Fact Sheet 48 – Helping Skilled and Business People

The Australian Government is committed to helping highly skilled individuals and successful business people to settle permanently in Australia.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has introduced specific initiatives designed to stream-line processes for Australian businesses to help recruit overseas staff with a minimum of formalities, and to help non-Australian citizens conduct or establish business in Australia.

These measures recognise that Australian businesses must have access to skills, ideas, contacts and technology from overseas to be successful in today's increasingly global economy. They may need to recruit overseas staff with qualifications and relevant work experience to meet specific skill shortages in Australia.

There are also benefits for Australia in attracting experienced overseas business people to either establish or join businesses in Australia, bringing with them investments, new ideas and the prospect of creating new jobs.

Skilled migrants for permanent residence

There are a number of categories in the Skill stream to enable successful business people and highly skilled and qualified people to migrate to Australia. These include:

• Skilled – Independent: for skilled people who are not sponsored but are selected on the basis of their skills, age and English language ability.
  See:
  Fact Sheet 24 - Overview of skilled migration to Australia
  Fact Sheet 25 - General Skilled Migration

• Skilled – Sponsored: for skilled people who are sponsored by an eligible Australian relative in Australia or nominated by a state or territory government. Applicants are selected on the basis of their skills, age and English language ability.
  See:
  Fact Sheet 24 - Overview of skilled migration to Australia
  Fact Sheet 25 - General Skilled Migration

• Skilled – Regional Sponsored: for skilled people who want to live and work in a specified regional area ('designated' or 'regional' area) in Australia but are unable to meet the criteria to be granted a permanent visa.

  Applicants for this visa must be sponsored by an eligible Australian relative or nominated by a state or territory government. Successful applicants are granted a three-year temporary visa to give them time to satisfy the residence and employment criteria for a permanent visa.
  See:Fact Sheet 26 - State Specific Regional Migration

• Skill Matching Database: lists the educational, occupational and personal details of Skilled – Independent category applicants and Skilled – Sponsored applicants.

  Employers can nominate people from the database to fill vacancies that cannot be filled through the local labour market. State and territory governments can nominate people from the database on the basis of skill shortages they have identified.
  See: Fact Sheet 28 - Skill Matching Database

  The Skill Matching Database is no longer accepting new applicants.
  See: Decommissioning of the Skilled Matching Database

• Business Skills: under the Business Skills (provisional) category, people with backgrounds as business owners, senior executives or investors can apply for a provisional (temporary) visa in the first instance. After satisfactory evidence of a specified level of business or investment activity in Australia, Business Skills (provisional) visa holders can apply for permanent residence.

  In line with their economic development objectives, state and territory governments can also sponsor applicants in these categories with lower level criteria applying to sponsored applicants.

  High-calibre business migrants, sponsored by a state or territory government, may obtain up-front direct permanent residence under the Business Talent (migrant) category.
  See:
  Fact Sheet 24 - Overview of skilled migration to Australia
  Fact Sheet 27 - Business skills migration

• Employer nomination: people nominated or sponsored by employers through schemes such as the Employer Nomination Scheme, Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme and negotiated Labour Agreements.
  See:
  Fact Sheet 24 - Overview of Skilled migration to Australia
  Fact Sheet 26 - State Specific Regional Migration

Temporary entry short stay

The department has also established a range of services providing streamlined entry to Australia for business people applying for either short or long-term temporary stay.

The Business (short stay) (subclass 456) visa allows business people to make a short business visit to Australia for up to three months. It may be issued for either single entry or for multiple entry. Multiple entry visas may be valid for up to 10 years, or the life of the passport to a maximum of 10 years. Applicants must apply for this visa outside Australia.

The Sponsored Business Visitor (short stay) (subclass 459) visa allows sponsored business people to make a short business visit to Australia for up to three months. Eligible sponsors include federal, state and territory members of parliament, government agencies or instrumentalities, local government mayors or organisations specified by the minister. It may be issued for either single entry or multiple entry and in most cases is valid for 12 months from the date of grant. All applications for this visa must be lodged in Australia by the sponsor.

The Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) allows tourists and business visitors to obtain visas for Australia for up to three months at the time they make their travel arrangements. It is available to passport holders from a number of countries and regions. On most occasions an ETA is issued as multiple entry and valid for 12 months from the date of grant. The ETA system is accessible by travel agencies and airlines in a number of countries. ETAs can also be applied for over the internet.
See:
www.eta.immi.gov.au
Fact Sheet 55 - The Electronic Travel Authority

The eVisitor allows visitors to travel to Australia for tourist or business purposes for up to three months. It is available to passport holders from the European Union and a number of other European countries. It is multiple entry and valid for 12 months from the date of grant. You can apply for an eVisitor over the internet, but you must be outside Australia.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Travel Card provides business people with simplified entry to a number of economies of the APEC forum. Holders must be passport-holders of one of the participating economies — currently Australia, Brunei, Chile, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

APEC cardholders enjoy streamlined business visitor entry to participating economies to explore business opportunities, attend meetings and/or conduct trade and investment activities.

Temporary long stay visa options

The Temporary Business (Long Stay) (subclass 457) visa is designed to enable employers to address labour shortages by bringing in genuinely skilled workers where they cannot find an appropriately skilled Australian worker.

The subclass 457 visa is the most commonly used program for employers to sponsor overseas workers to work in Australia on a temporary basis.

The subclass 457 visa allows skilled people to work in Australia for an approved employer for a period from one day to four years. The prospective employer must first apply to become a standard business sponsor. Once an approved sponsor, the employer nominates the position to be filled by the overseas worker. The position must relate to an eligible occupation and the overseas worker must work in the position for which they were nominated
See: Fact Sheet 48b – Temporary Business (Subclass 457) Visa

A Labour Agreement is a formal arrangement negotiated between the Australian Government, represented by this department and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and an employer. Labour Agreements enable Australian employers to recruit a specified number of workers from overseas in response to identified labour market shortages.

Labour Agreements operate in an environment of enhancing the employment prospects for Australians by including commitments to provide improved training for Australians. Employees may come to Australia on either a temporary or a permanent basis. Agreements are normally negotiated for a period of two to three years.

Business services

The department provides superior client service to business clients to ensure the Australian commercial environment continues to benefit from the entry of business migrants.

The department operates effective services for business clients, including:

• A Labour Market Branch and an Education and Tourism Branch in its Canberra headquarters to ensure that the needs of business are taken into account in developing the department's business entry policies and procedures.
• Three centres of excellence in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth offices which offer a comprehensive and streamlined service for business people.
• Business skills processing centres located in Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Perth for processing outside Australia, and Adelaide for processing in Australia, providing timely and consistent assessment of all applications for business migration.

Access to retirement savings

Eligible temporary residents can access their retirement savings (superannuation) upon permanent departure from Australia. For more information on accessing this money visit the Australian Taxation Office's website under 'Temporary residents'.
See: Australian Taxation Office

Further information is available on the department's website.
See: www.immi.gov.au

The department also operates a national general enquiries line.
Telephone: 131 881
Hours of operation: Monday to Friday from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm. Recorded information is available outside these hours.

Fact Sheet 48. Produced by the National Communications Branch, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Canberra.
Last reviewed 1 July 2011.

© Commonwealth of Australia 2011.