Australian Immigration Daily News

The process of sponsoring an employee on a TSS (482) visa should be viewed beyond transactional aspect of obtaining a TSS visa.  As an approved business sponsor, there are a number of Sponsorship Obligations which the sponsoring entity must meet as part of holding their sponsorship status.  In broad terms, the following Sponsorship Obligations apply to all standard and accredited business sponsors:

Notify the Department of Home Affairs when the following occurs:

• the visa holder’s employment ends or is expected to end
• there are changes to the work duties carried out by the sponsored visa holder
• the sponsor pays or has paid the return travel costs of a sponsored visa holder or any of their family members in accordance with the obligation to pay return travel costs
• the sponsor becomes insolvent within the meaning of subsections 5 (2) and (3) of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 and section 95A of the Corporations Act 2001
• the business ceases to exist as a legal entity

These are just some of the examples of sponsorship obligations.  The remainder of which can be found on Home Affairs website: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/employing-and-sponsoring-someone/existing-sponsors/standard-business-accredited-obligations

To manage the Australian border, the Department implements Australia’s universal visa system, under which all non-citizens require a valid visa to come to Australia. The Department also confers citizenship on eligible applicants. There are broadly two types of visas:

• higher volume, generally simpler, temporary entry visa products
• lower volume, longer-term migration visas requiring more complex assessment.

Business visitor visas allow for travel to Australia for short term tourism or business visits.

The principles governing the entry of visitors are that visitors to Australia must: 

Source:  Benchmark Inc

Many agents are still trying to complete all their annual 10 CPD points via distance learning (private study) then submitting their re-registration application to the Office of the MARA.

The Office of the MARA are asking RMAs who have done this to go back and do 5 extra CPD from Category A activities.  The law changed on 1 January 2018 and transitional exemptions no longer exist.

Distance Learning (Private Study) is a Category B activity and RMAs must only do a maximum of 5 Category B Activities per registration year towards their 10 points for re-registration. 

At least 5 CPD activities should be from Category A every registration year. Examples of Category A activities would be webinar workshops and face-to-face workshops.   

The Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business is undertaking a Review of the Australian Apprenticeships National Skills Needs List with a view to advising the Government on the methodology for identifying skills shortage occupations and the inaugural composition of the replacement list.

To assist this process, the Department is seeking input from industry and employer groups, and other interested stakeholders, through a two-stage consultation process. In this first round of consultation the Department is seeking input on the broad design principles that should underpin a methodology for identifying skills shortages for the purpose of targeting apprenticeship incentives.

A second round of consultation will occur later this year, seeking comment on the proposed design of the replacement skills shortage methodology. The attached Issues Paper outlines the motivations for the Review and highlights six possible design principles for a replacement skills shortage methodology.