How this Visa Works

This visa allows professional and amateur sports people to travel and participate in sports in Australia.

The categories of sports people that are covered by this visa are:

• individuals or teams (and their support staff) taking part in specific sports events or contests
• players, coaches and instructors joining an Australian sports club, team or similar organisation
• participants undertaking a structured sports training program in Australia
• show/competition judges and adjudicators.

Sponsorship

For this visa you will need to be sponsored by an Australian organisation that administers or promotes sport or sports events. 

The process for obtaining a Sport visa is summarised in the table below.

Who	Responsibility
Organisation	apply to be a Sport sponsor to employ or engage overseas sports people nominate the position you want to fill  nominate the person to fill the position act as a sponsor for the nominated persons listed in the nomination cooperate with department's monitoring requirements meet costs and other obligations as part of the program.
Nominated primary person	accept the offer of employment or activity from the organisation apply for a visa meet all conditions on their visa.

Validity periods

The validity period of the:

• sponsorship is three years
• nomination is 12 months
• visa is for the period of the nominated position with the maximum period being two years.

Bringing family

The following people may be included in your visa application:

• your partner
• your or your partner's dependent children
• other dependent relatives.

Secondary applicants who have not been listed in the visa application and who want to join you in Australia at a later time will need to lodge a separate visa application. A letter from your sponsor is required to be provided with the application confirming that the sponsor will accept responsibility for the secondary applicants for the period of their stay in Australia.

Other visa options

Other visa options available are:

Short duration events

If you are competing in, judging or adjudicating in short duration events an alternative is the Business (Short Stay) visa (subclass 456) or ETA (Business Entrant) (subclass 956/977).
See: Business Visit Visa Options

Contracted players or coaches

If you are a professional player or coach contracted to a club an alternative visa is the Temporary Business (Long Stay) (subclass 457) visa. This visa allows up to a four year stay.
See: About this Visa

Trainees

If your stay is for less than three (3) months, you intend to undertake training in Australia and will not be paid, alternative visas are eVisitor (subclass 651), the Tourist visa (subclass 676) and the ETA for visitors (subclass 976).
See: Tourists Visa Options

Amateur competitors

If your stay is for less than three (3) months an alternative visa is the Tourist visa (subclass 676) or ETA (Visitor) (subclass 976). These visas may be appropriate if you are genuinely intending to visit Australia and the sporting activity is incidental to the purpose of your visit. If playing for a particular club, you will usually be restricted to a maximum of three (3) games.
See: Tourists Visa Options

Definitions

These definitions will help you understand the information on these pages.
See: Definitions