Employer Sponsored Visa

The Government is committed to protecting the health of Australians during the global pandemic and carefully calibrating skilled migration to fill critical skills needs that support Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

A variety of safeguards exist within employer sponsored visas that are designed to put job opportunities for Australia workers first. These ensure that overseas workers complement, but do not displace Australian workers. These safeguards include:

• requiring market salary rates to be paid to sponsored workers
• mandating a minimum salary of $53,900
• limiting the occupations that are eligible for employer sponsorship to only those determined to be in demand in the Australian labour market by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment
• requiring employers to contribute to the Skilling Australians Fund
• requiring overseas workers to hold relevant Australian registration, licences and certificates
• skills, english language, age, and work experience requirements for overseas workers

For some visa types, you must show us you can't find a suitable Australian worker. For these visas, if you nominate an overseas worker, you will need to test the local labour market. Given the economic impacts of COVID-19, we will be further scrutinising employer sponsored applications to ensure that job opportunities for Australian workers are being prioritised. 

There will be more attention given to employer nominations in relation to Australian workers in similar occupations when considering whether there is a genuine need for an overseas worker, including:

• retrenchments in the previous 12 months
• reduction of hours worked during the previous 12 months
• reduction in pay and conditions within the previous 12 months
• employment of a temporary visa holder on conditions less favourable than Australians
• recruitment of temporary visa holders beyond the ordinary scope of the business

Being a sponsor means the skilled worker can work only for you while you sponsor their visa.

When you sponsor a worker you have certain obligations to them. Some of these obligations might continue after they cease working for you.

Any legally established and operating business can apply to be a sponsor. Learn more about different types of sponsorship and how to become a sponsor.

The support you must provide the visa holder and your other obligations depend on:

• your responsibilities as an employer
• the type of visa you and the worker choose

You might be able to sponsor a skilled worker to come to Australia if you can't find an Australian citizen or permanent resident with the skills and experience needed for the job.

You can sponsor workers temporarily or permanently.

You can sponsor someone who is a skilled worker:

• living overseas who wishes to travel and work in Australia, or
• already in Australia on another type of visa which does not currently allow them to work, or
• already living and working on another visa in Australia

You can also take over the sponsorship of people holding a Temporary Work skilled visa (subclass 457) Temporary Skill Shortage visa (subclass 482).

With limited exceptions, the job you sponsor the overseas worker to do must be on the Skilled Occupations List. If the job is not on the list, you might be able to negotiate a labour agreement. For high-skill niche roles that can’t be filled through existing visa programs you could access the Global Talent Scheme.

Some visa holders already have work rights or might be able to apply for a visa on their own. In that case you don’t need to sponsor them.

To bring someone to Australia for other temporary activities such as sports training programs, seasonal work or as performers, you can sponsor them for another type of work visa.

See other work visa options.

There are different visa options for sponsoring. The steps you need to take might differ between visas. For a general overview of the process see How to sponsor a worker.

As part of the process you will need to nominate a worker for the occupation you would like to employ them for.

There are costs to sponsoring.