Accredited Sponsorship is a certification given to Australian companies that process sponsoring visas on a regular basis and have this process as necessary to hire international workers as this labour force is not supplied by Australian workers.
By having Accredited Sponsorship certification, companies have differential treatment by the Department of Home Affairs when it comes to processing applications which are treated preferentially and quickly.
However, to become an Accredited Sponsor, companies must meet specific criteria. These criteria are different depending on the type of organization. The criteria for each type of company are described below.
Accreditation Type: Commonwealth, state and territory government agencies
Criteria:
- Be an Australian government (Commonwealth, state or territory) department or agency
- Australian workers make up at least 75% of your workforce in Australia
Accreditation Type: Australian Trusted Traders
Criteria:
- The company must be an Australian Trust Trader
- Australian workers must make up for at least 75% of the total employees of the company
- The contract of employment for all TSS and/or 457 visa holders must meet the National Employment Standards (unless their occupation is exempt from this requirement)
- The Australian employees must have been paid in accordance with an Enterprise Agreement or an internal salary table that reflects the current market salary rates for all occupations in the company
Accreditation Type: Low volume usage and high percentage of Australian workers (at least 85%)
Criteria:
- Australian workers must make up for at least 85% of the total employees of the company
- Having approved at least one nomination for a TSS or subclass 457 visa holder in the last 2 years
- Having approved more than 97% of your nomination applications in the last year
- Not being a sole trader or a partnership
- Having an annual turnover of at least AUD4M for the last 2 years
- Being standard business sponsor for at least 1 year
- Must have complied with all of your sponsor obligations
- Having no adverse monitoring outcomes
- Must have been paying all Australian employees in accordance with an Enterprise Agreement or an internal salary table that reflects the current market salary rate
- Having a contract of employment for all TSS and/or subclass 457 visa holders that meets the National Employment Standards where they apply
Accreditation Type: High volume usage and medium percentage of Australian workers (at least 75%)
Criteria:
- All Australian workers must make up for at least 75% of the total employees of the company
- Having approved nominations for at least 10 TSS and/or subclass 457 visa holders in the last 2 years
- Having approved more than 97% of your nomination applications in the last 2 years
- Not being a sole trader or a partnership
- Having an annual turnover of at least AUD4M for the last 2 years
- Having been standard business sponsor for at least 2 years
- Have been complying with all of your sponsor obligations
- Have not had any adverse monitoring outcomes
- Having paid all employees in accordance with an Enterprise Agreement or an internal salary table that reflects the current market salary rate
- Having a written contract of employment for all TSS and/or subclass 457 visa holders that meets the National Employment Standards where they apply
Accreditation Type: Major investment in Australia
Criteria:
- Have made a major investment in Australia (of at least AUD50M) which has directly generated Australian employment
- Not being a sole trader or a partnership
- Having a valid standard business sponsor for at least one year
- have nominations approved for at least one primary Temporary Skill Shortage or subclass 457 visa holder in the last year***
- Having approved more than 97% of your nomination applications in the last year
- Have not had any adverse monitoring outcomes
- Having all employees paid in accordance with an Enterprise Agreement or an internal salary table that reflects the current market salary rates
- Hire all Temporary Skill Shortage and/or subclass 457 visa holders as employees under a written contract that meets National Employment Standards where they apply
The benefits of being an accredited sponsor include:
- Faster processing times for visa and nomination application
- Alternative methods of conducting LMT
- Auto approval of the nominations
If your business qualifies for an accreditation status, get in touch with us today.
