457 Visa For Australia

457 work visa for Australia is a home-grown temporary migration program that was introduced in November 2005 by the then Federal Government. The new visa class replaced the former temporary entry class, the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) and Business Skills Programme (BSP).The 457 visa is one of the most useful visas a skilled worker can get. It allows you to stay and work in Australia for up to four years and there are no English language requirement. The visa just requires that you have had at least two years of relevant work experience in the last five years, a valid passport and be between 18 – 60 years of age. Half the people who apply for 457 visas are accepted and this has led to it becoming one of the most common ways for foreigners to live in Australia.

A 457 Visa allows people to gain temporary entry to Australia if they meet certain work and health/character requirements. The purpose of the visa is to help employers in specific occupations and locations to fill labour shortages by bringing people from overseas, such as international students attending Australian universities or people wishing to pursue skilled employment and seeking temporary entry for this purpose.

How 457 visa application works

Australian or overseas employers who cannot find suitably skilled candidates from the Australian market can sponsor skilled overseas employees under a temporary visa or the subclass 457 visa programme, usually through a standard business sponsorship arrangement or an Australian corporate sponsorship. This requires the employer to apply to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for this purpose.

Alternatively, an employer can arrange a labour agreement with the Australian government to allow for the recruitment of overseas workers. These are generally used for special labour market circumstances that are not covered under standard business sponsorship arrangements. For industries such as meat processing and on-hire, a labour agreement is the only migrant employee option.

Stages of application

1. Sponsorship: The employer applies for approval as a standard business sponsor and is required to nominate an occupation for a 457 visa.
2. Nomination: The employer nominates an occupation for a prospective or current 457 visa holder. They can submit this nomination at the same time as their application to become a standard business sponsor.
3. Visa application: The skilled worker selected for the nominated occupation applies for a 457 visa.

In Australia, the 457 visa was the most common visa for Australian or overseas employers to sponsor skilled overseas workers to work temporarily in Australia. It was abolished on 18 March 2018 by the Turnbull government and replaced by another visa category. The full title of this subclass of visa was Temporary Business (Long Stay) and was introduced soon after John Howard became Prime Minister in 1996. The title of the visa was changed to Temporary Work (Skilled) (Subclass 457) visa on 24 November 2012. Applications were processed by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP). On 18 April 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that the 457 visas will be replaced with two new visa categories.