Standard business sponsorship is the approval your business needs before it can sponsor a skilled worker on a subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa in the Specialist Skills or Core Skills stream, or on a subclass 494 visa in the Employer Sponsored stream. The Department assesses your business, not the worker. For a business operating in Australia, there are six requirements. None of them is a minimum trading period, a turnover figure or a training spend.
A Registered Migration Agent will review your enquiry and respond within one business day. If your matter is urgent, please call us on (08) 6555 7037.
The Minister must approve your business as a standard business sponsor if satisfied of each of the following. For a business lawfully operating in Australia, that means:
The application has been made in the way the Regulations require.
Your business is lawfully operating a business.
Your business has attested, in writing, that it has a strong record of, or a demonstrated commitment to, employing local labour.
Your business has declared, in writing, that it will not engage in discriminatory recruitment practices.
There is no adverse information known to the Department about your business or a person associated with it, or it is reasonable to disregard any that is known.
Your business has not transferred, recovered or sought to have another person pay the costs of becoming a sponsor, of a nomination, or of recruiting the worker.
The criteria do not include a minimum period of trading or a turnover threshold. The training requirement that once formed part of these criteria applied only before 18 March 2018.
Cooperating with inspectors.
Ensuring equivalent terms and conditions of employment.
Keeping records and providing them on request.
Ensuring the worker works in the nominated occupation.
Paying return travel costs when they are requested in writing.
Not recovering sponsorship costs, and not engaging in discriminatory recruitment practices.
Notifying the Department within 28 days of a change to your address or contact details, a new director or partner, the business ceasing to exist, or an insolvency event.
Some obligations begin on the day of approval, before your first worker starts; others attach once a worker is sponsored. A failure to satisfy an obligation can lead to a bar on sponsoring, cancellation of your approval, a civil penalty order, an infringement notice or an enforceable undertaking.
Before lodging, establish what the Department could know about your business and every person associated with it, including directors, officers, partners, related bodies corporate and anyone able to influence or control it. Adverse information includes information that a person:
has contravened a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory;
is under investigation, subject to disciplinary action, or subject to legal proceedings for a contravention of such a law;
has been the subject of administrative action, including a warning, by a Department or regulator for a possible contravention;
has become insolvent; or
has given the Department, the Tribunal or an assessing authority a bogus document, or information that is false or misleading in a material particular.
Adverse information is not an automatic refusal. The requirement is met if it is reasonable to disregard what is known, so the explanation and the evidence of what has changed since belong in the application.
The costs of becoming an approved sponsor.
The costs of a nomination, including the nomination fee and the nomination training contribution charge.
The costs of recruiting a worker for a nomination.
Migration agent costs.
An arrangement for the worker to repay these costs, directly or through a salary deduction, counts against the application and breaches an ongoing obligation once your business is approved. Our page on the cost of sponsoring an employee sets out which costs fall to your business.
We assess your business against the six requirements before anything is lodged.
We establish what the Department could know about your business and the people associated with it.
We prepare the sponsorship application and the first nomination as one consistent account.
We lodge through ImmiAccount, accurately and completely, on your behalf.
We monitor progress and respond promptly to any requests from the Department.
We help you meet the 28-day notification and record-keeping obligations while approval lasts.
Australian Migration Co is a private migration advisory firm. Immigration assistance is provided by a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 2418576) registered with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA). Australian Migration Co is not a government body and is not part of, or operated by, the Australian Government or the Department of Home Affairs. Visa applications can also be lodged directly with the Australian Government at immi.homeaffairs.gov.au, and some are free of charge; our services are provided for a fee. The information on this page is general in nature, does not constitute immigration advice and does not guarantee any outcome. Sponsorship criteria, fees and obligations change over time and are verified against current sources before proceeding. As a trusted migration agent Perth employers rely on, Australian Migration Co provides professional guidance on standard business sponsorship and the employer sponsored visa pathways that follow it.
