Factory jobs in Australia for Indians: which skilled roles can be sponsored, and which cannot

Tips · 2026-10-28 · 10 min read

Factory jobs in Australia for Indians can lead to a sponsored visa, but only when the job matches a skilled occupation on Australia's lists and the employer can pay at least the Core Skills Income Threshold, which is AUD79,423 for nominations lodged from 1 July 2026. A fitter, a CNC machinist or a fabrication welder may fit that picture. A packing-line hand or a general production worker usually does not, however long the shifts or however good the reference letter.

So before you reply to a "factory job with visa" message, check two things: the occupation behind the job title, and the pay the employer is offering.

Why "factory job" is the wrong search phrase for a visa

Australia's employer-sponsored visas do not recognise "factory worker" as a category. They work with individual occupations, each with its own entry on the combined list of eligible skilled occupations, its own list membership and its own skills assessing authority. The question is never "does Australia need factory workers?" but "is my exact occupation one an employer can nominate?"

This matters because many Indians already work in this part of the Australian economy. In the 2021 Census, Machinery Operators and Drivers made up 11.3% of employed India-born people in Australia, and Technicians and Trades Workers another 8.4%. Plenty of those workers arrived on other visas, as students, partners or permanent residents, and found production work afterwards. That is very different from being sponsored from India into a production role.

Our overview of skilled trades as a long-term career strategy in Australia explains why the trade, not the workplace, is what builds a migration pathway.

Skilled manufacturing roles and production roles: the real dividing line

Think of a manufacturing plant as two groups of jobs. The first group needs a trade or technical skill you can prove with a qualification and a work history: fitting and turning, machining, welding and fabrication, maintenance, electrical work, toolmaking and quality inspection. The second group is trained on site in days or weeks: packing, sorting, line feeding, labelling and general labouring.

Employer sponsorship is built for the first group. The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) lets an employer sponsor a suitably skilled worker for a position it cannot fill with a suitably skilled Australian. A role that any new starter can learn in a week is hard to describe that way, and it is unlikely to sit on the occupation list at all.

Type of factory role	What to check before applying	Typical sponsorship picture
Trade roles (fitter, machinist, welder, toolmaker)	Exact occupation on the combined list, skills assessing authority, pay at or above AUD79,423	Possible on the 482 Core Skills stream if the occupation is on the CSOL
Technical and supervisory roles (maintenance planner, production supervisor, quality technician)	Whether your duties match the occupation's description, not just your designation	Possible when the occupation is listed and the pay meets the threshold
Engineering roles in manufacturing (mechanical, production or industrial engineer)	Occupation entry and assessing authority, often a degree assessment	Possible on the Core Skills stream, or the Specialist Skills stream at AUD146,576 or more
Production, packing and process work	Whether the occupation appears on any list at all	Rarely sponsored; a job ad promising a visa here needs extra scrutiny

Live examples help. On MigrateJobs you can see a CNC machinist role in Sydney and a fabricator and welder role in Perth, both from employers prepared to sponsor. Every sponsored vacancy in the sector sits under our manufacturing jobs in Australia and New Zealand category.

Step one: find your occupation on the official list

The Home Affairs combined list of eligible skilled occupations shows whether an occupation is on the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL), the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List, the Short-term Skilled Occupation List or the Regional Occupation List. It also names the skills assessing authority for that occupation.

Search by what you do each day. A "machine operator" in an Indian plant might, in practice, set up and program CNC equipment, which reads more like a machinist's duties than an operator's. The opposite also happens: a "senior technician" designation can cover work that is mostly routine line operation. Australian assessors and employers look at duties, so match yourself honestly. Our piece on duties over designations in Australian skilled migration walks through that exercise.

Step two: check the pay floor before you get excited

In the Core Skills stream of the 482 visa, the worker must be nominated for an occupation on the CSOL and paid the Annual Market Salary Rate for the occupation, and no less than the Core Skills Income Threshold. For nomination applications lodged on and between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027, that threshold is AUD79,423. Home Affairs sets it out on its salary requirements page, and it is indexed each year from 1 July.

Compare that with award pay. Under the Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2020, the C10 trade level has a minimum of $1119.10 a week, or $29.45 an hour, from 1 July 2026. Over a full year that award minimum is about $58,193, well below the AUD79,423 threshold. In other words, an employer cannot sponsor a tradesperson at the award minimum: the offer has to clear the threshold and match what Australians in the same role are paid.

As a rough comparison only, AUD79,423 is about INR 5,233,000 a year at the Reserve Bank of Australia rate of 65.89 rupees per Australian dollar published on 16 October 2026. Rates change, and living costs in Australia are far higher than in India, so treat the rupee figure as a sense of scale, not a savings forecast.

If a "sponsored factory job" offers an hourly rate that works out below the threshold, ask why. Either it is not a sponsored role, or someone is not telling you the full story.

How a sponsored manufacturing job usually comes together

Confirm the occupation. Find the exact occupation on the combined list, note which lists it is on and which body assesses it.
Check your experience. 482 applicants need at least 1 year of relevant work experience in the nominated occupation or a related field, gained within the last 5 years. Part-time or casual work must add up to at least 12 months full-time.
Look at the skills assessment. Some primary 482 applicants must have a mandatory skills assessment by Trades Recognition Australia or VETASSESS, depending on the occupation. It must be started before the visa application is lodged, or the application is not valid.
Prepare an Australian-style CV. List machines, materials, tolerances, drawings and safety systems you work with. A tool such as Build AI CV can help you turn plant experience into a clear, duty-based CV.
Apply to employers who state sponsorship. Expect a video interview and, for many trades, a practical or trade test.
Let the employer lead the paperwork it owns. The employer becomes an approved sponsor and lodges the nomination; you lodge the visa application and gather your own documents.

The visa itself carries a base application charge of AUD4,015.00. The employer must pay all costs of becoming a sponsor and nominating you, and cannot pass those costs on to you or your family. For the full sequence, read our Skills in Demand (482) visa planning guide.

What changes if you aim for New Zealand instead

New Zealand's Accredited Employer Work Visa starts with a job offer from an accredited employer, who sends you a link to the online application form. Applicants must show 2 years or more of relevant job experience, or a qualification at level 4 or higher on the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework, in the same field as the job. The offer must be for at least 30 hours of work a week and paid at least the market rate for the job.

For fitters, welders and machinists, that experience test is often the easier part. Immigration New Zealand also warns that job offer scams are common in India and South Asia, so the same checks apply. A current example is a fitter, turner and welder role in Christchurch, and our AEWV planning guide covers the process from the job check to the visa. The official details are on the Immigration New Zealand AEWV page.

Common mistakes Indian factory workers make

Paying for a "factory visa". Australia has no such visa. The Australian High Commission in New Delhi lists the signs of a scam: contact through social media or WhatsApp, a visa or job promised on arrival, large upfront payments, requests for your passport, and claims of registration without a MARN or OMARA listing.
Believing a trade deal removed the rules. DFAT says the India-Australia ECTA's mobility outcomes do not include a waiver of labour market testing, and current sponsorship requirements for employers hiring overseas workers remain.
Applying under the wrong occupation. Choosing the occupation with the most impressive name, rather than the one that matches your duties, can cause problems at the skills assessment and nomination stages.
Ignoring the pay figure. An offer below AUD79,423 is not a Core Skills stream offer, whatever the job title says.
Paying an employer for sponsorship. It is illegal to pay an employer to sponsor you for a visa, including through salary deductions, and it can lead to refusal or cancellation.

If someone has already taken money from you, our guide on where to complain about a fake overseas job agent lists the official places to report it.

Frequently asked questions

Can Indians get factory jobs in Australia with visa sponsorship?

Yes, when the factory job is a skilled occupation on the relevant list and the employer pays at least the Annual Market Salary Rate and the Core Skills Income Threshold. Trade and technical roles fit this far more often than general production or packing work.

Is a machine operator job enough for an Australian work visa?

It depends on the exact occupation and duties. Search the Home Affairs combined list of eligible skilled occupations for the occupation that matches what you actually do. If your work includes setting up and programming equipment, a machinist entry may describe it better than an operator entry.

What salary does a sponsored factory worker need in Australia?

For the 482 Core Skills stream, the salary must be at least the Annual Market Salary Rate for the occupation and no less than AUD79,423 for nominations lodged from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. The threshold is indexed every year from 1 July.

Do fitters and welders from India need a skills assessment?

Some primary 482 applicants need a mandatory skills assessment by Trades Recognition Australia or VETASSESS, depending on the occupation. Where it applies, it must be started before the visa application is lodged. The combined occupation list names the assessing authority for each occupation.

Who pays the costs of sponsoring a factory worker?

The employer pays all costs of becoming a sponsor and nominating the worker, and cannot transfer them to the worker or their family. The worker pays for the visa application, which has a base charge of AUD4,015.00, plus costs such as English tests, health checks and police certificates.

Key takeaways

Sponsorship follows the occupation, not the word "factory".
Trade and technical roles in manufacturing are the realistic route; general production work is rarely sponsored.
A Core Skills offer must reach AUD79,423 from 1 July 2026, well above the award trade minimum.
Check your experience, the skills assessment rule and your duties before you apply.
Never pay anyone for a job, a sponsorship or a promised visa.

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