Complete Guide to Australia's Employer Nomination Scheme Visa 186

The Subclass 186 visa has three streams. Which one applies depends on your relationship with the nominating employer and whether you have already been working in Australia.

Because the 186 is a permanent visa, the entitlements are substantially broader than those attached to a temporary skilled visa:

• Permanent residence from the date of grant — live, work and study anywhere in Australia indefinitely.
• Work for any employer. There is no visa condition requiring you to remain with the nominating employer after grant, although leaving immediately can raise questions about whether the position was genuine and ongoing.
• Access to Medicare, Australia's public healthcare scheme.
• The ability to include your partner and dependent children in the application, or sponsor eligible relatives later.
• A five year travel facility. After five years you need a Resident Return visa to re-enter Australia as a permanent resident.
• A pathway to Australian citizenship once the general residence requirements are satisfied.

Unlike the Subclass 482, the 186 does not require the employer to hold a separate Standard Business Sponsorship. The employer lodges a nomination directly, but must still satisfy the Department that the business and the position are genuine.

• Be a lawfully and actively operating business in Australia.
• Have no relevant adverse information — including sanctions for immigration, workplace relations or work health and safety breaches.
• Nominate a genuine, full time position that is ongoing and expected to be available for at least 2 years.
• Demonstrate that the position is a genuine need of the business, not created primarily to secure a visa for the applicant.
• Pay at least the higher of the Core Skills Income Threshold or the Annual Market Salary Rate for the role.
• Pay the Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) levy at the nomination stage.
• Comply with Australian workplace relations law and all applicable sponsorship obligations.

Across all streams, applicants must generally:

• Be nominated by an approved employer for an eligible occupation, with the nomination approved or lodged.
• Be under 45 years of age at the time of application, unless an exemption applies.
• Meet the Competent English requirement, unless an exemption applies.
• Satisfy the requirements of the specific stream — 2 years with the employer for TRT, or skills assessment plus 3 years experience for Direct Entry.
• Meet Australia's health requirements, including medical examinations for all applicants.
• Meet the character requirements, including police certificates from every country lived in for 12 months or more over the past 10 years.
• Have no outstanding public health debt to the Australian Government.

Partners and dependent children can be included as secondary applicants and are subject to their own health and character checks.

Age

You must generally be under 45 at the time the visa application is lodged. Turning 45 after lodgement does not affect an application that was validly made. Exemptions are narrow and include:

• Senior academics nominated by an Australian university.
• Scientists, researchers and technical specialists at skill level 1 or 2 nominated by an Australian government agency.
• Medical practitioners who have worked in regional Australia for the nominating employer for at least 4 years.
• Certain New Zealand citizens who meet specified residence and income conditions.
• Some legacy Subclass 457 holders covered by transitional arrangements.
• Labour Agreement positions, where the agreement itself provides an age concession.

English

The standard for the 186 is Competent English — a meaningfully higher bar than the Subclass 482, which accepts a lower score.

Exemptions may apply if you hold a passport from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, New Zealand or Ireland, or where nominated earnings meet or exceed the Fair Work High Income Threshold (AUD 190,100 from 1 July 2026). Some TRT applicants with extended English-medium education may also be exempt.

This is the clearest point of difference between the two main streams, and it drives most decisions about which pathway to pursue.

Work experience must be genuinely skilled and at the level of the nominated occupation. Payslips, tax records, contracts and detailed employer references carry far more weight than a job title alone.

The nominated salary must be at least the higher of the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT) or the Annual Market Salary Rate (AMSR) — what an equivalent Australian worker would be paid for the same role in the same location.

• The threshold applies at the nomination stage, based on the date the nomination is lodged.
• The CSIT is a floor, not a target. If the market rate for the role is higher, the market rate must be paid.
• Guaranteed annual earnings are what count. Superannuation, overtime, bonuses and non-guaranteed allowances are generally excluded from the threshold calculation.
• Evidence of the AMSR typically includes enterprise agreements, awards, payslips for equivalent Australian staff, or credible salary market data where no equivalent worker exists.
• Thresholds are indexed annually. The 1 July 2026 increase was 3.79 per cent.

The 186 is a two stage process lodged online through ImmiAccount, rather than the three stages required for a Subclass 482:

Lodging both together is common and can save time, but a visa application lodged before the nomination is approved will be refused if the nomination ultimately fails — so the strength of the nomination should be assessed carefully first.

Indicative processing times vary considerably by stream and by the completeness of the application:

Since 25 July 2026, the order in which the Department picks up 186 nominations and visa applications has been governed by Ministerial Direction 119. Priority is determined by occupation and by whether the applicant was in Australia when the application was lodged. Applications connected to law enforcement and defence rank highest, followed by onshore construction, healthcare and teaching occupations.

Requirements vary by stream, but a typical application includes:

All documents not in English must be accompanied by certified translations. Front loading documentation is the single most effective way to avoid delays.

The figures below reflect charges applying from 1 July 2026. Nomination costs and the SAF levy are the employer's responsibility and cannot be recovered from the worker.

Other costs: skills assessment (AUD 500–1,200), English test (AUD 400+), medical examinations (AUD 300–500 per person), police certificates (AUD 50–200 per country), certified translations, and migration agent fees.

Visa application charges are not refunded if an application is refused. Because the 186 SAF levy is a one-off payment rather than the annual amount charged for a Subclass 482, the permanent visa is often more cost effective for employers over a multi-year horizon. For the full schedule of charges that changed on 1 July 2026, see our visa fee increase breakdown.

For most sponsored workers in Australia, the realistic route to permanent residence runs through the Temporary Residence Transition stream. The sequence is straightforward in principle:

• Secure sponsorship and a Subclass 482 visa in an eligible occupation.
• Work full time for the sponsoring employer in the nominated occupation for at least 2 years.
• Ensure the employment is lawful, continuous and properly documented throughout — payslips, PAYG summaries and consistent job duties matter enormously at this stage.
• Have the employer nominate you for an ongoing permanent position in the same occupation.
• Lodge the 186 TRT application, meeting the age, English, health and character requirements.

The main risks are practical rather than legal: changing employers resets the two year clock, gaps in employment can break continuity, and a change in duties can put you outside the nominated occupation. If you are on a 482 with permanent residence as the goal, plan the transition from the beginning rather than in the final months. Our Skills in Demand 482 guide covers the temporary stage in detail.

• Regional alternative: the Subclass 494 provides a regional employer sponsored route to permanent residence via the Subclass 191, which may suit employers outside major cities.
• No obligation to stay: there is no visa condition requiring you to remain with the nominating employer after grant, but the position must have been genuine and ongoing at nomination. Departing immediately after grant can attract scrutiny of both parties.
• Health requirement: the health criterion applies to every family member included in the application, whether or not they are migrating, and a significant condition can affect the outcome for the whole family.
• Annual indexation: income thresholds change each 1 July. Nominations lodged before a change are assessed against the threshold in force at lodgement.
• Policy changes frequently: occupation lists, thresholds and processing priorities have all changed in 2026. Verify current requirements with the Department of Home Affairs or a registered migration agent before acting.