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Employer Options
There are two types of visas available, Temporary Visas and Permanent Visas.
Temporary visas allow Australian and overseas employers to hire approved skilled workers for limited term vacancies in particular occupations. Temporary visas can offer a pathway to a permanent visa but this is usually dependent on the employer offering sponsorship on a different Permanent visa.
Although there are five temporary visas, only one is in wide use, with the others being for limited purposes or very substantially sized employers.
Permanent Visas allow Australian employers to sponsor skilled workers in particular occupations, although the “reward” of Permanent Residence is higher so naturally the thresholds to obtain them are too. Listed below are the visas that require direct Employer sponsorship.
This web site will not cover all options, just the ones that are more popular and useful to businesses. These have links to more information set into the visa name.
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TEMPORARY
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PERMANENT
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Temporary Business Long Stay – Standard Business Sponsorship (subclass 457)
A very commonly used program for employers to sponsor approved skilled workers to work in Australia on a temporary visa. Employers can nominate a number of positions for different occupations under the same sponsorship application.
Approximately 80,000 457s were issued in last 12 months. Concessions were recently introduced for minimum salary and skill levels if the 457 is being used in a regional area. Read up on the 457 visa and regional concessions here.
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Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS, subclass 121/856)
For Australian employers to recruit workers on permanent visas, to fill full-time highly skilled positions which cannot be filled from the Australian labour market.
This visa is commonly used to offer PR to 457 holders who meet the criteria. An offer to sponsor 457 applicants into an ENS visa after a suitable period of work would be the strongest thing you could offer any migrant to get them to agree to work for you, other than a fantastic salary.
Visa applicants must have occupations listed on the ENS Occupations List and must meet a minimum salary level.
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Educational visa (subclass 418) - for teachers
For educational workers to be employed in Australia on a temporary basis. The sponsoring organisation must be an Australian tertiary education or research institution, school or technical college. Will need change of visa/sponsorship to get PR later on.
Can have problems with school boards limiting their sponsorship to currently funded years, usually one at a time. The sponsorship is only for 12 months and the visa is for up to four years, so if an employee currently holds an Educational Visa 418 and wants to renew it, a new sponsorship and visa application must be lodged. With renewals and labour market testing for this visa, it may be better to use 457 visa.
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Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS, subclass 119/857)
For employers in regional Australia to employ skilled people in positions unable to be filled from the local labour market. Regional Australia is all areas of Australia except Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Melbourne and Perth. Go here for postcodes that make up Regional Australia for RSMS visas.
This visa is vastly underused and has huge potential, as it only requires an offer of employment with no other financial undertakings to be given by the employer.
The qualifications and abilities required are very modest, so a wider range of skilled people can meet the requirements, meaning employers should have a good pool of applicants to choose from.
Read up on the RSMS visa here.
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Labour Agreements - for larger businesses
Formal arrangements for an Australian industry group or employer to recruit a specified number of skilled workers on a temporary or permanent basis over a number of years. Only long standing and sizeable employers need apply, such as mines, meatworks etc.
Useful where occupations are not on shortage lists but shortages do exist, or where the ASCO code list is not appropriate. Small to medium employers will not have the resources or credibility to work with this visa as individual businesses. Labour hire firms are now excluded from this visa unless they run an apprenticeship programme and have dedicated staff training budgets, which only the very big agencies would have.
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Labour Agreements - for larger businesses
Formal arrangements for an Australian industry group or employer to recruit a specified number of skilled workers on a temporary or permanent basis over a number of years. Only long standing and sizeable employers need apply, such as mines, meatworks etc.
Useful where occupations are not on shortage lists but shortages do exist, or where the ASCO code list is not appropriate. Small to medium employers will not have the resources or credibility to work with this visa as individual businesses. Labour hire firms are now excluded from this visa unless they run an apprenticeship programme and have dedicated staff training budgets, which only the very big agencies would have.
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Service Sellers - not common
For representatives of overseas suppliers of services who are negotiating, or entering into, agreements to supply their services in Australia under the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS).
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