Corporate Immigration

Published 21 Jul 2026

Corporate immigration is everything an Australian business needs to lawfully hire, keep and relocate overseas talent, which includes:

  • Becoming an approved sponsor
  • Nominating roles
  • Choosing the right visa – usually the Skills in Demand (subclass 482) or Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186)
  • Meeting salary thresholds
  • Staying compliant with sponsor obligations afterwards.

Applying in your own right rather than through an employer? Start at individual immigration.

Which visa should your business sponsor a worker on?

Most corporate sponsorship in Australia runs through four pathways. The right one depends on how long you need the person, where the role is located, and whether permanent residence is part of the offer.

Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) — the standard temporary sponsorship visa, granted for up to four years. It has a Core Skills stream for roles paying at least the core threshold and a Specialist Skills stream for high-earning roles, and it carries a pathway to permanent residence after two years with your business.

Employer Nomination Scheme visa (subclass 186) — permanent residence from day one. Used either to transition an existing 482 employee after two years, or to directly hire an experienced worker into a role on the relevant occupation list.

Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa (subclass 494) — for businesses located in regional Australia (everywhere outside Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane), with access to a broader occupation list and a permanent residence pathway after three years.

Labour agreements and DAMAs — negotiated arrangements with the Department of Home Affairs for businesses whose roles, salaries or locations don’t fit the standard rules. A DAMA (Designated Area Migration Agreement — a region-wide labour agreement) can unlock concessions on salary, age and English requirements.

For short assignments — installing equipment, or an intra-company secondment of weeks rather than years — a Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist) visa (subclass 400) is often the better tool than full sponsorship.

What does corporate immigration cost the business?

Two kinds of cost matter: the salary you must pay, and the government charges the business must cover by law.

For nominations lodged from 1 July 2026, the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT — the minimum salary for a Core Skills 482 or a 186 nomination) is $79,423. The Specialist Skills Income Threshold (SSIT) is $146,576. The salary must also match the annual market salary rate — what an Australian in the same role and location would earn — whichever is higher. Nominations lodged before 1 July 2026 are assessed against the previous thresholds.

On top of salary, the business pays the Skilling Australians Fund levy (a training levy charged per nomination): $1,200 per year of visa for businesses with annual turnover under $10 million and $1,800 per year for larger businesses on a 482 nomination, or a one-off $3,000 or $5,000 for a 186 or 494 nomination.

Sponsorship and nomination charges also sit with the business, and none of these amounts can lawfully be passed on to or recovered from the sponsored worker. Current government charges are listed on the Department of Home Affairs cost of sponsoring page.

How does the corporate sponsorship process work?

Sponsorship is a three-stage process, and the stages can be prepared in parallel.

1. Standard Business Sponsorship (SBS). The business is approved as a sponsor by showing it operates lawfully and there is no adverse information against it. Approval lasts five years and covers every worker you sponsor in that period.

2. Nomination. The business nominates a specific role: a genuine position, an occupation on the relevant skilled list, salary at or above the threshold and market rate, and — for most 482 and 494 nominations — labour market testing (advertising the role to Australians before lodging).

3. Visa application. The candidate applies, showing the required skills, experience, English and health and character clearances.

Done well, the three stages are prepared together and lodged in sequence without dead time. Most avoidable delays come from labour market testing run in the wrong form or salary evidence that doesn’t hold up — both fixable before lodgement.

What are your obligations as a sponsor?

Sponsorship comes with monitored, enforceable obligations that run for years: keeping records, notifying the Department within 28 days of events such as the employee resigning or the business changing structure, ensuring the employee works in the nominated occupation, paying the salary as nominated, and never recovering sponsorship costs from the worker. Breaches can mean being barred from sponsoring, cancellation of sponsorship approval, and civil penalties.

Eligibility

The business must be lawfully established and actively operating in Australia (overseas businesses can also sponsor in limited circumstances). Registration, financials and business activity evidence establish this at the sponsorship stage.

The nominated position must genuinely exist and be needed by the business — consistent with its size, industry and activities. The Department tests this hardest where the role is senior, newly created, or connected to the owner.

The role must pay at least the applicable income threshold (CSIT $79,423 or SSIT $146,576 for nominations lodged from 1 July 2026) and no less than an equivalent Australian worker would earn in the same role and location.

The business and its directors must have a clean record on immigration, workplace and taxation law. Past underpayment findings or sponsorship breaches must be disclosed and addressed — they are not always fatal, but concealing them is.

For most 482 and 494 nominations, the role must have been advertised to the Australian labour market in the prescribed form — typically at least 4 weeks of advertising within the 4 months before the nomination is lodged. Exemptions exist, including under some international trade obligations.

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FAQ

Yes. There is no minimum size for a sponsoring business. A small business must show the same things as a large one: lawful operation, a genuine role, and the ability to pay the threshold salary. The Skilling Australians Fund levy is lower for businesses with turnover under $10 million.

Standard Business Sponsorship applications are typically decided within weeks when lodged decision-ready, and approval then lasts five years. The nomination and visa stages have their own processing times, which vary by stream and occupation — prepared in parallel, the whole process is usually measured in months, not years.

The business must pay the sponsorship and nomination charges and the Skilling Australians Fund levy, and it is unlawful to pass these on to the sponsored worker or deduct them from wages. The visa application charge itself may be paid by either party.

You must notify the Department of Home Affairs within 28 days. The employee’s 482 visa does not end immediately — they generally have up to 180 days to find a new sponsor or arrange another visa. Your obligations as sponsor wind down, but record-keeping duties continue.

Yes. A 482 visa holder can generally be nominated for the permanent 186 visa after two years with your business, and the 494 leads to permanent residence (subclass 191) after three years in a regional area. Offering a defined permanent residence pathway is one of the strongest retention tools a sponsoring employer has.

Only if the standard rules do not fit — for example, the occupation is not on the list, the market salary is below the threshold, or you need concessions on age or English. Labour agreements are negotiated directly with the Department and take longer to establish, so they are a strategic decision, not a default.

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