NEW LAWS setting out the obligations imposed on employers who hire foreign nationals – and increased sanctions for employers who fail to meet those obligations – have come into force.
New laws setting out the obligations imposed on employers who hire foreign nationals – and increased sanctions for employers who fail to meet those obligations – have come into force.
The changes affect all sponsored employee visas approved on or after 1 July and follow an 18-month study during which the Commonwealth Department of Immigration (DIMIA) monitored sponsoring employers and documented unsatisfactory conduct which necessitated more rigorous processes.
Previously, the obligations were merely included in the application forms that employers had to submit to DIMIA when sponsoring expatriates. As such, they had no legal status and were difficult to enforce. That situation has been rectified by including the obligations in the Migration Regulations.
According to immigration lawyer and Registered Migration Agent Katie Malyon, the most onerous change is that sponsoring employers must now pay the ‘cost of return travel’ by sponsored employees (and family members) when their visas expire.
Malyon, a partner with Australian Business Lawyers in Sydney, said however that it was unclear to which destination an employee must be returned.
“This will cause confusion where an expatriate is hired after having made his or her own way to Australia on, say, a backpacker visa or is hired when living in a country other than that in which he or she is normally resident,” she said.
“The same will be true for expatriates who, instead of returning to their home country after working in Australia, choose to take up a position in a country other than their home country.”
Other obligations imposed on sponsoring employers include medical costs and hospital expenses, superannuation contributions, tax as well as all costs incurred by the Commonwealth.
Malyon said that this last category includes the costs – up to a limit of $10,000 per person – of locating, detaining and deporting anyone who remains in Australia and applies for a protection visa or refugee visa.
