Standard business sponsorship lets an Australian business sponsor overseas workers for the 482 visa. Registered migration agents in Brisbane handle approval and obligations.
Business sponsorship is how an Australian business becomes approved to sponsor skilled workers from overseas. Before you can nominate anyone for a work visa, your business has to be an approved sponsor, and that approval is the first gate in the whole employer-sponsored system. Get it right and the rest of the process runs smoothly. Get it wrong and every visa that depends on it is held up. Our registered migration agents in Brisbane guide businesses through sponsorship approval and the obligations that come with it.
Most employers come to us because they’ve found the person they want and need to sponsor them for the 482 (Skills in Demand) visa. This page explains how sponsorship works, what it commits you to, and where we come in.
Standard business sponsorship (often just called SBS) is the approval that lets a lawfully operating Australian business sponsor overseas workers under the mainstream employer-sponsored program. Once you’re an approved standard business sponsor, you can nominate positions and workers for the 482 visa. The approval usually lasts for a set number of years before it needs renewing.
There are three separate approvals in the employer-sponsored process, and it helps to keep them straight:
Sponsorship. Your business is approved as a sponsor. This is the standing approval that lets you nominate at all.
Nomination. You nominate a specific position and occupation for a specific worker.
Visa. The worker applies for the visa and has to meet the skill, English and health requirements.
Business sponsorship is the first of the three, and it underpins the others.
To be approved, a business generally needs to show that:
It’s lawfully and actively operating, in Australia or overseas depending on the case.
There’s a genuine need for the position it wants to fill.
It has no adverse information against it, such as breaches of workplace or immigration law, or it can explain why any such information shouldn’t count against it.
It’s committed to meeting the sponsorship obligations and, where they apply, training or contribution requirements.
New and small businesses can be approved too, but they often need to put more effort into showing the business is real and viable. We help newer businesses build that evidence so the application stands up.
Becoming a sponsor isn’t just a form. It’s a set of ongoing legal obligations, and the department does check. Broadly, an approved sponsor has to:
Pay sponsored workers at least the required salary and no less than an equivalent Australian worker would get.
Cover certain costs that can’t be passed on to the worker, such as the sponsorship and nomination charges and any applicable levy.
Keep proper records and tell the department about certain changes and events.
Make sure sponsored workers only work in their nominated occupation.
Cooperate with monitoring and not engage in discriminatory recruitment.
Breaching these obligations can lead to sanctions, bars, and cancellation of your sponsorship, which puts every worker you’ve sponsored at risk. We make sure you understand what you’re signing up for before you commit, so compliance doesn’t catch you out later.
Sponsorship on its own doesn’t bring anyone to Australia. It’s the platform. Once you’re approved, you nominate a position and the worker applies for the 482 visa. We usually prepare the sponsorship, the nomination, and the visa together, so all three line up and there’s no gap where one approval is waiting on another. Because we act on both sides, the employer’s paperwork and the worker’s application are consistent, which is one of the most common places these cases come unstuck.
Standard business sponsorship works when the occupation is on the relevant list and the standard salary and skill settings match the role. When they don’t, when the occupation isn’t listed or you need a concession, a labour agreement may be the better route. Part of our job is telling you which one actually fits, rather than forcing your situation into the wrong framework.
We check whether standard sponsorship suits you, or whether a labour agreement is the smarter path.
We prepare your sponsorship application and the evidence that your business is genuine and viable.
We handle the nomination and the worker’s 482 visa together, so nothing stalls.
We explain your sponsorship obligations in plain terms and help you set up to meet them.
We take on problem cases, including sponsorship applications that were refused or businesses facing monitoring or compliance issues. See our Complex Case Services.
It’s the approval that lets an Australian business sponsor overseas workers for skilled work visas. Once approved as a standard business sponsor, a business can nominate positions and workers for the 482 visa.
Yes. Sponsorship approval is the first step. You can’t nominate a worker or have them apply for a 482 visa until your business is an approved sponsor, although the three stages can often be lodged together.
Yes. There’s no rule that only large businesses can sponsor. Newer businesses usually need to show more evidence that the business is genuine, actively operating and viable, and we help build that case.
An approved standard business sponsorship generally lasts for a set number of years before it needs renewing. The exact period can change, so we’ll confirm the current term for you.
They include paying at least the required salary, covering certain costs you can’t pass to the worker, keeping records, notifying the department of certain changes, and making sure the worker only does their nominated job. Breaching them can put your sponsorship and your workers at risk.
Some costs sit with the employer by law and can’t be shifted to the worker, such as the sponsorship and nomination charges and any applicable levy. The visa application charge usually sits with the worker. We make sure everyone knows who pays for what before anything is lodged.
A refusal isn’t always the end. We work out why it was refused, fix the gaps, and rebuild the application. Sponsorship problems and refusals are part of the complex-case work we handle.
Business sponsorship supports temporary work visas, but many sponsored workers move toward permanent residency through the Employer Nomination Scheme (186) later. Planning that pathway early makes the transition smoother.
You’re not required to, but sponsorship comes with real legal obligations and the paperwork has to be right. A registered migration agent is accountable and bound by a Code of Conduct, and can handle the employer and worker sides together so they match.
