A Dandenong engineering firm budgeted a few hundred dollars for its first sponsored hire. The sponsorship charge of $420 and the nomination charge of $330 seemed manageable. Then the Skilling Australians Fund levy arrived at lodgement. For a four-year nomination, that levy was $1,200 for every year, payable up front. The firm still sponsored the worker, but the finance director learned about the levy from the lawyer rather than the budget.
Sponsoring a skilled worker is a three-stage process with three separate government charges. Employers who map all three at the start rarely have problems. Employers who discover the stages one at a time do. This guide sets out the approval step, the real 2026-27 costs and the obligations that follow.
Short answer: A business must be approved as a Standard Business Sponsor before it can nominate a 482 worker. The sponsorship charge is $420, each nomination is $330, and the Skilling Australians Fund levy is $1,200 or $1,800 for every year of the nomination.
What a Standard Business Sponsor is
A Standard Business Sponsor is a business that the Department of Home Affairs has approved to nominate skilled overseas workers. The approval attaches to the business, not to any one worker. Once granted, it stays in force for five years, and the employer can lodge as many nominations as it needs during that time.
Approval is mainly about the business itself. It must be lawfully established and currently operating. There must be no adverse information about the business or the people who run it. Unpaid tax debts, workplace breaches and previous sponsorship sanctions all count. The Department also looks for evidence that the business is real and trading, which means financial statements, registrations and an organisational chart.
The three stages in order
- Stage 1Sponsorship. The business applies for approval as a Standard Business Sponsor and pays $420. Approval lasts five years and covers multiple nominations.
- Stage 2Nomination. The employer nominates a specific position and links it to an occupation, a stream and a worker. Labour market testing, the salary tests and the levy all sit here.
- Stage 3Visa. The worker lodges the subclass 482 application with skills, English, health and character evidence. The Department assesses all three stages together.
The three applications can be lodged at the same time, and we usually recommend it where the evidence is ready. Lodging the sponsorship first and waiting for approval adds weeks without adding certainty, because the nomination and visa are assessed on their own merits anyway. The 482 visa page explains what the worker must show at stage three.
What sponsorship actually costs
Use the calculator to estimate the government charges for a single sponsored worker. Adjust the years to match the nominated period and set the business size to match your turnover.
Figures verified against Home Affairs visa pricing as at 1 July 2026.
The levy is the item that surprises employers. It is paid in full at nomination, not year by year, and it is calculated on the length of the nominated period. A small business nominating for four years pays four years of levy before the nomination is decided. Refunds are available only in narrow cases, such as where the sponsorship is refused or the worker never arrives, so budget for the full amount.
Professional fees sit on top of government charges. Our fees and process page sets out what we charge for each stage and how the work is sequenced.
The obligations that come with approval
Sponsorship is a legal relationship with the Department, and it carries duties that run for the life of the approval and beyond. Five of them cause most of the trouble.
Cost recovery is the obligation the Department treats most seriously. Any arrangement where the worker repays sponsorship costs, directly or through a deduction, is a breach. Sanctions range from a warning to cancellation of the sponsorship and a bar on future nominations. Because the register of sanctioned sponsors is public, the reputational cost often exceeds the financial one.
Where employers go wrong
The first mistake is the levy, as the Dandenong example shows. The second is nominating a position that does not match a listed occupation, which stalls the nomination however strong the sponsorship is. The third is thin evidence of a genuine position. A one-paragraph job description invites a request for further information, and the response takes longer than a proper description would have taken at the start.
The fourth mistake is treating approval as the finish line. Sponsorship is where the obligations begin. Set up a simple compliance file at approval, with the contract, the nomination and a diary note for each reporting trigger. Businesses that do this rarely receive a monitoring visit they cannot handle.
Beyond the standard stream
What if the business cannot meet the standard sponsorship rules?
Two alternatives exist. A business in a designated regional area can sponsor under a Designated Area Migration Agreement. That can unlock occupations and concessions the standard streams do not offer. An industry with a labour agreement can nominate under that agreement instead. Both routes involve an agreement with the Department before any nomination, so they take longer to set up. However, for a regional employer with a hard-to-fill role, they are often the only workable path. The employer page explains how we assess which route fits a business.
Planning the permanent stage from day one
Most sponsored workers aim for permanent residence through the subclass 186 visa. After two years of sponsored work, the employer can nominate the worker in the Temporary Residence Transition stream. That nomination carries its own charge of $540 and a one-off levy of $3,000 or $5,000, depending on turnover.
The salary matters here too. The Core Skills Income Threshold of $79,423 applies to 186 nominations as well as 482 nominations. A package that only just clears the line at the temporary stage may need a raise before the permanent stage. Our 186 visa page sets out the full transition requirements, so the pay path can be planned once rather than fixed later.
Frequently asked questions
Can a newly registered business become a sponsor?
Yes, provided it is lawfully established and actually operating. A new business will need to show trading activity, contracts or a business plan and financial capacity to pay the nominated salary. Start-ups with no trading history face closer scrutiny.
Is the sponsorship charge refunded if the nomination is refused?
No. The sponsorship charge is for the sponsorship application, which is assessed separately. If the sponsorship is approved, it remains valid for five years even where a particular nomination fails.
Can a sponsor nominate a worker who is already in Australia on another visa?
Yes. Many nominations involve workers on student, graduate or working holiday visas. The worker’s current visa must allow them to remain in Australia while the 482 is decided. A bridging visa usually applies once they lodge.
What is an accredited sponsor?
Accredited status is available to sponsors with a strong compliance and trading record. It brings priority processing and allows advertising on the sponsor’s own website for labour market testing. The criteria are specific, so not every established business qualifies.
Does the sponsorship cover a business with several entities?
No. Each entity that will employ a sponsored worker needs its own sponsorship, or must be covered as an associated entity in the application. Employers with group structures should decide which entity will be the employer before applying.
This article is general information about Australian migration law as at 2 September 2026. It is not legal advice. Government charges change each July, and sponsorship obligations turn on the facts of each business, so obtain advice before acting.