The Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) allows Australian employers to sponsor employees who are foreign nationals for a permanent visa to work in Australia.

Who is this visa for?

This visa is available to Australian employers who have nominated highly skilled workers for a permanent visa to work in their business and lodged an employer nomination on or before 30 June 2012. The employees can be either:

highly skilled workers from overseas
highly skilled temporary residents currently in Australia.
The ENS (subclass 121) visa is for applicants who were outside Australia and lodged an ENS (subclass 121) visa application on or before 30 June 2012.

The ENS (subclass 856) visa is for applicants who are in Australia and lodged an ENS (subclass 856) visa application on or before 30 June 2012.

What does this visa let me do?

This visa allows you and any dependent family members included in your visa application to live as permanent residents in Australia.

Australian permanent residents can:

live and work in Australia on a permanent basis
study in Australia at school or university
receive subsidised healthcare through Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
access certain social security payments (subject to waiting periods)
be eligible for Australian citizenship (subject to the residency eligibility criteria)
sponsor people for permanent residence.

For this visa, you should already have:

an Australian employer
a highly skilled employee
an eligible occupation.

Validity periods

The validity period of the nomination approval is six months. This visa is permanent.

The following applies to you if you lodged an Employer Nomination Scheme visa application on or before 30 June 2012 and have family members who want to migrate with you.

Under the Employer Nomination Scheme:

the employer must comply with all relevant Australian standards and workplace legislation for wages and working conditions
the employee must comply with all Australian laws as a permanent resident.