Aged Care Worker Visa Sponsorship in Australia: How It Actually Works

What sponsorship actually is here

Because this occupation sits outside the standard skilled lists entirely, sponsorship is not a variant of the usual 482/186 process — it runs through a specific instrument called the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement. An aged care provider first signs a Memorandum of Understanding with a relevant industry union (the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the Health Services Union, or the United Workers Union), then applies to Home Affairs to become an Approved Work Sponsor under the agreement. Only once that agreement is in place can the provider nominate individual workers. There is no version of this where you apply directly — the agreement, and every nomination under it, belongs to the employer.

Which visas actually reach this occupation

Under the published Home Affairs template, an Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement can nominate workers for the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482, up to a four-year employment period per nomination) and, where the individual agreement includes a permanent residency pathway, the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186). The template covers three occupation codes together: Aged or Disabled Carer (423111), Nursing Support Worker (423312) and Personal Care Assistant (423313) — none of which appear on any of the four federal skilled occupation lists in Migratio's own reference data. As at 30 June 2026, the official Home Affairs labour agreement register lists 186 businesses currently holding an Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement. Some regional Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMAs) — Northern Territory, South Australia Regional and others — separately include aged and disability care occupations in their own regional occupation lists, which is a different agreement type tied to a region rather than the aged care industry specifically.

What the template actually concedes — and what it doesn't

The published Home Affairs template sets out specific, checkable concessions against the standard sponsorship rules, and it's worth being precise about them rather than assuming every concession people mention actually applies. On income, the template sets a reduced threshold of $51,222 a year for these three occupations — well under the standard 2026-27 Core Skills Income Threshold of $79,423 — provided the amount also meets or exceeds the Annual Market Salary Rate for the role. On English, the template offers two options depending on the provider: either an overall IELTS score of 5.0 for the 482 (with individual band minimums of 5.0 for speaking and listening, 4.5 for reading and writing) or, under a different provider option, an overall 4.5 with no individual band minimums; the 186 stream under either option needs an overall 5.5. On qualifications, a relevant Certificate III (or equivalent, assessed by Community Work Australia for the carer code specifically) is the benchmark, and the template explicitly allows one year of relevant work experience to substitute for the formal qualification where the person was not trained in Australia.

What the template does not concede is just as important. It states directly that no concession to the standard permanent-residence age limit applies under this agreement — a worker seeking the 186 pathway still needs to meet the ordinary age requirement, contrary to a claim sometimes repeated about aged care specifically. It also does not touch the Skilling Australians Fund levy: the employer pays the same levy, on the same turnover-based scale, as any other 482 or 186 nomination. And critically, these are the template's baseline terms — the Commonwealth can vary the specific concessions, occupations or numbers in any individual employer's actual signed agreement at any time, so the concessions a specific sponsoring provider can actually offer you may differ from the template.

What you need to have sorted first

A relevant qualification — a Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing) is the standard Australian benchmark, achievable in around six months of study, though the template allows overseas qualifications or a year of relevant work experience to stand in for it. Beyond that, an English test result meeting whichever concession level the specific employer's agreement uses (check this with the employer directly — it varies), and, for anyone seeking the eventual permanent pathway, being ready to meet the standard 186 age requirement, since no concession applies there. None of this requires a formal TRA-style skills assessment the way a trade does — for the two care-worker codes without an eligible-list listing, the sponsoring employer's own nomination evidence carries that weight instead.

How people actually find a sponsoring aged care provider

This is not a job you can search your way into from overseas in the way you might search for a nursing role, because the agreement itself — not just the position — belongs to a specific employer, and only 186 businesses nationally hold one. There is no published, current list of which 186 that is at any given moment that would still be accurate by the time you read it, and nothing on this page or anywhere else should be read as one. The honest pattern is the same as aged care hiring generally: large national providers and specific regional operators are the ones most likely to have gone through the cost of setting up a labour agreement in the first place, because they have the ongoing recruitment volume to justify it. Applying through a provider's own careers page, being clear about your qualification stage, and — as with most sponsorship outcomes on this site — already being in Australia with some work rights and Certificate III training underway, is the realistic path rather than a cold overseas application. See also Migratio's guide on occupations that sit off every skilled list, which covers the labour agreement and DAMA system this occupation depends on in more general terms.

What Migratio does and doesn't do here

Migratio has no relationship with any aged care provider, does not know which of the 186 current agreement holders has an open position, and does not place applicants with employers. The job-interest form on aged care occupation pages is a waiting list, not a live vacancy board, and registering on it does not mean a match is coming. What Migratio can do is match you with a MARA-registered migration agent for the visa side once you have a real employer relationship — checking whether a specific provider's agreement actually includes the concessions they've mentioned, and whether the nomination they're proposing is structured correctly, is exactly the kind of question worth paying an agent to answer rather than guessing at.

Is Aged or Disabled Carer on Australia's skilled occupation list?

No. It does not appear on the MLTSSL, STSOL, ROL or CSOL — none of the four federal lists reach it, at any skill level. The only sponsorship route for this specific occupation is the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, an instrument separate from the standard skilled lists entirely, held by an approved employer rather than something you can qualify onto independently.

How do I get on the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement?

You don't — the agreement is held by the employer, not the worker. As at 30 June 2026, 186 aged care businesses nationally hold one on the official Home Affairs register. There is no individual application to join an agreement and no fee that puts you on one; the only route is being nominated by a business that already holds one.

Does the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement lower the income threshold?

The published template sets a reduced floor of $51,222 a year for Aged or Disabled Carer, Nursing Support Worker and Personal Care Assistant, against the standard 2026-27 Core Skills Income Threshold of $79,423 — provided it also meets the Annual Market Salary Rate for the role. This is the template's baseline; an individual employer's actual signed agreement can vary from it.

Can I get permanent residence as an aged care worker sponsored under this agreement?

Where the specific employer's agreement includes a permanent residency pathway, yes, via the 186 after generally two years of qualifying employment. The template is explicit that no concession to the standard 186 age limit applies — an applicant using this pathway still needs to meet the ordinary age requirement, which is a detail some informal summaries of this agreement get wrong.

Is the Skilling Australians Fund levy reduced for aged care sponsorship?

No. The published template concedes the income threshold, English requirement and qualification pathway, but not the SAF levy — the sponsoring provider pays the same levy, on the same turnover-based scale, as any other 482 or 186 nomination. Migratio's SAF levy guide has the current figures.

How do I find an aged care employer who will sponsor me?

Only 186 providers nationally currently hold the agreement, and which ones have an open role changes constantly, so there is no reliable list to search. The realistic path is applying through providers' own recruitment channels — large national chains and regional operators with high recruitment volume are the most likely to hold an agreement — with a relevant qualification (or overseas equivalent, or a year of relevant experience) already in hand.

Do I need a Certificate III in Individual Support to be sponsored as an aged care worker?

It's the standard Australian benchmark and the easiest evidence for an employer to point to, but the published template also allows an equivalent overseas qualification or one year of relevant work experience to substitute for it where the person wasn't trained in Australia.