Visa Details

The Employer Nomination Scheme or ENS allows Australian employers to sponsor highly-skilled staff overseas workers for a permanent visa to work in Australia, if they have been unable to fill a vacancy from within the Australian labour market or through their own training programs.

The ENS process has two stages of application: a nomination by an employer; and the nominee’s application for a visa.

This visa is for Australian employers who want to sponsor highly skilled workers for a permanent visa to work in Australia. The employees can be either:

• highly skilled workers from overseas
• highly skilled temporary residents currently in Australia.

With this visa, it allows you and any dependent family members included in the visa application to live as permanent residents in Australia. You also can:

• live and work in Australia on a permanent basis
• study in Australia at school or university
• receive subsidised healthcare through Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
• access certain social security payments (subject to waiting periods)
• be eligible for Australian citizenship (subject to the residency eligibility criteria)
• sponsor people for permanent residence.

Process for obtaining this visa is for the Australian Employer nominates the positions that they wish to fill and find a suitable highly skilled employee who is willing to work in Australia.

Employees must be sponsored or accepts an offer of employment from the nominating Australian employer and must apply for a visa if it meets the age, skills, and language requirements once approved.

Eligible position
An eligible position must meet the following requirements:

• be full-time, ongoing and available for at least 3 years
• provide working conditions that are no less favourable than provided for under the relevant Australian legislation and awards
• be a highly skilled occupation that is on the Employer Nomination Scheme Occupation List (ENSOL).

The validity period of the:

• nomination is 6 (six) months
• visa is permanent.

Eligibility

Employer Eligibilty

To participate in the Employer Nomination Scheme, the employer must:

• be actively and lawfully operating a business in Australia
• have a genuine need for a paid employee to fill a position in their business
• follow all relevant Australian laws and have a satisfactory record of meeting immigration laws (if applicable)
• have a current training strategy for existing Australian employees, or if a newly established business, have a training plan for future training of Australian employees
• provide the employee with an offer of permanent employment.

Position requirements
The nominated position must meet the following requirements:

• be full-time, ongoing and available for at least 3 years
• provide working conditions that are no less favourable than provided for under the relevant Australian legislation and awards
• be a highly skilled occupation that is on the Employer Nomination Scheme Occupation List (ENSOL).
• meet the minimum salary level for ENS.

Employee Eligibility
To be eligible for permanent residency under this visa, the employee must meet the following requirements:

• must have worked full-time in Australia in the nominated occupation on a Subclass 418, 421, 422, 428, 444, 457 or 461 temporary residence visa for the last two years prior to the visa application being made (including at least the last 12 months with the nominating employer)
• have been nominated to fill a highly paid senior executive position with a salary of more than $165,000 per annum (excluding superannuation or allowances)
• have had their skills assessed as suitable by the relevant skills assessing authority and, unless exceptional circumstances apply, have at least three years full-time work experience in the occupation immediately before the visa application is lodged. A list of assessing bodies can be found in the Employer Nomination Scheme Occupation List (ENSOL).
• have an employer who is willing to sponsor them for permanent residency
• demonstrate that they have the appropriate skills, qualifications and/or experience to fill the position
• meet any mandatory licensing, registration or professional membership requirements which allows the employee to work unsupervised and without further training
• be under 45 years of age
• have Vocational English language ability
• all nominated employees and its dependent family members must meet health and character requirements.

Family Member Eligibility

The following people may apply to accompany and stay in Australia with the nominated employee:

• the spouse
• dependent child
• other dependent relatives living with the employee.

These family members must intend to remain members of your family unit.

All eligible family members who intend to accompany or join you later in Australia should be included in the sponsorship application.

If any of your family members apply after the sponsorship application has been finalised, your sponsor will need to lodge a new sponsorship application including paying the sponsorship application charge.

Your sponsor must also accept responsibility for compensating the Australian Government for any costs incurred by your accompanying dependent family members arising out of their stay in Australia and their compliance with visa conditions and legislation.

All accompanying dependent family members must meet certain health requirements and may need to undergo a health examination.

Private health insurance is available to you and any accompanying dependent family members. It is strongly recommended, but it is not a requirement for the grant of this visa.

All accompanying dependent family members must be of good character to enter Australia.

Obligations

Under the Employer Nomination Scheme:

• the employer must comply with all relevant Australian standards and workplace legislation for wages and working conditions
• the employee must comply with all Australian laws as a permanent resident.

Charge Type	Charge Amount
Nomination (ENS only)	$445
1st instalment If you are outside Australia when the visa is granted	$1705
1st instalment If you are in Australia when the visa is granted	$2525
2nd instalment For primary applicants with less than functional English Exception: Religious workers who have applied for a subclass 121 (ENS) or a Labour Agreement visa are not required to pay this instalment.	$7040