Regional Employer Sponsored Visa (Subclass 494)

Two Streams of the Regional Employer Sponsored Visa (Subclass 494)

• Employer Sponsored stream – this applies if applicants: 

  • have an occupation on the Occupation List for Subclass 494 Visa

  • have 3 years of work experience in the nominated occupation;​​

• Labour Agreement stream – this applies if:

  • standard visa programs are not available, for example, because of an applicant’s low English proficiency

  • employer must first negotiate a labour agreement with Commonwealth/state government

  • terms and conditions of the labour agreement are flexible and negotiable, allowing for concessions and lower visa requirements

Eligibility Criteria for the Regional Employer Sponsored Visa (Subclass 494)

For employer:

For applicant:

Sponsorship Obligations:

• Ensure the visa holder works only in the nominated occupation
• Ensure the visa holder is paid at least the same salary as Australian employee working in the same occupation
• Tell the Immigration if there is a change to the legal name, trading name, registration details business structure, owners or business address

Application Process:

Step 1 – Sponsorship application

• the employer must apply to become a standard business sponsor.​

Step 2 – Regional Certifying Body (RCB) application

• the employer applies to obtain RCB endorsement in relation to the genuineness of the position

Step 3 – Nomination application

• the employer nominates the applicant to fill a full-time position.​

Step 4 – Skills assessment application

• the applicant must obtain a positive skills assessment

Step 5 – Visa application

• the applicant lodges the Subclass 494 visa application.

Processing Time:

5 to 6 months – Please contact us for update as processing time constantly varies.

Visa Conditions:

Duration of Stay:

This visa is valid for 5 years.

Fees and Costs:

Benefits and Pathway to PR

• Lower cost to the employer: there is only one SAF levy for the Subclass 494 nomination whereas there will be two for permanent residence pathway from Subclass 482 visa through to Subclass 186 visa.

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As the holder of this visa, you may:​

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• migrate to Australia together with your family

• apply for permanent residency in as soon as 3 years through Subclass 191 visa if eligible without having to be sponsored again

• stay in Australia for 5 years

• potentially bring your extended family members to Australia permanently on parent visa or visa intended for other relatives

• travel overseas and back to Australia without any limitations for any purposes (e.g. overseas holiday, visiting family and/or attending family matters in home country)

• access Australia’s public health care scheme (Medicare) which essentially provides free medical consultations, operations and hospitalization for a wide range of medical conditions

• work in Australia full-time

• study in Australia without any limitations

• attend free English language course provided by Australian government

FAQ

Tricks and Common Reasons for Refusal

1 – The Genuineness of the Offered Position

Clearly, one of the most common reasons for a refusal for Subclass 494 visa is the offered position is deemed as not genuine by the Immigration which believed it was created mainly or solely for the purpose of assisting the visa applicant in gaining a visa. The Immigration made this decision by taking into consideration a whole range of factors including but not limited to:

• The size of the sponsoring business

• the structure of the business

• the applicant’s overall immigration history

• the applicant’s overall circumstances

The Immigration’s decision is a judgment call based on the supporting documentation and information submitted and the highly discretionary nature of the decision has caused a staggering number of refusals and will keep doing the same.

Consequently, part of our process for assisting you with Subclass 494 visa is help you and your employer prepare a vitally important, formal, exclusive and comprehensive legal submission by drawing on our nearly 20 years’ industry experience, convincingly addressing and arguing every single factor to your advantage because we are fully aware of what factors the Immigration is looking at exactly and the rationale and mentality behind every one of them. We are positive this will significantly increase your chances of a visa grant, just as it has for our previous clients.

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2 – Failing to Demonstrate Professional Skills Properly Against Skills Assessment Criteria

Apparently, skills assessment is the first step and challenge of the entire Subclass 494 visa process as it can be complex and even confusing, requiring an exquisite and to-the-point demonstration of your skills not only in the form of supporting paperwork, but sometime also practical/technical assessment. Therefore rushing into skills assessment without knowing exactly what a skills assessing body is looking for is highly risky and quite often leads to an unfavourable outcome. This is why hiring an immigration professional to assist you right at the beginning is important. ​

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3 – ”Irrelevant” Work Experience​

One of the most unfortunate yet common scenarios is the applicant’s work experience is deemed irrelevant to their chosen occupation by skills assessing authority. This is typically because the authorities decided the applicant was not actually performing the job duties they claimed and that even the applicant had chosen a wrong occupation to start with. When this happens, things go straight to square one, which is certainly frustrating. We have had numerous clients that went through exactly this before turning to us for professional assistance.

We hence noticed it is not they didn’t do those jobs, but they simply failed to present their day-to-day professional activities in the submitted paperwork in a proper and acceptable manner to the assessing body. In view of this, we have made it part of our routine to thoroughly check through and revise every client’s work references, résumé and other employment-related paperwork where possible to ensure they are in line with what the authorities expect from your occupation so that you end up with a big smile.

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4 – Unfamiliarity with How the Australian Immigration Works and Its Mentality

In many cases, applicants prepare and submit their supporting documentation in a disorderly way, giving the Immigration a hard time digging through tons of paperwork to get things in the right order when picking up a new visa application. This will potentially lead to endless back-and-forth clarification and explanation, wasting both sides lots of time and can even result in a refusal of Subclass 494 visa.

This is common since applying for a visa, especially a permanent one, is the very first time to most applicants. For this reason, our team have developed our own system for labelling, coding, structuring and, where necessary, cross-referencing documentation so your application can be submitted in the most presentable and logical manner. Making your application stand out among all competitors has been our goal from day one.

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5 – Careless Yet Costly Mistakes

Applying for migration is seen as a delicate work of art due to the staggering amount of attention, paperwork, and details involved. A seemingly minor/harmless error such as a typo in your résumé, a date entered wrong, or a tick in the wrong box in the lengthy visa application form can prove costly as the Immigration processes all visa applications strictly in accordance with migration law, in particular Migration Act 1958 and Migration Regulations 1994. Even a small error can be regarded as failing to satisfy a visa requirement and therefore lead to a visa refusal. To minimise such incidents, our team pay extra attention while editing and drafting every client’s paperwork and always proofread and also conduct a final review of documentation before submission.

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6 – Applications Not Decision-ready

Another common reason for refusal, even instant refusal, for Subclass 494 visa is submitting an application without all the required documentation. This happens when the application was prepared carelessly, or when the applicant was trying to rush an application for whatever reason (e.g. meeting a cut-off date of a major migration policy change which happens almost each and every year and often catches people off guard).

Even with 43 years of team experience, we handle each application cautiously and meticulously like our first to ensure nothing slips through the cracks. Should a sudden change of policy hit and impact you, we are more than capable of advising you how to salvage your application in terms of what documents are mandatory at the time of submission and what can wait so you are never in danger of a straight-up visa refusal upon submission.

Unbeatable 5-step Services at Microscopic Level - How Exactly We Make It Hassle-free

It goes without saying the first and foremost thing in a visa application is get a clear picture of what visas you are indeed eligible for, and equally importantly, which one of them suits you the most. We’ve seen too many clients who, for some reason, rushed an application and halfway through realised they were not actually on the right path due to ineligibility issues before approaching us, for example, because:

• their self-claimed work experience was not or only partially accepted by the Immigration, which was unfortunately common

• the length of their work experience or residence in Australia (as required by some visas) was not recognised by the Immigration

• they settled on an unsuitable occupation at the beginning of a work/employment visa application just because the occupation was migration-eligible whereas their daily duties failed to be in line with the prescribed job tasks of the selected occupation

• they simply took into consideration the visa requirements by the Immigration without even considering the criteria of skills assessment by the skills assessing body as well as those of the government for state/territory nomination which vary from time to time even without prior notice

• they applied for the partner visa they were not actually eligible for as they failed to meet the cohabitation requirement from the Immigration’s perspective

• the turnover and/or assets they relied on for business visa application was not recognised by the Immigration due to various reasons