Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) Visa

The Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) is a permanent Visa and comprises of 2 stages

The nomination and the Visa applications.

Nomination - The Australian Employer

• Must have a need for a paid employee
• Must be actively and lawfully operating in Australia
• Satisfactory record of compliance with immigration laws
• Satisfactory record of compliance with workplace relations laws
• Adequate provision for training existing employees

 The nominated position must be:

• Full-time
• For at least 3 years
• No less favourable than working conditions provided for under relevant Australian legislation and awards
• occupation and base salary as per the gazetted notice ENS_list_2011.pdf (257.88 KB)

The Visa application – the Employee

The employee has 3 options to meet the skills requirement

• Skills assessment at the time of lodgement plus 3 years work experience; or
• Is paid a minimum salary of at least AUD$250,000; or
• Worked on a qualifying visa (i.e. 457 sub-class visa) in the nominated occupation in Australia for at least 2 years full time immediately prior to application and has worked full time for the current/nominating employer for at least 1 year immediately prior to application 

Other requirements are:

• Licensing, Registration, Membership if mandatory.
• Meet the English threshold of vocational or competent;  Native English speakers (USA, UK, NZ, Canada, Ireland) are exempt and otherwise exemption to the English threshold may be claimed
• 45 years at the time of application, exemption to this requirement may be sought
• Main visa applicant and family members  meet health and character requirements

Processing time

To reduce processing times for applications for Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS)  we use a  ‘DIAC decision ready checklist’.   This provides us as Registered Migration Agents with the capacity to certify an ENS application as decision ready to enable access to priority processing