482 Visa Minimum Salary Requirement 2026: What Changes on 1 July

If you or your employer is planning a 482 visa nomination this year, there is a deadline you cannot afford to miss. On 1 July 2026, the minimum salary required for most employer-sponsored nominations goes up. If you lodge before that date, you are assessed under the current numbers. Lodge after it, and the new, higher figures apply.

This article explains exactly what is changing, what the new terms mean, and what both workers and employers should do before 30 June.

What Changed When the 482 Visa Was Restructured

Most people still search for TSMIT — the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold. But that term no longer exists in its original form.

When the Australian Government restructured the 482 visa in December 2024 and renamed it the Skills in Demand visa, the single TSMIT was replaced by two separate thresholds:

• CSIT — Core Skills Income Threshold. This applies to most standard employer-sponsored nominations under the Core Skills stream.
• SSIT — Specialist Skills Income Threshold. This applies to high-income roles in the Specialist Skills stream, which gets significantly faster processing.

The reason for the split was to better target the visa program. High-earning specialists were being lumped in with standard skilled workers under one threshold. The new structure separates them and gives specialist applicants a faster, cleaner pathway.

If you have been researching employer sponsorship and keep seeing TSMIT mentioned, know that it is still used colloquially. But officially, CSIT is the number that matters for most 482 nominations.

The Current and Upcoming Salary Thresholds

Here is exactly what the numbers look like now and what they become on 1 July 2026:

Core Skills Stream (most 482 nominations):

• Current CSIT: $79,423 per year (from 1 July 2026)
• Increased from: $76,515 per year (applied before 1 July 2026)
• Increase: 3.8 per cent

Specialist Skills Stream (high-income roles):

• Current SSIT: $146,576 per year (from 1 July 2026)
• Increased from: $141,210 per year (applied before 1 July 2026)
• Increase: 3.8 per cent

Subclass 494 and 187 (regional pathways):

• TSMIT: $79,423 per year (from 1 July 2026)
• Increased from: $76,515 per year

The increase is indexed to Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is now a permanent annual mechanism under Regulation 5.42A of the Migration Regulations 1994, so employers should expect a similar adjustment every July going forward.

What Counts Toward the Threshold and What Does Not

This is where many applications run into trouble. The threshold must be met through guaranteed base salary only.

You cannot include:

• Superannuation contributions
• Performance bonuses or commissions
• Overtime payments
• Non-monetary benefits such as accommodation, vehicles, or meal allowances
• Equity or share options

The employment contract must clearly show the base salary figure that meets or exceeds the applicable threshold. If the salary in the contract is $77,000 but $5,000 of that is structured as a car allowance, the compliant salary is $72,000 and the nomination will be refused.

This catches employers who try to structure packages creatively. The Department is not flexible on this point.

The AMSR Rule — Why the Threshold Is Not Always Enough

Meeting the income threshold alone does not guarantee a compliant nomination. Employers must also satisfy the Annual Market Salary Rate, or AMSR.

The AMSR is the salary that an equivalent Australian worker would be paid for the same role, in the same location. If the local market rate for a position is higher than the CSIT, the employer must pay the higher figure.

For example, if the CSIT is $79,423 but the market rate for a software engineer in Sydney is $110,000, the nomination must offer at least $110,000. Offering $79,423 on the basis that it meets the threshold is not enough.

How the AMSR is determined:

• What the employer pays existing Australian employees in the same role
• Relevant enterprise agreements or industry awards under the Fair Work Commission
• Job advertisements in the same location over the past six months
• Remuneration surveys or advice from industry bodies

If the sponsored worker's salary is over $250,000, the AMSR requirement does not apply. Below that figure, both the threshold and the market rate test must be satisfied.

What This Means If You Are Currently on a 482 Visa

If you are already a 482 visa holder, the July increase does not automatically require your employer to top up your salary. Your existing nomination was approved at the salary offered at that time.

However, two situations where this becomes relevant:

First, if your employer wants to renew your nomination or lodge a new one, the salary for that new nomination must meet the threshold at the time of lodgement.

Second, and this catches people by surprise, your salary must continue to meet the AMSR as market rates change. If the market rate for your role has risen since your nomination was approved but your salary has not moved, your employer could be found non-compliant during a monitoring review. The Department now runs quarterly data-matching with the ATO, so payroll discrepancies are identified faster than they used to be.

If you are approaching your two-year mark with your sponsor and planning to apply for permanent residency through the 186 visa, note that the 186 Core Skills stream uses the same CSIT as the 482. Nominations for the 186 lodged after 1 July 2026 must meet the $79,423 threshold.

What Employers Should Do Before 1 July 2026

Employers planning nominations in the coming months have a clear incentive to move quickly. Nominations lodged from 1 July 2026 are assessed under the new $79,423 CSIT.

The increase was $2,908 per year per worker. For a company sponsoring multiple employees, that adds up.

Practical steps for employers:

1. Audit your current sponsorship pipeline. Identify which nominations are planned for the next three to four months and which could reasonably be lodged before 30 June.

2. Check whether any planned salaries are below $79,423. All new nominations from 1 July 2026 must meet this threshold.

3. Review existing sponsored workers for AMSR compliance. If market rates have moved since their last nomination, update their salary before a monitoring review identifies the gap.

4. Budget for future increases. The July 2026 increase is unlikely to be the last. If AWOTE continues to grow at a similar rate, a further increase in July 2027 is probable.

Labour Market Testing advertisements must run for at least 28 days before lodgement. If you plan to lodge a nomination in late June, your advertising needs to start now.

The Specialist Skills Stream — Worth Knowing About

If your role and salary qualify for the Specialist Skills stream, the processing difference is significant.

Core Skills stream applications currently take four to seven months for the nomination stage alone. Specialist Skills stream applications are typically processed within seven to eleven days.

The trade-off is the higher salary requirement. The current SSIT is $141,210, rising to $146,576 from 1 July 2026. The stream is also capped at 3,000 places per year.

For roles that naturally sit above the SSIT — senior engineers, executives, specialists in finance or technology — the Specialist Skills stream is worth structuring toward. The speed advantage alone changes the planning timeline considerably.

Regional Nominations and DAMA Arrangements

Employers in regional Australia have additional options through Designated Area Migration Agreements, or DAMAs. These are formal agreements between the Australian Government and regional authorities that allow salary and skills concessions not available under standard streams.

Under a DAMA, the effective minimum salary may be 10 to 15 per cent lower than the CSIT. This matters in areas where local wages naturally sit below the national threshold.

The 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa uses a separate threshold mechanism. The 494 salary threshold increased to $79,423 from 1 July 2026, consistent with the CSIT increase.

How Studynash Can Help

Our migration agents work with both employers and sponsored workers on 482 nominations. We check salary compliance against both the income threshold and the AMSR, review employment contracts before submission, and help employers plan the timing of nominations around the July threshold change.

If you are a worker whose employer is considering sponsoring you, we can also review your situation independently and tell you what you are entitled to.

The window to lodge under the current threshold is closing. Book a free assessment and we will tell you exactly where you stand.