This pathway targets highly skilled professionals earning over $135,000 annually in any field except trade workers, machinery operators, drivers, and labourers. This pathway aims to attract and retain top talent in emerging and critical industries, driving innovation and economic growth.
- Targets high-earning professionals ($135,000+ annually).
- No occupation list restrictions, promoting diversity.
- Fast-track processing (7 days) with a cap of 3,000 places annually.
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Comparative Analysis of the Pathways
| Pathway | Minimum Annual Earnings | Occupation List | Processing Time | Priority Focus | Notable Features |
| Specialist Skills | $135,000+ | No Restrictions | 7 days | High-earning professionals | Fast-tracked, limited spots |
| Core Skills | $70,000+ | Core Skills List | Standard | In-demand occupations | Open to trades, pathway to PR |
| Essential Skills | Under $70,000 | Sector-Specific | Standard | Critical sectors | Stricter regulations, capped numbers |
The Specialist Skills Pathway will be available to applicants who meet the general eligibility criteria (for example, be nominated by an approved employer, and meet the health and character requirements) and who are:
- in any occupation except trades workers, machinery operators and drivers, and labourers
- earning at least $135,000 (the Specialist Skills Threshold) and no less than Australian workers in the same occupation.
This Specialist Skills Pathway will recognise that migrants entering through this pathway meet a national need that is broader than filling a narrowly defined gap in the labour market. Highly skilled migrants bring significant economic benefits. They are more likely to bring productivity enhancing knowledge and ideas, create jobs for locals and generate significant fiscal returns through taxation. They help meet labour needs that exist at an individual firm level and assist companies in acquiring specialist knowledge, niche technologies or research expertise unavailable in Australia, and skillsets not picked up in occupational definitions. These migrants are prime candidates to choose other countries if we do not provide competitive visa offerings and better compete in the global race for talent.
The Specialist Pathway threshold of $135,000 closely corresponds with the 90th percentile earnings for all workers. It is forecast that this pathway could lead to $3.4 billion in benefit to the underlying cash balance over the next 10 years, not accounting for the broader significant economic benefit to their employers and to the Australian economy.
The Government will commit to a service standard of 7 days median visa processing time for workers in the Specialist Skills Pathway. The achievement of this standard will ensure Australia’s migration system is among the most attractive in the world for highly skilled migrants.
This Specialist Skills Pathway will, in its scale, remain a modest part of the temporary skilled program over time. The Government is committed to protecting the integrity of this pathway to ensure that the skills involved are genuinely specialised and in high demand.
- The Specialist Skills Threshold will be indexed annually through legislation to maintain the intent of the pathway over time.
- Jobs and Skills Australia will have dedicated resourcing to monitor labour market impacts of this pathway to ensure it supports job creation and upskilling of local workers. Tripartite mechanisms will be regularly advised and consulted on the use and impacts of this pathway.
- The Department of Home Affairs will establish a monitoring mechanism to ensure that employees are not paid less than their nominated salary. Employers who pay migrants less than this amount may be barred from sponsoring any additional migrants for a period of time, including migrants through the Specialist Skills Pathway, and may be subject to other penalties under the Migration Act 1958.
- The salary threshold will be calculated to ensure employers cannot artificially inflate a salary or rely on excessive overtime to meet the threshold.
Additional protections and oversight mechanisms (for example, a public register of approved sponsors) are described in Action 4: Tackling worker exploitation and the misuse of the visa system in the Migration Strategy.