granted, not from theirs.

Family members must be listed on the nomination where they already hold a 494, and they are subject to the same regional condition.

cl 494.512 · reg 2.72C(8)

Five years from the date of grant.

It is a provisional visa. You can generally apply for the subclass 191 once you have held the 494 for three years, so the application is made while the 494 is still in effect – the decision on it can come later.

cl 494.511

Five, and all of them are mandatory on the primary visa.

8608 is the work condition, the 494 equivalent of the 482’s 8607: same occupation, same employer, and the same 180-day and 365-day limits if sponsored employment ends. 8579 is the regional condition – live, work and study only in a designated regional area.

The other three are easy to overlook and are the ones people breach without noticing. 8578 requires you to notify the Department within 14 days of a change to your residential address, email, phone number, passport details, your employer’s address, or the address where the position is located. 8580 requires you to provide evidence of those addresses within 28 days if you are asked in writing. 8581 requires you to attend an interview if you are asked.

Family members granted on the secondary criteria get the same conditions except 8608.

cl 494.612, 494.613 · Schedule 8, conditions 8578, 8579, 8580, 8581, 8608

Yes, within the limits of condition 8608, and the new position still has to be in a designated regional area. The new employer will generally need its own approved sponsorship and an approved nomination.

The mobility limits are the same shape as the 482’s: no single period over 180 consecutive days without sponsored employment, and no more than 365 days in total.

Schedule 8, condition 8608

Through the subclass 191, and you can generally apply once you have held the 494 for at least three years. It is a separate application, not an extension of the 494.

The Department’s current requirements are that you hold an eligible 491 or 494 when you apply, that you have held an eligible visa for at least three years, that you provide ATO notices of assessment for three income years out of the five years of the eligible visa, and that you have complied with the conditions of that visa.

Condition compliance is part of the permanent application, not something to tidy up at the end.

Home Affairs – subclass 191 Regional Provisional stream · our 191 section

No. The Department states plainly that there is no minimum income requirement for the subclass 191 Regional Provisional stream.

What you do have to provide is ATO notices of assessment for three income years out of the five years of your eligible visa. That is an evidence requirement about lodging tax returns, not a figure you have to reach.

The 494 nomination has salary requirements. The later 191 does not carry a minimum taxable income.

Home Affairs – subclass 191 Regional Provisional stream

Not in the first three years, in most cases, and this catches people whose circumstances change.

The Department’s current position is that until you have held the 494 for three years, a subclass 820 partner application generally cannot be validly made, and a number of permanent visas – including the 186 – generally cannot be granted. The 186 criteria carry their own three-year rule for people who hold, or last held, a regional provisional visa.

If you marry an Australian partner or receive a 186 offer during those first three years, check the position before lodging anything. Our partner visa guide covers the onshore validity rules.

cl 186.232A, 186.241A · Home Affairs – 494 Employer Sponsored stream

Condition 8579 requires you to live, work and study only in a designated regional area while it applies, and the 191 has its own requirements about the regional-provisional period and compliance with the conditions of the visa.

Treat compliance as part of the permanent application rather than something to sort out at the end.

Schedule 8, condition 8579 · subclass 191 requirements

The visa cannot be granted unless the nomination has been approved under section 140GB and the approval has not ceased. So a nomination refusal is generally fatal to the visa application attached to it.

The review right on a nomination belongs to the person who made it – the employer – and the period is short. Our refusals and review guide sets out who may apply.

cl 494.213(1) · Migration Act 1958 s.140GB