What are the designated regional areas in Australia in relation to the SC 485 visa?
For migration purposes, the majority of Australia's areas outside of the country's three largest cities; Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane are categorized as designated regional areas. There are two categories of regional areas Category 2 and Category 3.
Category 2 have ‘Cities and Major Regional Centres’ of Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Canberra, Newcastle/Lake Macquarie, Wollongong/Illawarra, Geelong and Hobart.
Anyone who belong to the Category 2 will enjoy benefits of priority processing of their visas, access to regional occupation list and get an extra year a on a post-study work visa if you have a degree.
Category 3 have ‘Regional Centres and Other Regional Areas’ with dedicated 11,200 regional places. The post codes can be accessed here.
Individuals who belong to Category 3 will enjoy the benefits same as individuals in Category 2. They will have additional benefits like an extra 2 year on a post-study work visa if you have a degree and have priority in negotiating region-specific Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMAs).