Skills in Demand (482): getting a sponsored job in Australia from Tanzania

The 482 at a glance

When electricians, cooks, carpenters, welders, nurses and engineers from Tanzania take a sponsored position in Australia, this is normally the visa they hold.

Its official name is the Skills in Demand (SID) visa, subclass 482. It lets an Australian business sponsor a skilled person if it cannot find a suitably skilled Australian for the role. The visa is temporary, with a maximum of 4 years; anyone wanting more time on a 482 needs a new nomination by the employer and a new application of their own.

It is divided into three main streams:

• Core Skills covers occupations that appear on the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL). The trade, hospitality and building jobs advertised here mostly fall under it.
• Specialist Skills is meant for higher-paid roles in certain occupation groups, with pay at or above the Specialist Skills Income Threshold (AUD 146,576 (figure as of October 2026; source: government page)). It is closed to trades workers, machinery operators and labourers.
• Labour Agreement applies to workers nominated by an employer with a labour agreement signed with the Australian Government; the agreement can contain its own conditions.

Core Skills stream requirements

All of the points below must be met.

• A sponsor. Your employer is an approved sponsor (or has applied to become a Standard Business Sponsor) and puts you forward in a nomination.
• A listed occupation. The job appears on the Core Skills Occupation List and genuinely needs what you can do.
• Enough pay. You receive the Annual Market Salary Rate, and that sum cannot be lower than the Core Skills Income Threshold of AUD 79,423 for nominations lodged from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 (figure as of October 2026; source: government page). It also has to match the pay of an Australian doing that work.
• Experience. 1 year or more in the nominated occupation, or one closely related to it (details further down).
• English, health and character. You satisfy each of these and hold adequate health insurance for your whole time in Australia.
• Age. No minimum and no maximum applies to the 482.

Measure yourself against real vacancies at jobs with sponsorship in Australia.

Experience, qualifications and assessments

For Australia, the work you have really done weighs as much as the paper certificates you hold.

• Experience: at least 1 year, in the nominated occupation or a related one, inside the last 5 years. Interruptions are acceptable as long as the combined full-time work adds up to 12 months.
• Qualifications: those your occupation demands. When the job calls for an Australian licence or registration, you must hold it too. Electrical and plumbing work are among the trades requiring a state licence, and nurses must register with the Australian regulator since Tanzanian registration does not transfer on its own.
• Skills assessment: some occupations need one, usually done by VETASSESS or Trades Recognition Australia (TRA). Tanzanian awards, a NECTA or VETA certificate or a finished apprenticeship for example, are normally assessed once more and never count as automatically equal to an Australian licence. Where an assessment applies, it has to be under way when you lodge or the application is invalid, and it must be dated in the 3 years before you apply. Begin early.
• No assessment required? Home Affairs may nonetheless request other evidence, such as certificates, licences, references and your CV.

The English requirement

Unless you are exempt (see below), English is a condition of both the Core Skills and Specialist Skills streams. Anyone who must take a test needs at least the following in every component, for tests sat from 13 September 2025 (figure as of October 2026; source: government page):

• Who is exempt: holders of passports from the UK, Canada, New Zealand, the US or the Republic of Ireland, and anyone who has completed 5 years or more of full-time study at secondary level or higher, mostly in English. Tanzania does not appear among those passports, which is why most applicants from Tanzania sit a test. An employer or registration body may still ask for English evidence of its own.
• How recent: the result has to be from within the 3 years before you apply.
• Where to sit it: at a test centre. Tests taken at home or wholly online, IELTS Online among them, are not accepted.
• Other accepted tests: CELPIP General, LANGUAGECERT Academic, the Michigan English Test and some more are also recognised by Home Affairs, each with minimums set out on the official page.
• Labour Agreement stream: the agreement may set another level.

Health cover and police clearance

• Health: each person on the application must satisfy the health requirement, usually by taking health examinations. The results are generally good for 12 months.
• Insurance: you must have adequate health cover from the day you arrive and for the whole of your stay.
• Character: it covers you and any family member who is 16 or older. In the usual case you provide a police certificate from each country where your time adds up to 12 months or more during the 10 years since you turned 16. Your time in Tanzania calls for a police clearance certificate from the Tanzania Police Force, and a long enough stay elsewhere calls for that country's certificate as well.

The route from job advert to first shift

1. Labour market testing. As a rule, the employer runs at least 2 adverts in Australia, each for 4 weeks or longer, in the 4 months leading up to the nomination (labour market testing).
2. Selection. You apply, are interviewed (often on a video call from Tanzania) and receive the offer.
3. Sponsor approval. A business that is not yet an approved sponsor obtains that status.
4. Nomination. The employer submits it and gives you the Transaction Reference Number (TRN).
5. Your documents. Passport, proof of skills (plus a skills assessment where required), English evidence or the exemption that applies, your police certificate and any others, references and translations.
6. Lodging. In ImmiAccount you enter the TRN and pay the visa charge.
7. Biometrics and health examinations follow whenever Home Affairs calls for them.
8. The decision. A visa cannot be granted before the nomination is approved.
9. First day of work. It must fall within 90 days of your arrival in Australia, or of the grant if you are already in the country. Plan your notice, your housing and your flights around that deadline.

Waiting times and costs

Waiting times (figure as of October 2026; source: government page) as shown by the Home Affairs processing-time tool:

The tool changes often, and an individual case may go faster or slower. Do not forget the time before you lodge: securing the job, sponsorship and nomination, a skills assessment or licence, and police certificates may each take weeks.

Visa charge: AUD 4,015 for the main applicant and the same for each family member aged 18 or over, AUD 1,005 for each one under 18 (figure as of October 2026; source: government page). Health examinations, police certificates, biometrics and an English test are extra. Since 1 July 2026 eligible citizens of Timor-Leste and the Pacific Island countries have paid a reduced charge.

Life on a 482

• The work itself. You perform the nominated occupation for your sponsor or, in some cases, an associated entity.
• When to begin. Inside 90 days.
• When employment ends. You have up to 180 days to line up a new sponsor or depart Australia.
• Costs and your rights. Your sponsor pays for its own sponsorship, nomination and recruitment and may not claim that money back from you (sponsor obligations). Your workplace rights are those of any other worker in Australia: worker rights.

Partner and children

• Eligible relatives: a partner, and dependent children who may be yours or your partner's.
• What they may do: after their visas are granted, live, work and study in Australia.
• What the sponsor does: it includes each relative in the nomination, or agrees in writing to sponsor them.
• Name everyone at the outset: after you lodge, nobody can be added. Someone who comes later has to apply separately as a subsequent entrant.
• Charges and checks: every person pays a visa charge (see above) and takes health checks, and character checks begin at 16.

Moving from the 482 to permanent residence (subclass 186)

The usual way for a 482 holder to settle is the Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme visa, subclass 186, which is a permanent visa. These are its conditions (figure as of October 2026; source: government page):

• Visa held: a subclass 482 (or a 457), or an eligible bridging visa.
• Years with your sponsor: 2 or more of eligible work for them in the 3 years preceding your application.
• Nominating employer: your latest full-time sponsor under a 482 or 457, with a nomination for you approved in the 6 months before you apply.
• Age: generally below 45 on the day you apply.
• English: Competent English or better, for example IELTS 6 in listening, reading, writing and speaking each (Competent English). That page lists every way to prove it.

Charges for the 186 visa start at AUD 6,140 (figure as of October 2026; source: government page). Rules are adjusted from time to time, so read the official page before planning your future around them.

Getting ready from Tanzania

You can gather most of these papers during the interview stage; there is no need to wait for a nomination. The list reflects what the Department of Home Affairs, the body that decides Australian visas, expects from an applicant living in Tanzania.

1. Your passport. Make sure the spelling of your name is the same as on every certificate; if it changed, add the marriage certificate or deed poll that shows why. A passport close to expiry should be renewed before lodging, because the visa is attached to the passport number you apply with.
2. Police certificates. Add up your time in each country since your 16th birthday. Wherever the total over the last 10 years reaches 12 months, Australia expects a certificate from that country. Tanzania means a police clearance certificate from the Tanzania Police Force; if you also spent a year or more working in the UAE or South Africa, for instance, you will need one from there too. The Home Affairs police certificate list shows the process for each country. Certificates normally count for 12 months after they are issued (character requirements).
3. Proof of what you can do. Gather your NECTA or VETA awards, apprenticeship or attachment records, degrees, licences and trade cards. None of them is taken as equal to an Australian licence just because it is genuine. They are usually looked at again in Australia, and trades like electrical and plumbing add a state licence on top. If your occupation needs a skills assessment, put it first on your to-do list.
4. Employer references. Ask each past employer for a signed letter on company letterhead showing who wrote it, their position and contact details, your job title and your start and finish dates. Home Affairs also wants an English CV that accounts for at least the last 5 years.
5. English. Tanzania is not among the passports that satisfy Australia's English requirement automatically, so book an approved test (the scores are listed in the English section of this guide) unless another exemption fits you, and check the visa page before choosing a date. An employer or a registration body may add its own English conditions.
6. Translations. Documents from Tanzania normally come in English already, so translation mostly concerns anything written in another language, such as Swahili. The translator does not need Australian accreditation if working outside Australia, but the translation has to state their full name, address, phone number, qualifications and experience. Expect to be asked for certified copies of the originals as well.
7. Scans in colour. Scan every page of every document in full. It saves a lot of trouble on the online form.

Employed right now? Stay where you are until Australia has made its decision. Read your contract for the notice period so you know when to resign.

Scams and errors that lose visas

Scams targeting would-be migrants to Australia share a pattern. A social media message or a professional-looking website promises sponsorship or a visa, provided you pay first. Work only with real employers, and do not pay anyone to "arrange" a job or a visa.

• A visa cannot be guaranteed. Home Affairs says so itself. Australia does not issue "work permits" or put visa stickers in passports, so a person offering either is lying.
• Sponsorship cannot be bought. A sponsor may not pass its sponsorship, nomination or recruitment costs on to you. Offering, asking for or paying a benefit in exchange for sponsorship is against the rules, and doing so within the last 3 years can block a 482 grant.
• Only some people may charge for advice. In Australia that means registered migration agents (RMAs) and Australian lawyers. Search the OMARA register before you hand over money (choosing a migration agent).
• The visa charge is paid in ImmiAccount. There is no separate government fee for "issuing" a visa.
• Mistakes that sink applications: an occupation your work history cannot support; an expired English result or police certificate; a partner or child left off the form (nobody can be added once you lodge); and names or dates that do not match from one document to the next.

The official advice is at visa scams (Home Affairs) and what you need to know (Home Affairs).

Frequently asked questions

How many years does a 482 allow?

4 years at most. To remain longer on a 482 your employer has to nominate you afresh, and you have to apply again.

How much experience do I need?

At least a year in the nominated occupation or a related one, within the past 5 years. Breaks are fine provided the full-time work totals 12 months or more.

Do I have to sit IELTS or PTE?

Probably. The exemption is limited to passport holders from the UK, Canada, New Zealand, the US and the Republic of Ireland (as of October 2026); Tanzania is not included, although five years of full-time study at secondary level or higher, mostly in English, can exempt you too. If you do sit a test on or after 13 September 2025, you need IELTS 5.0 in every part, or PTE Academic 33 in listening, 36 in reading, 29 in writing and 24 in speaking. See the Home Affairs English page. Employers and registration bodies may still request their own proof.

Which police certificate is required for Tanzania?

A police clearance certificate from the Tanzania Police Force. You also need one from each other country in which you spent a total of 12 months or more during the last 10 years since turning 16. Procedures per country are on the Home Affairs country list.

I am a nurse registered in Tanzania. Can I start straight away?

No. Your Tanzanian registration does not transfer, so register with the nursing regulator in Australia first. The advert states what the employer requires.

Is there a maximum age?

Not on the 482. The permanent subclass 186 (TRT stream) usually does require you to be under 45, though.

What is the price of a 482?

As of October 2026: AUD 4,015 for the main applicant and each family member 18 or older, and AUD 1,005 per child under 18, with tests, health examinations and police certificates on top. Check the Home Affairs page.

What if my sponsored job comes to an end?

You have up to 180 days in which to find another sponsoring employer or leave Australia.

Is permanent settlement possible later?

It may be. 2 years of sponsored work within the last 3 can open the TRT stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186), provided your employer nominates you and you satisfy the age and Competent English conditions.