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 employer-backed subclass 400 applications for Australian employers: decision-ready and properly evidenced.
The answer
Decision-ready Short Stay Specialist visa (subclass 400) applications, lodged against your date
When a shutdown, breakdown or commissioning window puts an overseas specialist on your critical path, the visa becomes the schedule risk.
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. We establish the specialist’s full 400 history before anything is lodged.
No sponsorship
No sponsorship approval or nomination stage.
Scope
What the Short Stay Specialist visa (subclass 400) covers
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.
- Tied to a defined piece of work
- Built for dated events, shutdowns, breakdowns, commissioning windows
- 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.
- Suits a single specialist or a full crew
Who it’s for
Who it’s for
Employers needing short-term access to highly specialised skills not readily available in the Australian labour market. Typically:
- OEM-certified technicians for proprietary equipment
- The OEM engineer commissioning new plant
- The factory technician for a breakdown no local contractor is certified to touch
- The specialist crew for a planned shutdown
In practice
Typical use cases in the resource sector
- Deploying a shutdown crew for a three-week plant outage
- Flying in a turbine technician for a regional install
Conditions
Visa conditions and requirements
- The work must be short-term and highly specialised
- The role must be non-ongoing and project-specific
- No employer nomination or formal sponsorship is needed
What changed in September 2024
In September 2024 the Department of Home Affairs began applying the 400 more strictly. Longer stays, repeat visits, large groups and roles that look ongoing get closer scrutiny, so every application needs evidence that the work is specialised, short-term and can’t be sourced locally.
If your specialist has been to Australia on a 400 within the last twelve months, tell us on the first call. It changes how the case has to be built.
How we build it
How Resource Visa builds the application
Every 400 application is built around a commercial business case: the role and the dated event; why the skill is specialised; why the role is non-ongoing; what local sourcing was attempted; and the quantified commercial impact. Cost of the outage per day. Contract penalties at stake. Production consequences of delay.
This is where our principal’s corporate finance background does the work.
Reviewed and lodged by a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1686595).
- 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.
Engagements are fixed-fee, scoped in writing before we start, and quoted at the 20-minute briefing once we understand the work.
One point of control
The 400 is the specialist’s application. Run it from one desk.
Your company briefs us once. Your specialist deals with one desk and one document list. We build the business case with you and drive lodgement against your date.
When a company engages us, its specialist appoints us for their own application, and we act for them on it.
Engagements
From one urgent file to your mobilisation desk.
Companies that mobilise repeatedly — OEM service divisions, shutdown contractors — don’t need a supplier per job; they need a standing arrangement. Resource Visa runs batch mobilisations against shutdown and commissioning calendars under preferred-supplier arrangements: agreed pricing, the same lodgement standard, one nominated contact, and each specialist’s 400 history checked before every lodgement.
When the Short Stay Specialist visa (subclass 400) is the wrong instrument
If the role looks ongoing, we will tell you, and map the Subclass 482 pathway instead.
The 400 is for work with an end date built into it. If the honest description of the role is “we need this person for the foreseeable future”, it isn’t a 400 matter, however inconvenient that is. Stretching a 400 past its honest case is how applications get refused. 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.
Two other situations where it isn’t the right instrument: where the work isn’t genuinely specialised and an Australian could reasonably do it, and where the specialist’s earlier 400 stays don’t leave enough time for the work.
Longer work
If the work runs longer than planned
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.
If the role turns out to be ongoing, the 482 is a fresh application with its own sponsorship and nomination. A 400 may carry a ‘No Further Stay’ condition. If it does, the specialist can’t apply for the 482 while in Australia unless the Department first waives the condition. A waiver is discretionary, so the 482 may need to be lodged from outside Australia.
Tell us as soon as the scope starts to grow.
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.
No. 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.
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.
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.
Yes, and it is common on shutdowns. It does change how the application is framed, because the relationship between the worker, the contractor and the site operator has to be set out clearly and consistently. Getting this wrong is a frequent cause of requests for further information.
Tell us as soon as you know. Depending on where the application sits and how far the date moves, the answer ranges from no action to withdrawing and relodging. A moved date handled early is an administrative matter; a moved date discovered late can undermine the business case the application was built on.
Engagements are fixed-fee and scoped in writing before we start. We quote at the 20-minute briefing, once we understand the work. We do not quote before we understand the scope, because the honest answer depends on whether it’s one specialist or a crew of fourteen.
Not on their own: every engagement starts with an employer. If you need help with your own visa, you can search the Register of Migration Agents at mara.gov.au.
Reviewed by a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1686595) · Last reviewed [date]
Keep reading
Related pages
Bringing overseas specialists to site, role by role
Employer guides to bringing overseas specialists onto Australian resources sites: which visa fits each role, what to evidence, and what trips it up.
Short Stay Specialist visa (subclass 400) vs Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482)
The difference between the Subclass 400 and the Subclass 482 for Australian employers: sponsorship, duration, obligations and process, compared.
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.
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.
Next shutdown or commissioning window on the calendar?
Tell us the role, the site and the date. You will get an honest read on whether the 400 is the right instrument.
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm AWST