Subclass 482 to 186 TRT Pathway: Requirements and Rules

To move from a Subclass 482 visa to permanent residency through the Subclass 186 Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) stream, you must satisfy the criteria in Subdivisions 186.21 and 186.22 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994. The core of it: in the three years immediately before you apply, you held an eligible temporary skilled visa for a total of at least two years, and you were employed full-time in Australia by your approved work sponsor for at least two years, not counting unpaid leave (clauses 186.226 and 186.227). You must also be under 45 and have Competent English at the time of application (clauses 186.221 and 186.222).

This article maps each operative clause so you can test a case against the law before committing to a nomination and visa application, and shows precisely where the TRT stream diverges from Direct Entry.

If you apply for a Subclass 186 visa in the TRT stream, the primary criteria are those in Subdivisions 186.21 (common criteria) and 186.22 (the TRT-specific criteria). The common criteria apply to every 186 applicant regardless of stream; the TRT criteria are what set this pathway apart.

Clause 186.211 is a licensing and registration gate, not a visa-holding rule. Where it is mandatory in the State or Territory in which the position is located to hold a licence or registration of a particular kind, or to be a member of a particular professional body, to perform the tasks of the occupation, you must hold that licence or registration, or be eligible to become the holder, or be a member of the body, at the time of application. This matters most for regulated occupations — electricians, nurses, medical practitioners, and similar — where the absence of current State registration defeats the application even if every other criterion is met.

The visa you must hold to build the two-year record is set by clause 186.226: a Subclass 457 (Temporary Work (Skilled)) visa, a Subclass 482 (Temporary Skill Shortage) visa, or a Subclass 482 (Skills in Demand) visa, or a qualifying bridging visa following one of those.

The Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme visa is a permanent visa, permitting the holder to travel to and enter Australia for five years from the date of grant. That five-year figure is the travel facility, not the duration of the permanent residence — the residence itself does not expire. This is the fundamental difference from the 482: the 482 is a temporary visa tied to continued sponsored employment, while the 186 confers permanent residency that does not depend on keeping a particular job.

The TRT stream exists so that workers who have already demonstrated themselves in sponsored employment can transition without repeating the up-front skills and occupation testing that a cold applicant faces. The employer still nominates, and the position must still provide the employment referred to in the nomination (clause 186.212) — but the applicant's claim rests on a track record of sponsored work rather than on a formal skills assessment.

For background on the temporary side of this journey, see our 482 visa guide; for the permanent destination, the 186 visa guide sets out the stream structure in full.

Two separate two-year tests must both be met, and both are measured within the same window: the three years immediately before the visa application is made.

Clause 186.226 — the visa-holding test. During those three years you must have held one or more of a Subclass 457 (Temporary Work (Skilled)) visa, a Subclass 482 (Temporary Skill Shortage) visa, or a Subclass 482 (Skills in Demand) visa for a total period of at least two years. A qualifying bridging visa following one of those, or a held 186 or 187 visa, can also count where the last substantive visa was one of the named visas.

Clause 186.227 — the employment test. During the same three years, you must have been employed by an approved work sponsor, in an occupation in relation to which one of those visas was granted, for a total period of at least two years (not including any periods of unpaid leave) and on a full-time basis, with the employment undertaken in Australia.

The Minister may specify different time periods for either clause for persons specified in a legislative instrument (clauses 186.226(2) and 186.227(3)). Where a concessional period has been specified for a group, the standard two years may not be what applies — confirm the current instrument against the specific circumstances.

Clause 186.227 is specific about what counts. The employment must be full-time, undertaken in Australia, with an approved work sponsor, and in the occupation in relation to which the eligible visa was granted. Each of those words excludes something.

• Unpaid leave does not count. The clause expressly excludes any periods of unpaid leave from the two-year total. A long stretch of unpaid parental leave or leave without pay pushes the completion date out by the same length; paid leave is not excluded by the clause.
• Part-time and casual periods do not count toward the full-time requirement in clause 186.227(1)(b).
• Work performed outside Australia does not count — the employment must be undertaken in Australia.
• Sponsor changes are not fatal, but the occupation anchor is. The clause ties the employment to an occupation in relation to which the eligible visa was granted, with an approved work sponsor. Periods with more than one sponsor can be aggregated toward the two years so long as each counted period meets the clause; what breaks the chain is counting work in an occupation outside the one the eligible visa covers.

There is a narrower rule in clause 186.227(2): where the eligible visa was granted in relation to an occupation specified in an instrument made under subregulation 2.72(13), the employment test is two years with an approved work sponsor in that occupation, without the "full-time, in Australia" wording of subclause (1). Check which subclause governs the specific occupation before assuming the standard full-time-in-Australia test applies.

Occupation for a TRT application is not chosen from a list. The TRT streams in the 186 and 187 programs do not have an occupation list; occupation eligibility is based on the occupation from the most recently held temporary skilled visa. A worker whose occupation code has since been reclassified or split in an updated ANZSCO version must select the code that aligns with the actual tasks and responsibilities of the position.

At the time of application, you must either not have turned 45, or be a person in a class specified by the Minister in a written instrument for clause 186.221(b). Age is assessed at the time of application — your date of birth relative to the lodgement date is what matters, not your age when the nomination was approved or when the decision is made.

The practical consequence: a worker who turns 45 before lodgement cannot rely on the standard criterion, even if the nomination is already approved and the six-month window is still open. The exemption classes below are then the only route.

The exemptions to the under-45 requirement are set by the Minister in a legislative instrument — Migration (LIN 19/216: Exemptions from Skill, Age and English Language Requirements for Subclass 186, 187 and 494 Visas) Instrument 2019. The instrument identifies classes of persons who are not required to have been under 45.

One such class is regional medical practitioners: a person who, during the relevant three years, spent at least two years (as a continuous period or two or more non-consecutive periods) employed as a medical practitioner at a place or places that were, at the time, located in a designated regional area. A separate class turns on high earnings, where the relevant figure is the high income threshold as that term is given by section 333 of the Fair Work Act 2009 — income alone is not the whole test, and the instrument sets additional conditions around the earnings period.

LIN 19/216 is the governing instrument, but its exact conditions and the applicable earnings figure change over time. Confirm the precise class conditions and the current high-income earnings figure against the latest compilation of LIN 19/216 before relying on an exemption.

At the time of application, the primary applicant must have had Competent English, or be a person in a class specified by the Minister in a written instrument for clause 186.222(b). "Competent English" is a defined term — regulation 1.03 provides that it has the meaning set out in regulation 1.15C.

The accepted tests, the score equivalents that satisfy Competent English, and the validity period of a test result are set by legislative instrument and change from time to time; confirm the current accepted tests and score equivalents, and your test result's validity period, with the Department of Home Affairs before lodging. The exemption classes for English are, like the age exemptions, set in LIN 19/216.

The applicant's eligibility and the employer's nomination are two separate matters, decided against different criteria. For the visa, clause 186.223 requires that the position was nominated in an application for approval that identifies the applicant and was made in relation to a TRT-stream visa, that the Minister has approved the nomination, that the nomination has not been withdrawn, and that the position is still available to the applicant. Clause 186.212 requires that the position will provide to the applicant the employment referred to in the nomination.

The nomination approval itself is governed by regulation 5.19 and its associated requirements — genuine-position, full-time-employment and business-viability tests sit on the employer's side of the ledger. The point for the applicant is this: an approved nomination is a precondition the clause names expressly (186.223(2)), so the visa cannot be granted on the applicant's merits alone while the nomination is unapproved, withdrawn, or the position is no longer available.

For a side-by-side on how the employer's obligations compare across the temporary and permanent stages, see our 482 vs 186 employer comparison.

A TRT nomination has to satisfy the nomination-side salary requirements set in the Migration Regulations and the instruments made under them, and a Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) levy arises on employer-sponsored nominations. These are decided on the employer's side of the application, separately from the applicant's own criteria under Subdivision 186.22. Check the current income threshold and market-salary requirement that apply to a 186 nomination, and the current SAF levy and who it falls on, with the Department of Home Affairs before the nomination is lodged — no fixed figure is stated here.

Both streams sit under the common criteria in Subdivision 186.21. They diverge entirely in their stream-specific subdivision: TRT runs on clauses 186.221 to 186.227, Direct Entry on 186.231 to 186.234. The difference is not cosmetic — it changes what evidence a worker needs to assemble.

Note the two carve-outs. In TRT, there is no standing skills assessment requirement, but clause 186.225 lets the Minister require an applicant to demonstrate the skills necessary for the occupation in a specified manner — so "no skills assessment" is the default, not a fixed entitlement. In Direct Entry, clause 186.234(3) allows the three-year-experience-plus-assessment test to be displaced for a person in a class specified by the Minister. Neither stream is uniformly "assessment required" or "assessment exempt".

The single hard deadline the clauses impose on the applicant is timing: the visa application must be made no more than six months after the Minister approved the nomination (clause 186.223(5)). The position must also still be available to the applicant at the time the visa criteria are assessed (clause 186.223(4)).

Whether the nomination and visa can be lodged together, and in what order, is an operational matter for the Department — confirm the current lodgement sequence with the Department of Home Affairs. What the law fixes is the outer limit: lodge the visa within six months of nomination approval, or the application cannot meet clause 186.223(5).

The primary criteria must be satisfied by at least one member of a family unit; the other members who apply need satisfy only the secondary criteria. Where the family members are granted the visa on the secondary criteria, they too receive a permanent visa — the permanent outcome is not confined to the primary applicant.

Secondary applicants are assessed against the Subdivision 186.31 criteria, including the public interest and special return criteria, with the health criterion aligned to the stream the primary applicant applied under. The second instalment of the visa application charge must be paid before the visa can be granted. Confirm the current Functional English evidence requirements for secondary applicants, and any applicable second-instalment charge, with the Department of Home Affairs.

Completing two years on a 482 visa does not, on its own, secure a 186 grant or permanent residency. The law requires more than the employment record, and it requires it in a particular order. The nomination and the visa are two separate decisions: clause 186.223(2) makes an approved nomination a precondition of the visa, and clause 186.223(4) requires the position to still be available. A worker who meets every personal criterion still fails if the nomination is refused or withdrawn, or if the position has ceased to exist.

Timing compounds this. All criteria must be satisfied at the time a decision is made on the application. A circumstance that was fine at lodgement — current registration, an available position, a valid English result — must still hold when the decision is made. And satisfying the nomination's salary requirements addresses the employer's side of the application; it does not displace the applicant's own criteria under Subdivision 186.22. No single element of this pathway ensures a particular result.

There is no single mandated document list that fits every case — what you need follows from the clauses you are proving and your own circumstances. The items below are indicative of the evidence that supports each operative criterion; your actual requirements will vary.

Myth: two years on a 482 means the 186 is automatic. The two-year employment record meets one criterion (186.227). An approved nomination, an available position, age, English and the common criteria must all be met at the time of decision.

Myth: all employment counts toward the two years. Only full-time employment, undertaken in Australia, with the approved sponsor, in the occupation the eligible visa was granted for, counts — and unpaid leave is excluded (186.227).

Myth: everyone must be under 45. Under 45 is the standard rule (186.221), but the Minister specifies exempt classes in LIN 19/216, including regional medical practitioners and certain high earners.

Myth: TRT and Direct Entry impose the same requirements. They share only the common criteria. TRT turns on an eligible-visa and employment record (186.226–227); Direct Entry turns on a skills assessment and three years' experience (186.234).

Myth: every applicant faces an identical skills assessment. TRT has no general skills-assessment requirement, though clause 186.225 lets the Minister require a skills demonstration; Direct Entry generally requires an assessing-authority assessment, subject to the class exemption in 186.234(3).

Myth: meeting the salary requirements secures the visa. Those address the nomination's requirements on the employer's side; the applicant's own criteria under Subdivision 186.22 are decided separately.

For further reading on the temporary-to-permanent transition and recent 482 processing changes, see our 482 to 186 TRT pathway explainer and our note on 482 processing under Direction 121.

On 7 December 2024, the Skills in Demand (SID) visa replaced the Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa. For the TRT pathway this matters because clause 186.226 counts all three — the Subclass 457, the 482 (TSS) and the 482 (SID) — toward the two-year visa-holding total. Employment and visa time held under a TSS visa before the change is not lost; it aggregates with SID time under the same clause.

TSS nominations and visa applications lodged before the SID commenced are processed under the requirements in force when they were lodged. Where an employer lodged a TSS nomination but the associated TSS visa application was not lodged before 7 December 2024, an approved nomination is deemed a SID nomination, and the worker can lodge an associated SID visa application. The thread to hold onto: for the 186 TRT two-year tests, the visa label changing from TSS to SID does not break continuity — both count under clause 186.226.

Next steps. Fix your intended lodgement date first, then count backwards three years and tally both the eligible-visa months (186.226) and the full-time-in-Australia employment months excluding unpaid leave (186.227). Gather your 482/457 grant letters, payslips, contracts and leave records to prove those counts. Confirm with the Department of Home Affairs the current income threshold, market-salary requirement and SAF levy that apply to the nomination before your employer lodges it, and confirm the accepted English tests, score equivalents and result validity for Competent English. Once the nomination is approved, lodge the visa within six months (186.223(5)).

This is general information, not personal migration advice, and it does not account for your individual circumstances. The operative source is Schedule 2, Part 186 of the Migration Regulations 1994 and the current legislative instruments made under it; confirm your own position against those and seek advice from a registered migration agent for your specific case.