From a 457 Visa to Permanent Residency: What's Left of the Old Rules

Why this question still comes up in 2026

The 457 was Australia's main employer-sponsored temporary work visa for two decades before its replacement. Its closure on 18 March 2018 was not retrospective — existing 457 visas kept running on their original conditions until they expired, were cancelled, or the holder moved to another visa. Grant periods of up to four years mean the last new 457 grants, made in the days before closure, would have expired by around 2022. A small number of people may still hold one if their grant was extended by an unusual event (drawn-out processing of a related application, for example), but for almost everyone reading this in 2026, "my 457" now means either a visa they held in the past, or the current 482 that they're calling by its old name out of habit.

Either way, the practical question is the same: how does someone with 457-era history reach permanent residency now. The honest answer has two parts — what special rules existed for 457 holders, and what happened to those rules.

The transitional concessions that existed — and why they no longer help

When the 457 closed, the government did not strip away the permanent residency prospects of people who already held one. A legislative instrument (IMMI 18/052) preserved modified criteria for the subclass 186 Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) stream for anyone who held, or had applied for and was later granted, a 457 visa on or before 18 April 2017. The modified criteria were genuinely more generous than the standard rules of the time: an age limit of under 50 at application rather than the standard 45, only two of the prior three years needing to have been spent with the sponsoring employer rather than three of four, and relief from having to check the nominated occupation against the current skilled occupation list.

Those concessions had a hard stop. The instrument that created them was repealed, and the deadline to lodge a permanent visa application under the transitional arrangements was 18 March 2022. That date has passed. If you did not lodge your 186 TRT application by then, the concessional criteria are no longer available to you — not because of anything you did wrong, but because the transitional window itself closed. Anything you read describing the "under 50" age relief or the "two of three years" rule as currently available is describing a rule that stopped applying in March 2022.

What actually applies now if you once held a 457

If you are relying on 457-era history today, you are assessed against the current, standard criteria for whichever visa you're applying for — the same rules that apply to someone whose migration history started on a 482. There is no live "457 legacy" queue. What does carry forward is your work history: time spent employed with an approved sponsor, in a skilled position, at the appropriate level, is generally the kind of experience that can count toward standard work-experience requirements on a later visa, provided it's evidenced in the normal way (payslips, superannuation records, a reference from the employer, tax records). The visa subclass the work was done on does not disqualify it — what matters is what the work actually involved and how well it's documented.

What does not carry forward automatically is any assumption about age limits, occupation lists, or how many years of sponsored work you need. Those are set by whichever visa's current criteria you're being assessed against, published on the Department of Home Affairs website and updated periodically. Anyone with 457-era history should treat their current application as being judged entirely on today's settings, not the settings that existed when they were first sponsored.

The two standard 186 pathways available today

The Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) is still the main route from employer-sponsored temporary work to permanent residency, and it has two relevant streams. The Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) stream is for people who have worked for their nominating employer on a 482 (or, historically, 457) for the qualifying period — currently two years, reduced from three in November 2023 — in the position being nominated, and who are under 45 at the time of nomination unless a specific age exemption applies. The Direct Entry stream doesn't require you to have held a temporary sponsored visa at all: it needs a positive skills assessment in the nominated occupation, generally at least three years of relevant skilled work experience, and an employer willing to nominate you.

For someone with 457-era work history and no live transitional concession, the practical route in is usually TRT if you're currently on a 482 with the same employer, or Direct Entry if you have the assessed skills and experience but a different employer relationship. Our dedicated guide on moving from 482 to 186 covers both streams in full, including the current age settings and how the required years of experience are counted — it's written for exactly this transition and there's no reason to duplicate it here.

If you're actually asking about a 482

If what you're really holding is a 482 (Skills in Demand) visa and "457" is just the name you've always used for employer-sponsored work visas, the guidance above still applies in substance: no special legacy concessions, current 186 TRT or Direct Entry criteria, and your work history counting on its merits. What's different is that a 482 holder has an unambiguous current visa with published conditions, occupation list membership and income threshold requirements that are worth checking directly rather than assumed from an older visa's settings — the Core Skills Occupation List and Core Skills Income Threshold that govern the 482 today (currently $79,423 from 1 July 2026) did not exist under the 457 system and are not backward-compatible with it.

What to check before assuming anything

Three things are worth confirming before making any decision based on 457-era history: whether your current visa (482, bridging, or something else) is what you think it is — check VEVO, not memory; whether any 186 application you're contemplating needs to rely on the standard TRT or Direct Entry criteria rather than the transitional concessions that ended in March 2022; and whether your documented work history actually covers the years and skill level the current criteria require. None of these are things a general article can answer for your specific case. A MARA-registered migration agent can review your visa history, your current status, and your work evidence, and tell you which of the current 186 pathways fits — and whether the closed transitional window affects you at all.

A short timeline, for context

18 March 2018: the 457 closes to new applications, replaced by the Temporary Skill Shortage visa (482). 18 April 2017: the cut-off date for whether transitional 186 TRT concessions could apply to a 457 holder at all — you needed to have held or applied for your 457 on or before this date. 18 March 2022: the deadline for actually lodging a permanent visa application under those transitional concessions — after this date the concessional criteria stopped being available to anyone, regardless of when their 457 was granted. 7 December 2024: the 482 is rebuilt into the Skills in Demand visa, with its own Core Skills Occupation List and income thresholds that have no direct equivalent under the old 457 system. Lining your own dates up against this timeline is the fastest way to work out which rules, if any, from the 457 era might still be relevant to you — and for most people reading in 2026, the honest answer is none of them.

Can I still use the old 457 transitional rules to get PR?

No. The transitional concessions for 457 holders — the under-50 age relief and the reduced two-of-three-years work requirement — required lodging a permanent visa application by 18 March 2022. That deadline has passed and the legislative instrument creating the concessions has been repealed.

Does my old 457 work experience still count for anything?

The work itself can generally still count as evidence of relevant experience for a current visa, provided it's properly documented. What no longer applies is any special treatment because the work happened to be done on a 457 rather than a later visa.

Is the 457 visa still available?

No. The 457 stopped accepting new applications on 18 March 2018. It was replaced by the Temporary Skill Shortage visa (482), which was itself restructured into the Skills in Demand visa in December 2024.

I still hold a 457 — what should I do?

This is now rare given typical grant periods, but if it applies to you, you're assessed against current criteria for whatever visa you apply for next, with no transitional relief. Get your visa checked on VEVO and speak to a MARA-registered agent about the current 186 TRT and Direct Entry criteria before your visa expires.

What's the difference between the 457's transitional TRT rules and today's TRT rules?

The transitional rules (available only until March 2022) allowed an age limit of under 50 and counted two of the prior three years with the employer. The current standard TRT stream uses an age limit of under 45 (with specific exemptions) and requires two years with the employer as sponsor — reduced from three in November 2023, but under the standard, non-transitional criteria.

Can a 457 holder still apply for the 186 Direct Entry stream?

Direct Entry has never depended on having held a 457 or any other temporary sponsored visa — it requires a positive skills assessment, generally three years of relevant skilled work experience, and an employer nomination. Someone with 457-era work history can use that history as evidence for Direct Entry the same way anyone else would.