186 Visa

You may be able to apply for Permanent Residency through the Direct Entry Stream if you meet the following requirements:

Experience

English

The primary applicant for the 186 Visa must have Competent English.

You will need to take an English test unless one of the following applies:

• you are a passport holder from Canada, Ireland, UK, USA or NZ

If you need to take an English test, you can take one of the below tests:

Don’t meet this requirement? Click here to increase your English score

Age

Typically, you must be under 45 years of age when you apply.

You are exempt from this criterion if any of the following applies to you:

• You are nominated as an academic (university lecturer or faculty head at Academic Level A, B, C, D, or E) by an Australian university.
• You are nominated as a scientist, researcher, or technical specialist at ANZSCO skill level 1 or 2 by an Australian scientific government agency or university.
• You are nominated as a medical practitioner and have worked in that occupation in a designated regional area of Australia for at least two years in the three years immediately before you apply as a subclass 457 or 482 visa holder. The nominated position must also be in a designated regional area.
• As a subclass 457 or 482 visa holder, you have worked in the nominated occupation for the nominating employer for at least two years within the three years immediately before you apply, and your earnings for each year of that period were at least equivalent to the Fair Work High Income Threshold.

Transitional Arrangements

• If you held (or had applied for and were later granted) a subclass 457 visa on 18 April 2017, you can still apply for this visa if you are under 50 when you apply.
• From 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2024, eligible legacy subclass 457 visa holders can access an age exemption when applying through the TRT stream. To qualify, the visa holder must:
  • Have held a subclass 457 visa on or after 18 April 2017.
  • Have been in Australia for at least one year between 1 February 2020 and 14 December 2021.
  • Meet all other nomination and visa requirements.

Health & Character
Meet the health and character requirements (Unless you are exempt). This requires police and medical checks.

Nomination
You must be nominated by an Australian employer and apply for the 186 visa within 6 months of the nomination being approved (If the visa and nomination applications were not lodged at the same time)

The visa will not be granted if the nomination is withdrawn. The Department does not link new nominations to existing visa applications.

You may be able to apply for Permanent Residency through the Transition Stream if you meet the following requirements:

Current Visa

You must hold one of the below visas to apply for the 186 Visa through the Transition Stream:

• 457 Visa
• 482 Visa

Experience

COVID Update

If you were temporarily stood down, had to take unpaid leave or had your hours reduced due to COVID-19, this time can still be counted towards the time worked for your employer.

English

From 16 November 2019, there are no exemptions to the English language requirement for this visa stream.

The primary applicant for the Employer Nomination Scheme visa must have Competent English.

You will need to take an English test unless one of the following applies:

• you are a passport holder from Canada, Ireland, UK, USA or NZ

If you need to take an English test, you can take one of the below tests:

Don’t meet this requirement? Click here to increase your English score

Note: There is no longer a School English exemption for the 186 visa.

Age

Typically, you must be under 45 years of age when applying.

Exemptions to this criterion apply if you:

• Are nominated as an academic (university lecturer or faculty head at Academic Level A, B, C, D, or E) by an Australian university.
• Are nominated as a scientist, researcher, or technical specialist at ANZSCO skill level 1 or 2 by an Australian scientific government agency or university.
• Are nominated as a medical practitioner and have worked in that occupation in a designated regional area of Australia for at least two years in the three years immediately before applying as a subclass 457 or 482 visa holder. The nominated position must also be in a designated regional area.
• As a subclass 457 or 482 visa holder, have worked in the nominated occupation for the nominating employer for at least two years within the three years immediately before applying, and your earnings for each year of that period were at least equivalent to the Fair Work High Income Threshold .

Transitional Arrangements:

• If you held (or had applied for and were later granted) a subclass 457 visa on 18 April 2017, you can still apply for this visa if you are under 50 when you apply.
• From 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2024, eligible legacy subclass 457 visa holders can access an age exemption when applying through the TRT stream. To qualify, the visa holder must:
  • Have held a subclass 457 visa on or after 18 April 2017.
  • Have been in Australia for at least one year between 1 February 2020 and 14 December 2021.
  • Meet all other nomination and visa requirements.

Health & Character
Meet the health and character requirements (Unless you are exempt). This requires police and medical checks.

Nomination
You must be nominated by an Australian employer and apply for the 186 visa within 6 months of the nomination being approved (If the visa and nomination applications were not lodged at the same time)

The visa will not be granted if the nomination is withdrawn. The Department does not link new nominations to existing visa applications.

Include your family in your 186 Visa

186 visa allows holders to be able to include the below family members to their application

• Dependent children/step-children
• Partner’s dependent child or children
• Partner

PARTNERS
Your married or de facto partner can be the same or opposite sex. Applicants must prove:
• the relationship is genuine and continuing
• you live together, or do not live separately on a permanent basis.
• your partner is at least 18 years of age when the application is lodged (there are some exceptions)
• you are not related by family (if you are in a de facto relationship)
• you and your partner have a mutual commitment to a shared life to the exclusion of all others

CHILDREN
To be eligible to be included or added to a 186 visa, a child must:
• be your child or a stepchild from a current or a previous relationship (in certain circumstances);
• not be married, engaged to be married, or have a de facto partner; and must be:
• under 18 years of age
or
• over 18 years of age but not yet turned 23, and be dependent on you or your partner
or
• over 23 years of age and be unable to earn a living to support themselves due to physical or cognitive limitations and be dependent on you or your partner (Note: The child will still need to meet Australia’s health requirement)
or
• a dependent child of a child who is eligible under 1, 2 or 3 above.

ENGLISH
Applicants over 18 must demonstrate Functional English. However, you can choose to pay an additional application fee to the department for family members who have less than functional English.

AGE
Children 23 years and over cannot be included in your application. (Unless there are exceptional circumstances)

HEALTH & CHARACTER
All family members must meet the health and character requirements. All applicants over 16 must provide police clearances.

If you already hold a permanent 186 (ENS) Visa and you would like to bring your family to Australia, you will need to apply for one of the family visas.

Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme Visa Estimated Cost