The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (“DIBP”) has advised those of us in the migration advice industry that there has been a spike in the number of refusals of 457 Nominations under the ‘genuine position’ requirements, and that there are a number of changes being undertaken as a result of the 2014 integrity review undertaken and supported by the federal Government.

Spike in nomination refusals

It has become known to Global Enterprises Group that there has been growth in 457 Nomination refusals by the DIBP in connection with the ‘genuine position requirement’. According to the DIBP, the spike is due to revised policy guidelines introduced internally in the DIBP in late 2015. An internal review is being undertaken at the moment by the Department to ascertain what ought to be done about this issue. In the meantime, the DIBP will continue to communicate with agents when concerns arise. The main concerns on this issue are as follows:

1. The nominated position appears to have been created for the purpose of the visa application

2. The tasks to be performed by the nominee do not appear to be consistent with the nominated occupation

3. The nominated occupation does not appear to be consistent with the nature of the sponsor’s business

Current and future changes to the 457 programme

There were a large number of recommendations from the 2014 457 integrity review that were supported by the Government and the following are still to be implemented:

– Further simplification of English language requirements
– Changes enabling the DIBP to have the ability to enforce sponsor declarations regarding non-discriminatory work practices
– The streamlining of nomination processing for lower-risk sponsors
– The introduction of a new training contribution fund to replace the existing training benchmarks framework

It should be noted that there is no policy yet on what should or should not be defined as a ‘low-risk sponsor’, nor are we completely informed of to what extent the training benchmarks framework will be impacted by the implementation of the ‘training contribution fund’.

Global Enterprises Group will endeavour to provide more information to clients as it becomes available.