Sponsoring overseas nurses in WA
Sponsoring overseas nurses in WA requires two approvals under two separate laws. Registration to practise is granted by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. Sponsorship, nomination and the visa are decided by the Department of Home Affairs under the Migration Act 1958. Neither decision substitutes for the other, and the grant of a visa confers no entitlement to practise as a nurse.
For a Western Australian health employer, the migration requirements are usually the more straightforward of the two. Nursing occupies a substantial part of the Core Skills Occupation List, no nursing occupation is restricted by the type of workplace, and no mandatory skills assessment applies. What does decide a nursing nomination is the occupation code you select, the advertising you are able to evidence, the obligations you accept as a sponsor, and the salary you pay. Each of those is dealt with below, with the provision it comes from.
Registration under the national scheme comes before the visa
Establish your candidate's registration position before committing to anything else. It is the only requirement in a nursing matter that a migration agent cannot advance on your behalf, and it is decided by a body with no role in the visa process.
Nurses and midwives are regulated on a national basis. The governing legislation is the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, which appears as a schedule to an Act of the Queensland Parliament and is applied in each state and territory. Its stated object is a national registration and accreditation scheme, and one of its objectives is to reduce the administrative burden on practitioners who move between jurisdictions or practise in more than one.
Registration is granted by the National Board for the profession. For nursing and midwifery that is the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, supported by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, and the same Board is responsible for assessing applicants who trained overseas. A single registration operates across every participating jurisdiction. Your nurse does not hold, and does not need, a separate Western Australian registration.
The scheme is enforced principally through protected titles. Nurse, registered nurse, nurse practitioner, enrolled nurse, midwife and midwife practitioner are each protected, and using one of them in a way that could reasonably be expected to induce a belief that an unregistered person is registered is an offence. The provision extends to using a protected title in relation to another person, which is the exposure employers overlook. Where a roster, an advertisement or your correspondence describes an unregistered person as a registered nurse, the contravention is your organisation's, whatever the person's visa status may be.
In Western Australia the National Law has applied since 15 May 2024, under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Application Act 2024 (WA). It replaced the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (WA) Act 2010, which was repealed on the same day. Two consequences follow for an employer. Guidance written before May 2024 may cite an Act that no longer exists. And because registration is governed by the National Law rather than the Migration Act 1958, the Department of Home Affairs does not decide it, has no power to expedite it, and the grant of a visa does not confer it.
Why the registration requirements are not set out here
What an internationally qualified nurse must demonstrate, and how long an application takes, is determined by the Board's registration standards rather than by legislation, and those standards are amended from time to time. Any statement of them on this page would become inaccurate without notice and without anyone noticing. We confirm the current requirements for your candidate at the outset, which is also when an obstacle is least expensive to address.
Sources: Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, as set out in the schedule to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009 (Queensland) and applied in each state and territory: section 3 (object and objectives of the national scheme), section 31 (a National Board for each profession), section 35 (functions of a National Board, including registration and the assessment of overseas trained applicants) and section 113 with its Table of Protected Titles. Read in the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Western Australia), official consolidated version 00-d0-00, current as at 10 April 2026, applied under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Application Act 2024 (WA) from 15 May 2024.
Repeal of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (WA) Act 2010 recorded on the Western Australian legislation register, version 01-g0-00, currency date 15 May 2024. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia is constituted under the national regulations rather than named in the Law itself.
Which employer sponsored visa: 482, 186 or 494
This page sets out the requirements of the subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa, which is the pathway most Western Australian health employers use for an overseas nurse. Two further employer sponsored options exist, and the one that suits a particular nurse depends on the facts rather than on preference.
- Subclass 482, Skills in Demand. A temporary visa. The occupation, advertising, obligation and salary requirements described below are those of this pathway.
- Subclass 186, Employer Nomination Scheme. A permanent visa, and usually the destination an employer has in mind for a nurse it intends to retain. It has its own nomination criteria, which are not the criteria set out on this page.
- Subclass 494, Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional). A provisional visa for positions in designated regional Australia, which is specified by instrument. Whether a particular site qualifies is a question to confirm rather than assume, and this visa also has criteria of its own.
The choice has commercial consequences as well as legal ones. A temporary nomination and a permanent one carry different charges, different processing times and different obligations, and where the nurse is already in Australia, the visa currently held and the conditions attached to it may narrow what is available. The advertising requirements are not identical across the three pathways either, which is why the pathway should be settled before any advertisement is placed. Our employer sponsored visas page compares them in more detail. If you would rather the pathway decision and the nomination were handled for you, that is our employer sponsorship service.
Sources: Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 2, Parts 186, 482 and 494, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026. Migration Act 1958, section 140GBA (labour market testing), compilation C2026C00232, 4 June 2026.
Nursing on the Core Skills Occupation List
The Core Skills Occupation List comprises 456 occupations. Nursing accounts for a substantial part of it:
- Midwife, ANZSCO 254111
- Nurse Educator 254211 and Nurse Researcher 254212
- Nurse Practitioner 254411
- Registered Nurse across sixteen specialisations, ANZSCO 254412 to 254499, covering aged care, child and family health, community health, critical care and emergency, developmental disability, disability and rehabilitation, medical, medical practice, mental health, perioperative, surgical and paediatrics
- Enrolled Nurse, ANZSCO 411411
- Nursing Clinical Director, ANZSCO 134212
Inclusion on the list is necessary, but it is not always sufficient. The instrument attaches an applicable circumstance to certain occupations, and where that circumstance describes the position being nominated, the occupation is unavailable to your nominee. The exclusion of a chef employed in a limited service restaurant operates on that basis. For each of the nursing occupations above, no circumstance is specified. The type of facility you operate and your model of care therefore do not exclude a nursing position at the threshold.
Source: Migration (Specification of Occupations—Subclass 482 Visa) Instrument 2024 (LIN 24/089), sections 6 and 7, Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064. Made under subregulation 2.72(9) of the Migration Regulations 1994.
The nominated code must match the work the nurse will do
This is the requirement on which nursing nominations most often fail, and it is entirely within your control.
An occupation is available for your nominee only where the tasks the nominee will perform correspond to the tasks specified in the ANZSCO code nominated. The sixteen registered nurse codes are consequently not interchangeable descriptions of a single role. Each is a discrete occupation with its own task set, and the code nominated must reflect the duties the nurse will actually perform.
A nomination of Registered Nurse (Aged Care) for a position that rotates through acute hospital wards, or of Registered Nurse (Critical Care and Emergency) for a predominantly general medical role, presents the decision maker with a position description that contradicts the code beside it. The discipline that avoids this is straightforward: draft the position description from the roster, then select the code that corresponds to that description. Selecting the code first, and adapting the description to suit it, is what produces the inconsistency.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsection 6(1)(c), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Nursing requires no mandatory skills assessment
A separate instrument specifies the occupations for which a mandatory skills assessment is required for this visa. Those specified are predominantly trades, including automotive electrician, baker, carpenter, chef, cook, diesel motor mechanic, electrician, fitter and welder, together with program or project administrator.
No nursing occupation is specified.
That removes a step, and the processing time attached to it, which a trades nomination must accommodate. It has no bearing on registration, which arises under separate legislation and is unaffected by any migration instrument.
Source: Migration (IMMI 18/039: Mandatory Skills Assessment—Subclass 482 Visa) Instrument 2018, section 5, Compilation No. 2, compilation date 14 December 2024, F2025C00062. Made under subregulation 2.26B(1) and paragraph 1240(3)(g) of Schedule 1 to the Migration Regulations 1994.
Care workers are a different question
Aged care and disability providers raise this regularly, and it warrants a direct answer rather than a qualified one.
Aged care worker, personal care assistant, nursing support worker and assistant in nursing do not appear on the Core Skills Occupation List. Residential Care Officer, ANZSCO 411715, does appear, but it is a discrete occupation with its own task set and is not an alternative label for personal care work. A nomination that describes personal care duties as a Residential Care Officer position does not meet the correspondence requirement dealt with above, and it misdescribes the position to the Department.
That is a more serious matter than a drafting error, because the accuracy of what a sponsor tells the Department bears directly on the sponsorship obligations dealt with further down this page.
It does not follow that a care workforce cannot be addressed. It follows that the answer is not found on this list. Other pathways exist, they operate on different timeframes and carry different obligations, and they warrant advice of their own. Our overview of Australian visa options for health professionals is a useful starting point. What should be avoided is a workforce plan built on the assumption that care workers can be sponsored on the same basis as nurses.
Source: LIN 24/089, section 6, Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Labour market testing applies to nursing positions
Labour market testing applies to a nursing nomination in the ordinary course. Exemptions exist, they are confined, and no nursing occupation falls within them. The period, manner and evidence of advertising the instrument requires are set out on our labour market testing page.
Health employers that recruit continuously tend to satisfy this requirement in substance and fail it in evidence, because nothing was retained at the time. Keep the text of each advertisement, the platform on which it was published, and the dates applications opened and closed, as the recruitment proceeds.
Source: Migration (LIN 18/036: Period, manner and evidence of labour market testing) Instrument 2018, sections 6 to 9, Compilation No. 5, compilation date 7 December 2024, F2024C01268. Made under section 140GBA of the Migration Act 1958.
The sponsorship obligation that bears hardest in health
From approval, Division 2.19 of the Migration Regulations 1994 imposes obligations that continue for as long as the sponsorship does. The one that bears hardest in health is the nominated occupation obligation, measured against the way health services actually roster. Where nurses are moved between wards and sites, the nominated occupation must still describe the work performed. That is a matter to resolve before lodgement rather than when the Department raises it.
The approval itself, and the full set of obligations that comes with it, are covered on our becoming a standard business sponsor page.
Source: Migration Regulations 1994, Division 2.19, regulations 2.77 to 2.87C, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
What you must pay a sponsored nurse
Two requirements apply concurrently. A minimum salary level applies to the nomination, and the position must also be paid at the annual market salary rate. That rate is what an Australian citizen or permanent resident earns, or would earn, performing equivalent work on a full time basis for a year in the same workplace at the same location.
In health the market rate is usually the operative figure, because an applicable award or enterprise agreement already fixes the remuneration of an Australian nurse at that classification in that workplace. The nominated salary must be consistent with it, and the instrument that establishes the rate is one you already hold.
The charges and levy that come with a nomination are covered on our cost of sponsoring an employee page.
Source for the annual market salary rate definition: Migration Regulations 1994, regulation 1.03, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
What we establish at the first consultation
Five matters usually determine whether a nursing nomination is straightforward:
- the candidate's registration position, and where an application is pending, the stage it has reached
- the roster as it will actually operate, ward by ward, and the ANZSCO code that corresponds to it
- whether the nurse is in Australia, and if so the visa held and the conditions attached to it
- whether the position has been advertised, on what platforms, and the dates applications opened and closed
- the award or enterprise agreement covering the classification, and the remuneration of an equivalent Australian nurse
Those five answers establish whether the matter can proceed as it stands or whether something must be resolved first. In practice, the discussion most often prevents registration and advertising being commenced in the wrong sequence.
If you would prefer to form a preliminary view first, our employer sponsored visa test takes a few minutes and will tell you which of the three pathways is worth discussing.
Questions WA health employers ask
Does the nurse have to be registered in Western Australia before we sponsor them?
There is no separate Western Australian registration to obtain. Registration is national. Nurses and midwives are regulated under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, which appears as a schedule to an Act of the Queensland Parliament and is applied in each state and territory, and registration is granted by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. A single registration operates across every participating jurisdiction. In Western Australia the National Law has applied since 15 May 2024, under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Application Act 2024 (WA).
Because registration is governed by that Law rather than the Migration Act 1958, the Department of Home Affairs does not decide it, has no power to expedite it, and the grant of a visa does not confer it. The sequence appropriate to a particular candidate depends on their circumstances, which is why we establish the registration position before anything else is commenced.
Sources: Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, sections 3, 31 and 35, read in the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Western Australia), consolidated version 00-d0-00, current as at 10 April 2026. Migration Act 1958, compilation C2026C00232, 4 June 2026.
Should we sponsor the nurse on a subclass 482, 186 or 494?
It depends on the position, the site and the nurse. The subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa is temporary and is the pathway this page describes. The subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme is permanent. The subclass 494 visa is provisional and is for positions in designated regional Australia, which is specified by instrument and should be confirmed for your site rather than assumed.
Each has its own nomination criteria, charges and obligations, and where the nurse is already in Australia the visa held and its conditions may narrow the options. Settle the pathway before advertising, because the advertising requirements are not identical across them.
Sources: Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 2, Parts 186, 482 and 494, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026. Migration Act 1958, section 140GBA, compilation C2026C00232, 4 June 2026.
Which nursing occupations are on the Core Skills Occupation List?
Midwife at ANZSCO 254111, Nurse Educator 254211 and Nurse Researcher 254212, Nurse Practitioner 254411, Registered Nurse across sixteen specialisations from 254412 to 254499, Enrolled Nurse 411411, and Nursing Clinical Director 134212. The list comprises 456 occupations in total.
Source: LIN 24/089, section 6, Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Does any restriction apply to nursing positions, as it does to chefs?
No. The instrument attaches an applicable circumstance to certain occupations, and where that circumstance describes the position, the occupation is unavailable to the nominee. That is the mechanism by which a chef employed in a limited service restaurant is excluded. For every nursing occupation on the list, no circumstance is specified.
The type of facility therefore does not exclude a nursing position in the way the type of venue can exclude a chef. For nursing, the question that determines the nomination is which occupation code corresponds to the work.
Source: LIN 24/089, sections 6(2) and 6(3), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Our registered nurses rotate between wards. Which code do we nominate?
An occupation is available for your nominee only where the tasks the nominee will perform correspond to the tasks specified in the ANZSCO code nominated. The sixteen registered nurse codes are discrete occupations rather than alternative labels for one role, so the code nominated must describe the duties the nurse will actually perform.
Where a position genuinely rotates, that is a matter to resolve when the position description is drafted. Draft the description from the roster and select the code against it, rather than fitting the description to a code already chosen.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsection 6(1)(c), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Can aged care workers or personal care assistants be sponsored in the same way?
No. Aged care worker, personal care assistant, nursing support worker and assistant in nursing do not appear on the Core Skills Occupation List. Residential Care Officer, ANZSCO 411715, does appear, but it is a discrete occupation with its own task set, and nominating it for personal care duties would both fail the correspondence requirement and misdescribe the position to the Department.
That is a statement about this occupation list rather than about care workforces generally. Other pathways exist, they operate on different timeframes and carry different obligations, and they warrant separate advice.
Source: LIN 24/089, section 6, Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Does a nurse require a mandatory skills assessment?
No nursing occupation is specified in the instrument that sets out the occupations requiring a mandatory skills assessment for this visa. Those specified are predominantly trades, together with program or project administrator.
That removes a step which a trades nomination must accommodate. It has no bearing on registration, which arises under separate legislation.
Source: IMMI 18/039, section 5, Compilation No. 2, compilation date 14 December 2024, F2025C00062.
Must a nursing position be advertised before we nominate?
Yes. Labour market testing applies to a nursing nomination in the ordinary course, and no nursing occupation falls within the exemptions.
Source: LIN 18/036, sections 6 to 9, Compilation No. 5, compilation date 7 December 2024, F2024C01268.
Speak with a registered migration agent
Australian Migration Co is a migration practice based in Perth. Adam Kocoglu is a Registered Migration Agent, MARN 2418576, and acts for employers in sponsorship, nomination and visa matters throughout Western Australia.
Further information is available on our employer sponsored visas page, on the subclass 482, subclass 186 and subclass 494 pages, and on sponsoring a chef in Perth.
We cannot tell you what a decision will be, and no registered agent should suggest otherwise. What we can do is identify the criteria that apply, what your position must satisfy to meet them, and where the risk lies, before you commit expenditure to it.
This page reflects the law as at 11 September 2026. It is general information, not advice about your circumstances.