Sponsoring a Chef or Cook in Australia
Walk into almost any busy kitchen in Sydney, Melbourne or regional Australia right now and ask the head chef how hard it is to fill a position. Chances are you will hear the same answer. Good cooks and chefs are hard to find, and the ones who are available often already have three job offers on the table. This is exactly why so many hospitality businesses now want to sponsor a chef in Australia rather than keep waiting on local applications.
That shortage is not a rumour picked up from an industry forum. It shows up in the government’s own occupation list, and it explains why so many restaurants, hotels, pubs and catering businesses are now looking overseas to fill their kitchens. If you are an employer wondering whether you can sponsor a chef or cook from overseas, or a chef or cook wondering whether Australia will sponsor you, this guide walks through exactly how the system works, using the current Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and the Employer Nomination Scheme visa (subclass 186).
Chef or Cook? Why the Occupation Code Actually Matters
Before any visa conversation can happen, there is a more basic question that trips up a lot of employers. Is the role a chef position or a cook position? Under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, these are treated as two separate occupations, and the difference is not just a job title on a business card.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a Chef plans and organises the preparation and cooking of food in a dining or catering establishment. The role sits at Skill Level 2, which normally calls for an Associate Degree, Advanced Diploma or Diploma, although at least three years of relevant experience can substitute for that formal qualification. Chefs are expected to plan menus, estimate food and labour costs, order supplies, monitor the quality of dishes at every stage, train junior staff, and enforce hygiene standards across the kitchen. Recognised specialisations under this classification include Chef de Partie, Commis Chef, Demi Chef, Second Chef and Sous Chef.
A Cook, by comparison, prepares, seasons and cooks food in a dining or catering establishment, and sits at Skill Level 3. The qualification benchmark is an AQF Certificate III with at least two years of on the job training, or a Certificate IV, and again three years of solid relevant experience can be used instead of formal study. A cook’s day to day tasks focus more on hands on preparation. Think checking the quality of ingredients, regulating oven and grill temperatures, seasoning and plating dishes, and storing food safely, rather than running the whole kitchen strategy.
Neither role includes fast food cooks or kitchenhands, which sit in a completely different occupation group and are not eligible for the same sponsorship pathways discussed below.
Getting this classification right at the very start saves enormous time later. A skills assessment, a nomination application and a visa application are all built around the correct occupation code, and choosing the wrong one is one of the most common and most costly mistakes employers and applicants make.
The Good News: Both Roles Sit on the Government’s Priority Occupation List
Here is the part that matters most for anyone hoping to sponsor kitchen staff from overseas. Both Chef and Cook currently appear on the Core Skills Occupation List published by the Department of Home Affairs, the list that determines which occupations are eligible under the Core Skills stream of the employer sponsored visa system. This is not a small or obscure list either. It runs to 456 occupations, and hospitality roles sit comfortably among them alongside trades, healthcare and engineering positions.
Being listed does not guarantee a visa grant on its own, but it does mean the occupation itself is not a barrier. The rest of the eligibility criteria then comes down to the individual applicant and the sponsoring business.
If you want to see what other roles typically qualify alongside chefs and cooks, our guide to the Subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa breaks down the full occupation and stream structure in detail.
The Subclass 482 Skills in Demand Visa: The Main Route Into an Australian Kitchen
For most overseas chefs and cooks, the first practical step into Australia is the Skills in Demand visa, subclass 482. This replaced the older Temporary Skill Shortage visa in December 2024, and while the subclass number stayed the same, the framework underneath it changed quite a bit.
The visa works on a simple premise. An Australian employer who genuinely cannot find a suitably skilled local worker can sponsor someone from overseas to fill that gap. For a busy restaurant group or a regional hotel struggling to keep a head chef in place, this is often the difference between a fully staffed kitchen and a menu that keeps shrinking.
Core Skills Stream: The Stream Chefs and Cooks Fall Under
Chef and cook roles sit under the Core Skills stream, which is built specifically for occupations listed on the Core Skills Occupation List. Broadly, to be eligible under this stream, a few things need to line up.
The sponsoring employer needs to be an approved Standard Business Sponsor, or in the process of becoming one. This confirms that the business is lawfully operating in Australia, is financially sound, and is genuinely able to meet the ongoing obligations that come with sponsoring someone.
The applicant’s nominated occupation, whether that is Chef or Cook, needs to sit on the Core Skills Occupation List. As covered above, both currently do.
There is a salary requirement that must be met. Employers need to pay at least the Core Skills Income Threshold, which currently sits at AUD 79,423 per year, following the annual indexation that took effect earlier this year. On top of that floor, the offered salary must also meet or exceed the market rate for an equivalent Australian worker doing the same job in the same location. Whichever figure is higher, the threshold or the market rate, is the one that applies.
Relevant work experience is required, generally at least one year of full time equivalent experience in the nominated occupation within the last five years, gained either in Australia or overseas.
English language ability needs to be demonstrated, unless the applicant is exempt because of their passport or prior study.
Health and character requirements apply to the applicant and to any family members included in the application, meaning medical examinations and police clearances from relevant countries.
For a full walkthrough of how the streams, salary rules and processing times fit together, our detailed page on the Skills in Demand visa subclass 482 is worth reading before you start preparing paperwork.
The Salary Thresholds: CSIT, SSIT and AMSR Explained
Salary is where most chef and cook nominations succeed or fail, so it is worth slowing down and separating out the three figures that actually matter.
The Core Skills Income Threshold, known as CSIT, is the minimum floor for the Core Skills stream, the stream that covers Chef and Cook nominations. CSIT currently sits at AUD 79,423 per year, up from AUD 76,515 the previous financial year. This threshold is indexed annually, and the figure that applies to a nomination is whichever version was in force on the date the nomination was actually lodged.
The Specialist Skills Income Threshold, or SSIT, is a separate and much higher figure that applies only to the Specialist Skills stream, generally reserved for higher paid roles outside the trades and hospitality space. SSIT currently sits at AUD 146,576 per year. Most chef and cook nominations will not touch this threshold at all, since kitchen roles almost always fall under Core Skills rather than Specialist Skills, but it is useful to know the two thresholds are not the same thing and are not interchangeable.
The Annual Market Salary Rate, or AMSR, is a separate test again. It asks what an equivalent Australian citizen or permanent resident would be paid for the same role, at the same skill level, in the same location. A regional hotel and a five star city restaurant might have quite different AMSR figures for the same head chef role. The rule that ties all three together is simple. The offered salary must meet or exceed CSIT, and it must also meet or exceed AMSR. Whichever of the two is higher becomes the effective floor.
Subclass 482 SID Visa Cost
Employers and applicants planning a chef or cook sponsorship should also budget for the current Visa Application Charge.
| Charge | Paid By | Current Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Visa Application Charge, Main Applicant | Applicant | AUD 4,015 |
| Visa Application Charge, Adult Dependent (18 and over) | Applicant | AUD 4,015 |
| Visa Application Charge, Child Dependent (under 18) | Applicant | AUD 1,005 |
These charges are paid by the visa applicant, not the sponsoring employer. Separately, the employer generally covers the nomination fee and, where applicable, the Skilling Australians Fund levy, and these employer side costs cannot lawfully be passed on to the sponsored worker.
What This Looks Like for a Chef or Cook in Practice
Picture a hotel in regional Queensland that has been advertising for a head chef for eight months without success. If they find a suitably experienced chef overseas willing to relocate, and that chef’s occupation code matches Chef 351311 rather than Cook, the hotel can move forward with Standard Business Sponsorship, nominate the chef under the Core Skills stream, agree to pay at or above the current threshold and the market rate for that role in that region, and support the chef’s visa application. Assuming experience, English and health and character checks are all satisfied, this is the pathway that gets a genuinely skilled chef from an overseas kitchen into an Australian one.
The Employer Nomination Scheme (Subclass 186): The Permanent Residency Step
A 482 visa gets a chef or cook working in Australia, but it is temporary by nature. For many hospitality businesses and their overseas staff, the real long term goal is permanent residency, and that is where the Employer Nomination Scheme, subclass 186, comes in.
There are two main routes into this visa for someone in the hospitality industry.
Temporary Residence Transition Stream
This is the route most chefs and cooks end up using, simply because most of them arrive on a 482 visa first. Once a chef or cook has worked for their sponsoring employer for the required period in their nominated occupation while holding a valid 482 visa, their employer can nominate them for permanent residency under this stream. One advantage here is that a fresh skills assessment is generally not required, since the time already worked under employer sponsorship stands as evidence of the applicant’s skill.
Direct Entry Stream
This route suits chefs and cooks who have not necessarily worked in Australia yet, or whose employment history does not meet the Transition stream requirements. Under Direct Entry, the applicant’s occupation still needs to appear on the Core Skills Occupation List, and a positive skills assessment in the nominated occupation is generally required from the relevant assessing authority. A longer period of full time, relevant work experience is expected here compared to the Transition stream, and age limits generally apply at the time of application, with some exemptions available.
Across both streams, the sponsoring employer still needs to meet a genuine position requirement. This means the role must be full time, ongoing, ideally for at least two years, and paid in line with the same salary framework that applies to the 482 visa. English language competency, health checks and character checks apply to the applicant and included family members in the same way they do for the temporary visa.
If your chef or cook is already partway through their two years on a 482 visa, our guide to the 482 visa to PR pathway explains exactly what to track and prepare during that period so the eventual 186 application goes smoothly. And for a side by side look at how the 482 and 186 fit together as one continuous strategy, the Employer Nomination Scheme subclass 186 guide is a good next read.
What Restaurants, Hotels and Catering Businesses Need to Set Up First
Before any chef or cook can be sponsored, the business itself has to be ready. This is the part employers sometimes underestimate, assuming sponsorship is simply a matter of finding the right person and filling out a form.
In reality, an employer first needs approval as a Standard Business Sponsor, which confirms the business is lawfully operating, financially capable of meeting sponsorship costs, and has no adverse compliance history. Once approved, the business can lodge a nomination for the specific chef or cook position it wants to fill, showing that the role is genuine, that it matches the Core Skills Occupation List, and that the salary on offer meets both the income threshold and the local market rate. Only once the nomination is approved, or lodged alongside the visa application, does the visa stage begin for the individual chef or cook.
Restaurants and hotel groups that plan to sponsor multiple kitchen staff over time, rather than just one chef, often benefit from putting these foundations in place early, since Standard Business Sponsorship approval does not need to be repeated for every new hire once it is granted.
For Chefs and Cooks Considering the Move
If you are a chef or cook overseas reading this because you are weighing up a move to Australia, the practical checklist looks like this. Confirm which occupation code actually matches your day to day work, Chef or Cook, since this shapes your entire pathway. Gather solid evidence of your relevant experience, including payslips, reference letters and contracts, since experience requirements sit at the centre of both the 482 and 186 visas. Check your English test results against the current requirements, and sit a test early if you have not already, since results can take time to arrive and are only valid for a set period. Start the conversation with a genuine Australian employer early, since sponsorship is completely employer driven under this system. There is no points test or invitation round the way there is with some other Australian visas. You need a real job offer from a business willing to sponsor you, and everything else follows from there.
Why Employers Are Turning to Overseas Chefs and Cooks Right Now
Hospitality has consistently been one of the more visible sectors in Australia’s skilled migration data. Kitchen roles are physically demanding, often require unsociable hours, and depend on a level of trade skill that takes years to build. For many venues, particularly outside major capital cities, local applicants with the right combination of experience and availability simply are not coming through fast enough.
Sponsorship is not a shortcut around fair hiring either. Employers are still expected to demonstrate they could not find a suitably skilled local worker, and the salary settings are specifically designed to stop sponsored roles from undercutting Australian wages. What sponsorship does offer is a legitimate, government recognised pathway to fill a genuine gap, backed by a visa framework that has existed in one form or another for decades and continues to evolve rather than disappear.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a chef the same occupation as a cook for visa purposes? No. Chef, ANZSCO code 351311, and Cook, ANZSCO code 351411, are separate occupations with different skill levels, different qualification benchmarks and different day to day duties. Choosing the correct code is essential before starting any sponsorship or skills assessment process.
Can a restaurant sponsor an overseas chef directly, or does the chef apply on their own? Sponsorship is employer driven. The business must become an approved Standard Business Sponsor and lodge a nomination for the specific chef or cook role before the individual can apply for the visa itself.
Do both chefs and cooks qualify for the same salary threshold? Both occupations, when nominated under the Core Skills stream, are assessed against the Core Skills Income Threshold and the market salary rate for the role and location. That threshold currently sits at AUD 79,423 per year, up from AUD 76,515 the year before. The figure is indexed annually, so it is worth confirming the current amount at the time a nomination is actually lodged.
Can a chef or cook move from a 482 visa straight to permanent residency? Yes, this is one of the most common pathways in hospitality. After the required period of employment with the sponsoring employer under the 482 visa, the employer can nominate the chef or cook under the Temporary Residence Transition stream of the subclass 186 visa.
If you want a quick first read on where you stand before booking a consultation, the Subclass 482 Visa Eligibility Checker is a free online tool that walks you through the basics of your occupation, work experience and salary offer to give you a general sense of whether the Core Skills stream is likely to be a fit. It is a helpful starting point for both chefs and cooks weighing up their options, though it is not a substitute for a proper assessment by a registered migration agent, since every application still comes down to the specific details of your case.
Ready to Sponsor a Chef or Cook, or Get Sponsored Yourself?
The rules around occupation codes, salary thresholds and sponsorship obligations change often enough that getting professional advice before you lodge anything genuinely pays off, whether you are a hospitality business trying to lock in your next head chef or a chef overseas trying to plan your move properly. Migration Republic offers paid, one on one consultations with registered migration agents who work with employer sponsored visas every day, including the Core Skills stream, the Employer Nomination Scheme, and the full pathway from temporary sponsorship through to permanent residency.
Book a paid consultation with Migration Republic at migrationrepublic.com.au and get a clear, accurate answer on your specific chef or cook sponsorship situation before you spend time or money on an application.
