Department of Home Affairs increased scrutiny when performing checks
Recently the Department of Home Affairs has been performing extra checks on 186 Sponsor companies to confirm applicant positions are genuine and available.
In all instances a call has come from a case officer who has clearly identified themselves and the nominee they were assessing. It is important to understand this distinction in comparison to the recent spam calls received by other employers. You can read more about scam calls and how to identify them here.
These checks, while technically part of the sponsorship approval process, seem to have increased recently most likely in response to the COVID-19 crisis and the need to ensure all advertised job positions are genuine and truly available.
*What is a genuine position? *
We thought this would be the perfect time to recap exactly what a genuine position is and how a company can provide evidence of the position.
As part of the employer nomination scheme, you will need to show that the position being offered is genuine by providing documents such as:
- Detailed organisation structure chart
- Detailed position description
- Evidence that the position has existed and been previously occupied but has become vacant
- Evidence that the position is currently occupied by a temporary visa holder
- Evidence of increased business activity requiring the worker in the nominated occupation
- Evidence of overtime work or increase in overtime work for employees currently in the nominated occupation
- Evidence that you will pay the nominee in line with Australian salaries for this position
- Evidence of any labour market testing in the past three months
As the sponsor company you will need to provide selected document’s listed above as they relate to your company situation, the nominee and the available position.
Please note, this is not an exhaustive list, nor will you need to provide every document listed. If you are unsure of the correct documents needed to support nomination please contact us directly.
