From 1 July 2024 visa conditions 8107, 8607 and 8608 are changing to help tackle worker exploitation and drive productivity as was outlined within the Migration Strategy.
Temporary Work (Skilled) (Sc 457) visa holders, Temporary Skill Shortage (Sc 482) visa holders and Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (provisional) (Sc 494) visa holders who stop working with their sponsoring employer will have more time to find a new sponsor, apply for a different visa or arrange to depart Australia.
These visa holders will have up to:
- 180 days at a time, or
- a maximum of 365 days in total across the entire visa grant period.
During this time, visa holders can work for other employers. This includes work in occupations not listed in their most recently approved sponsorship nomination. This will ensure that visa holders can support themselves while they look for a new sponsor.
Unless exempt, a visa holder cannot work for another employer unless they have ceased work with their sponsoring employer. Visa holders must remain in their nominated occupation while working for their existing sponsor.
Sponsors must still let the department know if there is any change in situation within 28 days. This includes ceasing sponsorship or if a visa holder resigns.
Visa holders must not do any work that is inconsistent with any licence or registration needed for their nominated occupation. This includes any conditions or requirements they are subject to.
The changes apply to existing visa holders, as well as those granted a visa on or after 1 July 2024. Any periods a visa holder stopped working for their sponsor before 1 July 2024 will not count towards the new time periods outlined above.
We’re often asked this question by TSS 482 visa holders who want to leave their current employer and work for someone else. They may be unhappy with their employer, want to change positions and roles, or they have received a better job offer.
The answer is that it is possible to change employers (sponsors), but there are rules and regulations which must be met. You and your proposed employer should proceed this carefully to avoid breaching your current visa condition and sanctions which might be applied to your new employer.
Upcoming change in 2023: People working on Temporary Skilled Shortage visas will have six months instead of 60 days to be without an employer. During this period, they will have work rights. No date for the introduction of these changes has been provided.
How to change your sponsor?
In order to change the employer while holding a visa subclass 482, your new employer needs to be willing to sponsor you and lodge a nomination for you. You cannot work for your new employer until a (favourable) decision is made on a new nomination application lodged by your proposed employer.
During the processing time of the new nomination, you must continue to work for your current employer, or if you decide to leave your work, you must ensure that the period during which you cease employment must not exceed 60 consecutive days, which is out of your control as the new nomination processing time is at the discretion of the Department of Home Affairs. Therefore, the safest way is to continue to work for your current sponsor until the new nomination is approved.
Process to change sponsor while holding a TSS visa
What if you change start your new work before the new nomination?
If you start working for a new employer without an approved nomination lodged by your new employer, you are in breach of condition 8607, and the new employer risks sanctions and fines it employs a visa holder in breach of the work conditions.
Breaching a visa condition may jeopardise your visa situation. The risk includes:
- Your current visa may be cancelled if the Department is aware of the breach of condition, under section 116(b) of the Migration Act 1958.
- If you are applying for a new TSS visa, any previous failure to comply with visa conditions will be considered as part of the decision-making process against you.
Exempt Occupations
There are a number of occupations which do not require the visa holder’s to work for the business of the sponsor or an associated entity of the sponsor. This enables the TSS visa holder to be engaged as an independent contractor by the sponsor or an associated entity of the sponsor and may work for multiple employers, either simultaneously or consecutively. Therefore, if you are working under any of the below occupations, you will not need to have a new nomination when you change your employer.
Specified occupations |
||
|
Item |
Column 1
Occupation |
Column 2
ANZSCO Code |
| 1 | chief executive or managing director | 111111 |
| 2 | corporate general manager | 111211 |
| 3 | general medical practitioner | 253111 |
| 4 | resident medical officer | 253112 |
| 5 | anaesthetist | 253211 |
| 6 | specialist physician (general medicine) | 253311 |
| 7 | cardiologist | 253312 |
| 8 | clinical haematologist | 253313 |
| 9 | medical oncologist | 253314 |
| 10 | endocrinologist | 253315 |
| 11 | gastroenterologist | 253316 |
| 12 | intensive care specialist | 253317 |
| 13 | neurologist | 253318 |
| 14 | paediatrician | 253321 |
| 15 | renal medicine specialist | 253322 |
| 16 | rheumatologist | 253323 |
| 17 | thoracic medicine specialist | 253324 |
| 18 | specialist physician (nec) | 253399 |
| 19 | psychiatrist | 253411 |
| 20 | surgeon (general) | 253511 |
| 21 | cardiothoracic surgeon | 253512 |
| 22 | neurosurgeon | 253513 |
| 23 | orthopaedic surgeon | 253514 |
| 24 | otorhinolaryngologist | 253515 |
| 25 | paediatric surgeon | 253516 |
| 26 | plastic and reconstructive surgeon | 253517 |
| 27 | urologist | 253518 |
| 28 | vascular surgeon | 253521 |
| 29 | dermatologist | 253911 |
| 30 | emergency medicine specialist | 253912 |
| 31 | obstetrician and gynaecologist | 253913 |
| 32 | ophthalmologist | 253914 |
| 33 | pathologist | 253915 |
| 34 | diagnostic and interventional radiologist | 253917 |
| 35 | radiation oncologist | 253918 |
| 36 | medical practitioners (nec) | 253999 |
Can you return and work for the previous employer?
Once the new nomination is approved, you must work for your new employer. You cannot return and work for your previous employer unless a further nomination is approved for that employer.
What if you do not change your sponsor, but your sponsor has changed their entity?
Where there are changes to the business arrangements of the sponsor, it is possible that the visa holder may find themselves working for a new employer.
If a sponsor (whether a standard business sponsor or a party to a labour agreement) changes its business name or structure but retains its original ABN, this may not be regarded as a change of sponsor because the legal entity of the sponsor has potentially remained the same. As a result, a subclass 482 holder could continue to work for the business and not breach 8607.
The situation may, however, be different if a sponsor:
- is taken over by another business and registers under a different ABN; or
- is amalgamated into a business and:
- adopts the subsuming business’ ABN; or
- retains the existing ABN.
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