Accredited Employer Sponsorship

Accreditation for Standard Business Sponsorships – Process and criteria

For majority of Sponsors who are private owned organizations and non-government related, please refer to category 2 & category 3 criteria

What is sponsorship accreditation

A person can apply to become an ‘Accredited Sponsor’ as part of their application to become an approved SBS or to renew their sponsorship. If a sponsor is awarded accredited status, they will receive priority processing of all nomination and visa applications. Note: this is enacted by a ministerial direction under s499 – Direction No. 70 – Priority Processing for Standard Business Sponsors with Accredited Status. Accredited sponsors, afforded accredited status on or after 1 July 2016, also receive streamlined processing of certain low-risk nominations – with certain nomination provisions able to be satisfied based on a certification on the nomination form, in conjunction with additional documentation and information collected “upfront” as part of the sponsorship application/accreditation approval process.

Accreditation Requirements

To qualify for accreditation, a sponsor must meet the requirements outlined for at least one of the four categories provided for below.

Category 1: Commonwealth, state, or territory government agency

These agencies must meet the requirements below to qualify for Accredited Status:

Requirement	Evidence required to be provided with sponsorship/renewal application
Australian workers comprise at least 75% of their workforce in Australia	No additional evidence required. This information will be available via the ‘workforce details’ information collected in the sponsorship application form and/or nomination application forms.

Category 2: Trusted traders (if not a trusted Trader, please review criteria to apply to be a trusted trader and process)

Trusted traders must meet the requirements below to qualify for Accredited Status:

Requirement	Evidence required to be provided with sponsorship/renewal application
Australian workers comprise at least 75% of their workforce in Australia	No additional evidence required. This information will be available via the ‘workforce details’ information collected in the sponsorship application form and/or nomination application forms.
All 457 and/or 482 holders are engaged as employees under a written contract that meets National Employment Standards (NES) where they apply	A copy of a template employment contract used for this purpose. Note: • Decision makers should ensure that the template is an employment contract and not a contract to provide services under sub-contracting arrangements. • A copy of a template assignment letter in the case of intra-corporate transfer situations would also be enough evidence.
All employees are paid in accordance with an Enterprise Agreement or an internal salary table that reflects the current market salary rates	A copy of the Enterprise Agreement or internal salary table must be provided, as well as description of how the business used the evidence to determine that the salary rates contained in the document reflect the current market salary rates for occupations in their business (for example: Awards, remuneration surveys, job advertisements, the Job Outlook) Note: Where an internal salary table is provided, it should cover salary rates for ANZSCO occupations that the sponsor has previously used the program for and/or intends to in future.

Category 3: Low risk sponsor with low volume usage and high percentage of Australian workers

Other organizations can become accredited sponsors if they can meet the requirements below – with this category designed to cater for sponsors considered to be lower risk who are low volume users of the program.

Requirement	Evidence required to be provided with sponsorship/renewal application
Australian workers comprise at least 85% of workforce in Australia	No additional evidence required. This information will be available via the ‘workforce details’ information collected in the sponsorship application form and/or nomination application forms.
Not a sole trader or a partnership	No additional evidence required. Business structure information is already provided in sponsorship application form.
Annual turnover of at least four million for the last two years	No additional evidence required. This should be able to be determined from the information provided with the application such as: Annual reports, Financial statements, Profit/loss statements, Business activity statements, Certification letter from accountant.
Standard business sponsor for at least one year	No additional evidence required. Information available on Departmental systems.
No adverse monitoring outcomes unless reasonable to disregard	No additional evidence required. Information available on Departmental systems.
Nominations approved for at least one primary 457/482 visa holder in the last two years.	No additional evidence required. Information available on Departmental systems.
Nomination non-approval rate of less than 3% for the last year	No additional evidence required. Information available on Departmental systems/via reporting.
All 457 and/or 482 holders are engaged as employees under a written contract that meets National Employment Standards (NES) where they apply	A copy of a template employment contract used for this purpose. Note: • Decision makers should ensure that the template is an employment contract and not a contract to provide services under sub-contracting arrangements. • A copy of a template assignment letter in the case of intra-corporate transfer situations would also be sufficient evidence.
All employees are paid in accordance with an Enterprise Agreement or an internal salary table that reflects the current market salary rates	A copy of the Enterprise Agreement or internal salary table must be provided, as well as description of how the business used the evidence to determine that the salary rates contained in the document reflect the current market salary rates for occupations in their business (for example: Awards, remuneration surveys, job advertisements, the Job Outlook) Note: Where an internal salary table is provided, it should cover salary rates for ANZSCO occupations that the sponsor has previously used the program for and/or intends to in future.

The intent of sponsorship accreditation is to acknowledge and reward low risk sponsors, so there is scope in policy for decision makers to approve accreditation where an applicant does not meet a particular characteristic listed above.

If the business does not meet the accreditation characteristics

If, at the time of application for Accredited Status, a business does not meet the characteristics to achieve Accredited Status, but they do meet the criteria for standard business sponsorship, the business should be approved as a standard business sponsor for a period of 5 years. In such a situation there would be no dispute resolution process through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) as there would not be a refusal decision. It is only if a sponsor is refused standard business sponsorship status that they would have recourse to merits review of the decision by the AAT.
If the application for Accredited Status is made as a renewal of an existing standard business sponsorship agreement and the business does not meet the accreditation characteristics, the application should be approved as a renewal, extending the standard business sponsorship agreement by five years.

Revocation

If a sponsor fails to maintain these additional characteristics, their Accredited Status can be revoked, which means priority processing will cease and nominations will not receive streamlined processing.
A sponsor’s Accredited Status may be revoked at any stage if it is found that they do not maintain the characteristics required to hold Accredited Status or they declare that they no longer meet these characteristics as part of a sponsorship renewal application.
When a sponsor’s Accredited Status is revoked, they lose their right to priority processing and streamlined processing of low-risk nominations, however their sponsorship agreement remains in place until its expiry (unless the reason for the Accredited Status revocation also results in cancellation of the agreement under s140M).
Where a sponsor themselves indicates as part of a renewal application that they no longer meet accreditation characteristics, an APS6 in the processing network can revoke their accreditation, as part of the standard application process.
If a decision-maker becomes aware of any other adverse information in relation to the sponsor during processing of any associated nomination or 457 or 482 visa applications which impacts their accreditation status, they should bring this to the attention of their EL1 manager. This will ensure that revocation procedures are initiated if deemed necessary, with the sponsor to be sent a procedural fairness letter asking them to comment on the reasons they no longer meet the required characteristic/s before a revocation decision is made at EL1 level or above.

Terms of approval

Under policy, transitional SBS applications approved on or after 18 March 2018 should be given a standard sponsorship approval period of 5 years. This is the case regardless of whether the application is an initial SBS application or a variation application or whether accreditation is afforded.

Accreditation

Where accreditation has been requested in an SBS application lodged before 18 March 2018, accreditation will be considered based on the accreditation requirements in place as of 18 March 2018.