About Our Client
TSS has been engaged to act on behalf of a large international management consultancy firm. The firm is a large user of 457 Visa holding employees, and has a specific need for rapid and effective turnaround on visa preparation and lodgement. This firm has regularly has urgent need to deploy one or more of their global team of Management Consultants into an Australian based clients’ business or project.Changes restricting all ‘work’ on Electronic Travel Authorities (ETA) and short stay (Visitor) visas meant the business needed to re-visit how it used overseas employees on local projects.
The Problem
Organisation must remain compliant with Australian Immigration law and regulations.
Provision of relevant advice and processing of visa applications needs to occur faster, to enable the organisation to be more reactive to client requirements.
THE SOLUTION
The first step was to assess the existing company policy on the use of visas to meet resourcing needs within Australia. Gaps were ascertained, and a plan put into place to address these gaps within the existing system and processes.
The team at TSS Immigration commenced working with and training of key staff members. We worked on building knowledge of visas within the team as well as helping to develop a company policy on the legal and effective use of; Visitor, Subclass 400 (Short Stay Work) and Subclass 457 visas.
We then reviewed the organisations’ eligibility for Accredited Sponsorship status. If eligible, achieving accredited status with DIBP is the most effective means of speeding up the processing component of the visa application process.
This client was eligible for accredited sponsorship, following the addition of additional categories and relaxing of some requirements in July 2017. We proceeded to make an application to vary the clients’ existing Standard Business Sponsorship status into that of an Accredited Sponsor. This change enabled the organisation to access priority processing on all nomination and visa applications, resulting in dramatically shorter processing times.
The next step was to conduct an audit of all existing 457 Visa holders, to ensure that the business was fully compliant with its sponsorship obligations to the DIBP. We find that this process is very useful to organisations who have mostly tracked their visa holders using spreadsheets, and where the details and information relating to visa holding employees are held by one or two employees within the HR Team within the organisation. Critical dates and copies of all relevant documentation for existing sponsored visa holders were loaded into our online portal Visa Manager, which provides online access and automated alert functionality to any number of designated stakeholders as required.
Finally, a dedicated team within TSS Immigration now manage all advice and processing of visas on behalf of the business. The team at TSS Immigration provide ongoing advice on the most appropriate visa for inbound assignments, and then work both with the Clients’ mobility team and directly with the visa applicant/s to prepare and lodge applications within the timeframe required.