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Visas, Immigration and Refugees

Employer Sponsored Workers

Temporary Business (Long Stay) - Standard Business Sponsorship (Subclass 457)

  1. About this Visa
  2. How this Visa Works
  3. Eligibility
  4. Obligations
  5. Applying for this Visa

How this visa works

On this page


For this visa you will need to be approved as an eligible employer. You will also need:

  • an eligible nominated position
  • an eligible employee.

The process for obtaining a Temporary Business (Long Stay) visa is summarised in the table below.

Who Responsibility

Employer

  • apply to be a sponsor to recruit overseas workers
  • nominate the positions you want to fill
  • recruit the overseas workers to fill your nominated positions
  • act as a sponsor for your employees applying for a visa
  • cooperate with department's monitoring requirements
  • meet costs and other obligations as part of the program

Employee

  • accepts the offer of employment from the employer
  • applies for a visa
  • meets all conditions on their visa

Regional employer concessions

If you are an employer in a regional area in Australia you may be eligible for concessions in meeting the minimum salary and skill level requirements for your nominated position.

Validity periods

The validity period of the:

  • sponsorship is 2 years
  • nomination is 12 months
  • visa is between 3 months and 4 years.

Renewing a visa

If you have an employee who wants to renew their visa or change employers, the employee must lodge a new visa application. The new employer must also lodge a new sponsorship and/or nomination if valid sponsorship or nomination does not already exist.
See: Applying for this visa

Visa labels

There are a number of eligible passports for travel to Australia without a visa label.
See: Visa labels

Medicare levy exemption

The Medicare Levy is a tax paid through the personal tax system in Australia. People granted temporary residence visas may be subject to the Medicare Levy. The Medicare Levy is based on the taxable income of the individual for each income tax year.

If you are from a country that has no reciprocal health care arrangements with Australia, you and your dependents, who have not been entitled to Medicare benefits can seek an exemption from the Medicare levy in your end of financial year income tax return. Your lack of entitlement to Medicare benefits must be certified by the Minister for Health.

If you are from a country with reciprocal health care arrangements with Australia, Medicare assistance is available for immediately necessary treatment. Nationals from reciprocal countries are therefore not exempt from the Medicare levy.
See: Medicare > Medicare Forms > Medicare Levy Exemption Certification Form

Definitions

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

More information

Detailed information on this visa is available on the website.
See:
Booklet 11 Sponsoring a temporary overseas employee to Australia (220KB PDF file)
Identified recruitment agents for Chinese skilled workers (2KB Word file)

Information for workers about the Subclass 457 visa is available in the following documents. This information is available in several languages.
See: