482 Sponsorship Costs: What Employers Must Pay and What They Cannot Pass On to Workers

Home Affairs currently lists the application cost to become an approved
sponsor under the SID 482 program as:

$420

This is not necessarily paid for every individual worker.

If the business already holds the required sponsorship approval and it
remains valid, a new sponsorship application may not be required simply
because the business is nominating another worker.

$330

The nomination is the employer-side application identifying the proposed
occupation, position and worker.

It is separate from both the sponsorship application and the worker's
visa application.

It is paid by the employer when lodging the nomination.

For a subclass 482 nomination, the amount depends on:

• the sponsoring business's annual turnover, and
• the proposed period of stay of the worker

The levy is paid in full when the nomination is lodged.

Home Affairs states that employers must not pass the SAF levy on to the
visa applicant.

$1,200 for each year or part of a year of the proposed visa period.

For businesses with annual turnover of $10 million or more, it is:

$1,800 for each year or part of a year.

For example, for a four-year SID nomination:

• a business under $10 million turnover would generally pay
  $4,800
• a business with turnover of $10 million or more would generally pay
  $7,200

The legislation provides a nil SAF amount for specified subclass 482
Labour Agreement nominations involving a minister of religion or
religious assistant.

Home Affairs states that sponsorship costs are not simply refunded
because an application is unsuccessful.

However, the Migration Regulations provide specific circumstances in
which a nomination fee or SAF levy may be refunded.

These include particular situations involving Departmental error,
certain withdrawn nominations, specified visa refusals and a worker who
fails to commence employment.

There is also a provision allowing a partial SAF refund in specified
circumstances where a nomination proposed a stay longer than one year
and the worker leaves the sponsoring employment within one year after
commencing.

Refund eligibility should therefore be checked against the actual
regulatory ground rather than assumed.

Home Affairs currently identifies costs including:

• sponsorship costs
• nomination charges
• migration agent costs associated with sponsorship and nomination
  applications
• recruitment agent fees
• job advertising
• screening and shortlisting candidates
• interviews and reference checks
• recruitment or human-resources staff costs
• outsourced background, police or psychological checks used for
  recruitment
• responding to candidates
• travel undertaken by the sponsor to interview or meet applicants

The sponsor must not transfer or charge these prohibited costs to
another person such as the sponsored worker or their sponsored family
members.

Home Affairs expressly states that employers must not pass the SAF levy
on to the visa applicant.

The broader sponsorship obligation also prevents an approved work
sponsor from recovering or transferring specified nomination and
recruitment costs.

An employer should not attempt to recover the levy indirectly through a
salary deduction, repayment arrangement or other charge to the worker.

The Migration Regulations prohibit approved work sponsors from
recovering, seeking to recover, transferring or seeking to transfer
specified sponsorship, nomination and recruitment costs to another
person.

That means an arrangement requiring a worker to reimburse prohibited
employer-side costs later can still create a compliance problem.

Employers should distinguish these protected sponsorship costs from
other employment or visa-related expenses before drafting any repayment
clause.

Home Affairs specifically includes migration-agent costs associated with
the employer's sponsorship and nomination applications among the costs
the sponsor must bear.

Those employer-side professional fees should not be transferred to the
worker.

A worker may separately obtain professional assistance for their own
visa application. That is different from making the worker pay the
employer's sponsorship or nomination professional costs.

Where one adviser handles both employer-side and visa-applicant work,
the scope and invoicing should clearly distinguish the services.

Home Affairs expressly includes recruitment costs such as:

• advertising
• recruitment agency fees
• screening
• shortlisting
• interviews
• reference checks
• relevant HR staff costs
• recruitment-related background checks
• sponsor travel to interview or meet applicants

These costs cannot simply be invoiced back to the sponsored worker
because the employer decided to sponsor them.

Home Affairs publishes visa application charges separately and advises
applicants to use the current Visa Pricing Table or Visa Pricing
Estimator because fees can change.

The sponsorship rules requiring the employer to bear sponsorship,
nomination and recruitment costs should not be confused with a rule that
every visa-application expense must always be paid by the employer.

If an employer voluntarily agrees to pay a worker-side visa cost, the
arrangement should still be checked carefully before any later recovery
or deduction is proposed.

These are part of the visa application charging framework.

They are distinct from the employer's sponsorship and nomination charges
and the SAF levy.

The exact visa charge depends on the application and should be checked
using Home Affairs' current pricing information at lodgement.

The employer-side amount can vary depending on:

• whether the business already holds valid sponsorship approval
• business turnover
• the proposed visa period
• recruitment costs
• professional fees
• whether a Labour Agreement is involved
• whether an applicable SAF exception or refund provision applies

The worker's visa application cost can also vary depending on the
application and accompanying family members.

A useful sponsorship budget should therefore separate employer-side
sponsorship costs from visa-applicant costs.

Using the current published government charges, the employer-side
government costs would include:

• Standard Business Sponsorship application: $420
• nomination application: $330
• SAF levy: $4,800

That produces $5,550 in those employer-side government charges,
before recruitment costs and any professional fees.

The worker's visa application charge is separate and is not included in
that example.

• Standard Business Sponsorship application: $420
• nomination application: $330
• SAF levy: $7,200

That produces $7,950 in those employer-side government charges,
before recruitment costs and professional fees.

Again, the visa application charge is separate.

The employer would still need to consider the nomination fee, SAF levy
and other sponsorship and recruitment costs.

This is why a business that sponsors workers regularly should not assume
the cost of each new worker is identical to the first sponsorship.

Home Affairs specifically warns that employers must not take money from
a sponsored worker's pay for sponsorship, recruitment or migration-agent
costs that the sponsor is required to bear.

The Migration Act and Regulations provide sponsorship obligations and
enforcement mechanisms.

Cost allocation should therefore be treated as a compliance issue, not
merely a private agreement between employer and worker.

• whether Standard Business Sponsorship approval is required
• sponsorship application charge, if applicable
• nomination fee
• SAF levy based on turnover and proposed visa period
• recruitment and advertising costs
• employer-side migration-agent or professional fees
• worker-side visa application costs
• additional family-member visa charges where relevant
• which costs the sponsor is legally prohibited from transferring or
  recovering

Keep employer-side sponsorship and recruitment costs clearly separated
from the worker's own visa-application expenses.