Subclass 186 Permanent Residence
The Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme lets an approved Australian employer nominate a skilled worker for permanent residence, most commonly through the Temporary Residence Transition stream after a qualifying period in the nominated role. Resource Visa prepares these nominations for Australian employers as part of a workforce plan rather than as a last-minute response to a visa expiry.
Why employers sponsor permanent residence
The argument is retention economics, not goodwill.
Supporting permanent residence reduces turnover, removes recurring renewal costs, and stabilises the workforce in exactly the roles where replacement is hardest — remote sites, specialist trades, FIFO rosters where a departure leaves a slot nobody local can fill.
For the worker it is a pathway to settle and build a life here. For the business it is the difference between an employee who is planning their next three years with you and one who is planning them somewhere else.
The cost of nominating is almost always lower than the cost of losing an experienced person from a role that took six months to fill.
The two pathways
Temporary Residence Transition
For workers who have held a Subclass 482 or Skills in Demand visa and worked in the nominated role for your business for the qualifying period.
- The worker must have worked full-time in the nominated occupation for your business
- The role must still be genuine and ongoing
- English, skills and salary requirements apply
- This is the most common pathway for workers already sponsored
Typical: civil and structural engineers, supervisors, tradespeople, project managers, technical specialists.
Direct Entry
For workers who have not held a qualifying temporary visa, or have not been with you long enough.
- Relevant skilled work experience is required
- A positive skills assessment is generally required
- More documentation is needed upfront
- No waiting period — available where the criteria are met
Typical: new hires recruited offshore, returning expatriates, regional specialists.
When to start
Six to twelve months before eligibility, not at visa expiry.
Starting early gives you time to fix the things that turn out to be problems: employment records that do not cleanly evidence the qualifying period, a role that has drifted from the nominated occupation, a salary that has not kept pace with the threshold, a skills assessment with a lead time of its own.
Every one of those is fixable with notice and awkward without it.
What your business has to show
- Approved sponsor status
- A genuine, ongoing, full-time position
- Salary meeting the applicable threshold and the market rate for the role
- Consistent documentation of the worker's employment and the nominated role
- A clean sponsorship compliance record
That last one is why this page sits in the compliance cluster rather than apart from it. A nomination is assessed against a business whose sponsorship history is visible to the Department.
What gets in the way
Role drift. The worker was nominated for one occupation and has grown into another. Common, entirely innocent, and it complicates a transition nomination.
Records that do not evidence the qualifying period cleanly. Gaps, part-time stretches, secondments to a related entity.
A role that is not genuinely ongoing. If the position exists because a project exists, and the project ends, that is not an ongoing role however long the worker has been in it.
Salary drift against a threshold that indexes. A salary that met the threshold at nomination may not at permanent residence stage.
We will tell you which of these applies before you commit, rather than after.
Frequently asked questions
A qualifying period of full-time work in the nominated occupation for your business. The exact requirement depends on the visa held and current settings, which we confirm at the briefing.
Through the Direct Entry stream, yes, where they meet the skills assessment and experience requirements. More documentation is needed upfront.
Yes, an approved sponsor with a clean compliance record. The nomination is assessed against the business as well as the role.
It can be. The permanent nomination needs to align with what they actually do, and consistency across the employment history matters. Raise it early — it is usually solvable with notice.
Six to twelve months before eligibility. Starting at visa expiry removes every option except urgency.
Then it is likely not an ongoing position for these purposes, regardless of how long the project runs. That is a genuine constraint rather than a documentation problem.
Related pages
Subclass 482 Skills in Demand
Sponsoring an ongoing role under the Subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa. The three streams, what your business must do, and…
Sponsor obligations and monitoring
What sponsorship commits your business to after the worker arrives: records, notifications, equivalent terms, and what happens…
Sponsor Compliance Retainer
Your sponsorship obligations, run by a Registered Migration Agent. Notifications lodged on time, records kept audit-ready,…
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