Regional Certifying Body advice for a 494 nomination: what is certified, which body, the evidence, and the timing

MARN 1576536

Where the step sits

The 494 Employer Sponsored stream has three applications: the employer's sponsorship as a standard business sponsor, the employer's nomination of the position and the worker, and the worker's visa application. The RCB advice attaches to the second. The regulation makes it a criterion of nomination approval that a Regional Certifying Body has advised on the nomination, so a nomination lodged without the advice is incomplete and is refused if the advice is not supplied, and a nomination lodged with advice that does not address the criteria is refused on them. The Labour Agreement stream of the 494, including the Designated Area Migration Agreements, does not use the RCB; the agreement's own endorsement process takes its place. The 494 guide sets out the three applications and the 191 that follows.

What the RCB certifies

• The position is genuine. A real vacancy in the business, with duties that match the nominated occupation, created by the business's needs rather than by the worker's wish to be sponsored.
• It is full-time, and available for at least five years. The 494 is a five-year visa and the nomination must offer a position of that duration; a fixed-term contract or a project role fails.
• It is in a designated regional area. The postcode of the workplace is in the instrument that lists regional areas, which covers everywhere outside Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for the 494.
• The salary meets the annual market salary rate. The pay offered is what an Australian would be paid for the same position in that region, and is at least the applicable threshold.

The body gives its advice on a Department form, with its reasons, and the advice is uploaded to the nomination. A body that cannot certify one element says so, and the Department reads that as a negative advice on the nomination as a whole.

Finding the right body

The Department publishes the list of approved Regional Certifying Bodies with the areas each covers, by local government area or region. In most states the bodies are the Regional Development Australia committees, one per region, so that a position in Wagga Wagga, Geelong, Toowoomba or Bunbury each goes to a different body; in some states a single government unit, such as the state's skilled and business migration office, is the body for the whole state. The body is chosen by the location of the position, which is the workplace where the worker will perform the duties, and an employer with a head office in a capital and a site in a regional town applies to the body for the site. An application to the wrong body is returned, and the weeks are lost. The regional checker confirms the postcode is designated before the application goes anywhere.

The evidence

Each body sets its own form and its own list, and the lists differ more than employers expect. Most want the business's registration and structure, its financial statements or a letter from its accountant, an organisational chart showing where the position sits, a position description with duties mapped to the occupation, the employment contract or offer letter with the salary and the five-year term, evidence of the market salary for the occupation in the region, and evidence of efforts to recruit locally, which some bodies require as advertising over a stated period even though the Department's own labour market testing is a separate criterion. Some want a statement of the business case for the position; some want evidence that the business can sustain the salary for five years; some ask about the worker. The employer reads the body's list before assembling anything, because a submission built for one body is returned by another. The genuine position guide covers the business case, which serves both the body and the Department.

Salary and the market rate

The annual market salary rate for a regional position is the rate for that occupation in that region, which is often lower than the capital-city rate and sometimes lower than the employer's own city sites pay. The body expects evidence: the award or enterprise agreement where one applies, the pay of Australians in equivalent positions in the business, advertisements for equivalent positions in the region, or a published salary survey with the regional figure. The nominated salary must also meet the income threshold for the visa, which the regional rate cannot go below, and the two are checked separately. A body that finds the offered salary below the regional market rate declines, and the usual cause is an employer who benchmarked against the threshold rather than against what the role pays locally.

Forms, fees and timing

Bodies use the Department's form for the advice itself and their own application form or portal for the request, and charge their own fees, which range from nothing to several hundred dollars, with some charging more for urgent processing. Processing times are the body's and are published by some; two to six weeks from a complete submission is a reasonable expectation, and a request for further evidence resets it. The body's time runs alongside the sponsorship application and the preparation of the nomination, not after them, so an employer who starts the three together has the advice in hand when the nomination is ready.

Validity and sequencing

The advice is dated and the Department expects the nomination to be lodged within the period the advice states, so that the position and the salary it certified are the ones nominated. An advice obtained early and left while the employer finished the sponsorship can expire, and a nomination lodged on an expired advice is refused or delayed for a fresh one. The nomination must also match the advice: the same occupation, the same salary, the same location. An employer who changes the salary after the advice to meet a Department request has to go back to the body. The practical sequence is sponsorship lodged, body applied to, nomination prepared, advice received, nomination lodged within the validity, visa application lodged with or after the nomination.

When the body declines

A body that will not certify writes its reasons, and the reasons are nearly always one of three: the salary is below what it finds the regional market rate to be, the position is not shown to be genuine or sustainable for five years, or the position is not where the employer says it is. Each is answered with evidence and a fresh request to the body, which is usually faster than the alternative. The alternative is to lodge the nomination with the negative advice and argue the criterion to the Department, which is entitled to reach its own view but gives the body's advice considerable weight; it is the route where the body has plainly misread the postcode or the award, and rarely otherwise.

What the RCB does not do

The body does not approve the nomination; the Department does. It does not assess the worker, their skills, their English or their health. It does not decide whether the occupation is on the list for the 494, or whether the employer meets the sponsorship criteria, or whether labour market testing was done to the Department's standard, though it may ask about local recruitment for its own purposes. It does not speed up the Department, and since Direction 122 commenced on 19 September 2026 a regional position no longer has processing priority of its own; a 494 nomination in a priority sector is in the first tier and one outside it is ordered by the applicant's location. The directions guide sets out the order.

After the advice

With the advice attached, the nomination is lodged with the Skilling Australians Fund levy, the labour market testing, the genuine position evidence and the salary evidence, and the worker's visa application follows with the skills assessment, English, health and character. On grant the worker holds the 494 for five years, must live and work in a designated regional area, and reaches the 191 after three years of regional work at the required income, which the employer and the worker plan from the start. The body's role is finished at the advice; the employer's obligations as a sponsor run for the life of the visa. The 191 guide covers the end of the road.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Regulation 5.19 of the Migration Regulations 1994 (nomination criteria, including the Regional Certifying Body advice for the subclass 494 Employer Sponsored stream) and the instruments designating regional areas and approving certifying bodies, as in force at the date above; each body’s forms, fees and timeframes are its own and change. 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.