Most guides to Australian employer sponsorship start with a hard rule: your salary must clear the Core Skills Income Threshold, currently $79,423 a year, or your nomination won’t be approved. For most occupations, that’s true. But aged care is one of the few sectors in Australia with a genuine exception carved out by the government specifically because the shortage is so severe. Through the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, eligible carers can be sponsored on a salary well below the standard threshold. This guide explains exactly how that concession works, who qualifies, and how to actually secure a sponsored aged care role in 2026.
Why Aged Care Gets a Different Set of Rules
Australia’s population is ageing quickly. Between 2026 and 2044, the number of people aged 70 and over is projected to grow by well over two million, and residential aged care facilities, home care providers, and disability support services are already struggling to fill direct care positions. Local recruitment alone can’t keep pace, particularly in regional areas where the need is most acute.
In response, the Australian Government introduced the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, commonly referred to as ACILA, as an industry-wide arrangement between the Department of Home Affairs and the aged care sector. Unlike a standard company-specific labour agreement, ACILA allows any approved aged care provider to sponsor workers under agreed concessional terms, without having to negotiate its own individual agreement from scratch. This is what makes below-threshold salaries possible, along with a handful of other concessions that make the pathway considerably more accessible than standard skilled visas.
The Salary Concession, Explained
Under a standard Subclass 482 Core Skills nomination, an employer must pay at least the Core Skills Income Threshold of $79,423 a year, or the market salary rate for the role, whichever is higher. Under ACILA, that threshold does not apply in the same way. Instead, sponsored aged care workers can be paid a reduced minimum, currently set at $51,222 a year, equivalent to roughly 95 percent of the standard threshold, or the Australian Market Salary Rate for the specific position, whichever figure is higher.
In practice, this means the base salary floor for a sponsored aged care position can sit tens of thousands of dollars below what almost every other sponsored occupation requires. It’s worth being clear that this is not a loophole to underpay workers. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s Aged Care Award still applies, meaning your actual take-home pay reflects standard award rates for the role, shift, and location, and providers are still legally required to pay at least the market rate where it’s higher than the concessional figure. Once shift, weekend, night, and public holiday penalty rates are factored in, many aged care workers on this pathway earn a genuine total income in the $65,000 to $85,000 range, even though the visa-qualifying base figure can be much lower.
Which Occupation Qualifies
The primary occupation covered under this agreement is Aged or Disabled Carer, ANZSCO code 423111. This covers direct care roles such as personal care workers and nursing support workers who assist elderly or disabled clients with daily living activities, mobility, medication reminders, and general wellbeing support, whether in residential facilities or home care settings. Some registered nurse and allied health roles in the aged care sector are also sponsorable, but those generally sit under the standard Core Skills stream and are subject to the full income threshold rather than the concessional rate.
Qualification Requirements
To be eligible under ACILA, you generally need an Australian Qualifications Framework Certificate III or an equivalent overseas qualification recognised as comparable. If you don’t hold a formal qualification, twelve months of relevant full-time work experience, or the part-time equivalent, can be accepted instead. This is a meaningful concession compared to many other skilled visa pathways, since it opens the door to experienced carers who never completed formal certification in their home country.
If your qualification was obtained overseas, you may need a positive skills assessment, typically through the Australian Community Workers Association or, in some cases, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council depending on the specific role. The same applies if you’re relying on work experience rather than a formal qualification, since the assessing body needs evidence your experience is genuinely equivalent to the Australian standard.
English Language Requirements
This is another area where the aged care pathway is more forgiving than standard skilled visas. Most employer-sponsored visas require a solid intermediate level of English. Under ACILA, the requirement drops to IELTS 5.0 in each band, or the equivalent score on an approved alternative test. For workers who will be employed by culturally and linguistically diverse aged care providers, serving specific community language needs, the requirement can drop further still, to IELTS 4.5 in each band. This concession recognises that some aged care roles specifically call for shared language and cultural background with the client group being served.
Age Requirements
Standard employer-sponsored visas typically cap eligibility around age 45. Under the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, providers endorsed under the agreement can sponsor workers up to age 50, giving experienced carers a genuine opportunity that would otherwise be closed off by standard age limits on many mainstream pathways.
How the Visa Pathway Works Step by Step
Step One, confirm your qualification or experience status. Check whether you hold a Certificate III equivalent, or can document twelve months of relevant full-time care work. If your background is experience-based rather than formally qualified, start gathering detailed, specific references now, since generic letters slow down assessments considerably.
Step Two, sit an approved English test if needed. Book IELTS, PTE, or another accepted test early, since results and booking slots can take several weeks, and this is one of the most common bottlenecks in otherwise strong applications.
Step Three, find a provider endorsed under ACILA. Not every aged care employer in Australia is automatically covered. The provider needs to be an approved and endorsed sponsor under the labour agreement, which means your job search should specifically target facilities and home care organisations that have already gone through this process, rather than approaching aged care employers generally. Larger residential aged care groups and established home care providers are more likely to already hold this endorsement than very small independent operators.
Step Four, apply directly and be upfront about needing sponsorship. Aged care recruitment in Australia is active and ongoing given the scale of the shortage, and many providers actively recruit overseas candidates through dedicated international recruitment channels, specialist migration agencies, and care-sector job boards. Being clear early that you’re seeking ACILA sponsorship, rather than raising it only after an offer, helps the employer plan the nomination correctly from the start.
Step Five, complete any required skills assessment. If your qualification or experience was obtained overseas, this needs to be finalised before or alongside your visa application, so start it in parallel with your job search rather than waiting until after you have an offer.
Step Six, employer nomination and visa lodgement. Once you have an offer from an ACILA-endorsed provider, the employer lodges a nomination confirming the position, salary, and conditions meet the agreement’s terms, and you lodge your visa application, generally under the Subclass 482 framework. Processing timeframes vary, so ask your employer or their migration agent for a realistic estimate based on current volumes.
Step Seven, complete mandatory screening. Separate from the visa process itself, you’ll need to pass a police check and, depending on the role, NDIS Worker Screening or the equivalent aged care worker screening requirement for your state. These are regulatory requirements for working in the sector and are usually arranged once you’re in Australia or shortly before you start.
The Path to Permanent Residency
One of the strongest features of this pathway is that it isn’t a dead end. After typically two to three years working continuously for the same sponsoring employer, workers on this arrangement can generally be nominated for permanent residency through the Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme, Temporary Residence Transition stream. It’s worth noting that the salary concession applies to the temporary sponsorship stage, not to permanent residency, so at the 186 stage the standard market salary and eligibility requirements for that visa apply in full. Providers considering this route should confirm current requirements before relying on past practice, since the settings around labour agreements are reviewed periodically.
Other Related Options Worth Knowing
Alongside ACILA, some aged care workers find sponsorship through Designated Area Migration Agreements in specific states and territories, such as the Northern Territory DAMA or South Australian regional DAMA, both of which include aged care occupations with their own concessional terms. Regional employers more broadly, whether operating under a DAMA or the standard Subclass 494 regional visa, also tend to have stronger ongoing demand and are often more motivated to sponsor since local recruitment options are more limited outside major cities.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The most frequent error is approaching aged care employers without confirming they actually hold ACILA endorsement, which wastes time on applications that were never going to lead to sponsorship. Another common issue is underestimating the documentation needed for experience-based qualification pathways, since assessing bodies want detailed, verifiable evidence rather than a brief summary. Applicants also sometimes assume the concessional salary means lower overall pay, when in reality award rates, penalty loadings, and market salary requirements still apply, so it pays to ask any prospective employer for a clear, honest breakdown of expected total annual earnings rather than focusing only on the base visa-qualifying figure.
Final Thoughts
The Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement exists because Australia’s need for care workers is not a temporary problem, and the concessions built into it, on salary, English requirements, age, and qualifications, reflect a genuine effort to make this pathway workable for experienced carers who wouldn’t otherwise meet the bar for standard skilled visas. If you have genuine aged care experience or a relevant Certificate III, targeting ACILA-endorsed providers directly, preparing your documentation early, and being transparent about your visa needs from the first conversation gives you a realistic and well-supported route into a sponsored role, and ultimately, permanent residency, in Australia.