Company Sponsored (457 Visa)

Recently the Minister for Immigration announced that Australia’s migration programme will now be chiefly “demand-driven,” that is driven primarily by the demands of Australian employers and their specific skills shortages. This has meant that company-sponsored visas have been given priority both in processing time and anticipated numbers of visa grants.

Company-sponsored visas can be either temporary (for example 457 visas) or permanent (for example Employer Nomination Scheme visas) and usually involves :

• Sponsorship by an Australian company that can show that they have a record of employing and training Australians
• A minimum salary of around $47,480 must currently be paid and in addition the sponsored worker must be paid no less than an Australia performing the same work at the same location
• The sponsored worker must have a skill on the skills shortage list used by the Immigration Department (this is a much larger list of occupations than that used for the Skilled Visa programme)
• The “457” company sponsored visa can be granted in as little as 6 to 10 weeks and are an increasingly popular way for Australian companies to address their skills shortage.
• Workers on a 457 visa are usually given a 4 years temporary visa and can bring their family members with them – spouses have unrestricted work rights on the 457 of their partners and their children are entitled to attend local schools.
• 457 visa holders can apply for permanent residency through their employers or they can be sponsored outright for permanent residency by their employers without having to first apply for a 457 visa.