The 494 visa allows skilled workers to live and work in designated regional areas of Australia for up to 5 years, with employer sponsorship. It provides a pathway to permanent residency after 3 years, subject to meeting eligibility criteria.
*All Fields marked with asterisk are required
You can include your partner and children on your application. At the time of the decision, your children cannot be older than 23 unless they financially rely on you because they are incapacitated for work due to the total or partial loss of their bodily or mental functions.
This is a temporary visa. Once it is granted it allows you:
You can be in or outside Australia when you apply for this visa. If you are in Australia at the time of application you have to hold a substantive visa or bridging visa A, B or C.
There are 3 steps which are as follows:
Step 1: The employer has to apply to become an approved business sponsor or to be a party to a work agreement.
Step 2: The employer must nominate an occupation in their business to be approved from the 494 List of Occupations and identify in the application who the visa applicant will be.
Step 3: The visa applicant must meet certain requirements for the approval of the visa, such as English fluency, work experience, skills, health and character to meet the requirements of the nominated occupation.
Employer Sponsored stream
The employer needs to apply for approval as a Standard Business Sponsor. This involves presenting documents to demonstrate that they are an operating business, such as financial statements, marketing material, company registration, organizational chart and other identifying details about the company.
Business sponsorship is valid for five years and the business can nominate as many people as it wants to sponsor during this period. A business that is operating for less than 12 months or an overseas business can also be approved for five years.
Companies have certain obligations when sponsoring overseas employees and they can be monitored by the Department of Home Affairs at any time to ensure that they are meeting their sponsorship obligations.
Overseas Business Sponsors are prevented from using the Employer Sponsored stream.
Labour Agreement stream
Your sponsoring employer is a party to a work agreement that allows employing a person who is intended to be employed as a holder of a subclass 494 visa.
For the Employer Sponsored stream, the position that the company requires you to work in has to be selected from the relevant skilled occupation list (Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List or Regional Occupation List). For the Labour Agreement stream, the nominated occupation has to be specified in the work agreement.
In the Employer Sponsored stream all 494 nominations will need advice from an RCB. Also, to satisfy the Department of Home Affairs that there are no local Australians available with the required skills who want to work in this position, the employer must undertake labour market testing (advertising the role) for all occupations.
The nominated occupation has to be located in a part of Australia that at the time of application lodgement is considered to be a designated regional area.
Employers must pay the Australian market salary rate and meet the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold requirements. A Government Gazette notice states the minimum salary payable under this visa category, which at present is AUD$53,900 plus 9.5% superannuation. The market rate is at least as much as an Australian citizen or permanent resident employed in the same position in the same location is being paid;
The employer also needs to demonstrate that there is a genuine need for that occupation in their business. The nominated position has to be full-time and for at least 5 years.
Employers nominating a worker for a subclass 494 visa are required to pay a contribution to the Skilling Australians Fund (SAF). The contribution is payable at the time the worker is nominated. The amounts are as follows:
$3,000 for ‘small’ businesses (those with an annual turnover of less than $10 million) or
$5,000 for other businesses whose turnover is greater than $10 million.
Employer Sponsored stream
At the time of application:
At the time of decision:
All dependents who are 18 or older have to have at least functional English. Alternatively, $4,890 per person who does not have functional English will have to be paid.
Labour Agreement stream
At the time of application:
Currently, the following postcodes are considered to be a designated regional area:
| NSW | 2259, 2264 to 2308, 2500 to 2526, 2528 to 2535 and 2574
2250 to 2258, 2260 to 2263, 2311 to 2490, 2527, 2536 to 2551, 2575 to 2739, 2753 to 2754, 2756 to 2758 and 2773 to 2898 |
| VIC | 3211 to 3232, 3235, 3240, 3328, 3330 to 3333, 3340 and 3342
3097 to 3099, 3139, 3233 to 3234, 3236 to 3239, 3241 to 3325, 3329, 3334, 3341, 3345 to 3424, 3430 to 3799, 3809 to 3909, 3912 to 3971 and 3978 to 3996 |
| QLD | 4207 to 4275, 4517 to 4519, 4550 to 4551, 4553 to 4562, 4564 to 4569 and 4571 to 4575
4124 to 4125, 4133, 4183 to 4184, 4280 to 4287, 4306 to 4498, 4507, 4552, 4563, 4570 and 4580 to 4895 |
| WA | 6000 to 6038, 6050 to 6083, 6090 to 6182, 6208 to 6211, 6214 and 6556 to 6558
All postcodes in WA not mentioned above |
| SA | 5000 to 5171, 5173 to 5174, 5231 to 5235, 5240 to 5252, 5351 and 5950 to 5960
All postcodes in SA not mentioned above |
| TAS | 7000, 7004 to 7026, 7030 to 7109, 7140 to 7151 and 7170 to 7177
All postcodes in TAS not mentioned above |
| NT | All postcodes |
| ACT | All postcodes |
We are a team of immigration specialists guiding individuals, families and corporates who aspire to migrate to Australia. Our migration consultancy has a successful track record in visa approval, with a fair fee structure.
An EOI is not a visa application, it is an application that you would like to be invited to apply for a skilled visa. It’s an online form, with no fee which asks you a series of questions about how you intend to score your points for a subclass 189, 190 or 491 visa application. It is imperative that your points are calculated accurately so that when a visa application is lodged after being granted an invitation, the points in the visa application are the same as the points claimed in the EOI. An EOI does not result in a bridging visa.
An EOI is not a visa application, it is an application that you would like to be invited to apply for a skilled visa. It’s an online form, with no fee which asks you a series of questions about how you intend to score your points for a subclass 189, 190 or 491 visa application. It is imperative that your points are calculated accurately so that when a visa application is lodged after being granted an invitation, the points in the visa application are the same as the points claimed in the EOI. An EOI does not result in a bridging visa.
No, not necessarily. You must obtain a minimum of 65 points to lodge an Expression of Interest. The higher the points, the more likely it is that you will receive an invitation to lodge a visa application.
However, depending on the volume of applications with the same occupation received by the Department of Home Affairs, a higher score than 65 is usually required to be granted an invitation to lodge a visa application. As an example, accountants may require 90 points or more to be granted an invitation whereas high school teachers may only require 80 points. The way the Department of Home Affairs will issue an invitation depends on a lot of factors, which could be what occupations are in most need at that point in time, such as medical occupations in the covid – 19 era receive the most invitations.
As a visa holder, you can use VEVO to check your current visa details and conditions. VEVO stands for Visa Entitlement Verification Online. This is a link on the website of the Department of Home Affairs. You will need to have your passport details with you when you apply for a VEVO check.
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