Effective 1 July 2026, Australia has lifted the minimum salary employers must offer to sponsor overseas talent. The Core Skills and Temporary Skilled Migration Income Thresholds (CSIT/TSMIT) now sit at AUD 79,423—about 3.8 per cent higher than last year—while the Specialist Skills Income Threshold (SSIT) for highly-paid roles has moved to AUD 146,576. The new figures apply to fresh nominations under the Subclass 482 Skills-in-Demand visa, the Subclass 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa and linked permanent-residence pathways such as the Employer Nomination Scheme (Subclass 186).
VisaHQ’s online platform can help employers and overseas professionals navigate these specific Australian sponsorship routes with ease; its dedicated Australia portal (https://www.visahq.com/australia/) provides up-to-date document checklists, fee breakdowns and expert guidance to ensure applications meet the latest salary thresholds and compliance rules.
Existing visa holders are unaffected, but any nomination lodged on or after 1 July must meet the higher bar or the Annual Market Salary Rate, whichever is greater. For multinationals, the change has immediate budgeting implications. HR teams must ensure remuneration packages for inbound assignees exceed both the indexed threshold and genuinely local market rates. Failure to do so risks refusal at nomination stage and exposes businesses to civil penalties for under-payment. The annual indexation policy, tied to Australian wage growth metrics, is intended to protect domestic salaries from being undercut. Immigration advisers recommend building future threshold uplifts into long-term mobility cost projections and accelerating any time-critical nominations before the next 1 July review.
VisaHQ’s online platform can help employers and overseas professionals navigate these specific Australian sponsorship routes with ease; its dedicated Australia portal (https://www.visahq.com/australia/) provides up-to-date document checklists, fee breakdowns and expert guidance to ensure applications meet the latest salary thresholds and compliance rules.
Existing visa holders are unaffected, but any nomination lodged on or after 1 July must meet the higher bar or the Annual Market Salary Rate, whichever is greater. For multinationals, the change has immediate budgeting implications. HR teams must ensure remuneration packages for inbound assignees exceed both the indexed threshold and genuinely local market rates. Failure to do so risks refusal at nomination stage and exposes businesses to civil penalties for under-payment. The annual indexation policy, tied to Australian wage growth metrics, is intended to protect domestic salaries from being undercut. Immigration advisers recommend building future threshold uplifts into long-term mobility cost projections and accelerating any time-critical nominations before the next 1 July review.
