Australian Permanent Residence:

Employment Nomination and Employment Sponsorship

Highly skilled applicants are in demand in Australia. When employers can't fill a vacancy from the local labour market or through training, they use the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) to nominate individuals for specific full-time positions.

• Overview
• Minimum Requirements - Employer Nomination Scheme
• Do it Right the First Time

Minimum Requirements

An application to remain permanently in Australia on skilled grounds involves two separate applications seeking the approval for:

· ENS application for a permanent appointment in Australia
· Visa application

1. ENS Application:

Basic requirements for the approval of an appointment are:

• The work requires a highly skilled person
• The appointment is in Australia, permanent, genuine, full-time, and in a business operated by the nominator
• The employer provides adequate training for existing employees
• Either a suitable Australian citizen or permanent resident cannot be found for the position, or the employer is not required to seek a suitable person for the position in Australia
• The applicant is to be employed in accordance with relevant Australian standards for wages and working conditions

A sponsor normally is expected to test the Australian labour market by placing a series of advertisements in both national and metropolitan daily newspapers or the like. In certain circumstances advertising may not be required.

However, to make this program more responsive to the needs of employers, labour market testing in the ENS category has been waived for positions that involve skills in demand such as ICT, accounting and nursing. Further changes have recently been made to enable overseas students in Australia with these skills to apply for employer nominated migration without meeting the normal experience requirements. Because of Australia's flexible approach to change of status on-shore, an increasing percentage of employer-nominated cases are from people already in Australia (for instance, people that employers have already tested for suitability to their needs).

2. Visa Application:

Basic requirements include:

• Application must be made within 6 months of the approval of the appointment to which it relates and decided within 12 months of that approval.
• The applicant must be nominated by an employer for an approved appointment to a position in their business, and be a 'highly skilled person' in relation to the appointment, and unless the approved appointment is exceptional, be under age 45, and have vocational English.

Under the ENS, overseas students whose occupations are in high demand, and who have successfully completed their course in Australia, are able to apply onshore and have normal post graduate work experience requirements waived.

Visa holders are required to work full-time and generally remain with their sponsoring employer for at least three years. Most onshore applicants are 457 visa holders who want to convert to permanent status.

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Do it Right the First Time

As in every application, great care is required in preparing supporting documents for both the ENS and visa application.

The strategy to be adopted depends on the strength of each case. For an application made in Australia, the ENS and visa applications can be lodged at the same time; or the ENS application can be lodged and processed first, followed by the visa application only when and if the ENS application has been approved.

To apply in Australia, an applicant must hold an eligible substantive visa (limited exceptions apply) and must be physically present in Australia at the time of decision. Where a visa application is made outside Australia, the applicant must be outside Australia at the time of decision.

Avoid taking unnecessary risks, and save time and expense by working with Beyderwellen & Company. Complete our Online Australian Immigration Assessment Form to discover how you can migrate to Australia.

View our sample Client Case Studies to see how our clients have successfully migrated to Australia.

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