Moving to Australia with your family: 189, 190 or employer sponsorship first?

MARN 1576536

The three doors

• 189 Skilled Independent and 190 Skilled Nominated. Permanent on grant for the whole family. Points-tested, invitation-based, age under 45, a positive skills assessment in a listed occupation, and for the 190 a state or territory nomination with its own criteria. No employer needed. Slowest to reach from overseas because an invitation has to come first and, under the processing priorities in force since 19 September 2026, an offshore family in a non-priority occupation is behind onshore applicants and behind offshore applicants without family.
• 482 Skills in Demand, Core Skills stream. Temporary, up to four years, for the whole family, on a nomination from an approved employer in an occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List at a salary of at least A$79,423 or the market rate. Needs the job first. Permanent residence through the 186 Transition stream after two years with the sponsor, lodged before 45.
• 482 Specialist Skills stream. The same visa for anyone, outside trades and lower-skilled groups, paid at least A$146,576 a year, with no occupation list and its own priority processing group. The fastest door for senior and technical professionals who already earn above the line.

Time

The Department publishes processing times by subclass and stream, refreshed monthly on our processing times page. At the time of writing the Specialist Skills stream was being decided in five to eleven weeks, Core Skills in roughly four to nine months, and the 190 in four months to well over a year, before counting the time to get a skills assessment, an invitation or a nomination. For a family overseas, the honest comparison is: a 482 is measured from the job offer and arrives in months; a 189 or 190 is measured from the invitation and arrives in a year or more; and the invitation itself depends on points you may not have yet. A long-dated plan that starts the skills assessment now, so that the points-tested route is live while the job search runs, is how both clocks run at once.

What the family gets

• Partner. Full work rights on every route here. On the 482 the partner's visa does not tie them to any employer or occupation.
• Children. Included on the application and on the visa. Public school fees for temporary visa holders are set by each state and differ sharply between them; they are nil for permanent residents. For a family choosing between a 482 in one state and a 190 in another, this is a real number to put on the table.
• Healthcare. Permanent residents enrol in Medicare. UK passport holders on temporary visas, including the 482, are covered by the reciprocal health care agreement for necessary treatment; US and most other temporary visa holders need private health insurance for the visa.
• Permanence. The 189 and 190 are permanent on grant; the 482 is a two-year bridge to the 186, and the bridge depends on staying with a sponsor and lodging before 45.

Points and English

A passport from the UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand or the United States meets Competent English for skilled visas with no test. That is the qualifying level only. On the points test, Proficient English scores 10 points and Superior scores 20, and both need a test result. For a 38-year-old with a Bachelor degree and eight years of experience, those 20 points are the difference between 65 and 85, which is the difference between never being invited and being invited. It is the single most common thing families from these countries get wrong, and it is cheap to fix. Age points fall from 40 to 45, so the test and the skills assessment belong at the start of the plan, not after the job search. The English requirements guide and the points calculator cover the detail.

The high-earner route

For a professional whose Australian offer will be at or above A$146,576, the Specialist Skills stream removes the occupation list and most of the waiting. The employer still has to be an approved sponsor and the salary has to be genuine, but the stream has its own priority group under Direction 121 and recent decisions have taken weeks. It is the route for senior engineers, technology, finance and healthcare specialists, and for anyone an Australian employer wants badly enough to pay above the line. The family comes on the same application, and the 186 follows after two years.

The order that keeps doors open

1. Skills assessment and English test first, for whichever partner scores higher. Both are needed for any points-tested route and both take months. A positive assessment also makes an employer's nomination simpler.
2. Lodge an expression of interest for the 189 and the 190 in the states whose lists carry your occupation, so an invitation can arrive while the job search runs.
3. Job search in parallel. An offer above the Specialist Skills line changes the plan to the fastest door; an offer in a Core Skills occupation opens the 482 and the 186 behind it.
4. Watch the age line. Anything that must be lodged before 45 goes first if 45 is within two years.
5. Lodge the permanent application when invited, even on a 482. A 189 or 190 granted while you are on a 482 simply replaces it. The two routes are not alternatives; they are run together.

Costs

Government charges from 1 July 2026, for a family of two adults and one child: a 189 or 190 application is roughly A$10,700, a 482 application roughly A$9,000 paid by the worker with the nomination and training levy paid by the employer, and a 186 after a 482 roughly A$10,700 again. Every figure, per subclass and per person, is on the visa fees page and in the fee calculator. Skills assessments, tests, medicals and police certificates come on top. Professional fees are quoted after the consultation and the consultation fee is credited against them.

Book a consultation — $330 inc. GST, credited