Jobs with visa sponsorship

The job comes first. The visa follows.

Most employer-sponsored visas begin not with a form, but with a job offer. What follows is a snapshot of where sponsorship is genuinely on the table right now — and, further down, how the practice manages the nomination and visa once you have found the right role.

Featured sponsored roles

Each spotlight below summarises live advertisements on Australia’s major job boards. The listings are published by the employers themselves — Mantra Migration Services is not the recruiter and has no role in hiring decisions. What we can tell you is what each role means for your visa.

The spotlights follow the occupations that actually win the most employer-sponsored visa grants — recent annual program figures are noted on each — with the regional DAMA concessions grouped at the end.

Figures checked 20 September 2026. Roles close without notice — always confirm with the employer.

Want the live job ads? Links to current sponsored roles in your occupation can be provided with your free initial CV appraisal.

Software and applications programmers

ANZSCO 2613 · 3,014 recent annual grants · 5.8% of the employer-sponsored program — the most sponsored occupation group

Visa subclass: 482 (Skills in Demand — Core Skills stream); higher-paid roles may use the Specialist Skills stream ($146,576 and above), which has no occupation list to satisfy

What employers are offering:

• Established sponsors across the capital-city technology markets, many with hybrid arrangements
• Salaries comfortably above the $79,423 Core Skills Income Threshold
• A 186 permanent application commonly supported at the two-year mark

Who can apply: Open to both onshore and overseas candidates. A degree plus solid commercial experience is the usual profile; an ACS skills assessment is needed for some pathways, including the permanent Direct Entry stream.

Check your eligibility with a free CV appraisal →

General practitioners and resident medical officers

ANZSCO 2531 · 2,906 recent annual grants · 5.6% of the program

Visa subclass: 482, with 186 permanent pathways once eligibility criteria are met

What employers are offering:

• Hospitals and general practices — many in regional and outer-suburban catchments — sponsor year-round
• Relocation support and above-threshold packages are standard in medicine
• A defined route to permanent residence for doctors who stay

Who can apply: Open to both onshore and overseas candidates. AHPRA registration through a recognised pathway is the gateway; overseas-trained doctors typically come through the competent authority or specialist assessment routes.

Check your eligibility with a free CV appraisal →

Motor mechanics

ANZSCO 3212 · 2,820 recent annual grants · 5.4% of the program

Visa subclass: 482 (Core Skills stream) or regional 494, with 186 or 191 permanent pathways

What employers are offering:

• Dealership groups, transport fleets and mining services sponsor nationwide, with demand strongest in regional WA, NT and QLD
• Relocation support, tool allowances and rostered overtime are common
• Immediate nomination for suitably qualified tradespeople

Who can apply: Overseas applicants welcome. A positive Trades Recognition Australia skills assessment is usually required before nomination.

Check your eligibility with a free CV appraisal →

Chefs

ANZSCO 3513 · 2,279 recent annual grants · 4.4% of the program

Visa subclass: 482 (Skills in Demand — Core Skills stream), with a 186 permanent pathway after two years

What employers are offering:

• Sponsorship for experienced chefs and cooks at regional pubs, aged-care kitchens and restaurant groups in QLD, SA and VIC
• Salaries that must meet the Core Skills Income Threshold — $79,423 for nominations lodged from 1 July 2026, or the market rate if higher
• Regional employers commonly add accommodation or relocation help

Who can apply: Open to both onshore and overseas candidates. A trade qualification and solid commercial experience are expected; some pathways require a skills assessment.

Check your eligibility with a free CV appraisal →

Registered nurses

ANZSCO 2544 · 1,490 recent annual grants · 2.9% of the program

Visa subclass: 482, or 186 under an Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement — both with a permanent residence pathway

What employers are offering:

• Hospitals and aged-care providers — including St Vincent’s Health, Estia Health, Whiddon and Roshana Care — recruit internationally with sponsorship
• A stated pathway to permanent residence, often written into the offer
• Relocation support is common for regional facilities

Who can apply: Open to both onshore and overseas candidates. AHPRA registration, or an application well under way, is essential; the permanent Direct Entry stream also asks for an ANMAC skills assessment.

Check your eligibility with a free CV appraisal →

DAMA roles — regional concessions, grouped

Visa subclass: 482 or 494 under a Designated Area Migration Agreement

What employers are offering:

• The Northern Territory agreement alone covers around 325 occupations, including semi-skilled hospitality, transport and agriculture roles
• South Australia’s two agreements add aged care, agriculture, hospitality and trades
• Concessions on English, salary and age, with permanent residence pathways under the agreements

Who can apply: Open to both onshore and overseas candidates, through employers endorsed under a DAMA. The role — and the visa — stay tied to the designated region. Note that many DAMA-backed roles are advertised without the label, so a job-board search understates what is out there — this is exactly the kind of role worth checking with us first.

Check your eligibility with a free CV appraisal →

These spotlights describe advertisements published by third-party employers and job boards. Mantra Migration Services is not a recruiter, receives no fee for featuring any role, does not charge candidates for access to jobs, and cannot guarantee any job or visa outcome. Always verify a role directly with the employer before applying.

Understanding the visas behind these roles

Every role above sits on one of three visa frameworks. Which one an employer uses changes the salary floor, the pathway to permanent residence, and what happens if the job ends. A short orientation follows; our employer-sponsored visas guide covers each in more depth.

Subclass 482 — Skills in Demand

The 482 is the workhorse of sponsored employment: a temporary visa of up to four years, tied to an approved sponsoring employer and a nominated occupation. It runs in three streams. The Core Skills stream covers occupations on the Core Skills Occupation List and requires a base salary of at least $79,423 for nominations lodged from 1 July 2026, or the market rate for the role if that is higher. The Specialist Skills stream is for high-earning roles paying at least $146,576, with no occupation list to satisfy. A third stream covers employers with their own negotiated labour agreements. If the employment ends, the visa holder has a limited window to find a new sponsor — the visa does not simply continue.

DAMA roles — regional concessions

A Designated Area Migration Agreement is a labour agreement between the Commonwealth and a region. Employers endorsed under a DAMA can sponsor workers for occupations — often semi-skilled ones — that the standard lists do not cover, with concessions on salary, English, and age. The trade-off is geographic: the role, and the visa, are tied to the designated region. The Northern Territory and parts of South Australia and regional Victoria run active agreements.

Subclass 186 — the permanent step

The 186 Employer Nomination Scheme is permanent residence on grant. Most sponsored workers reach it through the Temporary Residence Transition stream, after two years on a 482 with the nominating employer; a Direct Entry stream exists for applicants with a positive skills assessment and the required experience. For anyone weighing a sponsored role, the honest question is whether the position plausibly leads here — a sponsorship that can never convert to permanent residence is worth knowing about in advance.

Before you apply for a sponsored role

Three things are worth checking before investing in an application: that the employer is, or is prepared to become, an approved sponsor; that the offered salary meets the relevant income threshold and the market rate for the role; and that the occupation appears on the list the stream requires. A role advertised as “sponsorship available” does not always survive those three checks. We can assess a specific offer against them — the free CV appraisal is the simplest starting point. For a two-minute self-check first, try the visa eligibility checker.

The offer is yours to win. The visa is ours to manage.

You apply for the role through the job board, in your own name, on your own merits. That part no agent can do for you — and you should be wary of anyone who says otherwise.

What follows an offer is where the work becomes technical. Employer-sponsored visas are really three approvals in sequence, and a weakness in any one of them can undo the other two. The practice manages all three:

• Sponsorship — confirming the employer holds, or can obtain, Standard Business Sponsorship, and advising them on their obligations before anything is lodged
• Nomination — the occupation, the salary against the market rate and the income threshold, labour market testing, and the evidence that holds it together
• Visa application — your skills, English, health and character requirements, prepared once and prepared properly

Many employers are willing to sponsor but have never done it before. Part of the work is making the process straightforward for them — because a sponsor who finds the paperwork manageable is a sponsor who follows through.

Found a prospective sponsor?

Book a visa strategy assessment before you accept the offer. Thirty minutes of planning at this stage routinely saves months later. Get in touch to book, or start with the free CV appraisal.

Mantra Migration Services · Registered Migration Agent, MARN 0428682 · OMARA-registered since 2004