Subclass 400 Visa - Short-term work

You can apply for this visa if you need to enter Australia to undertake one of the following activities:


Highly specialised work

You can apply for this visa to do short-term, highly specialised, non-ongoing work in Australia if you have specialised skills, knowledge or experience that both:

• can assist an Australian business
• cannot reasonably be found in the Australian labour market.
  Highly specialised work is usually work that either:
• is done by people with an occupation listed in Major Groups 1, 2 or 3 of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO),
  or
• requires skills and knowledge that are specific to an international company, such as installing imported equipment, after-sales service or emergency repairs

Invited participants

You can apply for this visa if you have been invited by an organisation to participate in a cultural or social event or events on a non-ongoing basis.

The inviting organisation must be both:

• operating lawfully in Australia
• directly responsible for the event or have a formal role in preparing for or conducting it.
• You cannot accept any salary, wages or other remuneration for participating in the event, other than:
• prize money
• appearance fees
• reimbursement for your reasonable expenses of doing the activity
• payments from your non-Australian employer.

You can apply for this visa if you are, for example, a sportsperson participating in specific events or touring as part of a sports team, a public lecturer, an artist, an author or a photographer.

This visa is not intended for business people attending a conference or taking part in meetings or business negotiations. You can apply for a Visitor visa (subclass 600)-Business Visitor stream instead (such as Visitor visa (subclass 600). 

Emergency Workers and Other Exceptional Circumstances

In very limited circumstances, this visa may be granted in Australia’s interest. In these cases, the department needs to be satisfied that the activity identified in the visa application is of national significance.

For example, this visa could be granted to emergency workers to come to Australia after a natural disaster.

NOTE: Your work or activity must be non-ongoing. This means that you can finish the work and activity in three months or less. Do not make arrangements to stay in Australia any longer than that. You also should not agree to being rotated through a position on a short-term basis as one of a number of overseas workers. If the work is ongoing, and even if your contract is less than three months, apply for a Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457).

Generally you can stay in Australia for up to three months where required, but depending on your work or activity a longer period of up to six months may be allowed in limited circumstances.

 

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NEW Short-Term Mobility Visa

Starting July 2016, a new visa program will be implemented by Australian Immigration, called the Short-Term Mobility Visa, which is supposed to make it easier for skilled migrants to come and work in Australia. This visa is valid for a 12 month period and allows the nominee multiple entries into Australia to undertake “specialised work” for short-term appointments.

The Short-Term Mobility visa is part of the Federal Government’s plan to simplify the visa system and enable Australian businesses a lot more flexibility in terms of attracting skilled migrant workers for short-term periods of employment.

This visa will allow employers to fill short term vacancies for specialised workers and may include intra-company transfer and foreign correspondents.

The Short-Term Mobility Visa will only apply to a small sub-set of people, such as high-level executives who may be coming to Australia to set up divisions of their businesses, or software developers that are installing specialised computer programs or equipment especially for Australian companies.

One of the benefits of this visa is that applicants do not need to meet a minimum level of English language proficiency or undertake laborious labour market testing (unlike the subclass 457 visa) and will only be required to fulfil basic health, character and safety requirements. However, while it may appear an easy option for skilled migrants, this visa is only really geared towards a small target audience of professionals with a specific skill set.

The development of the Short-Term Mobility visa has likely been prompted by frustrations experienced by Australian businesses unable to find staff to fill the gap between the subclass 400 and subclass 457 visas.

This visa can be applied for within Australia or overseas, however, family members of Short Term Mobility visa holders are not permitted to be included on the same visa application. In instances where the work is considered ongoing, visa holders will likely need to apply for another visa such as the Temporary Work (Skilled) (subclass 457) visa.

We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

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