The Employer Nomination Scheme Visa allows foreign nationals or people residing in Australia to apply for Permanent Residence (PR). This visa comes under the category of subclass 186 and is a point based skilled immigration program. You must have a valid substantive visa meaning a valid non-expiring visa. 

You could also apply if you have a bridging visa A, B or C, which is a temporary visa allotted to immigrants or visitors whose visa is close to expiry and they are waiting for their immigration decision.  You can apply for this particular immigration category, only if you have an approved Australian employer ready to sponsor you. There is a two step process to apply for this visa:

Step 1: Approved Australian Employer Sponsors the Applicant:

Firstly, you must be sponsored by an approved Australian Employer if you want to apply for Permanent Residency through Employer Nomination Scheme. You need to create an online profile and apply through Skill Select.

Step2:  Apply for Employer Nomination Scheme Visa in appropriate Nominated Stream:

Once you have been sponsored by approved Australian employer, you must be nominated under the appropriate stream. There are 3 streams – Temporary Residence Transition stream, Direct Entry stream, and Agreement stream

1.Temporary Residence Transition Stream:

This stream is for people holding temporary work visa under subclass 457 and have worked with an approved Australian employer for 2 years. The pre-requisite to apply under this stream is that, you must be in the same occupation with their nominating employer and this employer wants to offer you a permanent position in that occupation. 

Eligibility criteria for applying under Temporary Transition Stream:

To apply for an Employee Sponsored visa under this category, there are certain pre-requisites for Temporary Work Skilled visa holders under subclass 457 such as:

• If you have a valid Temporary Work Skilled Visa under subclass 457 from past 2 years

• You have been working in the same occupation with their nominating employer (who is not subject to a labor agreement).

• Your employer wants to offer you a permanent position for that occupation

2. Direct Entry Stream:

Direct Entry Stream is for skilled workers who have been nominated under this stream. This stream is for skilled workers who have never worked in Australia or have worked only for a very short time. If you are a temporary residence and do not qualify under the Temporary Residence Transition Stream, you can apply under Direct Entry Stream.

Eligibility criteria for applying under Direct Stream:

You can apply for an Employee Sponsored visa under Direct Entry Stream if you meet any of the below listed criteria:

• If you have been nominated by an Australian employer under the Direct Entry stream
• If you have never, or only briefly worked in Australia
• If you are a temporary resident of Australia and do not qualify for Temporary Residence Transition stream.

3. Agreement Stream:

If you have been nominated by an approved Australian employer through a negotiated formal labor agreement, you can apply under this stream.

Eligibility Criteria for Applying Under Agreement Stream:

This stream is for people sponsored by an employer through a negotiated formal labor agreement. You must meet the age, skill and English language requirements stated in the agreement. You can contact your employer if they have formal labor agreement in place for your occupation or industry so that you can apply for visa in this category.

Eligibility Criteria for the Applicants:

You can apply for the visa in this category if you meet the following criteria:

• You should have been nominated by an approved Australian employer within the six months before you apply and in an occupation that is there on the Australian Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL).
• You must have undergone skill assessment by suitable assessment authority and obtained desired skill assessment score for that occupation.
• You must have achieved the desired score specified in your letter of invitation based on different point based factors.
• Your age must be below 50 years at the time of application, unless you have a special exemption.
• You have the required skills and qualifications for the position of the application.
• You have proficiency in English language.
• You must meet the health and character requirement of Australian government.
• You have to sign Australian Value Statement and respect the laws of Australia.
• You must meet the requirements of one of the streams (Temporary Residence Transition stream, Direct Entry Stream, or Agreement Stream) in which you apply.

 Benefits of Employer Nomination Scheme – Subclass 186 Visa:

Visa granted under Employer Nomination Scheme offers you and your family to enjoy the following benefits:

• Live, work and Study in Australia
• Stay in Australia indefinitely
• Avail the benefits of Australian healthcare system by enrolling in Medicare scheme
• If you meet the eligibility criteria you can apply for Australian Citizenship
• Sponsor eligible relatives for permanent residence
• Multiple entries and exits from Australia for 5 years (After 5 years you would need a resident return visa or another visa to return to Australia)

Checklist of documents for visa under Employer Nomination Scheme – Subclass 186:

When you are applying for visa under Employee Nomination Scheme, you would require the relevant documents along with the application. It is very important that you provide certified copies of original documents, you may also be asked to submit certain original documents as well. In case the documents are not in English, they must be translated in English by some accredited translators.

You are required to submit scans of documents online, physical copies of documents are not required unless asked for specifically.

Below are the different types of documents required to be submitted for Employee Nomination Scheme Subclass-186:

1. Completed and Filled Application Form: To apply for Permanent Employer Sponsored or Nominated Visa you need to complete an application form available on the official website of Australian Immigration Authority.
   1. Include Form 47a or Form 80 for any family member who is dependent on you:
   2. In case, you have a child or other dependent member whose age is equal to or less than 18 years of age, you need to fill form 47a. If the age of the dependent person other than partner is above 18 years you need to fill Form 80. For each of your dependents aged 18 years or older at the time you apply, one of the following conditions must be true:

1. They have functional English.
2. If they have less than functional English, a statement indicating that you intend to pay second visa application charge is required.

2. Passport Copies:Certified copies of your current passports or travel documents of all people included in your application.

3. Name Change Document:If there is a name change or name of any applicant has changed please provide evidence to support name change.

4. Identification proof including both parent names:A certified copy of your birth certificate clearly showing names of both the parents. In case you don’t have a birth certificate and cannot show any certified copy of identification pages you must show other certified proofs such as, family book showing parents, court-issued document, identification proof issued by government, etc

5. Relationship Status Information:
   1. Certified copies of marriage certificates or relationship registrations for you and any other person included in your application is compulsory even if your partner may not be going to Australia with you.
   2. If you are widowed, divorced, or are permanently separated, submit a certified copy of the death certificate or, divorce documents.

6. Character Information:
   1. Police verification of you and all the other people in your application is compulsory to prove that the applicants have clean criminal records.
   2. In case you or anyone in your family has worked with armed forces of any country, a certified scanned color copy of military service record or discharge paper is required.
7. Proof of age:
   1. You must submit birth certificate or any other government certified proof of your age in order to apply for visa. You must be under 50 years of age unless you are exempted. Exemption is provided only to high skilled professionals like researcher, scientist, and medical practitioners.

8. English Language Eligibility:
   1. In order to apply for Permanent Resident visa, it is very important to meet the language proficiency of English. You can appear for different English qualification tests, but you must meet the minimum eligibility score for that exam. You can give any one of the following listed exams:
      1. International English Language Testing System (IELTS)
      2. Occupational English Test (OET)
      3. Test Of English Language internet Based Test(TOEFL bit)
      4. Pearson Test English (PTE)
      5. Cambridge Advanced English (CAE)

Processing time for visa under Employee Nomination Scheme – Subclass 186:

If you have submitted your visa application and are concerned with the amount of time it will take for your application to process, this section offers all the information you need. For all applications under skilled migrations highest priority is given to application coming though Skill Select Subclass 187, 186, 190 and 489.

According to Australian Immigration Department website, the average processing time for applications filed under Employee Nomination Scheme- Subclass 186 is around 5-8 months. But, every case file is unique and the time of processing depends on the information provided by you along with supported documents. You can track your application online on the department website to know the application status.

Visas Abroad continues to grow every day as hundreds of its happy customers walk out with visa. Immigration is a long journey starting with the complexity of understanding immigration process, evaluating your skills and qualifications, fulfilling document requirements, to finally applying visa on Invitation. Our job is to simply these complexities. We deal with all types of visas such as PR visa, TR visa, Study visa, visit visa, etc. Please Contact Us for getting more details on how to apply for this visa.