Lost Your Job on a 482 Visa? The 180-Day Rule and Your Options

A 482 visa holder whose job ends can stop working for a sponsor for up to 180 days at a time and 365 days in total across the visa, under condition 8607 as changed on 1 July 2024. By the end of that break the holder must be working for a new approved sponsor under an approved nomination, hold a different visa, or have left Australia, and the visa’s own end date still applies. First note the last day you worked for your sponsor and any earlier breaks since 1 July 2024, then enter them in the calculator below.

Three worked examples

The examples count day 1 as the day after the last day worked, as the calculator does. Home Affairs publishes no counting convention, so plan to act before the date shown. The 482’s own end date can come first (Migration Regulations 1994, cl 482.511).

When does the count of 180 days start?

The count starts on the first day you do not work for your sponsor. Condition 8607(5) counts the days on which you do not work in line with 8607(1) and (2), so in Example A a last day of work on Tuesday 30 June 2026 makes Wednesday 1 July 2026 day 1. Work done for the old employer to serve a notice period required by an industrial relations law is still sponsored work (8607(3)(b)), so the count starts after the notice period ends.

Breaks before 1 July 2024 do not count toward either limit (Home Affairs news item 1213). The 1 July 2024 change applied to holders of 457, 482 and 494 visas alike, including visas granted before that date.

Can you work while you look for a new sponsor?

Yes. Once sponsored work has stopped, news item 1213 says holders “can work for other employers”, including in occupations not listed in their most recent nomination. Three limits remain:

• no work that is inconsistent with a licence or registration your nominated occupation needs (news item 1213);
• no work for the new sponsor until its nomination for you is approved (Home Affairs 482 change-in-situation page);
• whether ABN or other self-employed work counts as work “for other employers” is not published.

What must your employer do?

Five rules govern the former sponsor once the job ends:

1. Notify Home Affairs within 28 days that the employment ended, through the Notification of sponsor changes form in ImmiAccount or by email to sponsor.notifications@abf.gov.au (482 change-in-situation page).
2. Keep meeting its sponsor obligations to you and your family until you are nominated by another sponsor, granted another visa or leave Australia (same page).
3. Pay reasonable return travel for you and your family within 30 days of a written request (Home Affairs sponsor obligations page).
4. Seek a levy refund only for unused full years. If you stopped working for it within 12 months of starting, on a nomination for more than one year, the sponsor can ask Home Affairs to refund the Skilling Australians Fund levy for the unused full years (reg 2.73AA(3F)).
5. It cannot cancel your visa. An employer has no power to cancel a visa; only Home Affairs does (Home Affairs Cancelling a visa).

The full list of duties a sponsor carries, and how long they last, is under 482 employer obligations.

How does a new employer take over?

Home Affairs published a 90% nomination processing time of 9 months on 24 September 2026. Compare that with the days you have left: in Example A, the whole break is 180 days. Each step, with its cost and published time, is set out under 482 visa transfer to new employer.

What if you change occupation?

Work in another occupation during the break is allowed, but being sponsored in a new occupation needs a new nomination and a new 482 visa (482 change-in-situation page). The visa costs $4,015 for the main applicant, plus $700 per applicant where the subsequent temporary application charge applies. The new occupation must be on the list in force when the new nomination is lodged (reg 2.73(9)(a)).

What happens after 180 days?

On the first day over the limit, the holder is in breach of condition 8607(5). What follows:

• Breach of a condition is a ground on which Home Affairs may cancel the visa (Migration Act 1958, s 116(1)(b)). Cancellation is not automatic.
• Home Affairs usually sends a notice of intention to consider cancellation first, and a holder in Australia has 5 working days to respond (reg 2.44).
• Home Affairs must consider any workplace-exploitation certificate and written commitment the holder gives it (reg 2.43A).
• Cancelling the primary visa also cancels the visas of family members who hold theirs as members of the family unit (s 140(1)).
• After a cancellation in Australia, section 48 limits new applications to the classes listed in regulation 2.12, and the 482 is not one of them.
• A re-entry ban of up to 3 years can apply (Home Affairs re-entry ban page).

The notice, the response and review of a decision are covered under 482 visa cancelled.

Does the gap count toward PR?

No. The 186 Temporary Residence Transition stream counts full-time sponsored employment of 2 years in the last 3 years before applying, in an occupation granted on a 457 or 482 visa (Migration Regulations cl 186.227; Home Affairs 186 TRT stream page). Work for a non-sponsor during the break is not sponsored employment. Sponsored time with every approved sponsor counts, not only time with the employer that nominates you for the 186 (Home Affairs news item 1273).

Common mistakes

1. Counting only the current break. The 365 days total across the visa can shorten it, as in Example C (8607(5)(b)).
2. Assuming a lodged nomination stops the count. The Regulations count days not worked for a sponsor (8607(5)), and Home Affairs frames the period as time to find another approved sponsor, be granted a different visa or leave (482 change-in-situation page). Protection for a lodged but undecided nomination is not published.
3. Starting with the new employer before its nomination is approved (482 change-in-situation page).
4. Forgetting the visa’s own end date. The break never extends the 482, which ends at the end of the nominated period (cl 482.511).
5. Missing the 5 working days to answer a notice of intention to cancel (reg 2.44(2)(a)). One further 5 working days can be asked for (s 121(4); reg 2.44(3)).
6. Believing the employer’s notification cancels the visa. Only Home Affairs cancels visas; the sponsor’s duty is to notify within 28 days.
7. Forgetting the family. If the primary visa is cancelled under section 116, the visas held as members of the family unit are cancelled too (s 140(1)).
8. Planning a new 482 in Australia after a cancellation. Section 48 limits onshore applications to the classes in regulation 2.12, which does not include the 482 (Skills in Demand, Class GK).

An immigration lawyer is more likely to keep you lawful because they total the break days you have already used, line up a nomination, another visa or a departure before your date, and are ready to answer a cancellation notice, which gives a holder in Australia only 5 working days.