Employer sponsors a skilled worker — Skills in Demand visa

Three separate applications about one job. The published percentiles are the finding: the same nomination decision takes 5 days at the median and 9 months at the 90th percentile, and the difference is whether anyone asks a question.

migrationAn Australian employer sponsoring an offshore worker in the Core Skills stream of the subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa draft compare across jurisdictions

171 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

8 discrete steps
across 3 bodies

40% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

33 days saved by concurrency
vs. 204 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

queue	69d	Waiting behind unrelated work in a backlog.
third party	45d	Waiting on an external body outside the regulator's control.
applicant	45d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.
assessment	12d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.

69 of 171 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: An employer seeks to sponsor a skilled worker from overseas.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Skills assessment assessment only if triggered Assessment of qualifications and experience against the nominated occupation. Triggered when: The nominated occupation or visa stream requires a skills assessment.	Skills assessing authority	queue	—	90 estimate	—
2	Standard business sponsorship approval registration Approval of the employer as a sponsor. Attaches to the business, not the worker.	Department of Home Affairs	assessment	—	12 p90 120d published	Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth)
3	Labour market testing notification Advertise the position for the required period and retain evidence. after Standard business sponsorship approval 131d slack	—	statutory	—	28 estimate	Migration Act 1958 (Cth)
4	Nomination of the position application The employer nominates the specific position, with a genuine position statement, salary evidence and labour market testing evidence. after Labour market testing 126d slack	Department of Home Affairs	assessment	—	5 p90 270d published	—
5	Health examinations and police certificates certification Medical examination with a panel physician and police clearances from each country of residence. after Standard business sponsorship approval 114d slack	—	third party	—	45 estimate	—
6	Visa application and decision decision The worker applies; the department decides. after Nomination of the position, Health examinations and police certificates 45d slack	Department of Home Affairs	queue	—	69 p90 300d published	Migration Act 1958 (Cth)
7	Travel, arrival and commencement registration after Visa application and decision	—	applicant	—	45 estimate	—
8	Application to the Administrative Review Tribunal appeal only if triggered Merits review of a refusal. Triggered when: The nomination or visa is refused and the decision is reviewable. after Visa application and decision	Administrative Review Tribunal	queue	—	365 reported	Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 (Cth)

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Proposed changes

Empty the tribunal from the top, not the bottom remove ~450d
In 2025-26, 64 per cent of NDIS cases before the Administrative Review Tribunal resulted in a changed outcome. A review body that alters two thirds of the decisions it examines is not a backlog to be cleared. It is an instrument measuring the quality of the decision being reviewed.
One application about one job, not three merge ~40d
Sponsorship, nomination and visa are three separate applications, with three separate fees and three separate queues, examining one employer, one position and one worker. Two of the three are frequently decided by the same officer on the same day.
Validate visa applications at lodgement instead of asking questions later digitise ~180d
The same nomination decision takes 5 days at the median and 9 months at the 90th percentile. The difference is not case difficulty — it is whether a document was missing and the department had to ask. That is a validation problem, and validation is the one thing software is genuinely good at.

Sources

Department of Home Affairs, published processing times, August 2026: standard business sponsorship 50 per cent in 12 days and 90 per cent in 4 months; subclass 482 nomination 50 per cent in 5 days and 90 per cent in 9 months; Core Skills stream visa 50 per cent in 69 days and 90 per cent in 10 months; Specialist Skills stream 50 per cent in 8 days and 90 per cent in 43 days
Ministerial Direction 119, in force from 25 July 2026
Migration Act 1958 (Cth); Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth)

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/au-skilled-visa-sponsored.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.