Employer step-by-step: getting a Labour Agreement approved

When standard employer sponsorship doesn’t cover the roles you need, a labour agreement can be the next option. Home Affairs uses labour agreements to support sponsorship where a genuine skills shortage exists and standard visa programs aren’t available for the roles an employer needs.

If you’re an employer or HR manager weighing this up, the main win is flexibility. The main cost is preparation. A strong request reads like a neat business case with tidy evidence, not a hopeful email with a few job ads attached.

Pace Migration can help you map the pathway, set up the evidence pack, and keep the process moving when Home Affairs asks questions.

What “labour agreement” means in plain English

A labour agreement is a formal arrangement between an employer (or an industry/region) and the Australian Government. It can allow sponsorship for roles that sit outside standard settings, and it can include agreed concessions in specific circumstances. Labour agreements are generally in place for around five years.

Labour agreements may support visas such as Skills in Demand (SID) (subclass 482), Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) (subclass 186) and Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (SESR) (subclass 494), depending on the agreement.

Step 1: Check if you actually need a labour agreement

Start with the obvious filter: can you use standard employer sponsorship instead?

Home Affairs positions labour agreements for cases where standard programs are not available or don’t suit the workforce need.

Our practical triage for employers usually looks like this:

• Is the occupation available under standard sponsorship settings?
• Does the location fall under a DAMA region (which can be a cleaner route)?
• Are you seeking concessions (age/English/occupation access) that standard settings won’t allow?

That last point matters. If you don’t need any flexibility, standard sponsorship often remains the faster and simpler option.

Step 2: Pick the right agreement type early

There are several labour agreement categories. The right one depends on your business and where you operate:

• Company-specific labour agreements (one business, tailored to your needs)
• Industry labour agreements (pre-set frameworks for sectors with ongoing shortages)
• Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMA) (regional framework via a Designated Area Representative)
• Project agreements (for major projects with specialised labour requirements)

If you operate in a DAMA region, that pathway often saves time because the region already has an occupation list and concession settings negotiated. Employers still need endorsement steps, but you’re not starting from scratch.

Step 3: Get your business eligibility and compliance story straight

For company-specific agreements, Home Affairs expects you to show you’re a genuine, operating Australian business with capacity to employ and manage overseas workers.

Typical evidence includes:

• Business registration and operating history
• Financial viability (often accountant-backed)
• Workforce numbers and structure
• Any previous sponsorship history and compliance matters.

Home Affairs also sets expectations that overseas workers should not exceed one-third of the total workforce for company-specific agreements, and it expects a plan to train and employ Australians over time.

This is where Pace Migration adds value fast. Employers often have the documents, but they’re scattered across payroll systems, accountant folders, and HR records. The job is packaging it so it reads cleanly.

Step 4: Build your skills shortage evidence (the part that makes or breaks it)

Home Affairs expects a strong case that you’ve tried to recruit locally and still can’t fill the roles. For company-specific agreements, it expects evidence of “many and diverse” recruitment attempts, plus detailed job descriptions.

A good evidence pack usually includes:

• Job ads across relevant platforms
• Interview notes and outcomes (why candidates weren’t suitable)
• Workforce planning notes (growth, turnover, project pipeline)
• Clear position descriptions (tasks, hours, location, reporting line)
• Salary and conditions that match Australian norms.

If you’re requesting concessions, you must link each concession to the business reality and show you’ll still protect workers and maintain fair workplace conditions.

Step 5: Do stakeholder consultation properly (and document it)

For company-specific labour agreements, Home Affairs requires stakeholder consultation. That generally means contacting relevant organisations such as unions and industry bodies, allowing time for responses, and keeping records of what you sent and what came back.

Home Affairs guidance sets timing expectations such as allowing 10 working days for responses, then following up and allowing a further 5 working days if needed.

This step sounds admin-heavy because it is. Done right, it also reduces pushback later.

Step 6: Lodge the request in ImmiAccount (make it assessment-ready)

Home Affairs provides a guide for requesting labour agreements and notes that incomplete requests can be returned without assessment.

A few employer-friendly points:

• There is no fee to request a labour agreement (nomination and visa charges still apply later).
• Using an agent does not create priority processing. The real advantage is accuracy and speed of responses.
• Home Affairs does not publish processing times for labour agreement requests due to low volumes and prioritisation settings.

If you’re using a DAMA, secure endorsement from the region’s Designated Area Representative (DAR) first, then lodge through ImmiAccount.

Step 7: Handle requests for information quickly and consistently

Expect follow-up questions. Most delays happen when the evidence and narrative don’t match, or when role details shift between documents.

A useful discipline:

• Keep one “source of truth” position description
• Keep salary logic consistent across the pack
• Answer in writing with referenced attachments
• Avoid changing the story midstream.

We typically manage this as a single threaded workflow, so Home Affairs gets clean responses and you avoid rework.

Step 8: Move to nominations and visas (agreement approval is not the finish line)

Once the agreement is approved, employers still need to lodge nominations and workers still need to lodge their visa applications under the agreement settings.

You’ll also need to maintain sponsorship compliance and record-keeping across the agreement period.

Ready to check whether a labour agreement fits your roles?

If you tell Pace Migration:

• The role title and duties
• Work location(s)
• Proposed salary
• Current recruitment attempts and outcomes
• How many workers you need and for how long

We can quickly flag whether standard sponsorship is likely to work first, whether a DAMA is available for your region, or whether a company-specific labour agreement is worth pursuing.

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