In order to sponsor a foreign worker, the business must be approved as a sponsor. This is known as ‘Standard Business Sponsorship’.
To become a sponsor, the business must be able to show:
- it is lawfully operating;
- it meets training requirements (see below);
- It has a strong record of, or demonstrated commitment to employing local labour and non-discriminatory employment practices;
- agrees to the number of subclass 457 workers to be nominated; and
- Immigration has no relevant adverse information against the business.
An application for SBS can be made online and attracts a cost of $420. Any costs relating to this application will need to be met by the sponsoring company and the company may not take, or seek to take any action, that would result in the transfer to another person of some or all of the costs associated with becoming or being an approved sponsor.
However, once approved, the Sponsorship will last for up to three years, meaning that the business may sponsor more than one person provided that the company indicates the proposed number of foreign persons when applying for the Sponsorship (whether or not the company ultimately sponsors this number of persons).
The business will need to provide relevant documents contemporaneously with their application. Relevant documentation may include:
- Australian Business Number (ABN) Registration Certificate
- Business Names Extract (Trading Name/s)
- Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) Company Extract
- If your business operates under a Trust Arrangement, relevant pages of the Trust Deed (pages listing parties to the trust and the signature page).
- Recent financial reports (profit and loss statements for the most recently concluded financial year)
- Business tax returns / Business Activity Statements (BAS) for the most recently concluded financial year.
Training Requirements
If you have traded in Australia for 12 months or more, you will need to provide documents to show that you meet one of the required training benchmarks:
- Recent expenditure to the equivalent of at least 2 per cent of the payroll of the business, in payments allocated to an industry training fund that operates in the same industry as the business; or
- Recent expenditure to the equivalent of at least 1 per cent of the payroll of the business, in the provision of training to employees of the business.
Examples of documents you may wish to provide to Immigration include:
- receipts for training expenditure for your employees who are Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents; or
- payroll details (salary costs and numbers) for trainees and apprentices and evidence that a Training Contract exists receipts for contributions made to an Industry Training Fund.
If you have traded in Australia for less than 12 months, you will need to provide an auditable plan to show how you will meet one of the training benchmarks (A or B above). We can assist you in preparing your auditable plan.
