From 1 July 2025, skilled visa income thresholds will be increased by 4.6%. This is in line with changes to the annual Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE).
Please note below the different salary increases for the different visa subclasses:
* The Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT) will increase from AUD73,150 to AUD76,515. This will impact nomination applications for the Core Skills stream of the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and the Employer Nomination Scheme visa (subclass 186).
* The Specialist Skills Income Threshold (SSIT) will increase from AUD135,000 to AUD141,210. This will impact nomination applications for the Specialist Skills stream of the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482).
* The Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) will increase from AUD73,150 to AUD76,515. This will impact nomination applications lodged for the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa (subclass 494) and the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) (subclass 187). This is in line with the CSIT and subject to approval of relevant legislation.
New nomination applications from 1 July 2025, must meet the new relevant income threshold or the annual market salary rate, whichever is higher. The increased skilled visa income thresholds will not apply to existing visa holders and nominations lodged before 1 July 2025.
Points of interest from last week’s Law Council of Australia’s 2025 Immigration Law Conference in Canberra.
We attended the law conference last week and some key points of interest are:
- Subclass 482 visa increase – lodgements of the 482 visas has increased by over 60% with an average of 3,000 applications lodged per week
- Stronger compliance for accredited sponsors – we were advised to expect a tighter management of sponsorship obligations and enforcement
- All sponsored, full-time employment completed while holding a subclass 457, 482 (TSS or SID) or eligible bridging visa counts towards the 2 year work experience requirement
- Eligible sponsored employment in other positions and occupations can be counted towards the work experience requirement
- Processing times vary greatly with a median processing time of 13 to 71 calendar days
It is interesting to note that since last July 2024 the processing times have been quite fluid. The government advised us that with the introduction of the Specialist Skills Stream (applicants paid over $130,000) last November that the average processing times would be one week – yes one week. Well, we knew that we have more luck of winning Tatts than seeing the 1 week processing time come to fruition and of course we were right. As of today, 31 March 2025, the average published processing time is 50% are decided within 3 months and 90% within 8 months.
