Employers can sponsor skilled overseas workers through the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional Provisional visa (subclass 494), or the Employer Nomination Scheme visa (subclass 186).
The process generally happens in three stages, sponsorship, nomination, and visa application.
Sponsorship approval as a Standard Business Sponsor lasts five years and must be held at the time a nomination is lodged.
The nominated salary must meet the Core Skills Income Threshold, currently $79,499 per year, or the Specialist Skills Income Threshold for higher paid roles.
Most Core Skills nominations require labour market testing evidence, generally two advertisements run for at least 28 days within the four months before lodgement.
A Skilling Australians Fund levy is generally payable at the nomination stage, calculated according to the sponsoring business's annual turnover.
While the program is enticing for many employers, there are a number of considerations that it is important to factor into a decision to sponsor. The first is the legal requirements and obligations that you will be subject to. When becoming a Standard Business Sponsor for the SESR or temporary skill shortage visa, employers agree to keep the Department informed of any and all changes to the sponsored employee’s working conditions, and must keep records of all foreign workers. The employer is also obliged to ensure that the overseas skilled worker is employed under the same terms and conditions as an equivalent Australian worker, which is designed to prevent exploitation. It is also generally a requirement that the employment period will be for the duration specified in the nomination, or a minimum of two years after the visa grant for the 186 ENS. Lastly, employers must ensure that workers are paid the market salary rate for the occupation, which must meet the minimum income threshold.
For the Core Skills stream, this is the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT), currently $79,499 per year, up from $76,515 previously. For the Specialist Skills stream, a considerably higher Specialist Skills Income Threshold applies instead, currently $146,717 per year. This must be met through guaranteed base salary alone, superannuation and non-monetary benefits cannot be counted towards it.
The occupations eligible for the Skills in Demand visa are set out on the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL), which replaced the earlier short-term, medium-term, and regional occupation lists used under the former Temporary Skill Shortage framework. The Specialist Skills stream does not rely on any occupation list at all, since eligibility depends purely on the salary offered meeting the Specialist Skills Income Threshold.
The 482 and 494 are very similar, both being a temporary visa that leads to permanent residency. The key difference is the occupations available for the visas, as they are dictated by different lists, as well as the fact that the 494 is a regional only visa, meaning that the worker must live and work in a designated regional area in Australia. The 482 can generally be granted for up to four years across its streams, subject to the specific stream and occupation, whereas the 494 is valid for a period of five years.
Here is how the three employer sponsored visas compare.
Each nomination will come with relevant fees, and in most cases, a Skilling Australians Fund levy. The SAF levy is calculated according to the sponsoring business's annual turnover and is generally paid upfront in full for the nominated visa period. The fees will vary depending on the visa period and subclass. More information related to sponsorship and nomination fees can be found on our web page.
Lodging in this order, sponsorship approved first, then nomination, then visa application, avoids one of the more common structural mistakes in this process. Lodging out of sequence can cause delays or complications rather than saving time.
Most nominations will require evidence that the employer has been unable to find a suitably skilled worker in the Australian labour market to fill vacant positions, and that they will employ all foreign workers on the same terms as an equivalent Australian worker. The nomination will also specify the stream of the visa being applied for.
This is generally known as labour market testing, and for most Core Skills stream nominations it must show that the position was genuinely and substantively advertised within the four months before the nomination is lodged, including at least two advertisements that each ran for a minimum of 28 days. Labour market testing is generally not required for the Specialist Skills stream, or where an International Trade Obligation exemption applies.
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