Sponsoring a diesel mechanic in Western Australia
Sponsoring a diesel mechanic in WA turns on two threshold questions, settled before any visa application is prepared: which occupation code correctly describes the position, and which passport the candidate holds. An imprecise occupation code weakens a nomination from the outset. An unresolved passport question tends to surface as a mandatory trade skills assessment only after recruitment is already under way — which is the more expensive time to discover it.
Neither question is difficult to resolve, and both are markedly cheaper to address at the outset than in the fifth month of a matter. This page sets out the occupation code test, the circumstances in which a mandatory skills assessment applies and to whom, the advertising the Department requires, the sponsorship obligations that bear most heavily on a mobile or fly-in fly-out workforce, and the salary requirement — each identified against the specific provision from which it derives. If you would prefer the matter handled for you, you can have a registered migration agent run the nomination from the outset.
What you call the job is not what the instrument calls it
No occupation on the relevant instrument is described as heavy diesel mechanic, and none is described as HD fitter. Employers commonly use those terms, along with variants such as heavy duty mechanic, plant mechanic and digger fitter, but none corresponds to a recognised occupation name. The Core Skills Occupation List specifies, among others:
- Diesel Motor Mechanic, ANZSCO 321212, item 325
- Motor Mechanic (General), ANZSCO 321211, item 324
- Automotive Electrician, ANZSCO 321111, item 323
- Fitter (General), ANZSCO 323211, item 338
- Fitter and Turner 323212, Fitter-Welder 323213, Metal Machinist (First Class) 323214
- Metal Fabricator, ANZSCO 322311, item 332
An occupation applies to your nominee only where the tasks the person will actually perform correspond to the tasks specified for that occupation under the relevant ANZSCO code. That is the governing test, and it is directed to the position description rather than to the terminology your industry happens to use.
A workshop role centred on stripping and rebuilding engines and drivetrain components on haul trucks and dozers is properly described by one occupation. A role concerned predominantly with assembling, fitting and aligning mechanical components is properly described by another. A role that consists largely of operating plant rather than repairing it corresponds to neither, and it is precisely this version of the role that fails scrutiny. The position description should be written against the code, not the reverse.
Source: Migration (Specification of Occupations—Subclass 482 Visa) Instrument 2024 (LIN 24/089), subsections 6(1)(c) and 6(3), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064. Made under subregulation 2.72(9) of the Migration Regulations 1994.
The code you choose can determine whether a skills assessment is mandatory
A separate instrument specifies which occupations attract a mandatory skills assessment for this visa, and for which candidates. The requirement is neither uniform across trades nor blanket in application — each occupation carries its own specified list of passport-issuing countries.
For diesel motor mechanic 321212, the assessing authority is Trades Recognition Australia, and the assessment is mandatory for a person holding a passport issued by Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Macau, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam or Zimbabwe, unless that person is an exempt applicant for the occupation. Nine countries in total.
For fitter (general) 323211, the same instrument specifies eleven: Brazil, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Macau, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
Read the two lists against one another
A candidate holding a Brazilian or Chinese passport requires a mandatory assessment for fitter (general) and does not require one for diesel motor mechanic. The same person, in the same workshop, is treated differently depending on which code applies. This is not a distinction to be exploited — the code must correctly describe the work actually performed — but it is a sound reason to settle the occupation code before committing to a recruitment timeline.
Automotive electrician 321111 is subject to the same nine passport-issuing countries as diesel motor mechanic. Motor mechanic (general) 321211 is likewise specified in the instrument, with its own class of persons.
Four circumstances take a person out of the requirement as an exempt applicant: the candidate already holds a 457 or 482 visa granted on the primary criteria and is employed in Australia in the nominated occupation; the candidate is employed overseas by an established business in the same or a similar occupation and is nominated by that company or an associated entity as a standard business sponsor; the candidate holds a qualification commensurate with the ANZSCO qualification for the occupation, obtained by study or training in Australia or in a country not named for that occupation; or the candidate has satisfied the standards set by Trades Recognition Australia under its Offshore Skills Assessment Program. A further exemption applies where the occupation requires a licence, registration or membership to be performed, and the candidate already holds it.
Where any of these applies to your candidate, it should be raised at the outset. It alters both the sequence of the matter and the shape of the first three months.
One practical observation. The assessing authority for these trades is sometimes misstated in recruitment material. For the occupations set out above, the instrument specifies Trades Recognition Australia, not VETASSESS.
Sources: Migration (IMMI 18/039: Mandatory Skills Assessment—Subclass 482 Visa) Instrument 2018, sections 5, 6 and 7, 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.
Nothing about your operating model excludes these occupations
This matters if you have been advised that sponsorship in this trade is inherently difficult, because for certain occupations it genuinely is. The occupation list attaches an applicable circumstance to some occupations, and where a listed circumstance applies to the position, the occupation does not apply to the nominee at all. This is not a matter of discretion. A chef employed in a limited service restaurant is excluded on precisely this basis, before any other criterion is considered.
None of the mechanical trades identified above carries such a circumstance. Diesel Motor Mechanic 321212, Motor Mechanic (General) 321211, Automotive Electrician 321111, Fitter (General) 323211 and Metal Fabricator 322311 each have that column left blank. Your site, your rostering arrangements and your service model do not exclude the position at the threshold stage.
This is a fact about the instrument. It says nothing about how any individual application will be decided.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsections 6(2), 6(3) and 7(2), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Advertising a diesel mechanic position before you nominate
Labour market testing applies in the ordinary manner, and the available exemptions are narrow. The period, manner and evidence of advertising the instrument requires are set out on our labour market testing page.
For a Western Australian maintenance business, this is typically the most straightforward requirement to satisfy in substance and the easiest to fail on paper. You have most likely been advertising the role on a continuous basis. What the nomination requires is evidence of advertising conducted in the specified form, within the specified window — and a permanently open, evergreen advertisement is not self-evidently either of those things.
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 on a mobile workforce
Once you are an approved sponsor, Division 2.19 of the Migration Regulations 1994 imposes ongoing obligations that continue for as long as the sponsorship remains in force. The one that bears most heavily on this workforce is the nominated occupation obligation, regulation 2.86.
A mechanic sponsored into a workshop role who spends a substantial portion of the year on-site performing different work presents a compliance exposure, not merely a staffing arrangement. Where an operation moves personnel between a metropolitan workshop, client sites and a Pilbara roster, the nominated occupation must remain accurate against what the person is actually doing. This is the point at which a genuine, well-run Western Australian maintenance business most commonly encounters difficulty, and it typically emerges well after the visa has been granted.
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 are required to pay, and the wording that governs it
A minimum salary level applies to the nomination, and the position must additionally be remunerated at the annual market salary rate — the earnings an Australian citizen or permanent resident earns, or would earn, for performing equivalent work on a full-time basis for a year in the same workplace at the same location.
The phrase "the same workplace at the same location" warrants careful attention if you operate across more than one site. A rate that is at market for a Bibra Lake workshop is not, without more, at market for a site-based role on a roster, and the comparison the nomination must withstand is against your own Australian employees performing equivalent work in the same place. Where an enterprise agreement or an award already fixes the relevant classification, that is generally the answer, and generally the more straightforward version of this question.
The charges and levy that come with a nomination are covered on our cost of sponsoring an employee page.
Source: Migration Regulations 1994, regulations 1.03 and 5.42A, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
What we would ask you at the outset
Six matters generally determine whether a matter of this kind proceeds without complication:
- what this person will do in an ordinary week, task by task, and which ANZSCO code that corresponds to
- which passport your candidate holds
- whether they already hold a 457 or 482 visa, are employed by a related business overseas, or hold a qualification from a country not named for the occupation
- where they will be based, and whether they move between the workshop, client sites and a roster
- whether you have advertised, where, and when applications opened and closed
- what an equivalent Australian employee earns in that same workplace at that same location
These six matters generally settle whether the matter can proceed on its current footing or whether something requires resolution first. That conversation costs nothing, and it commonly prevents a skills assessment being commenced against the wrong occupation.
Questions WA employers ask
We refer to the role as an HD fitter or heavy diesel mechanic. Which occupation code applies?
Neither "heavy diesel mechanic" nor "HD fitter" is the name of a recognised occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List. The list specifies ANZSCO codes such as Diesel Motor Mechanic 321212, Motor Mechanic (General) 321211, Automotive Electrician 321111, Fitter (General) 323211 and Metal Fabricator 322311. An occupation applies to your nominee only where the tasks they will actually perform correspond to those specified for the relevant ANZSCO code, so the code must be selected against the position description rather than the job title your industry uses.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsections 6(1)(c) and 6(3), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Does a diesel motor mechanic require a mandatory skills assessment?
This depends on the candidate's passport. For diesel motor mechanic 321212, the assessment is mandatory, through Trades Recognition Australia, for a person holding a passport issued by Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Macau, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam or Zimbabwe, unless that person is an exempt applicant. A candidate holding a passport not named for this occupation is not subject to this requirement on that basis.
Source: IMMI 18/039, sections 5 and 6, Compilation No. 2, compilation date 14 December 2024, F2025C00062.
Does the skills assessment requirement differ between diesel motor mechanic and fitter (general)?
Yes. Diesel motor mechanic 321212 specifies nine passport-issuing countries; fitter (general) 323211 specifies eleven, adding Brazil and China. A candidate holding a Brazilian or Chinese passport may therefore require a mandatory assessment under one code and not the other, for what may be the same person in the same workshop. The code must correspond to the work the person will actually perform — it is not a matter of preference.
Source: IMMI 18/039, section 6, Compilation No. 2, compilation date 14 December 2024, F2025C00062.
Are there circumstances in which a mechanic is not required to undergo the mandatory skills assessment?
Yes, as an exempt applicant, in four circumstances: the candidate already holds a 457 or 482 visa granted on the primary criteria and is employed in Australia in the nominated occupation; the candidate is employed overseas by an established business in the same or a similar occupation and is nominated by that company or an associated entity as a standard business sponsor; the candidate holds a qualification commensurate with the ANZSCO qualification, obtained in Australia or in a country not named for the occupation; or the candidate has satisfied the standards of Trades Recognition Australia's Offshore Skills Assessment Program. A further exemption applies where the occupation requires a licence, registration or membership that the candidate already holds.
Source: IMMI 18/039, section 7, Compilation No. 2, compilation date 14 December 2024, F2025C00062.
Does any circumstance exclude these mechanical trades, in the way limited service restaurants exclude chefs?
No. The occupation list attaches an applicable circumstance to certain occupations, and where it applies to the position, the occupation is unavailable to the nominee altogether — this is how a chef employed in a limited service restaurant is excluded. Diesel Motor Mechanic 321212, Motor Mechanic (General) 321211, Automotive Electrician 321111, Fitter (General) 323211 and Metal Fabricator 322311 each carry no such circumstance. This is a fact about the instrument, not a statement about how any application will be decided.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsections 6(2), 6(3) and 7(2), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Which sponsorship obligation presents the greatest risk for a mobile or FIFO workforce?
The nominated occupation obligation, regulation 2.86 of the Migration Regulations 1994. A mechanic sponsored into a workshop role who spends part of the year on a client site or a Pilbara roster performing different work presents a compliance exposure once that pattern departs from the nominated occupation. The obligation continues for as long as the sponsorship does, and it is assessed against what the person actually does, not against the position description at the time of lodgement.
Source: Migration Regulations 1994, Division 2.19, regulation 2.86, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
Speak with a registered migration agent
Australian Migration Co is a registered migration agent in Perth. Adam Kocoglu is a Registered Migration Agent, MARN 2418576, and acts for employers in sponsorship, nomination and visa matters across Western Australia.
Further information is available on our employer sponsored visas page, our migration agent Perth profile, and on becoming a standard business sponsor, labour market testing for a 482 visa, sponsoring a chef in Perth and sponsoring overseas nurses in WA.
We cannot tell you what a decision will be, and no registered practitioner will. We can tell you what the criteria are, what your position must satisfy, and where the risk sits before you commit expenditure to it.
This page reflects the law as at 14 September 2026. It is general information, not advice about your circumstances.