Guides and tools
Employer Readiness Checklist: mobilising or sponsoring overseas specialists
A quick self-assessment for Australian employers in the resources sector.
Checklist
1. Your business
- Registered Australian business with an ABN, trading lawfully
- Clean record with Home Affairs and Fair Work (or known issues disclosed early)
- For ongoing roles: prepared to take on formal sponsor obligations
Checklist
2. The work
- A defined piece of work or role — with a date attached (shutdown, commissioning, breakdown, or ongoing skills gap)
- Clear on why the skill is specialised: OEM certification, proprietary equipment knowledge, licensing, or comparable evidence
- Short-term and non-ongoing (points to subclass 400) — or genuinely ongoing (points to subclass 482 sponsorship)
- For 482 roles: salary at or above the applicable income threshold, and consistent with what an Australian in the role would earn
Checklist
3. The evidence
- Company registration documents ready
- The commercial case documented: what the work is, why now, what delay costs
- For 482: local recruitment evidence that meets labour market testing requirements
- Candidate’s full Australian visa history known — including any previous subclass 400 stays in the last 12 months
Notes
4. The rules that are easy to miss
Sponsorship costs
Sponsorship and nomination charges, the Skilling Australians Fund levy and recruitment costs sit with the sponsor. Australian law prohibits passing them to the sponsored worker, directly or through deductions or bonds.
Subclass 400 stays
Normally up to three months in any 12-month period, counting every 400 stay with any employer. Up to six months only in exceptional circumstances, on strong evidence. A specialist who has already spent time in Australia on a 400 in the last 12 months may be granted only the balance, so offshore and FIFO rosters that add up to more than three months a year need a different visa.
Sponsor obligations
Sponsor obligations start when you’re approved, and some continue after the sponsorship ends. They include giving equivalent terms and conditions, keeping records, telling the Department about certain changes within 28 days, paying reasonable return travel costs if asked, and cooperating with inspectors. Breaches can lead to sanctions, including bars on sponsoring, cancellation, infringement notices, civil penalties and enforceable undertakings.
Reviewed by a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1686595) · Last reviewed [date]
If any box is unticked, that’s what a 20-minute mobilisation briefing is for.
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