Already sponsoring under the 482 or a DAMA? Start with a Sponsor Compliance Check: a structured conversation about your sponsorship position, followed by a one-page note of the gaps we discussed. No fee for the initial check. Any further work is quoted in writing before it starts. Before we meet, we’ll send you the Consumer Guide published by the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority.
What we ask about
Five failures we ask about
1. Labour Market Testing evidence that can’t be produced
The advertising ran. Nobody kept it. Or it ran for too short a period, or appeared only on an internal careers page.
Follow the Labour Market Testing requirements closely on format, duration and placement, and retain evidence of every posting in a form you can hand over two years later.
2. Records that aren’t in a producible form
The Department can request records at any time. Employment agreements, pay records, hours, leave, nomination details and sponsorship correspondence all need to be kept in a prescribed form for a prescribed period.
Complying in practice is not the same as being able to demonstrate compliance on request, and only one of those counts when the request arrives.
3. Notification deadlines missed
Specified events, a worker ceasing employment, a change in duties, a change to your business details or structure, carry notification obligations with deadlines attached.
A late notification is a breach even when the event itself is entirely benign. It is usually a diary problem rather than an intent problem.
4. Terms that don’t match the nomination
Sponsored workers must receive terms no less favourable than an equivalent Australian performing equivalent work at the same location, and that reaches allowances, rosters and site entitlements, not just base salary.
Role drift causes the other half of this. Duties expand, nobody revisits the nomination, and the worker is no longer performing the occupation that was approved.
5. Compliance treated as a one-off
Many sponsors treat approval as the finish line. 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.
Compliance isn’t only about avoiding penalties. For a business that tenders for work, a clean sponsorship record is a procurement asset, and a public sanction is a procurement problem.
The Migration Act now provides for a public register of approved work sponsors. It can show sponsor names, ABNs, the number of nominations and the occupations nominated.
Scope
What the Sponsor Compliance Check covers
The conversation covers:
- Sponsorship approval status, scope and expiry
- Nomination accuracy against roles as actually performed
- Labour Market Testing evidence and retention
- Record-keeping against prescribed requirements
- Notification history and outstanding obligations
- Employment terms against equivalent-worker requirements
- Visa expiries and forward planning
- Readiness for a monitoring request or site visit
For resources employers we also ask about the site-specific points: roster patterns against nominated terms, site allowances, and how a monitoring visit to a remote site would go.
Deliverables
What you get
A one-page note of the gaps we discussed, in plain terms: what needs attention, what is urgent and what can wait.
No obligation to engage us afterwards. The note records a conversation. It is not a certification.
Next steps
If the conversation turns up a gap
Many gaps are administrative and fixable.
A gap you identify and correct yourself is a materially different position from one the Department finds during monitoring. Where something needs remediation we will set out what is involved, and you can do it internally or we can run it, your choice, and we will tell you honestly which makes sense.
Where a gap looks serious, you will hear that plainly in the conversation.
Get started
Book a Sponsor Compliance Check
No fee for the initial check. Any further work is quoted in writing before it starts.
With a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1686595). No obligation.
Reviewed by a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1686595) · Last reviewed [date]
Keep reading
Related pages
Sponsor Obligations & Monitoring
What sponsorship commits your business to: records, notifications, equivalent terms, and what happens when the Department asks.
Sponsor Compliance Retainer
Your sponsorship obligations, managed by a Registered Migration Agent.
Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482)
Sponsoring an ongoing role under the Subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa. The three streams, what your business must do, and the obligations that follow.
Already sponsoring under the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) or a DAMA?
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