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Sponsorship Obligations

To protect international workers in Australia and ensure the visa program is used genuinely to address skill shortages, businesses that sponsor overseas workers must meet the following obligations: 

  • Notify the Department of Home Affairs when key business changes occur, including changes to directors, legal or trading names, business structure, address, or other relevant details. 
  • Inform the Department if a sponsored visa holder stops working, does not commence employment, or experiences a change in their duties. 
  • Advise the Department if the business becomes insolvent, bankrupt, enters receivership, liquidation, or administration, or ceases to exist as a legal entity. 
  • Cooperate with Departmental audits and any compliance monitoring activities. 
  • Provide fair employment conditions, ensuring sponsored workers receive terms and conditions no less favourable than those offered to Australian employees in comparable roles. 
  • Maintain accurate employment records for all 457/482 sponsored visa holders. 
  • Ensure sponsored workers perform only the duties of the occupation for which they were nominated. 
  • Refrain from seeking or recovering costs associated with sponsoring a 457/482 visa holder. 
  • Avoid discriminatory recruitment practices at all stages of hiring. 
  • Provide records or information to the Department upon request. 
  • Cover the travel costs for sponsored workers and their dependants to leave Australia if required. 
  • Pay costs associated with locating and removing a former sponsored worker who becomes an unlawful noncitizen. 

Compliance Monitoring

The Department of Home Affairs (DOHA) actively monitors your compliance with sponsorship obligations for the entire period your sponsorship is in effect, and for up to five years after you cease to be an approved sponsor. The Department may also monitor whether sponsored workers are complying with their visa conditions. 

Monitoring activities may be carried out by Immigration Inspectors, Fair Work Inspectors, or Fair Work Building Industry Inspectors, each exercising powers granted under the relevant legislation. Monitoring can involve: 

Written requests for information or records demonstrating your compliance with sponsorship obligations.

Site visits, with or without prior notice, conducted at your business premises, associated locations, or the sponsored worker’s workplace.

Information sharing with other government agencies, including the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Department of Jobs and Small Business, and the Australian Taxation Office, regarding your business and sponsored workers.

Labour Market Testing Requirements

To meet the Labour Market Testing (LMT) requirement, you must provide evidence—at the time the nomination is lodged—that the position was advertised within the last 4 months for a minimum of 4 consecutive weeks, unless the occupation is subject to alternative LMT arrangements. 

Advertising requirements

Your advertising must satisfy all of the following: 

At least two advertisements (paid or unpaid) must be published in Australia on one or more of the following:

  • A prominent or professional recruitment website with national reach that advertises positions across Australia. Industryspecific recruitment sites commonly used within the occupation are acceptable. General classifieds websites and socialmediaonly notifications (e.g., Twitter, Instagram) are not acceptable. LinkedIn’s recruitment platform is acceptable, but ads restricted only to LinkedIn members are not.
  • Print media, such as nationally circulated newspapers or magazines published at least monthly and marketed throughout Australia.
  • National radio, meaning programs broadcast or syndicated nationally.

You may advertise twice in the same media type (e.g., two newspaper ads) or across different media types. Accredited sponsors may also advertise on their business website. Advertisements may run over overlapping periods, provided the total advertising period equals at least 4 weeks. 

Applications or expressions of interest must have been accepted for at least 4 consecutive weeks from the date the first advertisement was published.

Each advertisement must be in English and must include:

  • the position title or description
  • the name of the business, associated entity, or recruitment agency
  • the skills or experience required
  • the annual salary, salary range, or applicable enterprise agreement rate (salary disclosure is not required if the annual salary exceeds AUD $96,400)

Additional requirement if redundancies occurred

If your business (or an associated entity) has made any Australian citizens or permanent residents redundant or retrenched from the nominated occupation within the last 4 months, you must have undertaken all required advertising after those redundancies occurred 

You must provide copies of all advertisements as evidence that your Labour Market Testing (LMT) activities meet the required criteria. You must also include a brief statement outlining the outcome of your recruitment process, including how many applicants (if any) were interviewed and the reasons they were found unsuitable for the role. 

If LMT evidence is not provided at the time the nomination is lodged with the Department of Home Affairs, the nomination will be refused. 

Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT)

The Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) is used to assess nominations for the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494) and the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) visa (subclass 187). 

TSMIT amounts by lodgement period 

The applicable TSMIT depends on when the nomination application is lodged: 

AUD 76,515
for nominations lodged 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026

AUD 73,150
for nominations lodged 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025

AUD 70,000
for nominations lodged 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024

AUD 53,900
for nominations lodged

Annual Market Salary Rate (AMSR)

The Annual Market Salary Rate (AMSR) is determined by assessing a range of evidence to establish what an equivalent Australian worker would typically be paid. This assessment may include: 

  • The salary paid to an equivalent Australian worker performing the same role in the same workplace.
  • Enterprise agreements or industrial awards that apply to the occupation.
  • Jobs and Skills Australia occupation and industry profiles, where relevant.
  • Job advertisements from the past 6 months for comparable positions in the same geographic location.
  • Remuneration surveys or advice provided by unions or employer associations.

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