Sponsor obligations and work rights checks carry real penalties, and Home Affairs can monitor your compliance. Our checklist will help you find and close gaps before an inspector does.
Step 1: Scope, Ownership and Risk Triage
☐ Map Your Sponsored Workforce
Have you listed every sponsored worker, with their visa subclass, nominated occupation, work location, visa expiry date and visa conditions?
You may want to seek legal advice if:
- you are unsure whether each worker is still performing their nominated role
- sponsored workers are placed with clients or engaged through labour hire arrangements
- you operate a group structure and are unsure which entity is the approved sponsor
☐ Assign Ownership and Governance
Have you named a person who owns sponsorship compliance, with a deputy, and defined the roles of HR, payroll and line managers?
Have you created an issues log and decision trail?
You may want to seek legal advice if:
- responsibility for compliance is shared across teams and no one is accountable
Step 2: Audit Your Sponsor Obligations and Work Rights Checks
☐ Employment Terms and Nominated Position
Can you show that each sponsored worker receives terms and conditions no less favourable than an Australian worker in the same role and location?
Do their actual duties match the position you nominated?
You may want to seek legal advice if:
- a role has changed through promotion, restructure or secondment since nomination
- you cannot evidence how salary was benchmarked
- you are unsure whether a change requires notifying Home Affairs
☐ Notifications and Records
Can you show that you notified Home Affairs within 28 days when a worker’s employment ended or material duties changed, and of relevant changes to your business?
Can you produce your sponsorship records immediately if asked?
You may want to seek legal advice if:
- you have missed a notification or are unsure what triggers one
- you are unsure which records to keep, and for how long
☐ Costs and Recruitment Practices
Have you confirmed that no sponsored worker has been charged a cost they should not bear, and that recruitment practices are not discriminatory?
You may want to seek legal advice if:
- you have any arrangement that passes sponsorship or recruitment costs to a worker
☐ Work Rights Checks
Do you verify work rights for every worker before they start, with their consent, and keep a record of each check?
Do you recheck work rights before each visa expiry date, ideally every 3 months?
You may want to seek legal advice if:
- you find historic gaps in checks or records
- you suspect a worker has worked outside their visa conditions
- you are unsure how to carry out checks in a compliant way
☐ Contractors, Labour Hire and Supply Chains
Have you located your agency, contractor and labour hire agreements and checked them for work rights assurances, audit rights, prompt remediation and indemnities?
You may want to seek legal advice if:
- you need help remediating contracts or managing a non-compliant supplier
Step 3: Remediate, Document and Train
☐ Close Process Gaps
Have you diarised visa expiry dates, 28-day notification triggers and a checklist for changes to a sponsored role?
Have you confirmed retention schedules and secure storage for sponsorship and work rights records?
You may want to seek legal advice if:
- you need help designing or updating your sponsorship compliance policy
☐ Train Your People
Have you trained HR, payroll and line managers on when a role change, resignation or pay change must be reported, and how to run and record a work rights check?
We recommend using practical scenarios and recording attendance.
Step 4: Readiness Testing and Enforcement Response
☐ Inspection Response Plan
Have you created and tested a playbook for Home Affairs requests, inspections and notices, with points of contact, document retrieval steps, an audit trail and communication protocols?
Non-compliance can lead to sponsorship cancellation, a bar on future sponsorship, infringement notices, civil penalties, enforceable undertakings and compliance notices.
You may want to seek legal advice if:
- you receive a notice or an inspection request
- you uncover a breach
☐ Final Validation
Have you tested your readiness on a random sample of sponsored worker files, and confirmed that notifications, work rights check records and supplier assurances are on file?
Have you briefed leadership on residual risks, mitigations and areas needing ongoing legal input?
Get in Touch
Roam Migration Law works with employer sponsors to meet their obligations and prepare for inspection. If you have any questions, please get in touch.
