What Are Guaranteed Annual Earnings For A Sponsored Visa? AUD 250,000, And It Is The One Number That Never Moves

AUD 250,000 is the answer, and the word “guaranteed” is the searcher’s rather than the regulation’s. The Migration Regulations say “annual earnings”, and an instrument made under them specifies the amount. What matters is what crossing it does to the rest of the nomination.

Most founders meet it as a footnote in an adviser’s email and read it as a ceiling. It is closer to a switch.

Outstaffer sells the other arrangement, where the person stays home and is properly employed there, so read the rest knowing where we sit.

Where the figure comes from, and what the instrument actually specifies

Section 5 of the Migration (IMMI 18/033) instrument, compilation No. 7, dated 1 July 2026, reads: for the purposes of paragraphs 2.72(15)(b), 2.72C(15)(b) and 2.79(1A)(b) of the Regulations, the specified amount of annual earnings is AUD 250,000.

One sentence, three jobs. Paragraph 2.72(15)(b) governs a Subclass 482 nomination, 2.72C(15)(b) the Subclass 494, and 2.79(1A)(b) something else entirely: the sponsor’s ongoing obligations.

The phrase the regulation uses is “annual earnings”

The search term carries “guaranteed” because the Fair Work world uses it. Migration law does not. If an adviser quotes a guarantee, ask which instrument they are reading.

What crossing AUD 250,000 switches off

Read regulation 2.72(15) from its first line and the structure appears. It applies where the occupation is nominated in the Specialist Skills or Core Skills stream and the Minister is not satisfied the nominee’s annual earnings will reach the specified amount. Only then do paragraphs (c) to (g) bite: the annual market salary rate has to be determined under the instrument’s method, that rate has to clear the relevant income threshold, and the nominee’s earnings have to clear both.

Where the Minister is satisfied the earnings reach AUD 250,000, subregulation (15) does not impose any of it.

The sponsor obligation that stops applying

Regulation 2.79 is the obligation to ensure equivalent terms and conditions of employment. Subregulation (1A) says it does not apply to a standard business sponsor where the annual earnings of the sponsored person are at or above the specified amount.

So the figure that removes the market rate test at nomination also removes the equal-treatment obligation that runs for years afterwards. Two very different consequences, and the second is the one nobody mentions.

None of this touches the rest of regulation 2.72. The position must still be genuine, labour market testing still applies, and the sponsor must still be approved.

The number that indexes and the number that does not

Regulation 5.42A indexes exactly three amounts every 1 July, against average weekly ordinary time earnings published by the Australian Statistician. In the compilation in force from 2 October 2026 they are the core skills income threshold, the specialist skills income threshold and the temporary skilled migration income threshold.

Take all three from the Department’s website, not from the compiled text. Subregulation 5.42A(1) replaces the printed amounts on each indexation day and 5.42A(5) makes the Secretary publish the replacements, so a compilation can show a figure the regulation has already moved past.

AUD 250,000 is not on that list. It sits in a separate instrument and moves only when a minister makes an amending one.

Every floor in the scheme therefore rises with wages each July while the one ceiling stays put. The gap narrows without anyone deciding it should, so the carve-out quietly covers more roles each year.

The counter-argument worth conceding

A quarter of a million dollars is not a small business hire, so the honest objection is that none of this is your problem. Fair, for most roles. It stops being fair the moment you bid for a senior person against a company that can reach the figure, because that company runs a shorter process and carries one fewer obligation afterwards.

Related reading

• Which Visas Can My Employee Apply For Without Leaving Australia?
• Home Affairs Just Moved Your Own Employee To The Back Of The Queue

Check the instrument in force on the day you lodge, and get advice on your own situation. The useful question is not what are guaranteed annual earnings for a sponsored visa. It is which of your roles sit above the line in three years, when the line has not moved and the floors have.

If sponsorship is the wrong shape for the role, sign up and hire the person where they already live instead.