Can an Aged Care Worker With a Cert III Get a 482 Visa in Australia?

Our broader guide on employer sponsorship for the 482 visa covers the standard Core Skills mechanics, but this article focuses on the specific pathway that actually applies to aged care and direct care roles.

Why Your Occupation Is Not on the Core Skills Occupation List

On 7 December 2024 the Temporary Skill Shortage visa was replaced by the Skills in Demand visa, still Subclass 482, now with three streams. The Core Skills stream is the one most sponsored workers use, and it runs off a single occupation list called the Core Skills Occupation List, which contains roughly 456 occupations.

The three direct care occupations are not on it. Aged or Disabled Carer, Nursing Support Worker and Personal Care Assistant all sit outside the CSOL, which means no employer can nominate you under the Core Skills stream regardless of how good your qualification is or how badly they need you.

There is a second reason the standard route would not work even if the list changed. The Core Skills stream carries an income threshold of AUD 76,515 for applications lodged up to 30 June 2026, rising to roughly AUD 79,500 from 1 July 2026. Award rates for a Certificate III level care worker do not reach that figure in a full-time role. The occupation list and the salary floor block the standard pathway independently of each other.

This is why a separate arrangement had to be created, and it is why so much of the advice you find online is subtly wrong. People describe the general 482 requirements, which do not apply to you, and skip the agreement that does.

The Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, in Plain Terms

A labour agreement is a negotiated arrangement between the Australian Government and an individual employer that allows that employer to sponsor workers in occupations the standard program does not cover. The Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, usually shortened to ACILA, is the industry version built specifically for direct care roles.

It covers three occupations, and only three. If your role does not fall into one of them, the agreement does not help you.

The concessions built into ACILA are the entire point of it, and they are considerably more forgiving than the standard program.

What You Personally Need to Qualify

Set the employer question aside for a moment. On your side, the requirements are narrower than most people expect.

Qualification or Experience

You need a relevant AQF Certificate III or an equivalent or higher qualification. Alternatively, twelve months of relevant full-time work experience, or the part-time equivalent, can substitute for the qualification. A Certificate III in Individual Support is the industry standard qualification and it meets this requirement directly.

Skills Assessment, and When You Can Skip It

This is the point where being an Australian graduate makes a genuine difference. A positive skills assessment is required only where you obtained your qualification overseas, or where you are relying on work experience instead of a formal qualification. If you completed your Certificate III at an Australian provider, you are not required to obtain one.

English

The ACILA English requirement is well below the standard 482 requirement. IELTS 5.0 overall with 5.0 in speaking and listening and 4.5 in reading and writing is achievable for most people who have completed vocational study in Australia. Equivalent tests are accepted.

Health and Character

Standard requirements apply here with no concessions. Health examinations and police certificates from every country you have lived in for twelve months or more over the past ten years.

Core Skills, ACILA and DAMA Compared

The three streams sit side by side but only one or two are realistically available to a Cert III aged care worker. This table makes the differences concrete.

Thirteen DAMAs operate across Australia, each with its own occupation list and concessions. If you are working in a regional area rather than Melbourne or Sydney, the DAMA route is worth checking before you assume ACILA is your only option.

The Real Bottleneck Is Your Employer, Not You

Almost everyone approaches this backwards. They spend months worrying about their English score and their qualification, when the deciding factor is a question they could answer in one conversation.

For you to be sponsored, your employer needs two things. They need to be an approved sponsor, and they need to hold an Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement or an individual DAMA labour agreement. Getting an ACILA is not a form-filling exercise. The provider must first negotiate and sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the relevant industry unions, which include the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the United Workers Union and the Health Services Union. Only then can they request the agreement from the Department of Home Affairs.

As at 30 June 2025 there were 132 Aged Care Industry Labour Agreements in effect across Australia, with capacity for more than 30,000 direct care workers. That capacity is substantial. The number of providers holding an agreement is not, when set against the thousands of aged care and disability providers operating nationally.

The Three Questions to Ask Your Employer

• Are we an approved sponsor with the Department of Home Affairs?
• Do we hold an Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, or have we applied for one?
• Have we sponsored anyone before?

A manager who does not know the answers is not a no. It usually means the conversation has never been had, and providers do apply when a specific worker is on the line. If your current employer is not going to move on it and you need to find one who has, our guide on finding a new sponsor as a work visa holder is directly relevant.

What It Costs and Who Pays What

Fees are indexed annually and were last adjusted on 1 July 2026. Confirm current figures on the Department of Home Affairs pricing page before budgeting.

Where This Leads: The Permanent Residence Pathway

The 482 under ACILA is a temporary visa of up to four years, but it was designed with permanent residence in mind. After two years of full-time employment in a direct care occupation, your employer can nominate you for a Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme visa. The two years of experience are not tied to a single employer or a single visa subclass, which gives you more flexibility than most people realise.

Three conditions matter here. You must be under 45 at the time of the 186 application, since the age concession available on the 482 does not carry over. You need IELTS 5.5 overall for the 186, with no minimum band scores. And, critically, not every Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement includes a permanent residence pathway.

Your Next Steps

1. Confirm which of the three occupations your role actually falls under. This is decided by your day-to-day duties, not your job title.
2. Ask your employer the three questions above. Do this before spending money on anything else.
3. If your Certificate III was completed in Australia, gather your testamur and academic transcript. No skills assessment is needed.
4. If your qualification is from overseas, start the skills assessment early with Community Work Australia or ANMAC, depending on your occupation.
5. Sit or refresh your English test if your result is older than three years.
6. If your employer does not hold an agreement and will not pursue one, look at DAMA regions and at providers who already sponsor.
7. Check whether your employer's version of ACILA includes the permanent residence pathway.

If you are currently on a 485 graduate visa or a student visa and considering the transition, our guide on moving from a 485 to a 482 onshore covers the timing rules that apply equally to ACILA-based nominations.