Specialist mobilisation
Getting a specialist on site for an unplanned breakdown
When equipment fails without warning and the only certified technician is overseas, the visa is usually a subclass 400. The subclass 400 (Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist)) visa is for short-term, highly specialised work in Australia where the skills aren’t readily available locally.
Urgent response
Call first. Read second.
08 6243 0379, Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm AWST.
If production has stopped, the first thing to do is talk to a Registered Migration Agent. You will get an honest read on whether the timeline is achievable.
If it is outside hours, use the briefing form and write “urgent” in the first line. Enquiries after 3pm AWST, on weekends or on WA public holidays are triaged the next business day.
The first call
What we need from you on the first call
Have these to hand when you call:
- What has failed, and what the specialist will actually do
- The equipment make and model, and what certification the work requires
- Who the specialist is, their nationality, and where they are now
- Whether they have been to Australia on a 400 in the last twelve months
- Who employs them, you, an EPC contractor, a labour-hire firm, or the OEM
- Where the work happens
- What a day of downtime costs you
That last one is not a sales question. The commercial consequence of the outage is evidence in the application, and it is a section that distinguishes a strong 400 business case from a weak one.
The process
How a mobilisation runs
Same-business-day triage.
The work, the site, the dates, the fit, and an honest read on whether the 400 is the right instrument.
One document request.
A single consolidated list, not a drip-feed. The one variable nobody controls is how fast your documents reach us, which is why we ask for everything once.
Lodged within two business days of a complete file.
For crews, we agree the lodgement timetable at triage.
Business case assembled and evidenced, your review, then lodgement. That’s how fast we work. Decisions and processing times rest with the Department of Home Affairs.
Ongoing
Standing arrangements
For OEM service divisions and shutdown contractors that mobilise repeatedly: preferred-supplier arrangements, batch mobilisations against your shutdown calendar, one nominated contact, and each specialist’s 400 history checked before every lodgement.
Enquiries after 3pm AWST, on weekends or on WA public holidays are triaged the next business day.
What decides it
What determines whether it’s achievable
Four variables, in the order they usually bite:
How fast your documents arrive. This is usually the binding constraint. We ask for everything once, for exactly this reason.
Where the specialist is, and what passport they hold. Nationality affects the evidence required.
Whether the work is genuinely specialised. An urgent breakdown does not by itself make a role specialised. The case still has to stand on the skill.
What the Department does after lodgement. Outside anyone’s control, including ours. We will never tell you a grant date, because no adviser can honestly give you one.
OEM technicians
If the OEM technician is the only person certified
This is a common version of an unplanned breakdown in the resources sector, and it can be a strong case when it is documented properly.
Where a manufacturer’s warranty, a certification regime or a safety case requires the work be done by an authorised technician, that requirement is evidence. Get it in writing from the OEM: the certification requirement, the named technician or authorisation level, and what happens to warranty or compliance if unauthorised work is performed.
Employers often tell us this on the phone and never think to put it in a document. It takes an email to obtain.
Role guides: Rotating Equipment & Turbine Specialists · HV Electrical Technicians
When it isn’t achievable
Sometimes the honest answer is that the timeline cannot be met, or that the 400 is not the right instrument. If that is the case you will hear it in the triage call, not a week later.
Where that happens, there are usually still options worth discussing: a differently scoped visit, a different specialist who already holds a visa that permits the work, or remote support while a longer application runs. We will tell you which apply.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Same-business-day triage. One document request. Lodged within two business days of a complete file. For crews, we agree the lodgement timetable at triage. That’s how fast we work. Decisions and processing times rest with the Department of Home Affairs. Enquiries after 3pm AWST, on weekends or on WA public holidays are triaged the next business day.
A visitor visa doesn’t allow work. Business visitors can make general business or employment enquiries; investigate, negotiate, enter into or review a business contract; take part in an official government-to-government visit; or attend a conference, trade fair or seminar if the organisers aren’t paying them. Hands-on activity, such as running or directing a test, a repair or commissioning, is work and needs a work visa.
For specialised, non-ongoing work, usually the subclass 400. The 400 is the specialist’s own application. Your business supports it with an invitation and evidence. There’s no sponsorship approval or nomination stage and no sponsorship obligations, but your business must not let anyone work in breach of their visa conditions. Which visa actually fits depends on the work, not the urgency.
It is a common scenario, and it can be a strong one. The OEM relationship and any certification or warranty requirement should be documented, that requirement is evidence that the skill is genuinely specialised.
The briefing form is monitored and urgent enquiries are triaged the same business day. Write “urgent” in the first line.
Reviewed by a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1686595) · Last reviewed [date]
Keep reading
Related pages
Short Stay Specialist visa (subclass 400)
The subclass 400 (Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist)) visa is for short-term, highly specialised work in Australia where the skills aren’t readily available locally.
When the crew is engaged through a contractor
How the contractual chain changes the visa, and the mistakes that cause delay.
Why Short Stay Specialist visa (subclass 400) applications get refused
The reasons Subclass 400 applications fail. A refusal doesn’t disappear: it becomes part of the specialist’s history on later applications, and the Department looks at how a business uses the 400 over time.
Book a 20-minute mobilisation briefing
Twenty minutes. No obligation. Direct with a Registered Migration Agent. Tell us the role, the site and the date.
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm AWST