What Changes on 1 July 2026: Salary Thresholds for the 482, 494, and 186 Visa
The 2026–27 migration program year began on 1 July 2026, and the most immediately practical change for employers and sponsored workers was the annual indexation of skilled visa salary thresholds. I set out here exactly what changed, what the new figures are, and what it meant for employers and sponsored workers.
I have been practising immigration law for 27 years. What I am setting out here is limited to confirmed legislative and regulatory changes — not speculation.
Salary Thresholds from 1 July 2026
From 1 July 2026, the indexed salary thresholds for employer-sponsored visas increased by 3.8%, in line with the annual growth rate of the Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE) published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. No legislative instrument sets these thresholds. They are indexed automatically each 1 July by reg 5.42A of the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth), which provides that the dollar amounts "are, on that day, replaced" by the indexed amounts. The Department publishes the replacement amounts under reg 5.42A(5).
These thresholds apply to nomination applications lodged on or after 1 July 2026. Nominations lodged before that date were assessed against the 2025-26 thresholds.
What This Means in Practice
If you are an employer sponsoring workers under the 482 (Skills in Demand) or 494 visa:
Employers needed to review the salaries of all sponsored employees against the new thresholds. A worker earning $77,000 then, comfortably above the 2025-26 CSIT of $76,515, fell below the new threshold of $79,423 from 1 July 2026. A nomination lodged for that worker on or after 1 July 2026 without a salary adjustment was refused.
- Adjusting the salary to at least $79,423 before lodging the nomination from 1 July 2026; or
- Lodging the nomination before 1 July 2026, so that it was assessed against the 2025-26 threshold of $76,515.
If you are a sponsored worker approaching your Subclass 186 transition:
The CSIT also applies to Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) Subclass 186 nominations lodged on or after 7 December 2024. If your current salary is between $76,515 and $79,423, lodging your 186 nomination before 1 July 2026 would have been advantageous, provided all other eligibility criteria were met.
If you are in the Specialist Skills stream of the 482 visa:
The SSIT rose from $141,210 to $146,576. Workers in this stream are typically well above the threshold, but it was worth confirming that the nominated salary would still meet the new figure.