Standard Business Sponsorship

If your business is having difficulty recruiting skilled staff from within the Australian labour market, you may wish to consider sponsoring qualified and experienced employees from overseas.

Whilst we acknowledge that Australia’s international borders are currently closed to temporary visa holders, there are exemptions to those skilled workers on the current Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List.

In addition to this, the Australian government has also indicated that our borders will be re-opened to skilled workers by early 2022.

If you’re eligible to sponsor, start looking at the process now to mitigate any possible delays as there will be a strong demand in addition to the usual slow down over the summer holiday break.

Once a Sponsorship has been approved, the company is able to nominate positions to be filled by overseas employees and the overseas employees are able to apply for a Visa.

There are several visa options that allow businesses to sponsor overseas residents or to sponsor temporary overseas residents who might already be in Australia working, studying or visiting.

Employees can be sponsored under:

• Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) Visa Subclass 482
• Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist) visa (subclass 400)
• Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS)

Your company may also wish to apply for accredited status as this has significant benefits.

Standard Business Sponsorship Requirements

There are a number of requirements for a company to become a standard business sponsor which include:

• There is a lawfully and actively established business structure– such as a company, trust, partnership or registered business name; and
• The business is in a sound financial position

Sponsorship Period of Validity

Once obtained, Sponsorship approval is for five years, this includes accredited sponsors and newly established businesses.

Employer Sponsorship Obligations

Approved standard business sponsors are required to meet a number of sponsorship obligations to prevent exploitation of overseas workers.

These obligations include the following:

• Obligation to ensure equivalent terms and conditions of employment as those provided to Australian employees;
• Obligation to pay travel costs to enable sponsored persons to leave Australia when the visa validity expires
• Keep and maintain record of employment for the 482 visa holder
• Ensure the sponsored 482 visa worker does not perform duties other than those of the nominated occupation
• Notify the Department when certain events occur such as a change of the sponsor’s business address, a change in the work duties carried out by the sponsored employee and the cessation of the sponsored employee’s employment;
• Obligation not to recover certain costs from sponsored employees and their family members such as visa application costs;
• Co-operate with the Department when requested for checks on compliance

482 / TSS Sponsorship

• Nomination or Sponsorship application costs are not able to be recovered from a visa applicant;
• The SAF levy is not recoverable from a visa applicant;
• Migration Agent professional fees related to lodgement of a Sponsorship or Nomination application are not recoverable from the visa applicant.
• Visa application Government and Migration Agent costs can be paid up front by a visa applicant;

186 Employer Nominated Permanent Residency

• The SAF levy is payable by the employer
• Government Visa application fees and Migration Agent professional fees can be paid upfront either by the business or by the visa applicant;