How to find a job in Australia as a foreigner

Australian citizens have unlimited work rights, and permanent visas let you live and work in Australia indefinitely. Everyone else works under the conditions of their visa, which may limit who you work for, how many hours or where. You cannot work on a Visitor visa or an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA), whatever a recruiter tells you.

For most foreigners the realistic routes are:

• Employer sponsorship: the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) for up to 4 years, often followed by permanent residence through the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186).
• Points-tested skilled visas (subclasses 189, 190 and 491): you submit an Expression of Interest in SkillSelect and wait for an invitation. No employer needed, but you need a skills assessment and at least 65 points.
• Working Holiday visas (subclasses 417 and 462): 12 months of short-term work for eligible passport holders aged 18 to 30, or 35 for some countries.
• Study, then the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485): see working in Australia after graduation.

Our Australian work visa guide compares thresholds, fees and processing times. The Department of Home Affairs decides every application, and salary thresholds are indexed every 1 July, so check its pages before you resign from anything or book a flight.

Yes, but it is the hard way in, and it pays to be honest about why. To sponsor you, an employer must be an approved sponsor, show through labour market testing that it could not find a suitably skilled Australian, and pay at least the market salary for the role. For the Core Skills stream, the occupation must also be on the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) and the salary at least AUD79,423 from 1 July 2026. Many employers would rather hire someone who already has work rights.

The candidates who succeed from overseas usually do three things. They target occupations on the CSOL where employers already sponsor, and apply to those employers directly. They show at least one year of relevant experience from the last five years, which the Core Skills stream requires anyway. And they explain the visa process in one line in the cover letter so the hiring manager is not left guessing.

If you are eligible, two routes avoid the chicken-and-egg problem. A points-tested visa gives you permanent work rights without an employer. A Working Holiday visa gets you Australian experience and local referees, which make the next application far easier.

For visa purposes, demand is defined by the government’s occupation lists, not by headlines. Home Affairs publishes a combined list of eligible skilled occupations showing, for each occupation, its ANZSCO code, whether it is on the Core Skills Occupation List, the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List or other lists, and which body assesses it.

Two practical rules follow. If your occupation is on the CSOL, employer sponsorship through the Core Skills stream is open to you. If you would earn at least AUD146,576, the Specialist Skills stream covers most occupations except trades, machinery operators and labourers (ANZSCO major groups 3, 7 and 8). Outside those two cases, sponsorship is much harder to find, and a points-tested or Working Holiday route may be the better bet.

Most Australian jobs are advertised online, and a few boards carry the bulk of them.

• Workforce Australia: the Australian Government’s employment service, with a free job search.
• SEEK, CareerOne and Adzuna: the private boards Study Australia points international job seekers to. Run the same saved search on all three.
• GradAustralia and Prosple: graduate programs and internships.
• Recruitment agencies: Study Australia suggests contacting them directly and registering with more than one to widen your chances.

Networks matter as much as boards. Tell former colleagues, alumni groups and professional associations in Australia what you are looking for. A warm introduction to a hiring manager often beats a hundred cold applications, especially when you need sponsorship.

A typical application is a resume, a cover letter explaining why your skills fit this role, and sometimes copies of qualifications. Ads often name a contact person; call or email them with one sharp question before you apply, then mention the conversation in your letter.

Interviews usually include behavioural questions (“Tell me about a time you…”). Prepare five stories with a clear result; the STAR method examples show the structure. Reference checks come late: SEEK notes that hiring managers generally contact referees in the final stages, so an employer calling your referees is a good sign. Ask their permission first and brief them on the role.

Australian resumes drop the photo, date of birth and full address, and favour short achievement bullets. Our Australian resume and cover letter guide shows before-and-after examples.

A little admin early saves weeks of hassle with your first pay.

• Tax file number (TFN): apply through the Australian Taxation Office and give it to your employer before your first day. For jobs where you report to a manager you need a TFN, not an Australian Business Number (ABN).
• Bank account: your employer will ask for your account details and your TFN once you accept.
• Superannuation: your employer pays retirement savings into a super account on top of your salary. Temporary residents may be able to claim it back when they leave Australia.
• Health insurance: if your visa requires it (Skills in Demand and Temporary Graduate visas do), keep your cover active for your whole stay.
• VEVO: use Visa Entitlement Verification Online to send proof of your visa conditions to an employer.
• Payslips: you must receive one within one working day of being paid. Check it every time.

Home Affairs publishes the warning signs, and they are worth reading before you pay anyone for anything.

• No one can guarantee you an Australian visa. Anyone promising one, or permanent residence, is lying.
• Australia does not issue “work permits”, visa labels or Labour Market Impact Assessments. A document with one of those names is a fake.
• Paying for visa sponsorship is illegal, for you and for the employer. So is being asked to pay back part of your wages in cash.
• A job that seems too good to be true and needs no qualifications, or one paying below the minimum wage, is a warning sign. All workers, including visa holders, must be paid at least the minimum wage.
• Emails claiming to be from Home Affairs must end in .gov.au. A paid migration agent must be registered with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA) and have a registration number (MARN) you can check.

If something goes wrong at work, remember that an employer cannot cancel your visa, and it is illegal for them to take your passport. Only Home Affairs, including the Australian Border Force, can grant, refuse or cancel visas.

Each guide in this cluster goes deep on one situation. Start with the one that matches where you are now:

• You need to choose a visa route, or you have an offer: Australian work visas explained.
• Your CV still follows your home country’s conventions: Australian resume format and cover letter.
• You study in Australia or just graduated: the Temporary Graduate visa and graduate jobs.
• You came as a refugee or on a humanitarian visa: finding a job in Australia as a refugee.
• Your profession or trade needs recognition: qualification recognition abroad.
• You are still comparing countries: how to work abroad.