A 'designated regional area’ means any designated regional area
Sponsoring relatives for the subclass 491 - Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa don’t have to live in the same designated regional area as the visa applicant.
What is sometimes not understood about subclass 491 visa is that the relative can live anywhere in Australia as long as both the sponsoring relative and the visa applicant live in ANY designated regional area but they don’t have to live in the same designated regional area.
Cl 491.217(2)(c) states:
“(c) the sponsor is usually resident in a designated regional area;”
The operative provision for the applicant is (item 1241(4)[7] of Schedule 1 of the Migration Regulations:
“The applicant declares in the application that each of the following has a genuine intention to live, work and study in a designated regional area:
(a) the applicant;
(b) each person who is also an applicant for the grant of a Subclass 491 (Skilled Work Regional (Provisional)) visa) and claims to be a member of the family unit of the applicant.”
Here is the list of possible sponsoring relatives for the subclass 491 visa and the associated requirement (491.217):
(2) If the applicant declared in the application that the applicant is sponsored by a person (the sponsor), the Minister has accepted the sponsorship of the applicant by the sponsor in the following circumstances:
(a) the sponsor has turned 18;
(b) the sponsor is an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen;
(c) the sponsor is usually resident in a designated regional area;
(d) the sponsor is related to the applicant, or the applicant's spouse or de facto partner (if the applicant's spouse or de facto partner is also an applicant for a Subclass 491 visa), as:
(i) a parent; or
(ii) a child or step-child; or
(iii) a brother, sister, adoptive brother, adoptive sister, step-brother or step-sister; or
(iv) an aunt, uncle, adoptive aunt, adoptive uncle, step-aunt or step-uncle; or
(v) a nephew, niece, adoptive nephew, adoptive niece, step-nephew or step-niece; or
(vi) a grandparent; or
(vii) a first cousin;
(e) each member of the family unit of the applicant who is also an applicant for a Subclass 491 visa is sponsored by the sponsor.
So, what all this means is that the sponsoring relative could live in metropolitan Perth while the subclass 491 applicant could live on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Plus the list of occupations for the subclass 491 is broad and extends to the regional occupations list as pertinent to the subclass 491 visa.
As a practice point, only a small number of invitations to apply for the subclass 491 visa in the Family Sponsored regime hence it is good to maximise the applicant’s points. Hence although the threshold is 65 points, the higher the number of points one has, improves one’s chances of receiving an invitation to apply.
Note that English qualifications for the spouse will gain points as will higher English language qualifications for the primary visa applicant. [Never aim to get the minimum number of points to meet any threshold, always try to meet the highest number of points, the higher the points the better the chance of an invitation to apply].
Even with the Subclass 494 (Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional), the employer need not be based in ‘a designated regional area’, only the position has to be located in ‘a designated regional area’, see Reg 2.72C
Note in passing that Condition 8579 applies to both subclass 491 and 494 visas. 8579 requires all visa holders (including secondary visa holders) to “live, work and study only in a part of Australia that was a designated regional area at the time the visa was granted.”
It would mean that the spouse and offspring cannot be housed in a capital city while the primary applicant stays in the regional area. Of course the spouse and offspring could live in any designated regional area which need not be the same as the designated regional area where the primary applicant lives and works.
The postcodes defining‘a designated regional area’have been expanded. The starting point, of course is that the whole of WA, SA and Tasmania are designated regional areas as are the whole of the ACT and NT. In 2022, the designated areas were expanded to include the Gold Coast and wide parts of Brisbane suburbs which were infected by the 2022 flood.