186 Employer Nomination Scheme Visa
With the 186, you are a permanent resident the day the visa is granted. The one thing you need is an Australian employer willing to nominate you. We will tell you honestly whether that path is open to you.
The subclass 186 is permanent residency, and it is permanent from day one. Most PR visas make you hold a temporary visa first and prove yourself again later. The 186 does not. What it asks for instead is an approved Australian employer who will nominate you for a real, ongoing job.
When a 186 is granted, you and your family are permanent residents straight away. You can live and work anywhere in the country, put your kids in school, use Medicare, and count the years toward citizenship. Nobody in the application is on a temporary footing waiting to be converted. It is done.
There are two ways in. If you have already spent two years with an Australian employer on a 482, the Temporary Residence Transition stream is built for you. If an employer wants to nominate you directly, often from overseas, that is Direct Entry. Which pathway is yours comes down to your history here, and the section below shows what each stream expects.
There are two ways onto a 186, and both end in permanent residency.
The Employer Nomination Scheme gives you and your family permanent residency the moment it is granted. You can reach it two ways. One runs through a 482 you already hold. The other is a direct nomination, often from overseas. An approved Australian employer has to nominate you either way, but what the two paths ask of you is different.
One runs through a 482. The other is a direct nomination.
The requirements are not the same
Which pathway fits comes down to your history in Australia. The Transition pathway rewards time already spent on a 482. Direct Entry is stricter, because it has no prior work in Australia to lean on.
- You have worked for your nominating employer for at least two years
- No skills assessment and no occupation list
- Under 50 at application, with limited exemptions
- At least Competent English
- Your occupation must be on the relevant list
- You need a positive skills assessment
- At least three years of relevant work experience
- Under 45 at application, with very limited exemptions, and Competent English
The employer and the salary carry a lot of the weight
Whichever pathway you take, a 186 only works if the employer nominates a genuine, ongoing role and pays it properly.
Source: Australian Department of Home Affairs. Primary applicant charge $6,140. Processing order follows Ministerial Direction 119 (by occupation and location). Rules change; this is a guide, not migration advice. Registered Migration Agent MARN 2318121.
186 Visa Pathway Finder
Which 186 pathway are you on?
The 186 has no points test. Which pathway fits comes down to your history in Australia. Answer these and see where you land.
Are you eligible for 186 Direct Entry?
The 186 has two pathways. Direct Entry needs your occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List, the same 456-occupation list the 482 uses. Pick your job and add the salary to see where you stand. The other pathway, Temporary Residence Transition, needs no list, just two years with your employer on a 482.
Every 186 nomination has to be paid at least the income threshold, the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT), which is A$79,423 from 1 July 2026. This is the figure that used to be called the TSMIT. As always, the role must be paid the higher of that threshold or the market rate for the job.
Direct Entry is for people nominated straight to permanent residency. It needs your occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List, a positive skills assessment, at least three years of relevant experience, and you generally have to be under 45 with Competent English.
Temporary Residence Transition is the 482 to PR route. If you have worked for your nominating employer on a 482 for two years, it needs no occupation list and no skills assessment, and the age limit is under 50.
186 compared with the 482 and the 189 visa
All three lead to permanent residency, but they travel different routes, and the 482 and the 186 are really two stages of the same one. Here is how the 482 becomes a 186.
The 482 is a temporary visa: an approved employer sponsors you, you work for them in the nominated role, and after two years with that same employer you move up to the 186 through its Temporary Residence Transition pathway. That is the 482 to PR route, and it is how a large share of 186s are granted.
The 186 itself is permanent from the day it is granted, whether you reach it at the end of that 482 journey or through Direct Entry, where an employer nominates you outright without the two years first. The 189 is the outlier of the three. It is permanent like the 186, but no employer is involved at all. You qualify on your own points. So the real question is whether an employer will nominate you. If one will, the 482 then 186 route, or Direct Entry, is usually the shortest road to PR. If not, the 189 or a state nominated visa is where we would look next.
If the 186 isn't for you yet, here's what could be
186 visa requirements & pathways
Every 186 starts with an employer nominating you for a genuine, full-time, ongoing role. There are two ways to reach the 186, and they ask for different things.
Temporary Residence Transition is for people who have worked for their nominating employer for two years, usually on a 482. It skips the skills assessment and the core skills occupation list, and the age limit is under 50.
Direct Entry is for people nominated straight to permanent residency without that two-year history behind them. It is stricter: your occupation has to be on the relevant list, you need a positive skills assessment, at least three years of relevant experience, and you generally have to be under 45. Most people fall clearly into one or the other, and we will tell you which is yours.
A third stream, Labour Agreement, covers employers who have a specific agreement with the government.
subclass 186Who the 186 visa is for?
The 186 is for skilled workers who want permanent residency through an employer, rather than chasing a points score on their own. If a business values you enough to offer a permanent role, the 186 turns that into PR for you and your family from the day it is granted. It fits people already in Australia who have built up time with their employer, and it fits people an employer wants to nominate directly, including from overseas. The common thread is simple. There is an employer willing to back you.
Who the 189 is not for?
If no employer will nominate you, the 186 is not your visa, because neither pathway has an independent route. That is what the 189 and the state nominated visas are for. It also will not work where the role cannot meet the salary tests, or where you are over the age limit for both pathways with no exemption. None of that is necessarily the end of the road, but it does change the plan, and we would rather say so at the start than after you have paid for an application that was never going to hold.
186 visa processing time
Most people get 186 processing time wrong. It is driven less by when you lodge and more by what you do for a living. Under Ministerial Direction 119, the department ranks applications by occupation and location, and puts health, education and some construction and trades roles nearer the front.
So two people who apply on the same morning can wait very different amounts of time, purely because of their occupation. Whichever pathway you took to the 186, you sit in that same queue, ranked the same way.
Published timeframes also move as demand shifts, so a number you read today may not hold in three months. The part you can control is your own file. A complete, decision ready application does not get parked waiting for documents, and keeping it that way is our job.
186 visa cost
The main government charge for the primary applicant is $6,140, and it is the same on either pathway. Your partner and each dependent child cost less and are added to the same application.
Beyond the visa charge, budget for a skills assessment where one is needed, which on Direct Entry it always is, plus health checks and police clearances, and remember the employer carries their own nomination costs on their side.
These figures move over time, so we confirm the current numbers for your exact situation before anything is lodged.
Including your family on a 189 visa
Your partner and dependent children go on the same application on both 186 pathways, and they become permanent residents the moment the visa is granted, right alongside you. From that day they can live and work anywhere in Australia, go to school, and use Medicare. The only thing to plan for is that each person you add carries their own visa charge, and we lay those out for you before you commit so there are no surprises.
Difference between the two 186 visa streams
Temporary Residence Transition is for people who have already worked for their nominating employer on a 482 for two years, and it skips the skills assessment and the occupation list. Direct Entry is for people nominated straight away, and it is stricter: your occupation has to be on the list, you need a skills assessment, and you need at least three years of relevant experience.
186 Visa Frequently Asked Questions
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t is permanent residency through an employer. When an approved Australian business nominates you for a genuine, ongoing role and you meet your stream's requirements, you and your family become permanent residents the day it is granted, with no temporary stage first.
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Yes, and that is the whole appeal. The 186 is permanent from the moment it is granted. There is no provisional visa to hold and nothing to convert down the track.
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Temporary Residence Transition is for people who have already worked for their nominating employer on a 482 for two years, and it skips the skills assessment and the occupation list. Direct Entry is for people nominated straight away, and it is stricter: your occupation has to be on the list, you need a skills assessment, and you need at least three years of relevant experience.
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Yes. The 186 only works with an employer behind it. You need an approved Australian business willing to nominate you for a real, full-time, ongoing role, usually one expected to last at least two years.
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For Direct Entry you generally need to be under 45 when you apply. For Temporary Residence Transition the cut off is under 50. A few exemptions exist, and we will tell you quickly if one applies to you.
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For Direct Entry, yes, you need a positive skills assessment in your occupation. For Temporary Residence Transition you usually do not, which is one reason the 482 to PR route tends to be smoother.
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The main government charge for the primary applicant is $6,140, with smaller charges for family members on the same application. Skills assessment, health and police checks sit on top of that. Fees change, so we confirm the current figures with you rather than quote a stale number.
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Yes. You can include your partner and dependent children. They receive the same permanent residency. Each pays their own application charge and must meet health and character requirements.
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Work for your sponsoring employer on a 482 for two years in the nominated role, and you may then qualify for the 186 through the Temporary Residence Transition stream. It is one of the most common ways people reach permanent residency in Australia.
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Yes. Your partner and dependent children go on the same application and gain permanent residency with you when the visa is granted.
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It depends far more on your occupation than your lodgement date. Ministerial Direction 119 ranks applications by occupation and location, so some move faster than others. We tell you where yours is likely to sit before you lodge, and keep your file complete so it is not held up.