482 visa work experience: the one-year rule, what counts and what Home Affairs reads

MARN 1576536 · Checked against the Home Affairs 482 Core Skills and Specialist Skills eligibility pages on 8 November 2026

The rule

Home Affairs states the requirement in the same terms for both 482 streams: the primary applicant must have at least one year of relevant work experience in the nominated occupation or a related field, and the experience should have been gained within the last five years. The experience must have been gained while working in the nominated occupation itself, or while doing tasks at the same skill level in a related field.

The rule sets a floor, not a target. One year is the least the visa accepts; the nomination separately asks whether the worker suits the position, so meeting the one-year rule is necessary without being the whole of the test.

Related fields

Experience outside the exact occupation counts when the tasks were the same as, or closely related to, the duties of the nominated position as ANZSCO describes them, and were performed at the same skill level. The comparison is between duties, not job titles: a different title can describe the same work, and a similar title can describe work at a lower skill level, which does not count.

Part-time, casual and gaps

Full-time, part-time and casual experience all count. Part-time and casual work is converted: it must add up to the equivalent of at least twelve months of full-time work, so two years at half time can meet the rule where one year at half time cannot. The period does not need to be continuous; experience from two employers, with a break between them, can be added together, provided all of it falls within the five-year window.

Study placements and research degrees

Home Affairs lists other ways the experience can be shown:

• Experience gained as part of a Masters or PhD, for occupations where that is relevant, such as medical and research occupations.
• Experience gained while studying through a formal arrangement such as a clinical or industry placement, an internship or an apprenticeship.

The study behind a formal arrangement has its own condition. If the placement was part of a CRICOS-registered course, the study must have been relevant to the nominated occupation; Home Affairs gives the example of a medical practitioner counting internships and the final year of training, including clinical placements. If it was not part of a CRICOS-registered course, the study must have been undertaken at the skill level of the occupation.

How the experience is read

The Department reads the experience against three things at once: the dates, to place it inside the five years; the hours, to measure it in full-time months; and the duties, to match it to the occupation. Each of those has to be visible in the documents. A reference that gives dates but no hours, or a title but no duties, leaves the officer without the evidence the rule asks for. The reference letter guide covers matching the duties to the ANZSCO description.

Where a skills assessment is also required

For 24 occupations, and for applicants from listed countries in the trades among them, a formal skills assessment is mandatory as well, and it must be started before the visa application is lodged. The skills assessment guide lists the occupations, the passports and the exemptions.

Have the experience read before the nomination

A consultation reads the dates, hours and duties of the experience against the nominated occupation, and identifies what the documents need to show before anything is lodged.

Book a consultation — A$330 inc. GST, credited

General information only, current at 8 November 2026; not advice on your own case. Department of Home Affairs eligibility pages for the Skills in Demand (subclass 482) Core Skills and Specialist Skills streams, as at the date above; the labour agreement stream is not covered here. Requirements change and the law in force at lodgement governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.