South Australia State Nomination for the 190 Visa: Occupation List, Streams, and Offshore Options

South Australia took the steepest allocation cut of any state for the 2025–26 program year — down 55% to 1,350 Subclass 190 places. That's a significant reduction. Despite this, SA remains one of the more strategically useful states for a specific type of applicant: those with an occupation that appears on its unusually broad list, and those applying from offshore.

Here's how SA's nomination program actually operates.

A Genuinely Broad Occupation List

Most Australian states maintain relatively narrow, prescriptive occupation lists. South Australia operates one of the most expansive in the country — over 460 distinct occupations for the onshore streams and 427 for the offshore stream. The SA Skilled Occupation List operates at a granular ANZSCO code level, meaning that requirements and caveats vary occupation by occupation.

This breadth is SA's defining feature. Applicants whose occupation doesn't appear on the NSW Skills List, or who work in a field that other states deprioritize, often find their ANZSCO code included in SA's list when nowhere else is accessible.

The practical downside of this granularity is complexity: you can't assume that because your general occupation category is included, your specific ANZSCO unit group meets SA's requirements without reading the specific conditions attached to it. Requirements for work experience duration, qualifications, and employment type vary significantly across occupations in the same broad field.

The Four Nomination Streams

South Australia structures its 190 program across four distinct pathways, each with separate eligibility criteria.

South Australian Graduates

This stream is designed to retain international students who completed their qualifications in South Australia.

Requirements:

• Completed a CRICOS-registered course in SA of at least 46 weeks duration
• At least 75% of the qualification must have been completed while physically residing in SA
• Currently in full-time employment closely aligned with the field of qualification

The 75% physical residency requirement during study is important — students who completed coursework through a mix of onshore and offshore study, or who transferred from another institution to complete final units in SA, may struggle to satisfy this threshold.

Skilled Employment in SA

For onshore applicants working in South Australia in their nominated occupation.

Requirements:

• Currently working full-time in SA in the nominated occupation (minimum 30 hours per week — SA uses 30 hours, not the 35-hour threshold that WA applies)
• Employment must align with your ANZSCO code

This is the most commonly accessed pathway for onshore professionals not eligible through the graduate stream.

Outer Regional Skilled Employment

SA offers relaxed requirements for applicants generating economic activity outside the greater Adelaide metropolitan area. The precise concessions vary by occupation, but this stream generally allows reduced employment duration requirements and some relaxation on skill-level alignment for temporary visa holders working in regional SA.

If you're on a 417 Working Holiday Visa or a 482 TSS Visa working in regional SA (outside Greater Adelaide), this pathway is worth examining as an accelerated route to a 190 nomination that may not require the same duration of local employment as the metro stream.

Offshore Stream

South Australia is one of a small number of states that maintains a genuine, active offshore recruitment stream. This makes SA particularly valuable for skilled workers who are applying from outside Australia.

Standard offshore requirements:

• Occupation on the SA Offshore Occupation List
• Generally, three years of skilled employment in the nominated occupation within the past five years

Notably, SA grants specific concessions to critical construction trades (Bricklayers, Plumbers, and several related occupations), reducing the experience requirement to just one year within the previous three. For these trades, SA's offshore pathway is one of the most accessible in the country.

English Language Requirements

SA generally accepts Competent English (IELTS 6.0) for most occupations at the federal minimum. However, specific professions — particularly in healthcare, and in heavily oversupplied white-collar fields — may require Proficient or Superior English as SA manages high application volumes in those categories. Check the specific requirements attached to your ANZSCO code on the SA Skills List rather than assuming the federal minimum applies.

Strategic Positioning for SA

South Australia's strongest use cases are:

Offshore applicants in construction and trades: The reduced work experience requirement for critical trades through the offshore stream is genuinely differentiated from most other states' offshore pathways.

International graduates who studied in SA: The 46-week course duration threshold is lower than Tasmania's (which requires 92 weeks), making SA accessible to graduates of shorter professional programs.

Applicants in occupations excluded from other state lists: SA's 460+ occupation list often captures roles — Defense industry specialists, certain education professions, niche engineering disciplines — that appear on no other state's list.

Regional workers outside Adelaide: The outer regional stream provides a realistic path for workers in regional SA who don't need to match metro employment standards.

The main challenge is the 55% allocation cut. With only 1,350 places available, and SA's historically high interest from offshore applicants in particular, competition has intensified sharply compared to previous years. Applying as early as possible after the SA program opens each year is important.

For the detailed occupation-level requirements in SA versus other states, including how SA's offshore stream compares to WA's and what the specific construction trade concessions look like, the Australia Skilled Nominated Visa (190) Guide provides the full comparative framework with the 2025–26 data you need to decide whether SA is the right jurisdiction for your application.