482 visa changes (2024/2025) - TSS to SID

The  Temporary Skills Shortage visa (SC 482)  was replaced by the new ‘Skills in Demand’ visa SC 482 on the 7th of December 2024. This is also a temporary visa granted for up to a maximum of four years.

The new Skills in Demand visa will have three streams

1. Specialist Skills stream
2. Core Skills stream
3. Labour agreement stream

a. Specialist Skills stream

This stream is for highly skilled migrants. This pathway is streamlined for specialists to ensure that the top talent are quickly and easily recruited into sectors that are in need. For the applications under this pathway, the government has promised to commit to a service standard of 7 days median visa processing time. Occupations like engineering managers who develop electrolysers, cyber specialists, and software engineers.

The eligibility criteria are as follows:

• Be nominated by an approved sponsor.
• Have 1 year of work experience
• Have a skill assessment if applicable to your occupation
• Meet health and character requirements
• Have an occupation that is in the general Skills Occupation List that is not in the trades: machinery operators, drivers, and laborers.
• Have IELTS score (or equivalent) of level 5 overall, with a minimum of 5 in each component score.
• Earn at least AUD 141,210 (Specialist Skills Income Threshold, SSIT)

b. Core Skills Stream

The main features that differentiates this stream from the rest of the streams are its occupation list and the salary requirement. To be eligible under this stream you need to have an occupation in the Core Skills Occupation List and also have a salary that is at least the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT), which currently stands at AUD 76,515 for the year 2025-2026. This stream is predicted to bring in most of the temporary skilled migrants among the rest of the pathways.

The following are some of the important features of the Core Skills Pathway.

• Have an occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List.
• Be nominated by an approved sponsor
• Have 1 year of work experience
• Have a skill assessment if applicable to your occupation
• Be paid a salary at or above the Core Skills Income Threshold  (CSIT) or the market salary rate if it is above CSIT.
• Have IELTS score (or equivalent) of level 5 overall, with a minimum of 5 in each component score.
• Meet health and character requirement

c. Labour agreement stream

This stream is for skilled workers nominated by employers who have a Labour Agreement. It lets you live and work in Australia temporarily. Labour agreements are developed between the Australian Government (represented by the Department) and employers. The requirements of this stream will depend on the Labour Agreement itself.

To be eligible for the 482 visa, your nominating employer must pay you at or above the TSMIT value or the average annual market salary rate if it is above TSMIT.

On 28 May 2024, the government announced that it would be increasing the TSMIT value from $70,000 to $73,150. This increase took effect from 1 July 2024. Moving forward, the government has announced that the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) will be reviewed and adjusted annually, resulting in yearly changes.

Accordingly, if your employer is planning to lodge your nominations for the new Skills in Demand visa SC 482 visa, you should ensure that your annual salary would meet the new TSMIT value of $73,150.

Previously the work experience requirement for the SC 482 visa mandated that the nominee must have a minimum of 2 years of work experience to be eligible for the SC 482 visa. Effective from 23 November 2024 the government has reduced this work experience requirement to 1 year. Accordingly, to be eligible for the 482 visa under all streams, you will need to only have one-year of work experience. This work experience must be full-time at 38 hours per week or part-time prorated.

If you are planning to cease your employment with your sponsor or have already ceased your employment with your sponsor, previously you had 60 days to find a solution to your circumstances in order to extend your stay in Australia. With the new regulations, you have up to 180 days to find a solution to your circumstances. During this time frame you can:

• Find a new employer to sponsor

• Be granted a different visa

• Leave Australia.

This is an employer sponsored temporary visa which places you on a PR pathway. While you are on this visa you can prepare yourself for permanent residency visas by obtaining the relevant work experience. The next visa that you can explore after your SC 482 visa is the SC 186 Employer Nomination Scheme Visa, which is an employer sponsored permanent residency visa. You can also try for skilled migration if you want to explore other avenues which doesn't rely on employer sponsorships.