Can you sponsor a part-time worker? The full-time requirement, the narrow exceptions, the casual who cannot be nominated, and restructuring the role so it qualifies

MARN 1576536

The criterion

The nomination criteria for the 482 and 494 require that the nominated position is full-time and is likely to exist for the period of the visa, and the 186 nomination requires a full-time position for at least two years; the Department refuses a nomination for a position that is part-time on its face, and examines one that is nominated as full-time against the contract, the roster and, after the grant, the payroll. The requirement exists because the programme is for skilled positions a business needs filled, and a part-time need is read as one that does not justify bringing a worker from abroad or keeping one here on a sponsored visa; the policy was written with the full-time employee in mind and has not moved with the part-time economy, and employers who built a role around a part-timer meet it as a wall. The nomination checklist lists the criterion among the others.

What full-time means

The regulations do not fix an hours figure, and the Department's policy reads full-time as the hours an Australian employee in the same position would ordinarily work on a full-time basis, taken from the modern award or enterprise agreement that covers the role, from the business's own full-time employees in similar roles, and from the industry's norm; the national standard of 38 hours is the usual measure, awards set their own full-time hours, and a position nominated at fewer hours than the award's full-time is examined for whether it is full-time at all. A professional position without an award is read against the business's own full-time staff and the industry, and 38 hours is the safe figure. The employment contract states the hours and the salary for them, the position description describes a full-time workload, and the business's roster and payroll after the grant show the hours worked; a nomination at 38 hours for a role the business has only three days of work for is a genuineness problem as well as an hours one, and the genuine position guide covers it.

The exceptions

• Medical practitioners: the Department's policy accepts that some medical positions are part-time by their nature, a locum, a specialist who serves several regional practices, a practitioner in a rural clinic without full-time work, and allows a nomination on the position's actual hours where the evidence shows the industry pattern; the exception is for the medical professions and is not extended to allied health or other occupations by analogy.
• Return from parental leave: a sponsored worker who returns from parental leave on reduced hours for a period, by agreement with the sponsor, does not cause the nomination to fail or the sponsor to breach, under the policy's reading of a temporary reduction consistent with the Fair Work entitlements; the reduction is temporary and documented.
• A worker with a disability: reduced hours that are a reasonable adjustment for a disability are accepted on the medical evidence.
• Labour agreements: some industry and company-specific agreements include a concession on hours for occupations where the work is part-time by nature, and the agreement's terms govern.
• Short-term reductions: the Department's policy has tolerated temporary reductions for reasons such as a downturn or an illness where the nominated salary continues to be paid, which the sponsor documents and does not rely on for long.

What is not an exception

The employer's preference for a part-time arrangement, the worker's wish to work part-time, the worker's study, the business's seasonal pattern, the cost of a full-time salary, and the fact that the worker has been doing the job part-time for years are not exceptions; the Department does not weigh the merits of the arrangement, it applies the criterion, and a nomination that asks for an exception on these grounds is refused. A nomination that states full-time hours the business does not intend to provide is worse than a refusal, because the grant is followed by a monitoring finding that the sponsor is not employing the worker in the nominated position, which is a breach with sanctions and a cancellation risk for the worker.

Two part-time roles and job-share

A worker cannot be nominated for two part-time positions that together make full-time hours, whether with the same employer or two employers: the nomination is for one position with one sponsor, condition 8607 permits the worker to work only in that position for that sponsor, and a second job is a breach. A business with two part-time needs in one occupation, bookkeeping for two entities, cooking across two venues, combines them into one full-time position with a single position description, a single contract and a single salary, where the duties sit within one occupation and the entities are the same sponsor or associated entities the regulations allow; the multiple sites guide covers a position across locations. A job-share, two workers in one full-time position, cannot be nominated for either, since each holds a part-time role.

The casual who cannot be nominated

A casual engagement, with no guaranteed hours, a casual loading in place of leave, and the ability of either side to end it at any shift, is neither full-time nor ongoing, and a casual cannot be nominated as a casual; the employer converts the worker to a permanent full-time contract from the nomination date, with the hours, the salary at or above the threshold and the market rate exclusive of the loading, and the permanent entitlements, and nominates the permanent position. The conversion follows the Fair Work Act's casual conversion provisions, which give long-term casuals a right to request conversion and set the process, and the new contract is the document the nomination attaches. A hospitality business whose chef has been casual for two years, who wants to sponsor them, makes the chef permanent full-time and nominates; the hospitality guide covers the sector where this is commonest.

The salary as a full-time rate

The nominated salary must meet the Core Skills Income Threshold and the annual market salary rate as a full-time annual figure, and the Department does not accept a pro rata reading: a part-time salary that would exceed the threshold if annualised to full-time is still a part-time position, and a full-time nomination carries the full-time salary from the nomination date, paid through the payroll with superannuation. A role converted from part-time to full-time for the nomination has its salary raised to the full-time rate at the same time, and a business that cannot afford the full-time salary cannot sponsor the position, which the consultation says before the charges are paid. The threshold guide has the current figure and the market rate report the evidence.

Hours cut after the grant

A sponsor who reduces a sponsored worker's hours below full-time after the grant, because the work fell away, because the worker asked, or because the business changed, is no longer employing the worker in the nominated position on the nominated terms, which is a breach of the sponsorship obligations found at monitoring from the payroll, and a reduction in pay below the nominated salary is a breach of the obligation to pay it; the worker's visa is at risk under condition 8607 as well. A temporary reduction for a documented reason, with the salary maintained, is tolerated by the policy; a permanent move to part-time is a change the sponsor notifies and that ends the position, with the worker's 180 days then running. The obligations guide covers the monitoring, and the underpayment guide the worker's side.

Restructuring the role so it qualifies

1. Ask whether the business has, or will have, full-time work in the occupation at the skill level; if it does not, the position is not genuine as full-time and the sponsorship ends here.
2. Write the full-time position description from the real work, with the duties that fill 38 hours, within one ANZSCO occupation; the position description guide covers it.
3. Issue a permanent full-time contract from a date before the nomination, with the hours and the full-time salary at the threshold and the market rate.
4. Run labour market testing for the full-time position as it now is, unless an exemption applies.
5. Nominate, and after the grant, roster and pay the hours nominated, because the payroll is the evidence.

The 494 and the 186

The 494 nomination requires a full-time position likely to exist for five years, certified by the regional certifying body, and the 186 nomination requires a full-time position for at least two years, and the same reading of full-time applies to each; a 482 worker nominated for the 186 transition stream must also have worked full-time in the occupation for the two years, so that a period of part-time hours on the 482 reduces the count, with the parental leave and disability exceptions. The 186 pathway guide covers the two years, and the 494 guide the regional nomination.

General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case, and not employment law advice. The nomination criteria in regulation 2.72 of the Migration Regulations 1994 for subclass 482 and 494, the subclass 186 nomination criteria in regulation 5.19, the sponsorship obligations in Division 2.19, condition 8607, the Department’s policy on full-time positions and the exceptions it recognises, and the casual conversion provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009, as in force at the date above; the policy is the Department’s and the current position governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each nomination; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.