Our Skilled Workers guide is packed with useful information you will need to know when emigrating to Australia.
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Australia is a fantastic place to live, work, and raise a family. It offers permanent residency to thousands of skilled working people like you every year.
Once you pass their selection process by providing evidence of your skills and expertise. You could emigrate to one of the best countries on earth.
We not only focus on ensuring your case is granted, but also on ensuring your case is completed as quickly and stress-free as possible.
Our clients can relax knowing their case is in safe hands.
Complete our FREE assessment to receive our expert advice.
You will also receive our essential e-guide on everything you need to know when emigrating to Australia.
The 189 Skilled Independent visa is Australia’s most sought-after skilled visa.
It grants permanent residence on arrival, with no employer sponsor, no state nomination, and full freedom to live anywhere in Australia.
From day one, you and your family can settle in any city or town, access Medicare, and enrol your children in public schooling at resident rates.
The five-year clock toward Australian citizenship starts the moment you arrive.
The 189 is the closest thing Australia has to an open invitation, and the bar is set to match.
The 189 is points-tested. To qualify, you need to:
65 points opens the door to an Expression of Interest. The competitive score is higher.
A recent invitation round issued 10,000 places.
Three factors separate the strongest candidates from the rest.
A strong command of English matters in Australia.
If you are bringing a partner. It helps if they are skilled too.
When two candidates tie on points, the earlier submission wins the invitation. Lodging your EOI the day you hit a competitive score can save months of waiting.
Read more about the 189 Visa stream here.
The 190 Skilled Nominated visa grants the same permanent residence as the 189, with a single, simple feature that sets it apart.
You agree to live in the state or territory that nominated you, typically for two years. The commitment is moral, not legally enforced.
In return, you receive 5 bonus points on the points test.
Those 5 points often decide whether you’re invited in the next round or wait another year in the Expression of Interest pool.
For many UK applicants, that’s a trade worth making without hesitation.
The Department of Home Affairs released the state-nomination allocations.
Combined 190 and 491 nominations by state:
Processing times are broadly comparable at nine to ten months for permanent skilled visas.
The 190 is a two-stage process.
Stage one. You submit an Expression of Interest in SkillSelect, tagged for one or more states.
Stage two. Each state runs its own selection rounds, scoring candidates against its priority occupations and local labour market needs.
Strong cases typically include evidence of a genuine commitment to the state:
Once a state nominates you, the Department of Home Affairs issues the invitation. You then have 60 days to lodge your application.
Follow the link to read more about the 190 Visa Stream here.
The Skilled Work Regional visa is a five-year provisional visa designed to welcome skilled migrants into regional Australia.
Live and work in a designated regional area for three years, earn at least AUD 53,900 in two of those years, and you become eligible for permanent residency.
It’s the most accessible skilled worker pathway.
The 491 is the right answer for skilled applicants who want a permanent outcome and are happy to settle outside the three biggest cities.
For UK families considering Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Perth, or Hobart, it’s frequently the fastest and most predictable route to permanent residence Australia currently offers.
Read more about the 494 visa stream here.
It’s a temporary employer-sponsored visa of up to four years, designed to let Australian employers fill genuine skill shortages with overseas talent.
The headline benefit: the SID now opens a pathway to permanent residence after just two years of qualifying employment.
That’s down from the three years required under the old framework, a material acceleration for any UK applicant planning a permanent outcome.
The SID is the right answer if you have a job offer from an approved Australian sponsor and your occupation sits on the CSOL or above the Specialist Skills threshold.
The SID is the fastest route into Australia available today.
Read more about the SID Visa streams here.
The Employer Nomination Scheme is the destination most Skills in Demand holders are working toward.
You will receive permanent residence on grant, sponsored by an Australian employer, with no points test and no regional restriction.
From day one, you and your family can:
The 186 mirrors the 189 in every practical respect, except that an employer sponsors you rather than a points test.
Strong 186 cases are built with the employer well before lodgement. Sterling works directly with sponsoring employers to assemble the case end-to-end.
Read more about the 186 visa stream here.
The Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa is the regional counterpart to the Skills in Demand visa.
It’s a five-year provisional visa tied to a regional employer, with a clear pathway to permanent residence via the Subclass 191 visa after three years of qualifying regional employment.
The 494 replaced the older Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme and remains the primary regional employer-sponsored pathway.
It sits between the temporary SID and the permanent 186 in terms of commitment, offering the most certain route into regional Australia.
The 494’s designated regional area is generous: everywhere in Australia except Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
That includes major cities such as:
All of these would count as major capital cities anywhere else in the world.
The Visa Application Charge is AUD 4,910 for the primary applicant, matching the GSM visas, with the same partner and child add-ons.
The 494 nomination requires endorsement from a Regional Certifying Body.
That’s a state government department or regional development authority that certifies the position is genuinely needed in the local labour market and the salary genuinely reflects the local going rate.
The RCB step typically adds two to six weeks to the front of the nomination process. For legitimate positions with proper documentation, it’s a straightforward stage.
Sterling handles the RCB liaison directly on behalf of both the sponsoring employer and the visa applicant.
The 494 leads to the permanent Subclass 191 visa after three years.
To qualify for the 191, you need to:
The 191 grants unrestricted permanent residence. Your regional commitment ends on grant, and you can move anywhere in Australia thereafter.
The 494 is particularly common in rural healthcare, agriculture, mining, education, and skilled trades, sectors where regional Australia welcomes overseas expertise.
Read more about the 494 Visa stream here.
A Designated Area Migration Agreement isn’t a visa subclass in itself.
It’s a framework that sits on top of the SID (482), the 494, and the ENS (186), unlocking concessions for specific regional areas that the standard visas alone cannot provide.
They give endorsed employers in those regions access to occupations, age limits, English thresholds, and salary thresholds that the federal lists don’t normally permit.
There are currently 13 active DAMAs across Australia.
Northern Territory. The broadest agreement, covering the entire territory under a single framework managed by MigrationNT.
South Australia. Two parallel agreements: the Adelaide City Technology and Innovation Advancement Agreement for the CBD’s deep-tech sector, and the South Australian Regional Workforce Agreement covering the rest of the state.
Western Australia. Five agreements covering Goldfields, Kimberley, Pilbara, South West, and a state-wide WA DAMA.
Other active DAMAs. Far North Queensland (Cairns), the Orana region in central NSW, the Goulburn Valley in Victoria, and East Kimberley.
Each DAMA negotiates its own concessions with the Commonwealth. Common ones change the calculation dramatically:
For many applicants, DAMA concessions open doors the standard visas keep closed.
Most DAMAs offer a structured route to permanent residence via the 186 visa’s Labour Agreement stream.
The Northern Territory and South Australia allow that transition after just two years of qualifying DAMA employment, faster than the standard SID-to-186 pathway. Other regions require three years.
The endpoint is the same: unrestricted permanent residence, identical in rights to a 186 granted under Direct Entry. That means:
Individuals apply through endorsed employers, not directly. You need a job offer from an employer who has been endorsed by the relevant Designated Area Representative for that region.
DAMAs are the right answer for skilled workers in any of these situations:
For these applicants, a DAMA is often the most direct pathway to permanent residence in Australia. Sterling identifies the right region’s agreement for your occupation and circumstances, then works alongside the sponsoring employer through endorsement and nomination.
YES absolutely. Plenty of work will be available. Alternatively, you can even start your own business.
Each year, Australia limits the number of skilled visas it approves. This ensures it invites only those with skills that are in short supply and in high demand.
This policy ensures plenty of highly paid work in your profession will be available and that you will not become a burden on the public purse.
As a skilled migrant, you are afforded the same workers’ rights as an Australian Citizen.
Each skilled migrant must have their skills assessed and accredited to the Australian equivalent standard.
British skilled workers are highly regarded, as the UK and Australia share similar high standards.
Your skills assessment result will determine which visas suit you best.
We build the strongest possible case to ensure the best emigration opportunities are open to you and your family.
Another fantastic advantage for British and Irish citizens is that they don’t need to sit an English Test.
However, those who want to can sit an English test for additional points. Those extra points earned could open up additional emigration pathways.
In our experience, it never hurts to have as many points as possible.
Within the Immigration Department, Immigration Officers require each Skilled visa application to be “visa ready” prior to submission.
All candidates enter the Expression of Interest pool. This is where the Australian and state governments select the candidates they want to invite to emigrate.
It is exactly the same as applying for a job. However, this time, Australia selects which skilled workers it will allow to emigrate.
Fees depend on the accreditation pathway best suited to your case. This will be determined by the information you are able to provide.
Skills accreditation costs vary by assessing authority. Sometimes a practical assessment is required.
Estimated time frame: 6-9 months
AUD 6,135 for you
AUD 3,070 for your partner
AUD 1,540 per child under 18 yrs.
Estimated time frame: 9-12 months
Police certificates: fees vary by country
Medical examinations: fees vary by country and clinic
Please note: All 3rd-party fees are outside our control and subject to change.
The Australian Government has already reduced net overseas migration by more than 40% from its recent peak and continues to review skilled settings.
We recommend that our clients submit their case and secure an invitation to emigrate before settings tighten further.
Once you hold an invitation to emigrate, your case will not be affected by any future changes.
Discuss your eligibility and explore your options with a dedicated migration specialist.
A plumber with over eight years of trade experience came to us wanting to emigrate. On paper, he was a strong candidate, potentially eligible for both the Skilled Independent and the Skilled Nominated streams. In practice, his case was almost impossible.
Several years of his employment record were undocumented. One of his former employers had quietly gone out of business and could not be reached at all. Without verifiable evidence of his experience, the Department of Home Affairs would not grant him the points for his work experience, and without those points, he simply would not qualify.
We rebuilt his work history. Statutory declarations from former colleagues, contemporaneous correspondence, payslip archives, jobsite records, equipment-hire receipts, each piece of evidence assembled, dated and corroborated until the file told the story of his career.
He received an invitation to emigrate in the first round a few weeks after our submission, not the two years his case may otherwise have sat in the queue before being automatically rejected. He is now living his dream life in Australia.
Comparing life in Australia to the United Kingdom.
Skilled salaries in Australia sit higher against the national median wage than the equivalent scales in the United Kingdom. Comparing each salary with its own country’s median full time wage removes exchange rates from the picture and shows what the job is worth where it is done.
| Measure | Australia | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Registered nurse at the top of the grade | 1.23 times the median wage | 0.97 times the median wage |
| Teacher at the top of the classroom scale | 1.43 times | 1.31 times |
| Teacher in the first year of the scale | 1.00 times | 0.84 times |
Sources: New South Wales Health; New South Wales Department of Education; NHS Agenda for Change; Department for Education; Australian Bureau of Statistics; Office for National Statistics Australian source
Australian workers keep their full wage while they are ill, and earn extra paid leave for long service. Both entitlements are set in law and apply to skilled employees from their first year in the job.
| Measure | Australia | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Paid sick leave | Ten days a year at full pay, building up year on year | A flat weekly rate worth about a sixth of median weekly pay |
| Long service leave | 8.67 weeks of paid leave at ten years of service | There is no equivalent entitlement |
Sources: Fair Work Ombudsman; New South Wales Government; GOV.UK Australian source
Every Australian state and territory gives workers more public holidays than England and Wales. Public holidays are set by each state or territory in Australia and by each nation in the United Kingdom, so the table compares the most and the least generous on each side.
| Measure | Australia | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Where the entitlement is highest | Fourteen days in the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory and South Australia | Ten days in Northern Ireland |
| Where the entitlement is lowest | Twelve days in New South Wales | Eight days in England and Wales |
Sources: Fair Work Ombudsman; state and territory governments; GOV.UK Australian source
Whether you have questions or need guidance on your Australian immigration path, our specialists are ready to listen and advise. Contact us today.