Australia Skills in Demand Visa (Subclass 482) Explained

A quick but important note before anything else: the Skills in Demand visa sits within Australia's employer-sponsored temporary skilled migration system, administered by the Department of Home Affairs, where eligible occupation lists, salary thresholds, and fees are reviewed and revised on an ongoing basis. This article explains the general structure that replaced the Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa from 7 December 2024 — the three streams and how they generally differ — without stating a specific current salary threshold, fee, or an exhaustive, current occupation list. Always verify current eligibility, thresholds, fees, and occupation lists directly against Home Affairs' own published guidance before relying on any of this for a real case.

For a consultancy handling Australia-destination employer-sponsored cases, getting the stream structure right is the first thing that matters — a client's occupation and salary determine which of the three streams is even available to them, and the eligibility logic genuinely differs between streams rather than being a single visa with cosmetic naming differences.

What replaced the TSS visa, and when

From 7 December 2024, Australia's employer-sponsored temporary skilled migration visa — still numbered subclass 482 — moved from the prior Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa's short-term/medium-term stream structure to a new Skills in Demand visa framework built around three streams: Specialist Skills, Core Skills, and Labour Agreement. This was a structural reorganization of eligibility logic, occupation-list matching, and stream intent, not simply a rebranding of the same visa number.

The Specialist Skills stream

The Specialist Skills stream is generally aimed at highly skilled specialists nominated at a salary above a threshold set by the Department of Home Affairs, with the stream's design intent being faster processing and a broader range of eligible occupations than the Core Skills stream, subject to some sector exclusions the Department has specified. Because that salary threshold is reviewed and revised over time, this article does not quote a specific current figure — a consultancy should confirm the current threshold directly against Home Affairs guidance before assessing whether a client's nominated salary qualifies.

The Core Skills stream

The Core Skills stream is generally understood as the main pathway most employer-sponsored temporary skilled visa applications are expected to use, with eligibility tied to whether the nominated occupation appears on a Core Skills Occupation List maintained and periodically revised by the Department of Home Affairs. A minimum salary requirement also applies under this stream, set independently of the Specialist Skills threshold. This article deliberately does not reproduce the occupation list or state a specific salary figure here, since both are reviewed and revised by Home Affairs and a stale figure or list could cause real harm to a client's case if relied upon.

The Labour Agreement stream

The Labour Agreement stream applies to employers that have negotiated a formal labour agreement directly with the Australian Government, which can allow occupation, salary, and skill-requirement terms tailored to that specific agreement, sitting outside the standard Specialist Skills and Core Skills eligibility logic. Because the exact terms differ by agreement, a consultancy handling a Labour Agreement case needs to work from the specific employer's agreement and current Home Affairs guidance, not a generalized description of the stream.

Why this needs fresh verification for every case

Because eligibility under the Specialist Skills and Core Skills streams both hinge on figures and lists that the Department of Home Affairs reviews and revises — a salary threshold in one case, an occupation list in the other — this is not a category where a consultancy can safely describe eligibility from memory, from a previous client's case, or from a general search result, however recent. An occupation that qualified for the Core Skills stream in a prior case may not sit on the current list, and a salary threshold that applied to an earlier Specialist Skills case may have since been revised. None of these specifics are safe to assume unchanged simply because they were correct at some earlier point.

What a consultancy can actually control

Since the current occupation lists, salary thresholds, and stream-specific eligibility rules all sit outside a consultancy's control, the practical value a consultancy adds is in tracking, case by case, which stream a client's employer-sponsored nomination has been matched against, what has actually been confirmed against current Home Affairs guidance versus what is still assumed, and keeping that distinction visible on the case record rather than buried in a counsellor's memory. Our Australia visa consultant software page covers how VisaBOS helps a consultancy classify employer-sponsored cases by stream and track confirmed requirements as a running note on one connected case record — though it is a case-management tool, not a source of immigration law, so it does not replace confirming live requirements with the Department of Home Affairs. Consultancies also handling Australia's other visa categories may find our pieces on the Genuine Student requirement and the Australia Skilled Occupation List useful companion reading, since both intersect with occupation and eligibility questions in related but distinct ways.

To be direct about what this article will not do: it will not state a specific current Specialist Skills salary threshold, Core Skills salary requirement, visa application fee, or an exhaustive, current Core Skills Occupation List, because none of those specifics were confirmed as fixed, unchanging facts at the time of writing, and repeating an unverified one to a client could cause genuine harm to a real case.

Frequently asked questions