Visa information

Australia offers three named routes in the 2026 guide: the Skilled Independent (189) and Skilled Nominated (190) points visas, the employer-sponsored Skills in Demand visa, and a Working Holiday visa for ages 18–30/35. There is no nomad visa. The guide scores Australia just 54/100 for visa and bureaucracy — its second-lowest score — so expect the paperwork stage to be the hard part of this move.

The three routes the guide names

Skilled Independent (189) and Skilled Nominated (190) points visas — the guide's schemes list calls this points-based skilled migration and the country tagline says the system rewards skills and youth.

Employer-sponsored Skills in Demand visa — the sponsored route, named without an occupation list or salary floor in either source.

Working Holiday visa for 18–30/35 — the age-banded route; the schemes list describes it as the Working Holiday for under-35s.

There is no nomad visa: the guide's remote-work section says so directly, and adds that remote work on a visitor visa is restricted.

The points test — what the sources actually say

Neither source prints a points threshold, an occupation list, or a salary floor for any Australian route. The guide describes the skilled system only as points-based and as rewarding skills and youth, and the Working Holiday only by its 18–30/35 age band — neither source explains which nationalities fall at 30 and which at 35.

This page does not invent those figures. Confirm the current points test, occupation lists and Working Holiday eligibility with the embassy or an immigration lawyer before filing — the higher plan tiers budget for exactly that help.

For planning conversions, the guide's exchange rate is $1 ≈ A$1.39 (Australian dollar).

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not government fees

The guide does not list individual government visa fees. What it gives is a bundled “Visa, permits & translations” budget line in each of its four move plans, and those lines are the only sourced cost figures for the application itself:

• $1,150 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $1,650 — Mid-range and Retirement plans
• $3,950 — Luxury plan (the plan notes the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer)

The Retirement plan (printed p.12 / PDF p.13) carries one further, separate line on top of its $1,650: $3,050 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification”, covering an immigration lawyer, apostilled pension letters, medicals and translations. Read it alongside the Retirement page: the guide's own retirement text says there is no general retirement visa for newcomers, so that line budgets the lawyer-led process of establishing whether a limited pathway is open to you at all.

Application steps and timelines, by tier — all four plans, including Retirement

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence across the plans and checklists is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.”
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier; the Luxury timeline has the lawyer confirm the best visa route, including investor and talent options.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file (see the Hospitals page for the guide's first-year insurance budgets).
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the Mid-range, Luxury and Retirement tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations in the guide: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent filing (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage — the longest of the four, because it adds pension or income letters certified and apostilled, a police certificate, a medical, and birth and marriage certificates translated, and applies for the retirement or passive-income visa with a lawyer. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Renewals and the path to residency — the honest limit of the guide

Neither the guide nor the site data gives renewal intervals, second-year Working Holiday rules, processing-time guarantees, or the number of years from a skilled visa to permanent residency or citizenship, so this page does not state them. The guide's own framing is the warning to plan around: a points-based system that rewards skills and youth, a 54/100 visa and bureaucracy score, and limited, slow parent and retirement pathways (see the Retirement page). Treat the routes above as confirmed in the guide's terms, and the timetable as something to confirm with an immigration lawyer or the embassy before you rely on it.

Frequently asked questions