Subclass 482 Skills in Demand
The Subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa lets an approved Australian sponsor employ an overseas worker in a nominated occupation for up to four years, with a pathway to permanent residence. It replaced the Subclass 482 Temporary Skill Shortage visa and runs across three streams — Core Skills, Specialist Skills and Essential Skills. Resource Visa prepares sponsorship, nomination and visa applications for Australian employers, and runs the compliance that follows.
Sponsoring a role that isn't going away
The three streams
Which stream applies is driven by the occupation and the salary, not by preference.
Core Skills
The main stream, covering occupations on the Core Skills Occupation List. This is where most resources, engineering, marine and trades roles sit — civil and structural engineers, diesel mechanics, welders and riggers, electricians and instrumentation technicians, marine surveyors and subsea technicians, project managers and safety advisors.
The nominated salary must meet the Core Skills Income Threshold and the annual market salary rate for the role. The threshold is indexed and changes — we confirm the current figure at the briefing rather than publishing a number that will be wrong within the year.
Specialist Skills
For high-wage, high-skill occupations above a higher income threshold, with a narrower set of excluded occupations and faster processing service standards. Used in the resources sector for senior technical and leadership roles.
Essential Skills
For lower-wage occupations of national importance, operating under more restricted arrangements. Rarely relevant to our clients, but noted here for completeness.
What your business has to do
- Be an approved sponsor. Standard Business Sponsorship, or a labour agreement where the occupation sits outside standard arrangements.
- Nominate the position. Establish that the role is genuine, correctly classified, and paid at market rate and above the applicable threshold.
- Conduct Labour Market Testing where required, to the Department's specifications.
- Meet the sponsorship obligations for as long as the worker is employed — and in some cases beyond.
What the process looks like
Three applications, which can in many cases be lodged together:
Sponsorship — your business is approved as a sponsor. Once approved this lasts several years and covers multiple nominations, so it is done once rather than per worker.
Nomination — the specific position is approved. This is where genuineness, occupation classification, salary and Labour Market Testing are assessed, and it is where most problems arise.
Visa — the worker’s own application: skills, English, health and character.
The nomination is the part employers underestimate. Getting the occupation classification wrong, or documenting the role loosely, is the most common cause of delay in the whole process.
Labour Market Testing, in practice
Where it applies, Labour Market Testing is not a formality and it is not satisfied by having advertised at some point.
The requirements are specific about where ads run, how long they run, what they must contain — including salary and the employer’s name — and what evidence you must retain. Ads that ran for too short a period, omitted the salary, or appeared only on an internal careers page are among the most common defects we see when we take over a file.
Get the advertising right before you start rather than discovering the defect at nomination stage, when the fix costs you the advertising period all over again.
What happens after the visa is granted
This is the part that gets forgotten, and it is where sponsors get into trouble.
Sponsorship obligations run for the life of the employment. You must keep prescribed records, notify the Department of specified events within set timeframes, ensure the worker works only in the nominated occupation, and maintain equivalent terms and conditions. The Department can request records at any time and conducts monitoring.
If the role changes materially, that may require a fresh nomination. If the worker leaves, that triggers a notification obligation with a deadline attached.
The pathway to permanent residence
For most sponsored workers on the Core Skills or Specialist Skills stream, permanent residence runs through the Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme, most commonly the Temporary Residence Transition stream after a qualifying period in the nominated role.
Worth planning early rather than at visa expiry. Retention economics favour it: PR support reduces turnover, removes recurring renewal costs, and in remote and specialist roles the cost of losing an experienced worker substantially exceeds the cost of nominating them.
When the 482 is the wrong instrument
If the work is a defined piece of specialised work with an end date, the 482 is heavy machinery for a small job. A Subclass 400 requires no sponsorship approval, no nomination and no ongoing obligations, and it moves far faster.
If the occupation does not appear on the relevant list, the 482 is not available in the standard way — a labour agreement or a DAMA may be, and in WA resources that is more often the answer than employers expect.
If your business cannot meet the salary threshold for the role, the honest answer is that the nomination will not succeed, and no amount of documentation changes it.
Who you are dealing with
Migration advice with a CFO's signature
Resource Visa is led by Matthew Coleman, a Registered Migration Agent who spent two decades in senior finance roles across the resources sector before practising migration. The commercial context behind a mobilisation is not something that has to be explained.
- Registered Migration Agent, MARN 1686595
- CPA (Australia) and CIMA (UK), dual-qualified
- 20+ years in corporate finance, including group CFO roles
- Mining, oil and gas, energy infrastructure and marine services
- Principal-led. You deal with the person doing the work.
Frequently asked questions
The Subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa replaced the Temporary Skill Shortage arrangement. It uses the Core Skills Occupation List in place of the former short- and medium-term lists, and runs three streams: Core Skills, Specialist Skills and Essential Skills.
Up to four years, depending on the stream and the nomination.
Yes. Sponsorship, nomination and visa are three separate applications, though in many cases they can be lodged together. Sponsorship approval lasts several years and covers multiple nominations.
Where it applies, yes, and the requirements are specific about advertising duration, content, placement and evidence retention. Defective advertising is one of the most common causes of nomination problems.
Record keeping, notification of specified events within set timeframes, ensuring the worker performs the nominated occupation, and maintaining equivalent terms and conditions. These run for the life of the employment and the Department can request records at any time.
For eligible occupations and streams, yes — most commonly through the Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme after a qualifying period in the nominated role. Planning it early is better than addressing it at visa expiry.
There are Departmental charges at sponsorship, nomination and visa stage, plus the Skilling Australians Fund levy, and these are indexed. We set out the full cost picture — ours and the Department’s — in writing at the briefing, current as at that date.
Possibly. Labour agreements and, in designated WA regions, DAMAs exist precisely for occupations that fall outside standard lists. Whether one fits depends on whether the gap is structural or a one-off vacancy.
Related pages
Becoming a Standard Business Sponsor
What Standard Business Sponsorship requires, how long approval lasts, what it commits your business to, and whether you…
Sponsor obligations and monitoring
What sponsorship commits your business to after the worker arrives: records, notifications, equivalent terms, and what happens…
Compliance health check
Find out where your sponsorship obligations stand before the Department does. A structured review of records, notifications,…
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