Sponsoring an IT professional in WA
Sponsoring an IT professional in WA does not turn on a mandatory skills assessment or a candidate's passport — for the core software, systems and cyber security occupations, neither applies. It turns on a narrower and more easily missed question: whether the job title your business actually uses maps to an occupation the instrument recognises at all. "Full Stack Developer", "Solutions Architect", "Site Reliability Engineer" and "Platform Engineer" do not appear on the Core Skills Occupation List by name, and a nomination written against the wrong code is refused on that basis alone, however strong the candidate.
This page sets out which ICT occupations are specified for a subclass 482 nomination and why the assessment and passport gates that apply to trades and hospitality roles do not apply here, each identified against the specific provision it comes from. Advertising, sponsorship obligations and salary are dealt with only so far as they bear differently on a technology team, with links to the pages that cover each in full.
Which visa pathway this page covers
The requirements set out below are those of the subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa, the pathway most WA technology employers use to sponsor a software, systems or cyber security professional. Two further employer-sponsored options exist, and which one actually suits a given hire is a question of fact, not of preference.
- Subclass 482, Skills in Demand. A temporary visa. The occupation, advertising, obligation and salary requirements described on this page are those of this pathway.
- Subclass 186, Employer Nomination Scheme. A permanent visa, and usually the pathway an employer has in mind for a developer or engineer it intends to keep on. It carries its own nomination criteria, not the criteria set out below.
- Subclass 494, Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional). A provisional visa for a position in designated regional Australia, which is specified by instrument. Whether a given WA location qualifies is a question to confirm, not assume, and this pathway has criteria of its own.
The choice carries commercial consequences as well as legal ones — different charges, different processing times, different ongoing obligations — and the advertising requirements are not identical across the three. Settle the pathway before any advertisement is placed; it is the first question our employer sponsorship service works through with a technology employer. Our employer sponsored visas page compares the three in more detail.
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. The criteria for subclasses 186 and 494 are not set out on this page; the requirements described in the sections that follow are those of the subclass 482 pathway.
What the instrument specifies for WA tech roles
None of "Full Stack Developer", "Solutions Architect", "Site Reliability Engineer", "Platform Engineer" or "Product Manager" is the name of a recognised occupation for this visa. Those titles are widely used across WA technology employers, but the Core Skills Occupation List specifies the position against an ANZSCO code, and the code has to match what the person will actually do, not the title your business has given the role. Occupations most relevant to a software or systems team include:
- Software Engineer, ANZSCO 261313, item 248
- Developer Programmer, ANZSCO 261312, item 247
- Analyst Programmer, ANZSCO 261311, item 246
- DevOps Engineer, ANZSCO 261316, item 251
- ICT Business Analyst 261111 and Systems Analyst 261112, items 242 and 243
- Cyber Security Engineer 261315 and Cyber Security Analyst 262116, items 250 and 258
- Database Administrator 262111 and Systems Administrator 262113, items 254 and 255
- Computer Network and Systems Engineer 263111 and Network Administrator 263112, items 261 and 262
An occupation applies to your nominee only where the tasks they will actually perform correspond to the tasks specified for that occupation under the relevant ANZSCO code. A role built around designing, writing and testing application code is properly described by one occupation. A role built around administering databases or network infrastructure is properly described by another. Where a role genuinely spans several — common enough on a small or growing WA team, where one engineer covers what a larger employer splits across three positions — the code has to follow whichever set of tasks actually predominates in the position, not whichever code is easiest to source a candidate against.
A trap worth naming: two similarly named items are not the same occupation
"ICT Project Manager", ANZSCO 135112, is a management occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List. "Program or Project Administrator", ANZSCO 511112, is a separate, clerical-level occupation that appears only in the mandatory skills assessment instrument discussed below, with its own narrow exemption. Confusing the two is an easy mistake for a business used to using "project manager" loosely, and it changes which requirements apply.
Write the position description from the role's actual scope of work first, then select the code that corresponds to it. Selecting the code first and writing the description to fit it is the reverse of what the instrument tests for, and it is the more common source of a weak nomination.
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.
Why no mandatory skills assessment attaches here
A separate instrument specifies which occupations attract a mandatory skills assessment for this visa, and for which candidates, by listing each occupation, its assessing authority and a class of passport-issuing countries. Not every occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List is on this second list.
Software Engineer, Developer Programmer, Analyst Programmer, DevOps Engineer, ICT Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Cyber Security Engineer, Cyber Security Analyst, Database Administrator, Systems Administrator, Computer Network and Systems Engineer and Network Administrator do not appear in the mandatory skills assessment instrument at all. No assessing authority is specified for these occupations, and no candidate is excluded on the basis of the passport they hold.
Contrast with a trade occupation
A diesel motor mechanic or a fitter is assessable by Trades Recognition Australia for candidates holding a passport from a specified list of countries, unless an exemption applies. None of that machinery exists for the software and systems occupations named above. This is a fact about which occupations the instrument lists, not a general statement that ICT nominations face no scrutiny — the occupation-code and salary questions elsewhere on this page still have to be satisfied.
The one occupation in this space that does appear in the assessment instrument is "Program or Project Administrator" 511112, at a separate item, assessed by VETASSESS for all persons other than exempt applicants. It carries its own exemption: a qualification commensurate with the occupation, annual earnings of at least AUD 180,000, and nomination by an accredited standard business sponsor. This is the occupation named in the trap above, and it is not the same occupation as ICT Project Manager 135112.
Source: 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.
Company size, contract structure and remote work change nothing
This is worth confirming directly, because it is not true of every occupation on the list. The Core Skills Occupation List attaches an applicable circumstance to some occupations, and where a listed circumstance describes the position being nominated, the occupation does not apply to that nominee at all — not as a matter of discretion, but as a matter of the instrument. A chef employed in a limited service restaurant is excluded on precisely this basis, before any other criterion is even reached.
Every ICT occupation named on this page has that column left blank. Whether your business is a five-person startup or an established WA employer, whether the engagement is structured as a direct hire or through a contracting arrangement, and whether the position is office-based, hybrid or fully remote makes no difference at the threshold stage. None of that excludes the occupation.
This is a fact about the instrument. It says nothing about how any individual nomination will be assessed on its own merits, and remote and contracting arrangements raise their own questions — about genuine employment and about where the position is actually located — that this page does not deal with.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsections 6(2), 6(3) and 7(2), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Advertising a technology role before you nominate
Labour market testing applies in the ordinary manner, and the available exemptions are narrow: at least two advertisements, in English, each commissioned or authorised by you as the approved sponsor, with applications or expressions of interest accepted for at least four weeks from first publication, all within the four months ending on the day the nomination is lodged. The placement and content rules are set out on our labour market testing page.
A tech-recruitment habit that does not satisfy this requirement on its own
A standing listing on a job board, left open and periodically refreshed, is common practice for a technology team hiring on a rolling basis. On its own it is not the two discrete, dated advertisements this instrument asks for, run within the four-month window that closes on the lodgement day. Where the actual hiring process worked this way, the advertising evidence for the nomination has to be reconstructed to fit the instrument's terms, not just described from how recruitment usually runs.
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.
Sponsor obligations when a developer's role changes
Sponsorship is three distinct approvals, not one application: you are approved as a work sponsor under section 140E of the Migration Act 1958, the position is separately approved as a nomination under section 140GB, and the professional then applies for the visa. Approval brings ongoing obligations under Division 2.19 of the Migration Regulations 1994, which our standard business sponsor page sets out.
The obligation that bears most heavily on a fast-moving tech team
The nominated occupation obligation, regulation 2.86, continues for as long as the sponsorship does. A developer sponsored as a Software Engineer who is subsequently moved into a management, product or largely non-technical role — a common progression on a small WA team as the business grows — presents a compliance exposure once that move departs materially from the nominated occupation. Internal role changes are worth checking against this obligation before they take effect, not after.
Sources: Migration Act 1958, sections 140E and 140GB, compilation C2026C00232, 4 June 2026. Migration Regulations 1994, Division 2.19, regulations 2.77 to 2.87C, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
Salary for a sponsored technology role
A minimum salary level applies to the nomination, and the position additionally has to 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. For a technology role, that comparison is usually against your own Australian developers or engineers doing broadly equivalent work, not against a national salary survey or a job board's advertised range for the title generally.
The threshold is indexed annually under regulation 5.42A of the Migration Regulations 1994, so we provide the figure applicable on the day, together with the current application charges and levy, at the first consultation. Our cost of sponsoring an employee page covers the costs of sponsorship in more detail.
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 decide whether a matter of this kind proceeds without complication. This is also, as a matter of how we work, the order we ask for them in — the position description and the roster of actual duties before a résumé, because the occupation code has to be settled against the role, not against the candidate:
- what this person will do in an ordinary week, task by task, and which ANZSCO code that corresponds to
- whether the role is genuinely one occupation, or a mix that a growing team has folded into one position
- where the position is based, and whether it is office-based, hybrid, fully remote, or engaged through a contracting structure
- whether you have advertised, where, and when applications opened and closed
- what an equivalent Australian developer or engineer earns at your business, in that same role
- whether you intend to keep the person in this occupation on an ongoing basis, or expect the role to change as the business grows
Those six matters generally settle whether the matter can proceed on its current footing or whether something needs resolving first. That conversation costs nothing, and it commonly prevents a nomination being lodged against the wrong occupation code.
Questions WA employers ask
We call the role a Solutions Architect or a Platform Engineer. Which occupation code applies?
Neither "Solutions Architect" nor "Platform Engineer" is the name of a recognised occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List. The list specifies ANZSCO codes such as Software Engineer 261313, Developer Programmer 261312 and Computer Network and Systems Engineer 263111. 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 has to be selected against the position's actual scope of work, not the job title your business uses.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsections 6(1)(c) and 6(3), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Does a software developer or systems engineer require a mandatory skills assessment?
No. Software Engineer, Developer Programmer, Analyst Programmer, DevOps Engineer, ICT Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Cyber Security Engineer, Cyber Security Analyst, Database Administrator, Systems Administrator, Computer Network and Systems Engineer and Network Administrator do not appear in the instrument that specifies mandatory skills assessments for this visa. No assessing authority is specified for these occupations, and no candidate is excluded on the basis of the passport they hold.
Source: IMMI 18/039, sections 5 and 6, Compilation No. 2, compilation date 14 December 2024, F2025C00062.
Is "Program or Project Administrator" the same occupation as "ICT Project Manager"?
No. ICT Project Manager, ANZSCO 135112, is a management occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List, and no mandatory skills assessment attaches to it. Program or Project Administrator, ANZSCO 511112, is a separate, clerical-level occupation, assessed by VETASSESS for all persons other than exempt applicants, with its own exemption requiring a commensurate qualification, annual earnings of at least AUD 180,000, and nomination by an accredited standard business sponsor. The two are not interchangeable.
Source: IMMI 18/039, section 7(4), Compilation No. 2, compilation date 14 December 2024, F2025C00062.
Does it matter if the role is fully remote or engaged as a contractor?
The occupation list attaches no exclusion for company size, contract structure or remote work to any of the ICT occupations named on this page — the applicable-circumstance column is blank for each. That makes none of them unavailable at the threshold stage. It does not resolve separate questions a remote or contracting arrangement can raise about whether the engagement is genuine employment and where the position is actually based, which are matters for the nomination itself.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsections 6(2), 6(3) and 7(2), Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
For how long must the position be advertised before we lodge?
At least two advertisements, in English, each commissioned or authorised by you as the approved sponsor. Applications or expressions of interest have to be accepted for at least four weeks from first publication, and the entire exercise has to fall within the four months ending on the day the nomination is lodged. A standing job-board listing, left open on a rolling basis, does not on its own satisfy this requirement.
Source: LIN 18/036, sections 6 to 9, Compilation No. 5, compilation date 7 December 2024, F2024C01268.
What happens if a sponsored developer moves into a management or product role?
The nominated occupation obligation, regulation 2.86 of the Migration Regulations 1994, continues for as long as the sponsorship does. A developer sponsored as a Software Engineer who moves substantially into management, product or non-technical work presents a compliance exposure once that shift departs materially from the nominated occupation. It is worth checking an internal role change against this obligation before it takes effect.
Source: Migration Regulations 1994, Division 2.19, regulation 2.86, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
What salary are we required to pay?
The position has to meet the applicable minimum salary level and be remunerated at the annual market salary rate — what an Australian citizen or permanent resident earns, or would earn, for equivalent work on a full-time basis in your workplace at your location. We do not publish the operative threshold figure on this page, because it is indexed annually and a printed figure goes stale the moment it changes. We provide the current figure, application charges and levy at the first consultation.
Source: Migration Regulations 1994, regulations 1.03 and 5.42A, 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 WA technology employers on sponsorship, nomination and visa matters.
Further information is available on our employer sponsored visas page, our visa agent Perth profile, and on labour market testing for a 482 visa.
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 has to satisfy, and where the risk sits before you commit expenditure to it.
This page reflects the law as at 23 September 2026. It is general information, not advice about your circumstances.