With Subclass 189 and 190 invitation rounds becoming increasingly competitive, a migration pathway that requires no points score, no near-perfect IELTS results, and no queuing sounds almost too good to be true. In fact, this pathway has always existed — employer-sponsored migration.

Unlike skilled independent migration or state-nominated migration, employer sponsorship focuses on the employer’s business operations and the applicant’s work experience. As a result,work experience replaces a points score and becomes the most important requirement under this pathway,making employer sponsorship a more direct and suitable migration pathway for those with relevant qualifications and work experience.

Let’s look at the 2020–21 Migration Programme outcome report. Among grants under employer-sponsored migration,the top ten occupations include IT (occupying two spots), accounting, head chef, nursing, and automotive technician —reflecting both Australia’s priority support for these occupations and the strong employment prospects in these industries.

If you are in a high-demand field such as IT or accounting,amid the intense competition for Subclass 189/190 invitations, many applicants have already secured relevant work experience — accumulating it while waiting for an invitation round,and in doing so have gradually been meeting the requirements for employer sponsorship without realising it,making employer sponsorship a viable Plan B.

If you work in a trade or technical occupation such as chef or automotive technician,the relevant work experience is itself one of the requirements for passing your skills assessment,so you can kill two birds with one stone and transition to employer sponsorship — and compared with Subclass 189/190,the English language requirement for employer sponsorship is relatively modest.

For occupations such as nursing and university lecturer,generally speaking,the sponsoring employers tend to be strong institutions (hospitals, universities, and the like)which gives them an advantage in securing employer-sponsored approval, and these occupations are alsoamong the highest-priority cases for processing.

The Subclass 482 Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa, commonly known as the employer-sponsored work visa, is split into two main streams — Short-term and Medium-term (Labour Agreements are not discussed here) — depending on the applicant’s occupation,holders of a Subclass 482 in the medium-term stream may, once eligible, apply for a Subclass 186 employer nomination to obtain PR.

the employer must obtain sponsorship approval, then nominate the applicant, and finally the applicant lodges the visa.

Employer sponsorship does not set highly specific requirements for sponsors, but this does not mean the requirements are lenient. For employers sponsoring an applicant,the Department of Home Affairs primarily assesses the genuine necessity of the sponsorship need, which may be examined across the following areas:

1. A company with sound financials and strong growth potential is better placed to convince a visa officer of the genuine need to sponsor an overseas employee.Accordingly, the employer must provide documentation proving its business operations, financial position, and internal staffing structure to demonstrate that sponsoring an overseas employee is necessary for the company’s current development.

2. The visa officer will also consider the employer’s organisational structure and core business activities to assess whether there is a genuine need for the nominated position. The nominated position should be consistent with the employer’s primary business activities.

For example, a sponsored accountant should be sponsored by an accounting firm or a large corporation, not by a restaurant or café where accounting is not central to the business.

3.Additionally, some occupations impose extra caveat requirements on the employer,such as minimum annual turnover, minimum number of employees, business type, premises specifications, and employee salary levels.

Age requirement: there is no age limit for applicants on the Subclass 482 work visa,however the subsequent transition to permanent residency requires applicants to be under 45 years of age.

English language:the short-term Subclass 482 requires a minimum overall IELTS score of 5 and no band below 4.5;the medium-term Subclass 482 requires an overall score of at least 5 and a minimum of 5 in each band.The English language requirement is not particularly high, making it relatively approachable for applicants who are capable workers but have limited time to prepare for an English test.

Work experience:within the five years prior to application,applicants must have at least two years of work experience in the nominated occupation, either full-time or in part-time employment with fixed and regular hours.

Skills assessment:for the majority of occupations, a formal skills assessment is not required;applicants simply need to demonstrate they have the necessary skills,through relevant qualifications and related work experience.However, for certain occupations and nationalities, a Subclass 482 application will require a skills assessmentwhich must be completed before lodging the visa application.

The Subclass 186 (Employer Nomination Scheme visa) is the permanent residency visa under employer sponsorship. The Subclass 186 has two streams: 186 TRT and 186 DE,with the 186 DE offering a direct pathway to permanent residency.

Unlike the Subclass 482, the 186 application involves only two steps: the employer’s nomination of the applicant, and the applicant lodging the visa.

Different streams of the Subclass 186 have different requirements for both the employer and the applicant.

The Subclass 186 does not impose rigid or fixed requirements on the sponsor (employer), but the employer must generally satisfy the following conditions:

– the employer must be a genuine, established business,operating for at least one year and employing a reasonable number of staff.

– the company’s annual turnovershould reflect income appropriate to the scale of the business. Generally speaking, the higher the company’s annual turnover, the stronger the impression of the employer’s financial capacity.

–The company must not be operating at a loss and must demonstrate profitability,and a company with healthy profits is better positioned to demonstrate the genuine need to sponsor an overseas employee

–Ratio of Australian citizen/PR employees to overseas employees.In practice, the higher the proportion of local Australian employees, the more convincingly the employer’s genuine need for sponsorship is demonstrated. In other words,a company whose workforce is predominantly local is genuinely seeking to sponsor the applicant for their specific skills and abilities.

–For certain occupations, the employer’s annual turnover and number of employees must meet strict additional requirements, known as caveat requirements.

– Generally speaking, the 186 DE stream imposes higher and stricter requirements on the employer than the TRT stream.

Pathway 1: Subclass 482 Transitioning to 186 — the 186 TRT

The 482-to-186 pathway requires the applicant to have worked for the sponsoring employer for at least three years while holding the Subclass 482 work visa.

Pathway 2: Direct Entry to Permanent Residency — the 186 Direct Entry (DE)

If you have more than three years of full-time work experience in your occupation and an eligible employer who is willing and able to sponsor you, you may consider applying directly for the 186 DE.The applicant is required to hold a skills assessment for an occupation on the MLTSSL,and additionally,the key three-year work experience requirement has the following conditions:

– work experience must be three years or more,comprising at least three periods of 52 weeks each;

– the experience must be in the nominated occupation,that is, the occupation confirmed by the skills assessment result;

– the work experience must be full-time:more than 38 hours per week, with a skill level meeting the requirements of the nominated occupation.

The three years of work experience required for the 186 DE can be accumulated across different employers,for example, working one and a half years at one company and then one and a half years at another — that combined experience is eligible for the 186 DE.

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