Many industries have been significantly impacted by the Coronavirus, with many businesses closing for a period of time to reduce costs and minimise the financial impact of this pandemic.<\/p>\n
We’ve put together questions and answers for the common issues faced in relation to overseas workers and visa sponsorship that we are receiving from members. Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, we hope it will help members address immediate concerns.<\/p>\n
If you have any further questions that are not covered in the below, please contact our team on 1300 227 658 or\u00a0aisupport@absoluteimmigration.com<\/a><\/p>\n 1. I am standing down staff, what do I do with my workers from overseas?<\/p>\n We would recommend that termination of sponsored workers should be your last option, especially if you will need them again when things start to get back to where they were prior to the Coronavirus.<\/p>\n In all instances, you need to follow Australian employment law when dealing with reducing hours, or terminating any employees, regardless of their visa status. We would suggest that you contact your employment lawyer for case-specific advice. Please see below for the different groups of overseas foreign nationals.<\/p>\n a) You do not have sponsor obligations to overseas foreign national employees that hold Australian permanent residency<\/p>\n b) You do not have sponsor obligations to the Department of Home Affairs for to overseas workers that hold temporary visas, which include:<\/p>\n c) You do have sponsor obligations to the Department for overseas workers that you have sponsored under the temporary working visa programs, which include:<\/p>\n 2. How do I check what visa my staff member holds?<\/p>\n The Department\u2019s Visa Entitlement Verification Online system (VEVO<\/a>) allows employers and visa holders to check visa conditions.<\/p>\n Please note: When undertaking a VEVO check, you need to have authorisation from the sponsored worker. You can find a pro-forma letter on our\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3. What about leave without pay (LWOP)?<\/p>\n LWOP is an option and in our view, given the current climate, a good one that will ensure that they will still remain \u2018sponsored\u2019 by your organisation, but you will not be obligated to pay them during an agreed period.<\/p>\n The Department recommends that LWOP should generally not exceed three months, unless the sponsor is obliged to provide the leave under Australian workplace laws.<\/p>\n For any LWOP, it is expected that:<\/p>\n approved electronically).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Whilst not a formal requirement, we would recommend advising Sponsor Notifications\u00a0sponsor.notifications@abf.gov.au<\/a>\u00a0that this arrangement is in place.<\/p>\n 4. I am about commence the sponsor process for one of my employees who has a visa that is about to expire<\/p>\n If the business is not ready to sponsor at this stage, the best option would be to approach Absolute Immigration to discuss alternative options. We can assess your workers against the criteria for a range of visas that may be available to them.<\/p>\n\n
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