186 Visa Australia: Our Family Route, Employer Sponsored

We are moving to Australia as a family in 2026. Target visa: the 186, officially called "Employer Nomination Scheme". This is not a visa you quickly apply for online, it's a multi-stage process that doesn't work without a sponsoring employer. This article is not a manual, it's our logbook: what we've decided, why, what it has cost and where we stand today.

A lot has happened since the first entry in April. I entered on the tourist visa on 25 June, Lucy and the kids have been here since late July. And the part of the plan everything depended on is done: a business in the hinterland wants to sponsor me. Right now the nomination is in progress, the first of two applications. This update is written from exactly that point in the process.

Quick intro: I'm Christian, 37, a trained chef with seven years of self-employment. Lucy is 31 and finished her Master's in interior architecture this summer. Joris is six, Linnea two. We currently live in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Byron Bay and surrounds.

What is the 186 visa?

The 186 visa is a permanent work visa for which an Australian employer has to nominate you. Official name: "Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186)". The Department of Home Affairs lists it in their current visa overview as one of the standard routes to permanent residency when migrating through a job (Department of Home Affairs, 2026).

What that concretely means: without an employer who nominates you, there is no 186. Without 186, no permanent residency through this route. And the employer has to offer a position on the official occupation list. The list is called the "Core Skills Occupation List", and both Chef (ANZSCO 351311) and Cook (351411) are on it (as of August 2026, Core Skills Occupation List, Department of Home Affairs).

Important for us: the 186 is directly permanent. No interim visas, no time-limited work permit. Once it's granted, we are permanent residents of Australia. The route to get there, though, is long.

The three streams – which one we take

The 186 visa has three variants, officially called "streams". According to the Department of Home Affairs these are: Direct Entry Stream, Temporary Residence Transition Stream and Labour Agreement Stream (Department of Home Affairs, 2026). Which one fits depends on whether you have already worked in Australia.

Direct Entry Stream

This is our route. Direct Entry is for people who were not previously in Australia on a 482 work visa. If you come from offshore directly into the 186, this is the stream. Requirements: passed Skill Assessment, demonstrated English, employer nomination.

Temporary Residence Transition Stream

For people who have worked at least two years with the same employer on a 482 visa. A slimmer process, because you've already proven yourself in Australia. Not relevant for us, we come directly from outside.

Labour Agreement Stream

A special case. Applies when there's an individual agreement between employer and government, usually because the industry has a labour shortage. Doesn't apply to us.

Our strategy: tourist visa, then 186 onshore

This is the part we thought about longest. We deliberately decided against the direct route, against lodging the 186 from Germany. The reason: processing times. A 186 process can take more than a year. Sitting and waiting for a year, with the flat cancelled, the restaurant closed and the kids in limbo, that was not an option.

So we re-planned. Our route looked like this:

1. Enter on a free eVisitor (651) tourist visa. Available for German passports, applied for online, three months per stay, no work rights. How the application went is in our eVisitor article.
2. Find a sponsoring employer on the ground. I had the three months for that.
3. Once the sponsor is in place: nomination by the employer, then the 186 lodged onshore, together with our Migration Agent.
4. Lodging automatically creates a Bridging Visa A. It takes effect once the eVisitor ends and covers the wait until the 186 decision. From then on I am allowed to work.

The downside was obvious: in the tourist months I am not allowed to work. That means the budget has to last, rental car, accommodation, food, all out of savings. The upside, though, was decisive: once the 186 is lodged and the bridging visa kicks in, we are allowed to work and build our life in parallel instead of hanging on from Germany.

What it feels like to stake everything on this plan is part of the truth: in early June, a good two weeks before the flight, I lay awake until three in the morning for the first time. Not because of the moving boxes. Because of this one equation: tourist visa plus sponsor within three months, or the plan fails. By the next morning the optimism was back. But if you choose this strategy, you should know such nights come with it.

Our take: This decision rode on a single assumption: that we would actually find a sponsor in the tourist months. If it hadn't worked out, we would have flown back. We were aware of that, financially and mentally. This isn't a recommendation, it's our deliberate choice. Every family has different reserves, different visa options, a different time horizon. We took this route because we had lived here before, had contacts, and knew what could go wrong.

This is how it then went: the four eVisitor applications from 28 May were confirmed seconds after submitting. Entry on 25 June was uneventful, unusually short queues, not a single question. And the sponsor search, the actual core of the plan, took a good five weeks. More on that below.

Requirements: Skill Assessment, PTE, age

For the 186 in the Direct Entry Stream, the Department of Home Affairs requires three core conditions: a Skill Assessment in your occupation, demonstrated English and an age below 45 (Department of Home Affairs, 2026). Here's where we stand:

Skill Assessment as a chef – done

I passed the TRA Skill Assessment in early 2026. As a self-employed applicant it was particularly involved, because we additionally had to get tax assessments, bank statements and profit calculations translated. We've documented the whole process in a separate article: Skill Assessment as a Chef in Australia: Our Experience as a Self-Employed Applicant. The full cost breakdown is in there too.

PTE Academic – Proficient passed

I sat the PTE Academic in Hamburg on 11 March 2026 and reached Proficient. I narrowly missed Superior, individual skill scores were just below the threshold. Proficient is well above what the 186 asks for, Competent is enough there. We paid 270 € in test fees, plus travel and a bed at my brother's place, so manageable.

A retake for Superior stays an option, but not for the 186. It would be a safety net for a parallel EOI (Expression of Interest) on a points-tested visa. Whether we do it, we'll decide once the 186 route is through.

Age

The age limit for the 186 Direct Entry is 45, and the cut-off is the day you lodge your application ("on the date you lodge your application", Department of Home Affairs, 2026). Lucy (31) and I (37) are clearly under. For families emigrating later in life, this is the critical point: the closer you get to 45, the tighter the timeline becomes.

The file: both of our documents in the original

Two documents from two consecutive days: "Assessment outcome: Successful" for Chef with occupation code 351311, and an overall 89 in the English test. The lodgement confirmation goes in the same place once we have lodged. Not as decoration, but as proof that every number in this article has a real piece of paper behind it.

The Migration Agent: why we got advice

So far we've had one first consultation with Johannes Kunz, a German-speaking Migration Agent. Cost: around 250 AUD (roughly 200 €). The conversation ran long, he took his time, explained everything and answered uncomfortable questions directly. What helped us most: he didn't sell us, he stress-tested us. Which risks at which route, which stream variant for our case, where the typical pitfalls sit.

After the consultation we could keep asking questions by email. So far we've had an answer every time without additional cost. That convinced us. We'd recommend Johannes Kunz any day.

His next job starts now: once the nomination is through, he lodges the 186 application with us so no mistakes creep in. He invoices by time spent, not flat fee. As soon as we have the concrete number, we'll add it here.

Our experience: A Migration Agent is not mandatory, but for a 186 application with a family we wouldn't try it without one a second time. The cost of mistakes, say wrong stream choice or incomplete paperwork, is higher than the fee.

Costs: what is paid and what is still to come

The short answer: paid so far are around 4,120 AUD for the Skill Assessment, 270 € for the PTE and 250 AUD for the Migration Agent. The big item is still ahead: 12,280 AUD in application fees for the four of us, due at lodgement. The numbers one by one:

The application fees in detail: since 1 July 2026 the 186 costs 6,140 AUD for the main applicant, 3,070 AUD for an adult secondary applicant and 1,535 AUD per child under 18, per the official pricing tool of the Department of Home Affairs (Visa Pricing Estimator, queried August 2026). For two adults and two children that makes 12,280 AUD. When we first wrote this article in April, the same calculation came to roughly 9,825 AUD. Between planning and lodging, fees can rise, in our case by around 2,500 AUD.

Later come health checks, police clearances and our agent's fee for the lodgement. All moving costs, from flights to bond, are broken down in our cost guide. Once our 186 bill is complete, we'll add it to both articles.

Finding a sponsor: how it actually went

From Germany we had tried for months: Facebook groups, job sites like Seek and Indeed, cold emails to restaurants in the region. In hospitality this practically never works. Most places have a staffing gap, but nobody hires a chef they have never seen in their kitchen. It's different only in international corporations with an Australian arm, where HR can start a nomination from afar. In owner-run hospitality? Forget it.

So the plan was: fly over, walk in, CV on the counter. Handing over CVs in person counts as engaged in Australia, not old-fashioned. And that is exactly how it went, just faster than we thought.

In the first week I went to a German expat meet-up in Byron Bay. The advice there, in essence: walk around, be open, talk to people, hospitality is always hiring, one contact brings the next. From week two I went through the region with my CV, introduced myself, and always said openly where I stood: tourist visa, not allowed to work until later. Several businesses showed interest in sponsoring me anyway.

By late July it became concrete: Threeways of the Valley, a café restaurant in the hinterland, wants to sponsor me. Since then the business, our agent and I have been working through the applications together. That the place sits up in the hills is not a compromise for us, it's the plan: this is the region we want to live in.

And plan B? It existed, as sober as possible: had there been no sponsor in sight by the end of the three months, we would have flown back. No visa hopping with two small kids. We gave that answer often when people asked what happens if it doesn't work out. It never came to that.

The nomination: what is happening right now

The 186 consists of two applications, not one. First the employer nominates the position, only then does the employee apply for the visa. We are standing exactly between those two steps: the business is working on its part, the nomination.

186 process · station 8 of 11Nomination in progressAs of: 17.08.2026

The nomination is the part of the process an applicant barely sees, and it still decides everything. The employer lodges it online through their ImmiAccount and pays for it themselves: a 540 AUD nomination fee plus the Skilling Australians Fund levy, a one-off 3,000 AUD for businesses with an annual turnover under 10 million AUD, otherwise 5,000 AUD (Department of Home Affairs, Cost of sponsoring, 2026). For a small business that is a real commitment. One more reason we are grateful our sponsor is walking this route with us.

The salary is part of the nomination too: the nominated position has to meet at least the Core Skills Income Threshold, since 1 July 2026 that is 79,423 AUD a year (Department of Home Affairs, Salary requirements). The threshold used to be called TSMIT and is raised yearly. More than this frame we deliberately don't publish, my salary is above the threshold, and that is the only number that matters for the visa.

What surprised us while explaining it to ourselves: the "number" I am waiting for is officially called a Transaction Reference Number (TRN). It comes into existence when the employer lodges the nomination, not only when it is approved. With that TRN I can link my own visa application and don't have to wait for the nomination decision (Department of Home Affairs, 186 Direct Entry). If the nomination is approved first, one deadline applies: the visa application has to be lodged within 6 months of the approval. We coordinate both with our agent.

Family on the 186: Lucy and the kids as dependants

A big plus of the 186: family members ride along as dependants on the same application. According to the Department of Home Affairs, spouses or de facto partners and children count as "members of the family unit" (Department of Home Affairs, 2026). For us that means: I am the primary applicant, Lucy, Joris and Linnea are on the same application. If it is granted, all four of us become permanent residents at the same time.

That has practical advantages. Lucy doesn't need to build her own visa route, the kids don't either. The fees apply per person, that's the downside, but a joint process is still faster and cheaper than four separate ones. One rule is worth knowing: for adult family members without proven functional English, the Department charges a second instalment of 4,890 AUD, due only shortly before the grant (Department of Home Affairs). Proof works, for example, through an English test or a degree taught in English.

What the 186 does not bring immediately: free school and Medicare. Until the grant we pay for both ourselves, the details are in the next section. How we plan Joris starting school and Linnea's care is in this article: Moving to Australia With Kids: Our Honest Preparation.

Bridging visa and Medicare: the time in between

The months between lodgement and decision are covered by a bridging visa. An onshore application like ours automatically creates a Bridging Visa A (subclass 010). Important to understand: it doesn't start immediately, it takes effect once your current visa ends, in our case the eVisitor (Department of Home Affairs, Bridging visa A). Until then the eVisitor rules keep applying, including the work ban.

On working on the bridging visa: bridging visas that arise from an application for a permanent visa usually come without a work ban. Binding, though, is only what your own grant letter says, and that is exactly where we will look once we have it. An earlier version of this article said our agent "sets the bridging visa up with work rights". That is not how it works, the rights follow from the rules, not from something the agent applies for. We are correcting that here explicitly.

One restriction we only understood late: on an active Bridging Visa A we must not leave Australia, it does not allow re-entry. Anyone wanting to visit Germany during the wait needs a separate Bridging Visa B first. For us that means: between lodgement and decision there may be more than a year in which a spontaneous trip to Germany is off the table. Every family should know that beforehand.

And Medicare? Germany is not among the eleven countries with a health care agreement with Australia (Services Australia, Reciprocal Health Care Agreements). As an applicant for a permanent visa you can apply for Medicare once three conditions are met at the same time: application lodged, in the country, and your current visa allows you to work (Services Australia, Medicare guidelines). For us that concretely means: while the eVisitor runs we stay privately insured, only with the active bridging visa can we apply for Medicare. What our private cover looks like is in the health insurance article.

Timeline: where we stand today

Eleven stations, seven done, one in progress. We started the process in December 2025 with the first consultation at the Migration Agent. The stack below is our case file to browse, it opens at the station we are currently stuck at:

The optimistic path from here: nomination through, application lodged, bridging visa, and a decision somewhere in 2027. The realistic one: everything can shift. The department publishes official guide values, and they read like this: half of all Direct Entry applications are decided within 10 months, 9 in 10 within 14 months, and one in ten takes even longer (Global Visa Processing Times, queried August 2026). We have prepared ourselves for the possibility that more than a year sits between lodgement and grant.

What we've learnt so far

Four things we wish we'd known earlier:

1. Clarify stream choice early

The difference between Direct Entry and Transition looks small on paper, in the process it's huge. We only really understood this at the first consultation with the agent. Whoever runs off with a wrongly assumed stream, loses months.

2. Skill Assessment before anything else

Without TRA, no 186. And the TRA can, depending on the route, take months. We did it through ATTC because that's faster. Details are in our Skill Assessment article (linked above). Anyone who starts with everything else and tacks the Skill Assessment on at the end, loses time.

3. Don't try to force a sponsor from Germany

We tried for a long time to push the entire 186 application through from Germany. Are there people for whom that works? Yes, but rarely, and almost only in corporations with an Australian arm. In owner-run hospitality: don't. Saves your nerves.

4. After the sponsor's yes, a new kind of waiting begins

The yes feels like the finish line. It is actually the start of the real bureaucratic chain: nomination, visa application, bridging visa, decision. Every station has its own pace, and none of them is in your hands. If you only plan up to the sponsor search, you plan too short, financially and mentally.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the 186 visa realistically take?

The Department of Home Affairs publishes guide values for this: half of all Direct Entry applications are currently decided within 10 months, 9 in 10 within 14 months, one in ten takes even longer (Global Visa Processing Times, as of August 2026). On top of that comes the time before lodgement: Skill Assessment, English test and the employer's nomination. For us, roughly eight months sit between the first consultation and the nomination now in progress.

Can I work on a bridging visa in Australia?

Lodging the 186 onshore automatically creates a Bridging Visa A. It takes effect once your current visa ends, in our case the eVisitor. Bridging visas arising from an application for a permanent visa usually come without a work ban, but what counts is your own grant letter. On the tourist visa itself the rule stays: no work.

Can we fly to Germany while we wait?

Not on an active Bridging Visa A, it does not allow re-entry. Anyone who wants to leave Australia during the 186 wait needs a separate Bridging Visa B first. We plan for that deliberately: between lodgement and decision there may be more than a year without a spontaneous trip to Germany.

Do I really need a Migration Agent?

It's not compulsory. But a 186 application with a family is complex: stream choice, document list, deadlines, nomination and visa application have to fit together. Our first consultation with Johannes Kunz (~250 AUD) cleared up more than our own research before it. For a clear single case without a family, a self-application can work. With kids, we'd advise against.

What does the 186 visa cost in total for a family?

Since 1 July 2026 the application fees are 12,280 AUD for two adults and two children: 6,140 AUD main applicant, 3,070 AUD partner, 1,535 AUD per child (Visa Pricing Estimator, Department of Home Affairs). On top come Skill Assessment (~4,120 AUD), English test, Migration Agent, health checks and police clearances. For adult family members without proven functional English, a second instalment of 4,890 AUD can apply. All in all we still budget a low five-figure euro amount.

Why not a 482 visa first and the 186 later?

The 482 (Skills in Demand) is the more common employer sponsorship: temporary, often faster, but not permanent residency. Our Migration Agent recommended the direct 186 from the start, provided the employer agrees, because it is permanent immediately. Many employers prefer offering the 482 because it binds the employee longer. Our sponsor was willing to nominate for the 186 directly, so we skip the interim step.

Why not a points-tested visa (189 or 190)?

The points-tested visas are independent of an employer, but require very high point scores, and for cooks the competition is tight. A parallel EOI for 189/190 remains our plan B, especially if I later push the PTE up to Superior. With a sponsor found, the 186 is our main route.

Christian Schippel

Trained chef, 37, lived in Byron Bay 2017–2018. Moved back to the Northern Rivers with Lucy and the two kids in mid-2026 and is currently waiting on the 186 nomination. Writes here about visas, costs and everything that happens along the way.More about us