Hiring an overseas worker – Guide for Australian business

If you are the owner or HR Manager in an Australian business and want to know how to sponsor an overseas worker for your business, regardless of your business size or industry, this page has been written specially with your needs in mind. Set out under the headings below is information on all aspects of the process, detailed requirements, compliance obligations and importantly, costs and timeframes.

You can read the full-page topic by topic to fully understand how employer sponsored visas can work for you, or jump to any of the topics below to quickly access relevant information.

Why the need for Employer Sponsorship Program

Why do Businesses need to sponsor overseas workers?

Can My Business Sponsor Overseas Workers?

What are my options under the Employer Sponsored Visa program?

What is the process to hire an overseas worker for my business?

How can I make sure nothing goes wrong?

What are my Obligations under the employer sponsored visas?

What will it cost my business to sponsor an overseas worker?

I need to hire an overseas worker but do not know anyone

Why Partner with Assure Visa for accessing overseas workers?

Frequently Asked Questions

As is evident from the name, employer sponsorship in Australia is possible for Australian employers who wish to recruit an overseas worker provided the business is prepared to formally sponsor the employee for the appropriate visa. These visas have existed for decades and undergone various transformations to keep them aligned to the needs of the Government and business.

Similar to visas under the Skilled Migration Program, Employer Sponsored Visas can be temporary or permanent. Where the employer sponsored visa is temporary, options are available for obtaining permanent residency upon meeting certain requirements (explained below). Importantly, your business can sponsor an overseas worker already in Australia (on another visa) or directly from overseas, which is very common.

How many employer sponsored visas are approved each year is determined by a planning level set by the Government. The key point is that this planning level is only for ‘permanent’ employer sponsored visas and no limit is set for the temporary employer sponsored visa program which is totally demand driven.

The success of this program and its uptake by Australian businesses is evident from a historical comparison of the permanent employer sponsored visa planning levels. For example, in 2007-08 when the total Migration Program was 158,630, there were 23,762 (nearly 15%) permanent employer sponsored visas approved. Fast forward 10 years to 2017-18, this percentage was almost 22% (35,528 out of 162,417 visas) and for the current year (2026-27) this planning level is set to around 31% (58,040 out of 185,000)!

Resorting to hiring a worker who is not an Australian citizen or permanent resident is not a decision taken lightly by any business and several considerations need to be carefully balanced. These can range from insufficient interest from local advertising, poor talent match across aspiring applicants, industry turnover or future certainty for the business.

Whilst each business will reach its own conclusion on who they wish to hire, the table below provides a comparison of the most common elements of this decision process which are also covered in detail in this page.

Yes. Most Australian business can sponsor an overseas worker. This is because the requirements are designed independent of the size of the business or its industry. You may however face challenges in obtaining the requisite approvals if any of the following apply:

a)     you have had a past history of an adverse finding against your business, resulting from non-compliance with relevant Australian laws. Previously, this requirement was concerned with laws relevant to hiring overseas workers such as migration, employment and taxation etc. but now this applies more broadly to include contravention with any laws. For example, a finding of workplace sexual harassment against your business under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 could affect your prospects adversely

b)     you are a labour hire business. This is a definite no-go zone. For example, if you are a recruitment consultancy business that employs engineers as contractors and places them into business of your clients, you will not be able to use employer sponsored visas to recruit overseas engineers (in Australia or overseas)

c)     you are an overseas business that needs a skilled person to work as your employee with your Australian client. Although this is not completely prohibited, it may be possible subject to meeting some other requirements.

If none of the above situations apply to your business, then you need to answer the three questions below to check if the employer sponsored visas are for you:

1.     Does my business need to fill an existing position (vacated due to resignation or natural attrition etc.) or a new position (business expansion, new projects etc.)?

2.     Have I tried filling the position through advertising in the local labour market but been unsuccessful?

3.     Do I have a candidate in mind I would like to fill the position?

If you have answered YES to all the questions, you can should be able to access the employer sponsored visas to fill your position with an overseas worker provided the position you are seeking to fill is permitted under the program (see below).

The diagram below illustrates the three visas under the Employer Sponsored Visa program. The Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) (Subclass 494) and the Skills In Demand (Subclass 482) visas are temporary visas whereas the Employer Nomination Scheme (Subclass 186) is a permanent visa. Each visa has further streams that determine, based on the circumstances of the business and the overseas employee, what criteria will apply.

The streams are briefly described below:

·        Employer Sponsored Stream – this stream is for overseas workers sponsored for the subclass 494 visa by an employer in regional Australia

·        Specialist Skills Stream – this stream is for highly skilled applicants who will be paid salary of at least $135,000 by their employer. The stream excludes trade workers, machinery operators and drivers, and labourers

·        Core Skills Stream – this stream is for workers sponsored for the subclass 482 visa whose occupations are on the Core Skills Occupation List (450+ occupations) and will be paid salary equivalent to at least the Core Skilled Income Threshold Income

·        Direct Entry Stream – this stream is for overseas workers who are sponsored directly for a permanent subclass 186 visa by their employer, without having to work for that employer on a temporary employer sponsored visa such as the subclass 482 visa

·        Temporary Resident Transition Stream – this stream if for overseas workers who were sponsored by their employer for a subclass 482 visa, have worked for that employer for at least two years and are now being sponsored by the same employer for the permanent subclass 186 visa

·        Labor Agreement Stream – this stream is available for all three visas 482, 494 and 186 and can only be accessed if the employer has an agreement (Labour Agreement) with the Government to facilitate access to overseas workers. As By its nature, a labour agreement can be very flexible and provide exemptions for specific occupations, salary, age or English proficiency.

Both the temporary subclass 494 and subclass 482 visas also have permanent residency pathways available. The applicable pr pathway will depend on the type of temporary visa held and the stream under which that visa was approved.

Whether the position you are seeking to fill with an overseas worker is available under the employer sponsored program will depend on the visa and the stream under which you are accessing the program. For example, the occupation needs to be on the Medium to Long Term Strategic Skilled List (MLTSSL) for the Employer Sponsored Stream of the subclass 494 visa, and on the Core Skills Occupation List for the Core Skills Stream of the subclass 482 visa.

You can quickly and easily determine the right visa and stream by following the questions below.

As the Employer Sponsored Visas are designed with the needs of Australian employers in mind, the process also starts with the Australian business. There are slight variations in the process depending on whether you wish to sponsor an overseas worker for a temporary or permanent visa and the manner or ‘Stream’ through which you are accessing the program. The diagram below shows the high-level process for the employer sponsored visas, discussed below in detail.

This is the first process for the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) (Subclass 494) and the Skills In Demand (Subclass 482) visas where you first need to become an approved sponsor. As part of the standard business sponsorship requirements, you will need to demonstrate to Home Affairs that you are operating a lawful and financially viable business in Australia, under an acceptable business structure e.g. sole trader, a partnership, a franchise or a proprietary limited company and have not contravened any Australian laws.

The SBS approval process does not require the business to identify which position it is seeking to fill with an overseas worker. This is because the SBS approval can be for a period of five years and the same approval can be used to fill multiple positions within the business.

For the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) 186 Visa, the SBS approval is not required as a separate step. This is because two of the three streams available under the subclass 186 visa are for workers who had previously been sponsored by the same business for the temporary employer sponsored visa so they have already gone through the SBS approval process regardless of whether the SBS is still current.

Example

A business person is looking to start an Italian Restaurant in downtown Adelaide but does not have a Chef so the restaurant cannot commence operations till they have someone to prepare the food. They have a lease agreement in place for the restaurant, have ordered the furniture, engaged a contractor for the fit-out and also have agreements with meat, cheese and wine suppliers. They have developed a business plan that shows strong revenue projections based on expected patronage and expected to make a profit from second year of operations after paying salaries and other costs. They are likely to be approved as a Standard Business Sponsor even though the business is a start-up.

If you are looking to hire an overseas worker for a temporary employer sponsored visa and your business has been approved as a Standard Business Sponsor, the next process is for you to apply for the approval of the position that you are looking to fill. This step is also called Nomination or Nomination Approval and is extremely important. Of the three steps shown in the graphic above, this is the costliest step for the business and also carries the most risk as the refusal rates for nominations are the highest of all three steps.

In the nomination application, the business is required to meet some additional requirements that relate specifically to the position that is to be filled. The nomination application must also identify the nominee i.e. the overseas worker who the business has selected for filling the position. Some of the key requirements related to the position are explained below (all requirements are not covered).

As the name suggests, the business must show that you have tried, and failed, to find a local Australian worker before sponsoring someone from overseas. You must advertise the position across multiple specific platforms (such as Workforce Australia) for a set period, and provide evidence of this advertising with your nomination application. Getting the LMT wrong is a leading cause of nomination refusals.

Example

Hadley’s Automotive is a motor vehicle servicing business in Newcastle that has been approved as a Standard Business Sponsor. They have been looking to fill the position of a Deisel Motor Mechanic for almost 6 months and have advertised the position several times on Gumtree but have not found a suitable candidate despite offering a high salary. They have identified Chris, a United Kingdom passport holder who is in Australia and a qualified Diesel Motor Mechanic. Hadley’s Automotive has lodged their nomination application and submitted evidence of their Gumtree advertisements as evidence of meeting LMT. The nomination application will be refused because Gumtree is not a prescribed method for LMT even though it may have a strong reach.

This is another crucial requirement under the nomination process and the cause of high refusals. You must demonstrate that the role you are nominating is a genuine necessity for your business operations, not a position created simply to secure a visa for someone. This often involves providing evidence why the position is vacant and how it aligns with the activities if the business.

Example:

Hussain has operated his dine-in Turkish restaurant for several years and successfully hired overseas Chefs through the Employer Sponsored program. His wife’s brother is in Australia on a student visa and has just completed his Master’s in Public Accountancy and is a qualified accountant. Hussain has put forward a nomination application for a full-time position of an accountant for his business and included details of his wife’s brother as the nominee, without indicating the relationship. The nomination is highly likely to be refused because a restaurant typically does not need to employ a full-time accountant.