186 Employer Nomination: What Employers Need to Prove for a Permanent Position

Home Affairs currently describes three streams:

• Direct Entry
• Temporary Residence Transition
• Labour Agreement

This article focuses mainly on the employer nomination considerations
for the standard Direct Entry and TRT pathways.

The Labour Agreement stream operates under the relevant labour agreement
and can have different settings.

The key 186 requirement is that the worker is nominated by an eligible
Australian employer under the relevant 186 nomination framework.

For Direct Entry, Home Affairs states that the nominating employer's
business must be actively and lawfully operating.

For TRT, the employer must also fit the worker's eligible temporary
sponsorship history. Home Affairs currently states that the nominating
employer must be the last person to sponsor the worker to work full-time
on the relevant subclass 457 or 482 visa.

The 186 nomination framework is built around a real employment position.

For TRT nominations, the Migration Regulations expressly require a
genuine need for the identified worker to be employed in the
position under the nominator's direct control.

The nomination should therefore reflect the actual business and role
rather than a position created only to support a permanent visa
application.

The Department can also refuse to grant the worker's visa if the
nominated position is no longer available.

For the nomination framework, the employment is intended to be full-time
and available for at least that period.

The employment terms should not be structured to expressly exclude the
possibility of extending the employment beyond the required period.

This does not mean the employer guarantees that every employment
relationship will actually last two years regardless of future
circumstances.

It means the nomination needs to represent a genuine ongoing employment
intention when it is made and assessed.

For TRT, the Regulations expressly require the business to have the
capacity to employ the worker for at least two years and to pay at least
the applicable Annual Market Salary Rate each year.

More broadly, the employer should be prepared to support the nominated
employment arrangement with evidence appropriate to the business and
position.

The evidence needed will depend on the circumstances.

A nomination by a large established organisation may look different from
one by a small or recently established business.

For 186 nomination applications lodged from 1 July 2026 to 30 June
2027, the CSIT is:

$79,423

But the threshold is not automatically the correct salary for the
position.

Where the nominated worker's annual salary is below $250,000, the
employer must also correctly determine the Annual Market Salary Rate.

Where the salary framework applies, Home Affairs requires the employer
to show that:

• the AMSR has been determined correctly
• the overseas worker will not be paid less than the AMSR
• both the AMSR and the worker's monetary earnings meet the applicable
  income threshold

If the market rate for the position is higher than the CSIT, simply
offering $79,423 will not be enough.

Evidence can include:

• applicable awards or other industrial instruments
• employment contracts or payslips for an equivalent Australian worker
• relevant occupation and industry information
• national recruitment advertisements showing salary
• reputable remuneration surveys
• advice from employer associations or unions

Home Affairs warns that generic market salary data alone may not always
be sufficient.

The evidence should support the actual nominated position.

Home Affairs states that the standard AMSR requirements described for
these nominations apply where annual salary is less than $250,000.

That does not mean paying $250,000 or more removes every nomination,
employment or workplace-law requirement.

High-income nominations should be assessed against the provisions that
actually apply to them rather than treating the figure as a general
sponsorship exemption.

Home Affairs currently requires the worker's nominated occupation to be
on the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL).

The worker generally also needs a positive skills assessment and at
least three years of relevant work experience unless exempt.

Those are primarily worker-side visa requirements, but employers should
consider them before investing in the nomination.

A nomination for a position does not help if the proposed worker cannot
satisfy the corresponding Direct Entry criteria.

Home Affairs currently states that the worker must generally have at
least two years of eligible sponsored employment during the three
years before the 186 application.

The employer lodging the TRT nomination must also fit the worker's
sponsorship history.

Home Affairs states that the nominating employer must have been the last
person to sponsor the worker to work full-time on their eligible
subclass 457 or 482 visa.

Where the worker has changed sponsors, the nomination and employment
timeline should be reviewed carefully.

Home Affairs' current skilled occupation guidance states that the
subclass 186 TRT stream does not have an occupation list.

That is an important difference from Direct Entry.

TRT instead operates through the occupation connected to the worker's
eligible temporary sponsored visa history and the other TRT
requirements.

Employers should not assume that a CSOL issue affecting Direct Entry
automatically prevents a TRT nomination.

Home Affairs describes the 186 employment as full-time and intended to
continue for at least two years.

The actual duties, hours and employment arrangement should be consistent
with the position being nominated.

If the business intends a materially different role, the occupation and
nomination strategy should be reconsidered before lodgement.

If the role is no longer available, Home Affairs states that the
worker's 186 visa cannot be granted on that nomination.

Material changes to duties, occupation, employment arrangement or
business circumstances can therefore affect the nomination or visa
application.

Do not assume that a substantially different position can simply be
substituted into an existing nomination.

The nomination and visa application are related but separate processes.

This is why both employer and worker should understand the proposed
permanent employment arrangement before applications are lodged.

For TRT, Home Affairs describes the applicant as needing a nomination
approved in the six months before the visa application.

This six-month rule relates to the worker's visa application timing.

It should not be confused with a rule that the employer's nominated
permanent position lasts for only six months.

Nomination approval confirms the employer-side nomination has met the
applicable requirements.

The worker still needs to satisfy the visa criteria.

Depending on the stream, these can include:

• age
• English
• skills assessment
• work experience
• eligible sponsored employment
• licensing or registration
• health
• character
• other stream-specific requirements

An approved nomination is necessary, but it is not permanent residence
by itself.

• lawful and active business operations
• the genuine need for the position
• the position description and duties
• full-time employment
• proposed employment terms
• salary
• AMSR methodology and evidence
• business capacity to employ and pay the worker
• occupation and stream requirements
• relevant temporary sponsorship history for TRT
• applicable registration or licensing arrangements

The evidence should tell a consistent story about why the permanent
position exists and how it fits the business.

• choosing the wrong 186 stream
• using an occupation that does not fit the actual duties
• assuming TRT uses the same occupation list as Direct Entry
• weak evidence of the genuine position
• salary set at the CSIT without properly determining AMSR
• employment terms that do not support the required ongoing full-time
  position
• business capacity concerns
• changes to the position after nomination
• misunderstanding the worker's TRT employment history
• assuming nomination approval guarantees the visa

The employer nomination and worker visa strategy should be checked
together.

• correct 186 stream
• actively and lawfully operating business
• genuine need for the position
• full-time employment
• intention for at least two years of employment after grant
• business capacity to employ and pay
• correct occupation
• CSOL eligibility where Direct Entry requires it
• TRT sponsorship history where applicable
• CSIT
• AMSR
• employment terms
• licensing or registration where relevant
• whether the worker can independently meet the visa criteria

A permanent nomination should reflect a genuine long-term employment
arrangement, not simply a migration objective.