Subclass 407 Training visa

A Subclass 407 (Training) is for a person coming to Australia for occupational training or professional development (to gain skills for a job, to meet a registration or licensing requirement, or to take part in a capacity-building program) under the sponsorship of an approved organisation. It is Schedule 1 item 1238, Training (Class GF), and it is not a general work visa: the point of the stay is the training, not filling a position. It is granted for a temporary period the Minister specifies, capped at two years [cl 407.511].

Three layers, worked in sequence

A 407 is built in three layers, and they have to be done in order. First, an organisation must be an approved temporary activities sponsor. Second, unless the sponsor is a Commonwealth agency, that sponsor must have an approved nomination: the nomination sets out the training and is approved under the nomination criteria in [reg 2.72A]. Third, the applicant must meet the Subclass 407 visa criteria, including that the sponsor has agreed in writing to be the applicant's sponsor [cl 407.213] and, unless the sponsor is a Commonwealth agency, that the nomination has been approved [cl 407.214]. For visa applications made on or after 11 March 2026, sponsorship approval must already be in place when the visa application is lodged and, unless the sponsor is a Commonwealth agency, the nomination must also have been approved and not have ceased [Sch 1 1238(3)] [Sch 1 1238 item 5] [cl 407.214]: concurrent lodgement of the three stages is no longer available. A nomination can still be lodged while the sponsorship application is pending [reg 2.72A(1)(a)]; sponsorship approval is required before the nomination can be approved, not before it is lodged [reg 2.72A(3)].

Not a way around a work visa

The training must be a genuine training opportunity for one of the purposes set out in [reg 2.72B]; it cannot be ordinary employment dressed up as training. A 407 does not fill a labour shortage and is not a substitute for a work visa such as the Subclass 482; where the real object is to do a job rather than to be trained, the 407 is the wrong visa.

A 407 nomination must be for one of a fixed set of training purposes in [reg 2.72B], which Home Affairs groups into three broad types: occupational registration, enhancing skills in a workplace, and capacity building. Whatever the purpose, the nomination must also clear the general nomination gates in [reg 2.72A].

The three types (five purposes)

• Registration or licensing [reg 2.72B(2)]: training to obtain, or to meet the requirements for, the registration, membership, or licensing needed to work in the nominee's occupation, whether in Australia or in the nominee's home country.
• Enhancing skills in an eligible occupation [reg 2.72B(3)]: workplace-based training to improve skills in the applicant's own occupation, where that occupation is on the specified instrument list and the applicant has at least 12 months' full-time experience in it in the 24 months before the nomination (part-time pro-rated). This is the main workplace-training route.
• Capacity building overseas: three sub-purposes: practical experience, research, or observation that a person needs to complete in order to obtain an overseas qualification [reg 2.72B(4)] (up to six months); training supported by a government agency or by the government of the nominee's home country [reg 2.72B(5)]; and professional development for overseas employees in managerial or professional roles [reg 2.72B(6)].

The gates every nomination must pass

Whichever purpose applies, these are key gates among the other [reg 2.72A(3)-(16)] criteria: it must be a genuine training opportunity for a purpose in [reg 2.72B] [reg 2.72A(15)-(16)], the sponsor must not engage, or intend to engage, in activities with adverse consequences for the employment or training opportunities, or conditions of employment, of Australian citizens or permanent residents [reg 2.72A(13)], and the functional-English requirement must be met [reg 2.72A(14)]. So the purpose says what the training is for; these gates are part of the approval test [reg 2.72A].

Two personal requirements sit alongside the training: the applicant must have functional English, and must be able to fund the stay. They are separate requirements, and both must be met.

Functional English, at both stages

Functional English is tested twice over: once at the nomination, which must show the nominee has it [reg 2.72A(14)], and again on the visa application, where the applicant must have it [cl 407.212]. The term is defined in the Migration Act [s 5(2)], and the prescribed ways to prove it are set out in [reg 5.17]: evidence specified by the Minister in an instrument, an award requiring at least two years of full-time study conducted in English [reg 5.17(c)], or, where that instrument evidence cannot be provided, a determination made on the basis of a ministerial interview [reg 5.17(d)].

The current evidence instrument is LIN 25/014, which commenced on 7 August 2025. For a relevant application made on or after that date, section 7 preserves specified results from a qualifying test taken before commencement and within the applicable 12-month period. The test date and applicable transitional cohort must therefore be checked against the current instrument rather than applying only its post-commencement test settings. [LIN 25/014 ss 2, 7]

Enough means to fund the stay

The applicant must also have, or be able to access, adequate means to support themselves for the intended stay [cl 407.219]. The Regulations name no figure: what counts as "adequate" is judged on the facts under policy, against the length of stay and the applicant's circumstances. What answers it is evidence of the money, and of who is bearing the cost of the training and the stay.

A 407 is approved in a set order (sponsor, then nomination, then visa) and, where the sponsor is not a Commonwealth agency, the visa application is valid only if an approved, current nomination is already in place to point to. Beyond validity, the applicant must also meet the personal criteria at grant.

Sponsor and nomination first

The organisation must be approved as a temporary activities sponsor and, unless the sponsor is a Commonwealth agency, the training must be nominated and that nomination approved under [s 140GB] before the visa application is made. For visa applications made on or after 11 March 2026 sponsorship approval must already be in place at lodgement and, unless the sponsor is a Commonwealth agency, the nomination must also have been approved and not have ceased [Sch 1 1238(3)] [Sch 1 1238 item 5] [cl 407.214]: concurrent lodgement of the three stages is no longer available. A nomination can still be lodged while the sponsorship application is pending [reg 2.72A(1)(a)]; sponsorship approval is required before the nomination can be approved, not before it is lodged [reg 2.72A(3)]. So by the time the visa is lodged, there is already an approved sponsor and, unless the sponsor is a Commonwealth agency, an approved nomination.

A current nomination the application identifies

Where the sponsor is not a Commonwealth agency, the application is valid only if that nomination has been approved, has not ceased under [reg 2.75A], and is identified in the application [Sch 1 1238]. Without a live nomination to point to, there is no valid application to decide.

The applicant's location and visa status

At application the applicant may be in or outside Australia, but not in immigration clearance [Sch 1 1238]. A substantive visa the applicant holds must not be a permanent visa, a Subclass 403 in the Domestic Worker (Diplomatic or Consular) stream, a Subclass 771 (Transit), a special-purpose visa, or a temporary visa specified by the Minister in a legislative instrument [Sch 1 item 1238(3) table item 6] [reg 2.07(5)]. An applicant who is onshore without a substantive visa must have held one; the last substantive visa must not have been a Subclass 403 in the Domestic Worker (Diplomatic or Consular) stream, a Subclass 771 (Transit), or a special-purpose visa (a narrower exclusion list than the one just above), and the application must be made within 28 days, running from one of two dates [Sch 1 1238]: the day the last substantive visa ceased to be in effect, or, where that last substantive visa was cancelled and the ART set aside and substituted the cancellation (or the Minister's decision not to revoke it), the day the applicant is notified of the ART's decision. A bridging visa is not a substantive visa, so a bridging-visa holder falls under this 28-day rule; the window runs from the last substantive visa, not from any bridging visa, and the bridging visa neither counts toward nor resets it. The same location rule applies again at grant [cl 407.411].

Two applicant criteria at grant

Validity aside, at grant the applicant must also meet two personal criteria. First, a genuine intention to stay only temporarily for the training purpose [cl 407.217], judged partly on whether the applicant substantially complied with the conditions of the last substantive visa held, and any subsequent bridging visa, so a poor compliance history can sink a 407. Second, the applicant must not hold a permanent visa or an instrument-specified temporary visa [cl 407.218], which rules a 407 out however genuine the training.

A 407 carries conditions the Regulations make mandatory, plus others the Minister may add, and the work condition in particular keeps the visa firmly attached to the training. That attachment is also why changing sponsor is not a simple transfer.

The mandatory conditions

A primary holder's visa must carry four conditions [cl 407.611]: work only in relation to the training (8102), no involvement in activity disruptive to or threatening the community (8303), adequate health insurance kept in place (8501), and a continuing requirement to remain someone who would meet the visa's criteria (8516). Several others (including 8107, 8503 and 8106) may be added at discretion. A family member's visa instead carries 8104, 8303 and 8501 as mandatory [cl 407.612], with 8104 limiting their work to the standard fortnightly cap.

Work is confined to the training

Condition 8102 is the one that shapes the visa: the holder must not work in Australia except in relation to their training [sch 8 cl 8102], so a 407 confers no general right to work: only the nominated training. If the discretionary condition 8107 is imposed, it draws the line tighter again, tying a 407 holder to the most recently nominated program and barring work for any employer other than an employer that nomination identifies [sch 8 cl 8107(5)].

Changing sponsor requires a new nomination

Because the visa stands on one sponsor's approved nomination, the holder cannot move to a different sponsor by choice alone. The new sponsor has to be an approved temporary activities sponsor in its own right and, unless it is a Commonwealth agency, must lodge, and have approved, its own nomination identifying the holder. The nomination belongs to the sponsor that made it [reg 2.72A], so even continuing the same training under a new sponsor requires that new sponsor's own approved nomination; only where the new sponsor is a Commonwealth agency does the 407 scheme require no nomination at all [cl 407.214]. Since the work conditions track "the most recently nominated program," that re-nomination is what lets the authorised training change; whether a new visa application is also needed turns on the circumstances. Unlike a sponsored work visa, a 407 has no employer-transfer mechanism: it authorises the training it was granted for, and nothing wider.