Subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa

The default position

Ordinarily a Subclass 482 application does not need to be accompanied by a skills assessment. A mandatory skills assessment at the validity stage arises only in the specific occupation and passport combinations set by the Minister's instrument, so for most applicants it is not a precondition to a valid application. [item 1240(3)(g)] [IMMI 18/039]

When it becomes mandatory in the Specialist and Core Skills streams

Under Schedule 1 item 1240(3)(g), a skills-assessment requirement applies at lodgement where all three are true: the application is in the Specialist Skills or Core Skills stream; the nominated occupation is specified in IMMI 18/039; and the applicant belongs to the class of persons specified for that occupation. The current instrument mainly covers named trades, including Chef and Cook for specified passport countries, while Program or Project Administrator is captured for every non-exempt applicant. Trades Recognition Australia assesses the listed trades and VETASSESS assesses Program or Project Administrator. Unless an exemption applies, the specified assessment must have been conducted within the three-year period ending immediately before the visa application was made. Exemptions include defined current 457 or 482 workers, certain overseas-business transferees, specified trade qualification, licensing or prior-assessment cases, and a separate high-earnings accredited-sponsor exception for Program or Project Administrator [item 1240(3)(g)] [IMMI 18/039 ss 5-7].

Where the requirement applies, the application must be accompanied either by that suitable assessment, or by evidence that the applicant has arranged the assessment with the assessing authority and it is not yet complete. A finished result is not needed at lodgement; an arranged but pending assessment satisfies validity. [item 1240(3)(g)]

No general visa-stage skills assessment

Outside item 1240(3)(g), the Specialist and Core Skills streams have no standing time of decision criterion requiring a skills assessment. Clauses 482.221 and 482.231 examine the applicant's work history, skills, qualifications, and employment background, and allow the Minister to require a specified demonstration of skills only if the Minister requires it, not as an automatic precondition. [cl 482.221] [cl 482.231]

Labour Agreement stream

Item 1240(3)(g) does not reach the Labour Agreement stream. Whether a skills assessment is needed there is set by the work agreement through clause 482.242A, which can require the skills, qualifications, and employment background, or a suitable skills assessment, specified in the agreement. [cl 482.242A]

The 12-month rule

For the Specialist Skills and Core Skills streams the applicant must have carried out at least 12 months of full-time-equivalent work in the nominated occupation or a related field (counting work done on a full-time, part-time, or casual basis) during the five years ending immediately before the day the application was made. Because that window closes on the application day, work performed after lodgement cannot count. The clause speaks only of work rather than paid employment, and current public Home Affairs material does not address unpaid work; in assessment practice, voluntary or unpaid work may be discounted, so it should not be relied on without checking the current position. [cl 482.221] [cl 482.231]

Experience and skill adequacy are two separate tests

These are separate criteria. Subclause (1) asks whether the applicant has at least 12 months of full-time-equivalent work in the nominated occupation or a related field within the last five years; it does not itself state a separate ANZSCO skill-level test. Current Department guidance nevertheless treats related-field work as work involving the same or closely related tasks at the same skill level as the nominated occupation, so lower-skilled work should not be assumed to count merely because it is in a related industry. Subclause (2) separately requires the skills, qualifications and employment background needed for the occupation, which the Minister can require the applicant to demonstrate. [cl 482.221(1)-(2)] [cl 482.231(1)-(2)]

Labour Agreement stream

In the Labour Agreement stream the requirement is either the same 12-month full-time-equivalent lookback within the last five years, or the applicant has worked in the nominated occupation or a related field for the period (if any) the work agreement specifies for that occupation and the visa. [cl 482.242]

The requirement

Specialist Skills and Core Skills primary applicants must satisfy the English language test requirements specified for clauses 482.222 and 482.232. LIN 25/082 applies to a visa application made on or after 13 September 2025. Within that application cohort, a test taken on or after that date is assessed under the current settings; for IELTS, the applicant needs 5.0 in each component and there is no separate overall-score requirement. A qualifying test taken before that date is instead assessed under the saved settings in section 7; for IELTS, those settings require both an overall score of 5.0 and 5.0 in each component. A pre-commencement result can still fall within the applicable three-year period, so both the visa-application date and the test date must be checked before selecting the instrument and score rule. An application made before 13 September 2025 must be assessed under the instrument regime applicable to that earlier application, not under LIN 25/082 merely because of the test date. [LIN 25/082 ss 6-8] For the Labour Agreement stream, English is whatever the work agreement specifies under clause 482.243, so the standard settings apply only where the agreement adopts them. English is generally supplied for decision rather than as a Schedule 1 validity requirement, but delay still carries processing and refusal risk. [cl 482.222] [cl 482.232] [cl 482.243]

Exemptions

A Specialist Skills or Core Skills primary applicant is exempt from the standard test requirement if they fall within one of five current classes [cl 482.222] [LIN 25/082 s 4 def exempt applicant]:

• a citizen who holds a valid passport issued by Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States of America;
• an applicant who has completed at least five years of qualifying full-time study in a secondary or higher education institution where instruction was delivered in English;
• an applicant nominated by a standard business sponsor for an occupation to be performed at a diplomatic or consular mission of another country, or at an Office of the Authorities of Taiwan in Australia;
• an applicant whose nominated occupation requires a licence, registration or membership, who has obtained it after being required to prove English at a level equivalent to or higher than the otherwise applicable test standard; or
• an applicant employed by a company operating an established business overseas and nominated by that company or its associated entity, who will receive annual earnings at least equal to the amount specified in the current LIN 25/082; the current amount must be checked in the instrument at the time of advice.

Two ways to be included

A secondary 482 applicant must be a member of the family unit of the primary applicant. This works in two ways: a family member applying in a combined application with the primary, and a later subsequent entrant joining a primary who already holds the 457 or 482. Clause 482.312(1) frames it as the primary applicant, having satisfied the primary criteria, being the holder of the visa, so in a combined grant the primary is granted first and the family member is then granted on satisfying the secondary criteria; the primary does not need to already hold the visa before the family can apply. [cl 482.312] [item 1240(3)(e)]

The family-unit definition

Membership is assessed at the time of decision. The definition covers a spouse or de facto partner; a child or step-child under 18; a child or step-child 18 but under 23 who is dependent; a child or step-child 23 or over only if dependent because of total or partial loss of bodily or mental function; and dependent children of those children. Financial dependence alone is not enough once the child has turned 23. [reg 1.12]

Other secondary criteria

The secondary applicant must also satisfy the other secondary criteria: being covered by the nomination [cl 482.315], holding adequate health insurance [cl 482.314], and meeting the PICs that apply to secondary applicants [cl 482.317]. "Covered by the nomination" has two limbs: the applicant is listed on the nomination, or the sponsor holding the most recent approved nomination has agreed in writing that the person may be a secondary sponsored person. For a subsequent entrant not on the original nomination, that written agreement is the operative route. [cl 482.315]

Carrying family-unit status to a later visa

A separate rule carries status to a later application: a family member who still holds a 457 or 482 granted to them as a family member remains a member of the family unit for the next application, even after turning 23. A subclass 186 accepts this; a new 482 does not, restricting the route to a current partner or a child still under 23 (or incapacity-dependent). The route works only while the person still holds that earlier visa, so any such application should be lodged before it ceases. [reg 1.12(5)] [cl 482.312(2)]

When a secondary visa ends

A secondary holder's visa ordinarily ends when the primary applicant's permission to remain ends. [cl 482.511(1) item 3] A narrower cap applies to a dependent child who came into the application under reg 1.12(2)(b)(ii) (an 18-to-22 dependent child) or reg 1.12(5) and is not dependent because of incapacity (reg 1.05A(1)(b)): that child's visa ends at the earlier of the primary visa's end and the day before their 23rd birthday, but only where item 5 does not apply. So an ordinarily (financially) dependent 18-to-22 child is still capped at the 23rd birthday; only a child dependent because of incapacity keeps the primary-linked end date. Item 5 overrides the cap where the primary applicant held, at grant, a Hong Kong passport of the specified class (or a British National (Overseas) passport), preserving the primary-linked end date for the family member. So the 23rd-birthday cap is not automatic: check whether the child is incapacity-dependent, and whether the primary is a BNO holder or a Hong Kong holder of the specified class, before applying it. [cl 482.511(1) items 4-5] [reg 1.05A(1)(b)] [reg 1.12(2)(b)(ii)] [reg 1.12(5)]

Core work condition: Condition 8607 is mandatory for primary 482 holders. The holder must work only in the occupation nominated for the most recent 482 grant (8607(1)) and, depending on the stream, only for the nominating sponsor or an associated entity (8607(2)): Labour Agreement holders and overseas-business-sponsor cases have narrower associated-entity flexibility than standard Australian-business cases. An associated entity here takes its Corporations Act meaning in section 50AAA, so it turns on the objective corporate relationship of ownership and control rather than a loose 'same group' label. [reg 1.03] The holder must commence work within 90 days of grant (if onshore at grant) or of arrival (if offshore at grant) (8607(4)); and where a licence, registration or membership is mandatory for the occupation in the location of the position, the holder must hold it within the same 90-day window, maintain it, comply with its conditions, not work inconsistently with it, and notify Immigration in writing if it is refused, revoked or cancelled (8607(6)). [condition 8607]

What the 180/365 limits measure: Since the July 2024 reform, 8607(5) lets the holder cease to work in accordance with subclauses (1) and (2) for a period, but no single period may exceed 180 consecutive days, and the total days not working in accordance with those subclauses must not exceed 365 across the visa period. The limit measures cessation of compliant work, not merely whether the holder works for a new employer, and the condition text contains no nomination-lodgement trigger: the clock stops only when the holder resumes work in accordance with (1) and (2). So once a cessation period exceeds 180 consecutive days the holder is in breach even if they then stop working altogether, and merely lodging a new nomination is not itself a compliance event. The cessation allowance also presupposes that work commenced: a holder who never commenced within the 90-day window in (4) gets no assistance from the 180-day grace and is exposed to cancellation under s 116 (e.g. s 116(1)(b)). [condition 8607] [s 116(1)]

Work during a permitted cessation: Condition 8607(5) and its explanatory statement support a broad permission to work for another employer, including in another occupation, during a permitted cessation period; all such days still count against the 180/365 limits until compliant work resumes. Current Department public guidance nevertheless says that a holder cannot start work for a different employer until that employer's nomination is approved. The statutory/explanatory material and current operational guidance are therefore in tension. A holder should not start with a prospective sponsor before nomination approval without current case-specific advice that addresses both sources. The window cannot be used while still employed by the sponsor to take an unrelated second job. After ceasing work, resuming work in the nominated occupation (8607(1)) for the relevant sponsor or its associated entity (8607(2)) resumes compliant work and stops the 8607(5) clock; if the occupation changes, a fresh nomination, and where required a fresh visa, is needed. Holders in exempt occupations (specified in the instrument under subreg 2.72(13), via 8607(3)(a)) may work for any employer in the nominated occupation, including multiple employers or as contractors, without re-nomination. That exemption only lifts the sponsor-link limb in 8607(2); 8607(1) still requires work in the nominated occupation, so the 180/365 cessation limits can still bite if the holder stops working in that occupation. [condition 8607(3)] [condition 8607(5)] [reg 2.72(13)]

Changing occupation or stream: To establish a different occupation as the ongoing, compliant 482 basis, whether with the current or a new sponsor, the sponsor must first lodge and have approved a new nomination, and the holder must lodge a new visa application identifying it; a holder staying with the same sponsor cannot commence the new occupation until both the nomination and the visa are approved. A short-term temporary change of duties with the current sponsor (a secondment, or covering colleagues on leave) will not necessarily breach 8607(1), but prolonged or regular changes amounting to work in a different occupation will. If the new nomination is in a different stream, item 1240 requires the visa application to be for a 482 in the same stream as the nomination, so a pending Specialist Skills application cannot be linked to a Core Skills nomination. The stream is determined by the occupation's ANZSCO Major Group or list status together with the nominee's annual earnings: Specialist Skills requires both limbs in reg 2.73(6)(a), while Core Skills requires the instrument occupation limb and paragraph (a) not to apply [item 1240] [reg 2.73(6)].

Breach is not visa cessation, and a 186 DE does not cure it: Exceeding the 180-day window is a condition breach, not an automatic cessation event: under s 82 a visa ceases on cancellation, when another substantive visa comes into effect, or at the end of its visa period, and 8607 remains in force for the life of the visa. A permanent-residence nomination such as a 186 Direct Entry nomination is not a 482 nomination transfer, does not change the most recent 482 nomination identified for 8607, and lodging it does not cure a breach. (Condition 8608 is the Subclass 494 equivalent, not a condition a 482 holder can breach.) There are also employer-side consequences: allowing a non-citizen to work in breach of a work-related condition contravenes s 245AC (subject to the reasonable-steps defence in s 245AC(2)), and for future 482 nominations the episode feeds the adverse-information test in reg 2.72(4). [s 82] [s 245AC] [reg 2.72]

Older grants (60-day wording on the grant notice): A 482 granted before December 2024 may carry a grant notice printing the old 8607 wording with a 60-day cessation limit, but the operative limits are 180/365 by transitional operation: Sch 13 cl 13201(2) applies the July-2024 amendments to a visa granted before their commencement, for the part of the visa period after commencement, with any pre-commencement cessation period disregarded (policy confirms cessation days before 1 July 2024 are not counted); and for a visa granted before 7 December 2024, Sch 13 cl 14502(4) keeps the pre-Skills-in-Demand 8607 text in force, which, from 1 July 2024, already carried the same 180/365 limits as the current clause. Confirm the operative condition via VEVO rather than relying on the grant-notice text. [Sch 13 cl 13201(2)] [Sch 13 cl 14502(4)]