The 457 employer sponsorship visa is the most frequently applied for visa type for international professionals to work in Australia for up to 4 years. It is provide a possible gateway for foreign workers to obtain a permanent residency visa in Australia after working for 2 years working under this visa for the same employer.
We have successfully assisted many clients and corporates in a wide range of industries such as media& advertising, hospitality, industrial, technical, leisure&engineering marketing and publishing as well as health service industries to acquire employer sponsorship status and visas.
There are “must haves” to be able to succeed. These are some insights to some of the hot ones:
Insight 1. Market Salary for the nominated position
The minimum salary level for the nominated position is $53,900 plus superannuation. However, all salaries have to be market related. Also, certain positions,(eg: trade worker…), are required to do Labour Marke Testing to prove that there is no equivalent worker which can be found in the Australian labour market.
Insight 2. Genuine Position for the nominated position
Trending from DIBP is a requirement to demonstrate that the position is genuine within the organization. Specific documents have to be presented to satisfy the decision maker the position is not being applied for to gain the applicant a 457 visa.
Insight 3. Training Benchmark
Training benchmarks are a very important component to support an employer to be approved as a Standard Business Sponsor. There are two ways for an employer to demonstrate the training expenses:
(1) Training Benchmark A: Evidence of training of at least 1% of payroll. The evidence can be include, but not limited to, relevant apprenticeship records, employment of trainees or recent graduates, paid invoices for external courses, paid invoices for courses of study, employment of an in-house staff member who has specific training responsibilities.
(2) Training Benchmark B: Recent expenditure, by the business, to the equivalent of at least 2 % of the payroll of the business, in payments allocated to an industry training fund, and a commitment, by the business to make this payment for 3 years which is the period they hold the sponsorship approval.
Insight 4. English level of the visa applicant
If the applicant is from a country in which English is not the first language, such as UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, NZ then a score of 5 in each of the 4 bands of the IELTS General Test would need to be achieved in the last three years prior to lodging the application. However, the English requirement is waived under the follow two situations:
(1) If the annual salary in the nomination $96400 + super,OR
(2) The applicant has studied continuously in English – please discuss with us.
