Can you sponsor a worker without a migration agent?

What you lodge yourself, in order

1. ImmiAccount for the business. Create an organisation account; it is the same portal the worker will use for the visa, but a separate login.
2. Standard Business Sponsorship (A$420). Evidence that the business is lawfully operating and trading: ABN and registration, financials or BAS, payroll, an organisation chart, and a declaration of no adverse information. Median processing was 11 days in the Department’s September 2026 figures. Approval lasts five years. What the Department looks for.
3. Labour market testing before the nomination: two advertisements of 28 days or more within the four months before lodging on platforms with national reach, with salary stated where required, and dated screenshots kept. UK citizens and some other trade-agreement nationalities are exempt. The rules.
4. Nomination (A$330 plus the Skilling Australians Fund levy, A$1,200 per visa year under A$10m turnover, paid at lodgement). You identify the occupation (ANZSCO code), the position, the salary and the annual market salary rate evidence, the genuine-position evidence, and the nominee.
5. The worker’s visa application (A$4,015 for a 482), lodged by the worker in their own ImmiAccount, linked to your nomination by its transaction reference. Health, police checks, English evidence and any skills assessment sit on their side.
6. Obligations from grant onwards: records, the nominated salary, notifications within 28 days of changes. The obligations.

Where do-it-yourself nominations fail

The Department publishes refusal reasons in its decision records, and they repeat:

• Labour market testing defects. Ads older than four months, 27 days instead of 28, a single platform, no salary, or a title that differs from the nominated occupation. Each restarts a four-week clock.
• Occupation mismatch. Nominating a "manager" whose duties are a leading hand’s, or a "chef" at a limited-service venue. The ANZSCO description governs, not your job title.
• Genuine position and market salary. A thin explanation of why the business needs the role, or no evidence of what Australians in the same role are paid (awards, enterprise agreements, payslips, job ads).
• Request-for-information handling. A 28-day deadline missed or answered without the document asked for; this is where most self-lodged cases lose months.
• The wrong stream or visa. A standard 482 for an occupation that needed a labour agreement, a 482 where the 494 fitted, or Direct Entry 186 for a worker without the assessment.

A refused nomination forfeits the charges, costs months, and can expose the business to a non-genuine-position finding. What happens after a refusal.

Who may legally help you

Under the Migration Act, giving immigration assistance for a fee or other reward requires registration with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA) or admission as an Australian legal practitioner. "Immigration assistance" includes preparing or advising on a sponsorship or nomination. The practical consequences:

• A recruiter or labour-hire firm can find you the worker; it cannot prepare your nomination for a fee unless it has a registered agent doing the work.
• An accountant or HR consultant can supply the financial and payroll documents; they cannot advise on which visa or stream to use.
• An overseas "agent" charging the worker for the sponsorship is committing an offence on the worker’s side as well, and the payment can taint your nomination.
• You can check any adviser’s registration number on the OMARA register in seconds. WIDEN’s is MARN 1576536.

When doing it yourself is reasonable

• You already hold Standard Business Sponsorship and have lodged nominations before, so the templates, the labour market testing routine and the evidence set exist.
• The hire is onshore and simple: a 485 graduate or Working Holiday maker already in the role, a listed occupation with no caveats, a salary comfortably above A$79,423, and an HR person who can read the Department’s procedural instructions and keep a tidy file.
• The occupation needs no skills assessment for the worker’s passport and the English result is already in hand.

When it is not: a first sponsorship, any labour agreement or DAMA, a caveated occupation, a salary near the floor, a worker on a bridging visa or with a prior refusal, a 186 Direct Entry, or any case where the start date matters more than the fee. In those, the cost of a refusal or a six-month delay is a multiple of a fixed-fee engagement.

What professional help costs against what it saves

Government charges are the same whoever lodges: A$420 sponsorship, A$330 nomination, the levy, and the worker’s A$4,015 visa charge. Agent fees are on top and are the only variable. WIDEN lodges sponsorship, nomination and visa on fixed fees and starts with a 30-minute consultation at A$330 inc. GST, credited if you engage; the consultation alone usually settles the occupation, stream and salary questions that cause refusals. Against that, a single refused nomination costs the charges plus three to six months, and an unfilled role costs more each month than the fee.

Either way, the candidate side is free to start: search sponsorship-ready candidates, see their assessment and English status, and unlock a contact for A$30 when you want to interview.

Frequently asked questions

Is a migration agent required to sponsor an employee in Australia? No. The employer can lodge Standard Business Sponsorship and the nomination through its own ImmiAccount, and the worker lodges the visa through theirs. The law restricts who may help for a fee (registered migration agents and Australian legal practitioners only), not whether you can lodge yourself.

Can my recruitment agency prepare the nomination? Only if a registered migration agent or lawyer does the immigration-assistance part. A recruiter may source and screen candidates and gather documents, but preparing or advising on a nomination for a fee without registration is an offence.

What is the most common reason self-lodged nominations are refused? Labour market testing defects (timing, duration, platforms, missing salary, mismatched title), followed by occupation mismatch against the ANZSCO description and weak genuine-position and market-salary evidence.

How do I check whether an adviser is registered? Search the OMARA register online by name or MARN. Australian legal practitioners are checked through the relevant state law society. Anyone who cannot give you a number should not be touching your nomination.

Does using an agent make processing faster? Not directly; the Department’s queues are the same. It reduces requests for further information and refusals, which are where most of the gap between the median and the 90th-percentile processing times comes from. Accredited sponsor status is what brings priority processing.