Sponsor

You must also ensure the person is employed under a written contract of employment

If you want to engage a sponsored person for a different occupation, you may lodge a new nomination and visa application.

You must employ the person under a written contract of employment and they cannot work for another business, unless that business is an associated entity of an Australian Standard Business Sponsor.

• Ceases working for you; or
• your employee has a nomination approved for a different approved sponsor; or
• is granted a different type of visa

• The annual earnings of the employee must be at least the same as those stated on the nomination
• The employment conditions of the employee must not be less favourable than those of an equivalent Australian worker

This obligation does not apply if the annual earnings of the employee more than $250,000.

• The sponsored person does not commence employment within the time frame agreed with the sponsor;
• The sponsored person’s employment ends, or is expected to end;
• Return travel costs of a sponsored person and any sponsored family members have been paid in accordance with this obligation (see below);
• There are changes to the work duties carried out by the sponsored person;
• Your business address or contact details have changed;
• A new director is appointed to the company, a partner joins the partnership or a new member is appointment to the management committee of an unincorporated association;
• An insolvency/bankruptcy/receivership/liquidation/administration event occurs;
• Your business ceases to exist as a legal entity.

These costs will be capped at $10,000 per person (less any amount paid under the return travel costs obligation set out above).

• Written request for the payment of return travel costs including when the request was received, how the sponsor complied with the request including how much was paid, who the costs were paid for, and date of payment;
• Notification to the Department of certain reportable events (see above) including the date and method of the notification and where it was sent;
• Tasks performed by the sponsored person in their nominated occupation and location where the tasks were performed;
• Earnings paid to the sponsored visa holder (unless the sponsored visa holder earns over $250,000)
• Money applied or dealt with in any way on behalf of, or as directed by, the employee (unless the sponsored visa holder earns over $250,000)
• Non-monetary benefits provided to the sponsored person, including the agreed value and the time and period those benefits were provided (unless the sponsored visa holder earns over $250,000)
• If there is an equivalent worker, a record of the terms and conditions that apply (or did apply), and the period they applied unless the sponsored visa holder earns over $250,000);
• Written contract of employment under which each sponsored person is employed;
• Annual turnover in relation to calculation of the nomination training contribution charge.

• Providing access to premises for inspection of any work, process or object;
• Providing inspectors with access to interview any person on the premises;
• Producing and providing documents within the requested timeframe;
• Not preventing or attempting to prevent, access to a person who has custody of, or access to, a record or documents.

• cost of becoming a sponsor
• nomination charges
• professional fees associated with sponsorship and nomination applications
• recruitment agent fees
• professional legal fees
• advertising
• screening, short listing, interviewing and conducting reference checks of candidates
• salaries of recruitment or human resource staff
• outsourcing background checks, police checks and psychological testing
• responding to queries from potential candidates and advising unsuccessful applicants
• travelling nationally or internationally to interview and/or meet applicants

Possible sanctions for failing to comply with sponsorship obligations

• You could be barred from sponsoring more people for a specified time;
• You could be barred from applying for approval to be a sponsor;
• All of your existing approvals as a sponsor could be cancelled;
• You could be required to enter an enforceable undertaking to promise, in writing, to complete certain actions to demonstrate that the failures have been rectified and will not happen again;
• You could be issued an infringement notice for each failure;
• You could be issued a civil penalty for each failure.

• You provide false or misleading information;
• You no longer satisfy the criteria for approval as a sponsor;
• You have been found to have contravened a Commonwealth, state or territory law;
• A sponsored person breaks a law relating to the licensing, registration or membership needed to work in the nominated position

• Minimum of 4 weeks / 28 days – must be consecutive
• The Department will not accept evidence of non-consecutive advertising
• For example, an advertisement is posted on a recruitment platform from 1 November 2023 to 20 November 2023 (20 days). A duplicate advertisement is run on the same platform from 20 November to 4 December 2023 (13 days). This example would comply with LMT requirements as the overlapping
  advertisements have been posted for a continuing period of at least four weeks. The day which overlaps may only be counted once

• Four months immediately prior to nomination lodgment
• Four months since redundancies for the role

• Two advertisements required in total
• Advertisement can be on:
  • Recruitment websites with national reach
    • Examples include Seek, Indeed, Adzuna, Linkedln (Recruitment platform), Gumtree (Jobs portal)
  • ONLY for accredited sponsors – your business website

• Position title / description
• Salary / salary range (if guaranteed earnings is lower than AU$96,400)
  • Guaranteed earnings does not include superannuation.
• Company / recruitment agency (company name does not need to be disclosed if
  using a recruitment agency)
• Skills or experience requirements
• Must be in English

• Copy of advertisements (please send us links, if possible)
• For positions subject to alternative requirements – a submission explaining why an Australian worker is not available

• Intra-corporate transferees (where employed by an offshore entity associated to the Australian sponsor
• Where nominee is an existing visa holder needing a nomination due to a change
  in business structure or pay
• Internationally recognised record of exceptional achievement in a profession or
  field, e.g. sport, academia and research, top talent chef
• Positions with annual earnings of AU$250,000 or more
• Some medical occupations

• Exemption where international trade obligation applies – we will advise further