Everything You Need to know when Sponsoring a Foreign Worker
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Are you planning to sponsor a foreign worker for your business as you are unable to find the desired one inside your country? So, as a business worker, you have an opportunity to hire qualified candidates from outside the country at an ease.
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How can it help prospective employers and employees?
This will not only help you out to improve your business but will give a competition to the existing workers leading them to get more concentrated towards their work. You can easily find a capable applicant who will fit into your checklist of qualities that you are looking for in a worker. Along with this, you will be able to help someone who is dreaming to live in Australia. It can allow the worker to get more indulged in the work and put more immense effort.
All you need to do is act like a sponsor for that person and get a highly qualified candidate. If you are strongly planning to hire someone from abroad, then be ready for plenty of paperwork. You will need to fill out some papers to complete the process, but surely the effort will be worth it. You can sponsor a foreign worker to work in Australia for the utmost 4 years on a visa. This will be dependent on the company goals and the eligibility of the applicant.
What kind of visa is applicable for foreign workers?
Depending on the applicant’s occupation that is either medium, long or short term, they can get their visa accordingly. Any business can be eligible to sponsor an applicant on an employer-sponsored visa.
- You can consider the example of subclass 482 Temporary Skill Shortage Visa (TSS), which has three streams in total.
- The Medium and Long- Term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) or Regional Occupation List (ROL) provides a visa for up to 4 years that can be renewed for the applicant.
- Whereas the Short-Term List can provide a visa for up to 2 years, which is also renewable. This is not a complex task and thus, this process can be used by any business to sponsor a foreign worker and improve themselves.
Below are the steps that you can follow if you are planning to start sponsoring foreign workers for business. You can go through this general review as it will make you clearer and will give you a better understanding of the detailed procedure.
An actionable step-by-step guide to sponsoring a foreign worker
Step 1 : Conduct a labour market testing
This test will help the visa and immigration officers to determine whether there are any eligible citizens or residents available in Australia for the work that is offered by the company. This will become a piece of evidence in form of an application that will help you to fill the vacancy with all the desirable qualities you are expecting to sponsor a foreign worker for your business.
Step 2 : Develop a labour agreement and meet salary requirements
To make sure that there is no confusion, you must develop a contract with the worker in which you can set the working conditions, salary, etc. according to the requirements. Labour agreements enable and help approved businesses to sponsor skilled foreign workers when there is an essential need that cannot be met in the Australian labour market. Or it helps where neither permanent nor temporary visa programs are available.
This is a crucial part of the process as the agreement cannot be changed later once it is signed. There is no room for any mistake as the consequences will not get resolved on any condition later. So, take care while mentioning the skillset you want as it must be on the list of eligible skilled occupations. You may also have to negotiate the labour agreement when you sponsor a foreign worker for your business if the skillset that you need is not on the list.
Step 3 : Match the visa subclass
Look upon the eligible visa which will match your needs, for example;
- Temporary Skill Shortage Visa (subclass 482) will give you a time of 1-4 years.
- Skilled Employer-Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494) will give you a time of 5 years.
- Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) and Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187) will give you a permanent stay.
Step 4 : Application process of the approved sponsor
If you want to sponsor a foreign worker who is skillful then you must get yourself approval by applying from DIBP depending on the visa you choose. Business immigration is not something that you can do easily.
- Lodge an application to apply as a sponsor with DIBP.
- Make sure that your business is legally established and operating excellently regardless of where your company is.
- For the 457-visa program, you must meet the minimum training benchmark.
- You should attest in writing that you are committed to the employment of local labour.
Step 5 : Visa lodgment
Complete the visa application by checking that the employee meets all the requirements that will make him eligible according to the visa criteria. Accessing authority is one of the parts of visa application while assessing the skills that applicants must have. This is required only in some cases.
Also, when you are taking over a sponsorship while holding a TSS visa, you are not required to submit a new visa application unless your visa is expired or you intend to work in a different nominated occupation different from the one, they were originally sponsored for.
The visa applicant must meet requirements relating to:
- Skills
- Employment history (work experience)
- English language
- Health and character
- Family members (if applicable)
How a migration agent can help on an employer sponsored visa?
You can appoint someone to give you immigration assistance to seek professional help. A registered migration agent, a legal practitioner, and an exempt person can help you with your visa application. You should remember that a migration agent cannot fast-track the processing period and guarantee you a visa. The details of what is required overall will be situation-specific and advice is provided on a case-by-case basis. These pathways will surely help to sponsor a foreign worker for your business in the most accurate manner with minimum obstacles and problems.
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