11 Standard Business Sponsorship Obligations

This general information sheet outlines 11 key obligations of standard business sponsors and the consequences if a business does not comply with them.

1. Cooperate With Inspectors

Inspectors are appointed under the Migration Act 1958 (the Act) to investigate whether:

●????? your sponsorship obligations are being, or have been, complied with

●????? you have hired an illegal worker

●????? there are other circumstances in which the Department could take administrative action

You must cooperate with inspectors by:

●????? providing access to your premises, any person on your premises

●????? producing and providing documents within a requested time frame

●????? complying with any other request made by an inspector

Your compliance with the sponsorship obligations might be monitored by Immigration inspectors, Fair Work Inspectors or Fair Work Building Industry Inspectors who have investigative powers under the Migration Act 1958. Failure to cooperate with inspectors is a breach of your sponsorship obligations.

2. Ensure Equivalent Terms and Conditions of Employment

If you are a standard business sponsor:

●????? the annual earnings of the employee must be at least the same as those stated on the nomination application when we approved the application

●????? employment conditions must not be less favorable than those of an equivalent Australian worker

Note, this obligation:

●????? applies only if the annual earnings of the employee is less than AUD250,000.

also applies to labour agreement sponsors unless otherwise stated in the labour agreement.

3. Pay Travel Costs ‘Reasonable and necessary’ costs will include:

●????? travel from the employee’s usual place of residence in Australia to their departure point from Australia;

●????? travel from Australia to the country for which the employee holds a passport and intends to travel to; and

●????? economy class air travel or a reasonable equivalent.

To pay travel costs, a written request for payment must be made by:

●????? the sponsored employee or

●????? The Department of Home Affairs on behalf of the sponsored employee

Travel costs must be paid within 30 days of receiving the request.

Pay travel costs once only. If, after paying travel costs, your employee returns to Australia holding the visa for which you sponsored them, you don't have to pay their travel costs again.

4. Pay costs to locate and remove an unlawful non-citizen

If your sponsored employee or any of their sponsored family members becomes an unlawful non-citizen, you might have to repay the costs incurred by the Commonwealth in relocating and/or removing them from Australia.

If required, you must pay the difference between the actual costs incurred by the Commonwealth (up to a maximum of AUD10,000) less costs you might have already paid under your obligation to pay travel costs to enable sponsored people to leave Australia.

5. Keep Records

You must keep records to show your compliance with your sponsorship obligations. All records must be kept in a reproducible format and some must be capable of verification by an independent person.

6. Provide Records and Information

You must provide records or information if requested by a departmental officer. The records will be those that:

●????? you are required to keep under Commonwealth, state or territory law

●????? you are obliged to keep as a sponsor

The records and information will be used to determine whether:

●????? a sponsorship obligation is being or has been complied with, and

●????? other circumstances in which the Minister might take administrative action exist or have existed

Provide the records or information in the manner and time frame requested.

7. Provide Information to the Department When Certain Events Occur

You must tell within 28 calendar days, in writing, when certain events occur.

●????? complete the Notification of sponsor changes form in ImmiAccount

●????? send an email to [email protected], or

Examples of things you must inform in writing include changes to your:

●????? legal name, trading name

●????? registration details, business structure

●????? ongoing communication contact

●????? owners, directors, principals or partners

●????? business address

You must inform in writing if your business:

●????? becomes insolvent or is bankrupt

●????? goes into receivership, liquidation or administration

●????? ceases to exist as a legal entity

You must inform in writing if the person you sponsor:

●????? ceases employment with you

●????? has a change in duties

did not commence working with you.

8. Ensure your employee works only in the nominated occupation You must ensure that your sponsored employee works only in the occupation you nominated them for.

If you want a visa holder to work in a different occupation, lodge a new nomination.

If you are sponsoring them under the Temporary Skill Shortage visa (TSS) (subclass 482) or the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) (SESR) visa (subclass 494), the employee will also need to apply for and be granted a new visa.

This obligation starts:

●????? on the day a visa is granted to nominee or

●????? on the day the nomination is approved if the nominee is already working for you

This obligation ends on the day (whichever is the earliest):

●????? your employee has a nomination approved for a different approved sponsor

●????? your employee is granted a further substantive visa that is in effect and is:

○????? not a Subclass 457 visa or a Subclass 482 visa, if their last substantive visa was a Subclass 457

○????? a different subclass to their last substantive visa, in any other case

●????? employee leaves Australia and their TSS, 457 or SESR (or any subsequent bridging visa) is no longer in effect

You must employ the person you have sponsored under a written contract of employment.

Unless the nominated occupation is exempt, you cannot supply or be involved in recruiting or hiring the sponsored employee to another business unless:

●????? you were lawfully operating a business in Australia your standard business sponsorship is approved or when the terms of your approval were last varied, and

●????? the business is an associated entity

This obligation continues if we grant your employee another TSS or SESR visa to continue to work for you.

10. Do Not Engage in Discriminatory Recruitment Practices

If you are a standard business sponsor who lawfully operates a business in Australia, you must not engage in, or have not engaged in, discriminatory recruitment practices that adversely affect Australian citizens, or any other person, based on their visa or citizenship status.

Keep records to show that in recruiting a TSS or SESR visa holder, you did not discriminate on citizenship or visa status.

11. Sanctions

If you do not meet your obligations, we could take one or more of the following actions:

Administrative

●????? bar you from sponsoring additional visa holders for a specified time

●????? not approve your application for sponsorship for this or any other visa

●????? cancel all of your existing sponsorship approvals

●????? give you a compliance notice.

Enforceable undertaking

●????? Enforceable undertakings require you to promise, in writing, to undertake to complete certain actions to show that the failures have been rectified and won’t happen again.

Civil

●????? issue an infringement notice of up to AUD 15,840 for individuals and AUD 79,200 for bodies corporate per obligation breach.

●????? apply to a court for a civil penalty order of up to AUD 396,000 for a corporation and AUD 76,200 for an individual for each failure.

Employer Prohibition

●????? Employers who seriously, deliberately or repeatedly break the law may be prevented from employing more migrant workers for a period of time.

●????? In addition, you could also have sanctions imposed if:

○????? you provide false or misleading information to us or the Administrative Review Tribunal

○????? you no longer satisfy the criteria for approval as a sponsor or for variation of a term of that approval

○????? you have been found by a court or competent authority to have contravened a Commonwealth, state or territory law

○????? the person you have sponsored breaks a law relating to the licensing, registration or membership needed to work in the nominated position

The types of actions that could be taken depend on whether you are a standard business sponsor or have a work agreement. If you have sponsored someone under a work agreement, we could suspend or terminate the agreement in accordance with the clauses of the particular work agreement.

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