An Employer’s Guide for Foreign Workers Sponsorship Under the 482 Visa Stream
If you are an employer who needs to hire foreign workers then this is a brief guide on how the sponsorship system works.
Business Sponsorship
First, you need to ensure that your business satisfies the “good standing” condition.
As an employer, you need to ensure that you have an Australian business and that it has been ‘actively operating’ for a minimum of 12 months in Australia. Additionally, you need to provide the following pieces of evidence:
- You need to show that your business has the financial solvency to be able to support the sponsorship. These should be documents from a chartered or certified practising accountant. Documents that would be required to be provided will include:
- Business activity statements
- Financial accounts
- Tax returns, and
- A support letter from your accountant.
- You need to include documentation that verifies that your business has always been fulfilling legal obligations by the books, has not broken any law or is currently under investigation for breach of any law.
- The business has consulted appropriate industry stakeholders to justify its foreign employee needs.
- You mustn’t provide any misleading or incorrect information regarding your business.
Nomination Requirements for the 482 visas
The particular requirements for each business are different and are also dependent on the type of position the employer would like to sponsor a foreign worker for. For example, if you intend to sponsor a marketing individual, the minimum turnover of the business should be AUD $1 million and the employee should be paid a minimum salary of AUD $65,000.
Certain occupations under the 482 Visa category require the visa holder to have registration. This is critical for medical professionals such as nurses, doctors and dentists. Depending on the occupation, exemptions can apply if the visa holder is directly working under a registered professional.
Other Visa Options for Sponsoring Skilled Employees
This is a brief outline of visa type, and what skills and qualifications are required to apply for it.
Another important criterion for the nomination application is that sponsors need to select the most appropriate Skilled Employees visa that yields the highest mutual benefits for your business and your employees.
The sponsor must advertise the position on several different platforms; we recommend Seek, Indeed and Jobactive. The job placements must include the salary for the position and the duties. Labour market testing is a requirement for all nomination applications as it demonstrates that the employer has made efforts to employ an Australian citizen.
Labour Agreement
The labour agreement is another pathway that employers can consider to employ foreign workers. The labour agreement is more complex but does allow the employer more flexibility in hiring foreign employees.
Your request must show that your company requires specific skills that aren’t adequately fulfilled by the Australian labour market. That means that you need to apply for a Labour Agreement. It is an agreement between the Australian government and the employers stating the sponsor obligations the employers are subjected to. The process to apply for a labour agreement is as follows:
- You need to check the labour agreement program information guide to confirm if you meet the minimum requirements to lodge an online application.
- Once you have fulfilled the above conditions, you can lodge your application with all the required and relevant documents so that your application has a higher chance of being accepted.
- Your application will then be processed by the department and if they require further information you will be notified. You must submit the newly requested information within 7 to 14 calendar days.
- Generally, all the applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis, therefore the assessment duration may vary depending on your request. However, it can take a maximum of 6 months to process your application.
- If your application gets approved then the labour agreement will be sent to you for reviewing and signatures.
- Once you have returned the signed agreement, the department will give the final confirmation of the agreement. Upon receipt of this, the labour agreement will come into effect.
- Labour agreements are generally valid for 5 years after it comes into effect.
- Your labour agreement will have a Transaction Reference Number (TRN), which you need to share with your foreign employees when they are applying for a visa.
- The TRN on their visa application allows the department to distinguish that you are their sponsor.
Once your labour agreement is approved, you are eligible to sponsor foreign workers under 1 or more of the visa streams discussed in the prior section.
Disclaimer: Kindly note that the information provided here does not constitute legal advice. This must solely be regarded as content that provides general immigration information and is not a substitute for professional legal advice that occurs between an immigration lawyer and a client.
Path Migration strongly recommends readers contact certified immigration lawyers for a holistic overview of the Australian immigration system and a detailed analysis of each case.
