Your relevant work experience can be one of the most important parts of an Australian migration application.
But there is a common misconception that “two years working means two years of relevant work experience.”
It is not always that simple.
For some visa pathways, part-time or casual employment may be converted or assessed as equivalent to full-time experience. For others, casual work may not be accepted at all.
The key is understanding what the particular visa and assessing authority actually require.
First: There is no single work-experience calculation for every visa
Before adding up your employment, identify the pathway you are applying for.
For example, the current Skills in Demand visa, subclass 482, requires at least one year of relevant work experience in the nominated occupation or a related field. Home Affairs states that this experience can have been gained on a full-time, part-time or casual basis, but part-time and casual work must be equivalent to at least 12 months of full-time work. The experience generally needs to have been gained within the previous five years.
The subclass 494 Employer Sponsored stream works differently. Applicants generally need at least three years of relevant work experience, and Home Affairs states that the applicant must have been employed in the nominated occupation for at least three years on a full-time basis. Equivalent part-time work may be considered, but casual work is not considered for this requirement.
This is why simply saying “I have three years of experience” may not be enough.
Full-time employment: The simplest calculation
Full-time employment is generally the easiest to calculate because the employment period corresponds more closely with the period of experience being claimed.
For example:
1 January 2024 to 31 December 2025
If you worked full-time in the relevant occupation throughout that period, you may have approximately two years of employment experience.
However, even full-time employment should not automatically be assumed to count.
You still need to consider:
- whether the work was in the relevant occupation
- whether the duties align with the occupation
- whether the visa requires experience at a particular skill level
- whether the experience must be gained within a specified period
- whether a skills assessing authority applies additional requirements.
The dates on your employment contract are therefore only one part of the calculation.
Part-time employment: Think in hours, not just calendar years
Part-time work is where calculations can become more complicated.
Imagine someone works:
20 hours per week for 12 months.
That is not necessarily treated in exactly the same way as:
38 hours per week for 12 months.
For some migration requirements, part-time work can be considered where it is equivalent to the required amount of full-time experience.
The relevant calculation depends on the visa and its legal requirements.
For the subclass 482, Home Affairs expressly states that part-time work must be equivalent to at least 12 months of full-time work when satisfying the one-year work-experience requirement.
A simple example
Suppose a full-time benchmark for a particular employment arrangement is 38 hours per week.
A worker completes:
19 hours per week for two years.
Their total hours are approximately:
19 hours × 104 weeks = 1,976 hours
That is broadly equivalent to:
38 hours × 52 weeks = 1,976 hours
So, for a visa requirement that permits equivalent part-time experience, this may potentially represent approximately one year of full-time equivalent work.
But this should not be treated as a universal migration formula.
The relevant visa criteria and any applicable assessing authority requirements need to be checked first.
What about casual employment?
Casual employment is particularly important to examine carefully.
Casual workers may have variable hours from week to week, which means simply counting the number of months between their start and end dates may not accurately represent the amount of work performed.
For some visa pathways, casual work can potentially contribute to the required experience.
The current subclass 482 criteria are one example. Home Affairs states that relevant experience can be gained on a full-time, part-time or casual basis, provided part-time or casual experience is equivalent to at least the required full-time experience.
But other pathways treat casual employment differently.
For the subclass 494 Employer Sponsored stream, Home Affairs states that equivalent part-time work may be considered but casual work is not considered for the three-year work-experience requirement.
So:
Casual work does not automatically equal full-time experience.
The visa you are applying for matters.
Don’t confuse employment duration with relevant work experience
This is one of the most important distinctions.
Imagine you started a part-time job on:
1 January 2023
and finished on:
31 December 2025.
You were technically employed for three calendar years.
But if you only worked a limited number of hours each week, you may not necessarily have three years of full-time-equivalent experience for a visa requirement that uses an FTE concept.
Conversely, several periods of eligible employment may potentially be combined where the relevant visa criteria allow it.
For the subclass 482, for example, Home Affairs states that the period of work does not need to be continuous.
This means your employment history should be assessed based on what you actually did and how much eligible work you performed, not simply the number of years appearing on your CV.
Your occupation matters too
Working for the same employer for several years does not necessarily mean the entire period counts toward a particular skilled migration requirement.
The relevant work generally needs to relate to the occupation or field specified by the visa criteria.
For subclass 482, Home Affairs requires at least one year of relevant experience in the nominated occupation or a related field, with the experience completed while working in the nominated occupation or performing tasks at the same skill level in a related field.
This is why job titles alone are not enough.
For example, someone may have been employed as an “Operations Manager”, but the actual duties performed may be more relevant to determining the appropriate occupation.
Your employment evidence should therefore tell a consistent story about:
Your position → your duties → your skill level → your qualifications → your claimed migration experience.
Skills assessing authorities may have their own rules
There is another important layer to consider.
A visa requirement and a skills assessment are not necessarily the same thing.
Depending on the occupation, a skills assessing authority may have its own requirements concerning:
- relevant qualifications
- employment dates
- duties
- paid employment
- skill level
- post-qualification experience
- minimum hours
- evidence of employment.
The Department of Home Affairs also recognises that skills assessing authorities may set different standards for assessing particular occupations and visa classes.
So an applicant should not assume that because employment satisfies one visa criterion, the same employment will automatically receive the same treatment in a skills assessment.
The biggest mistake? Using one formula for every visa
There is no universal “one year = X hours” formula that should be applied to every Australian migration pathway.
The rules can differ according to the visa subclass.
For example:
Subclass 482: full-time, part-time and casual experience can potentially be counted, with part-time and casual work needing to be equivalent to the required full-time experience.
Subclass 494 Employer Sponsored: three years of relevant experience is generally required, with full-time employment specified and equivalent part-time work potentially considered. Casual work is not considered for this requirement.
Points-tested skilled migration: Australian employment experience can contribute to points where the relevant requirements are satisfied. The current Migration Regulations provide points based on periods of employment in the nominated or closely related skilled occupation, including thresholds of 12, 36, 60 and 96 months.
The calculation therefore needs to start with the specific visa pathway, not your timesheet.
Before you claim your experience, check the details
Your employment history could be a valuable part of your migration strategy, but getting the calculation wrong can affect how you assess your eligibility.
Before relying on your work experience, consider:
- What visa am I applying for?
- What occupation am I claiming?
- Does the visa accept part-time or casual experience?
- How many hours did I actually work?
- Does my experience need to be within a particular period?
- Does the relevant skills assessing authority have additional requirements?
- Can I prove the experience with reliable documents?
Your years of work are important. How those years are counted can be just as important.
If you are unsure how your full-time, part-time or casual employment may fit into an Australian migration pathway, NB Migration Law can help you assess your experience against the requirements that apply to your proposed visa.
Don’t just count the years. Understand what actually counts.
Talk to NB Migration Law about your migration pathway and work experience today.