Overseas specialists brought in for a plant shutdown or turnaround usually come in on a subclass 400 visa. 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.
Resource Visa prepares these applications for Australian resources employers.
Late visas
Why shutdowns create a visa problem late
A shutdown is planned twelve to eighteen months out. The visa problem never is.
The date gets locked early, but the scope firms up late. An inspection report comes back worse than expected, a vendor confirms the only certified technician for that equipment is in Germany, or a contractor’s crew list changes three weeks before mobilisation.
By the time anyone is thinking about visas, the window is four to eight weeks away and the date cannot move. Downstream customers, shipping schedules and the rest of the maintenance plan are all built around it.
That is a common position when employers first call. It is workable. It is considerably more workable at eight weeks than at two.
The right visa
Which visa applies to shutdown work
For a defined maintenance window with an end date, the Subclass 400 is usually the instrument.
- Tied to a defined piece of work
- No sponsorship approval or nomination stage.
- There’s no formal labour market testing for a 400. The application still has to show why the skills aren’t readily available in Australia, and certification, OEM authorisation and licensing usually show that better than a job ad.
- Works for a single specialist or an entire crew
- Suits recurring shutdown programs, with each specialist’s 400 history checked before every lodgement.
How long
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.
The 400 is not the right answer if the role is ongoing, or if the work is not genuinely specialised. Both are covered below.
Lead time
How far ahead to start
Work backwards from the day the crew needs to be on site, not from the shutdown start date. Those are rarely the same day, and induction, medicals and travel sit in between.
Departmental processing time sits outside anyone’s control, which is why the table is about when we can lodge, not when a decision arrives.
| Weeks before mobilisation | What should be happening |
|---|---|
| 8+ | Crew list drafted, nationalities known, scope defined. Ideal. |
| 6-8 | Triage call, document request issued, business case in preparation |
| 4-6 | Workable. Documents need to come back quickly. |
| 2-4 | Tight. We can still lodge once the file is complete; the Department’s timing is not ours to promise. Call as soon as you know. |
| Under 2 | Call anyway. We will give you an honest read rather than a maybe. |
Planning eight weeks or more ahead? See the Employer Readiness Checklist.
The evidence
What the application has to prove
Four things, with evidence rather than assertion.
The work is genuinely specialised
Equipment make and model, certification or OEM authorisation required, and why a general tradesperson cannot do it.
Role guides: NDT Inspectors · Rotating Equipment & Turbine Specialists
The work is genuinely non-ongoing
The shutdown has a start and an end. Show them: the maintenance schedule, the work pack, the contract.
The skill was not readily available locally
What sourcing was attempted, and what it returned.
The commercial consequence of not doing it
This is where our principal’s corporate finance background does the work. Cost of outage per day, contract penalties at stake, production impact quantified. An application that says the work is urgent is weaker than one that shows what a day of delay costs.
Contractors
When the crew comes through a contractor
Often the specialist is not employed by the site operator. They are engaged through an EPC contractor, a labour-hire firm, or the OEM’s own service division.
This is common on a 400, but it changes how the application is framed. The relationship between the worker, the contractor and the site operator has to be set out clearly and consistently across every document. Inconsistency here is one of the more common causes of a request for further information, and late in a shutdown window that is expensive.
Moving dates
When the date moves
Shutdown dates move. Tell us as soon as you know.
Handled early, a moved date is administrative. Discovered late, it can undermine the business case the application was built on. The dates form part of the evidence that the work is non-ongoing and time-bound, so they need to match reality.
If the window slips by a few days, usually nothing needs to happen. If it slips by weeks, or the scope changes materially, we will tell you whether the application still stands or needs to be withdrawn and relodged.
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.
When the Short Stay Specialist visa (subclass 400) is the wrong instrument for a shutdown
If you are bringing the same specialist back for every shutdown and they are effectively part of your maintenance workforce, that pattern reads as ongoing employment rather than short-stay specialist work.
If the work is scaffolding, general labour or trades an Australian could reasonably do, it is not a specialised-skills case regardless of how short the window is.
In both situations we will tell you at the triage call and map the alternative, which is usually the 482 for the first and local sourcing for the second.
Who we are
Migration advice with a finance background
Resource Visa is a Perth migration practice for resources employers. Immigration assistance is provided by a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1686595), and your briefing is with a registered agent, not an intake team. Our principal came to migration from corporate finance, so the commercial case behind a mobilisation doesn’t have to be explained to us.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Usually the 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. Whether it fits depends on how specialised the work genuinely is and whether the role is truly time-bound.
Six to eight weeks before the crew needs to be on site is comfortable. Four to six is workable. Under four weeks is tight. The practical constraint is usually how fast documents come back from the crew, not the preparation itself.
Not for 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.
Each person needs their own visa application. A crew on one project is assessed as one case: why this many people, why none locally, and what happens when they leave. We build one project-level business case and evidence it consistently across every applicant. For contractors who mobilise repeatedly, we run batch mobilisations against a shutdown calendar under a standing arrangement, with each specialist’s 400 history checked before every lodgement.
It is common on shutdowns. The application has to set out the relationship between the worker, the contractor and the site operator clearly and consistently. Getting that framing wrong is a common cause of delay.
Tell us immediately. A small slip usually needs no action. A material change to dates or scope may mean withdrawing and relodging, because the dates form part of the evidence that the work is non-ongoing.
Yes. Refining and petrochemical operations tend to say turnaround or TAR; mining and LNG say shutdown or shut; power generation says outage. The visa treatment is identical, what matters is that the work is specialised and time-bound, not what it is called.
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.
Mobilisation timeline planner
Work backwards from your mobilisation date. What has to happen when, what runs in parallel, and what we can and can’t commit to.
Planning a shutdown? Book a mobilisation briefing.
Tell us the window, the scope and the crew. We will give you an honest read on the timeline in the first call.
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm AWST