Can a not-for-profit, a charity, a school, a council, a hospital or a government body sponsor a worker? Yes: the footing for each, the evidence, the obligations, and the religious workers who go through an agreement

MARN 1576536

What lawfully operating a business means

The criterion for approval as a Standard Business Sponsor is that the applicant is lawfully operating a business in Australia, and the word business is not defined to require profit. The Department reads it as an organised activity, carried on with some regularity and system, lawfully, by an entity that exists in law, and it has approved as sponsors bodies that will never make a profit and are prohibited by their constitutions from distributing one: incorporated associations, companies limited by guarantee, charities registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, religious organisations and their agencies, schools and universities, local councils, state and Commonwealth departments and statutory authorities, and public hospitals and health services. What the Department asks of each is the same question it asks of a company: does this body exist, is it operating, is it operating lawfully, is there adverse information about it or its people, and can it meet the obligations; the evidence that answers the question is adapted to the body, and the evidence section sets it out. A body that reads the word business and does not apply is the only thing that stops it sponsoring. The step-by-step guide covers the stages, which are the same for every sponsor.

The incorporated association and the company limited by guarantee

An incorporated association, registered under a state or territory associations incorporation law, is a legal entity that can employ staff, hold an ABN and apply as a sponsor in its own name; it shows its certificate of incorporation, its rules or constitution, its committee, its annual return to the state regulator, its financial statements as lodged, its ABN and its employment records. A company limited by guarantee, registered with ASIC, is a company for every purpose including sponsorship, and shows the ASIC extract, the constitution, the directors, the financial statements and the activity statements as a company does; most larger non-profits, aged care providers, disability services, community health organisations and independent schools are companies limited by guarantee, and they sponsor on the ordinary company evidence with the surplus line showing a surplus or a deficit rather than a profit. An unincorporated association, a committee or a group with no legal personality cannot sponsor, because there is no entity to approve; a group in that position incorporates first or sponsors through the incorporated body that employs its staff. The sponsor is the entity that employs the worker, and a non-profit that employs through a separate services entity reads the entity guide for which one applies.

The registered charity and the religious organisation

A charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission is registered as whichever legal form it takes, an incorporated association, a company limited by guarantee, a trust with a corporate trustee, and it applies as a sponsor in that form, with the charity registration as additional evidence of lawful operation and governance rather than a separate basis; the Commission's register, the annual information statement and the financial report lodged with it are evidence the Department reads readily. A religious organisation, a diocese, a synod, a mosque association, a temple trust, a church incorporated under its own Act or under the associations law, applies in its legal form for the positions it fills in the ordinary way, the teacher in its school, the nurse in its aged care home, the accountant in its office, the welfare worker in its agency, and uses the Minister of Religion Labour Agreement for its ministers and religious assistants, which the religion section covers. A religious body incorporated by a special Act of a state parliament shows the Act and its governing body's resolution; a body that operates through a trust shows the trust deed and the trustee, and the trustee is the sponsor. Charities and religious bodies sponsor social workers, youth workers, counsellors, community service managers, nurses, teachers and support workers, and the aged care and disability agreements cover the direct care occupations the lists do not.

The school and the university

An independent school is almost always a company limited by guarantee or an incorporated association, sometimes a body under a church's own Act, and it applies as a sponsor on that footing, with its registration as a school under the state education law as further evidence of lawful operation; it sponsors teachers, early childhood teachers, special education teachers, school counsellors, IT and finance staff and, for a boarding school, other roles, on the 482 and the 186, and in a regional area on the 494. A public school is not its own legal entity; it is part of the state or territory education department, which is the sponsor, and the department either sponsors centrally or has an arrangement under which schools nominate through it, which the school's human resources area knows. A university is established by its own Act and applies as the statutory body it is, with the Act, its council and its annual report, and sponsors academics, researchers and professional staff, often with the trade-obligation and other exemptions from labour market testing that apply to some academic appointments. The teacher's own registration with the state teacher regulator is a condition of working, not of the visa, and the teacher sponsorship guide covers the sequence, the occupations and the salary read against the teaching agreements.

The local council and the government agency

A local council is a body corporate under the state's local government legislation and applies as a sponsor on that legislation, its elected council's or general manager's authority, its annual report, its budget and its employment records; councils, particularly regional ones, sponsor civil engineers, town planners, surveyors, environmental health officers, building surveyors, IT professionals, accountants and managers, often on the 494 with the regional certifying body's support, and the council's salary under the local government award or its enterprise agreement is read against the threshold and the market rate like any salary. A state or Commonwealth department, a statutory authority or a government business enterprise applies on its establishing legislation and its appropriation or accounts, with the authority of its secretary or chief executive, and some hold arrangements with the Department for their sector; the government employer's own recruitment rules are the first filter, since many public service positions require citizenship or permanent residence under the employer's own policy or the law establishing the position, and those positions are filled by a worker who already holds the status. A government body's labour market testing is its own merit-based recruitment, documented as the instrument requires, and a government body that recruited under its own rules without the advertisements the instrument specifies has the testing problem any sponsor has.

The public hospital and the health service

A public hospital is part of a local health district, a hospital and health service or a health network established under the state's health legislation, which is the sponsor, and the state health departments and their districts are among the largest sponsors in the country, for registered nurses, midwives, medical practitioners, allied health professionals, radiographers, pharmacists and managers; the district applies on its establishing legislation, its board's authority and its accounts, and nominates through its workforce unit, with the clinician's registration with the national health practitioner regulator a condition of working. A private hospital or a health service run by a company or a not-for-profit applies on its own form. The health sector's labour market testing has its own patterns, with exemptions for some medical practitioners and the ordinary advertising for the rest, and the salary is read against the health awards and agreements, which are above the threshold for most clinical occupations; the medical practitioner's own pathway, with the regulator's assessment and the supervised practice requirements, runs beside the visa and is longer than it, and the sponsored doctors guide covers it.

The evidence each kind of body provides

The Department's sponsorship application asks for evidence that the business is lawfully operating, and a non-profit or public body answers it with what it has. Existence: the certificate of incorporation or registration, the ASIC extract, the establishing Act and the instrument appointing the governing body, the ABN and, for a charity, the Commission's register entry. Governance: the constitution, the rules or the Act, the current office holders, and the resolution or delegation authorising the application and the sponsorship. Activity: the annual report, the activity statements lodged with the Tax Office where the body lodges them, the financial statements or the audited accounts prepared for members, the regulator or the funder, the funding agreements, grants and service contracts, the premises, and evidence of the services delivered. People: the payroll, the employment records, the organisation chart and the workforce profile, which also serve the nomination's genuine position question. Lawfulness: the registrations and licences the activity requires, school registration, aged care approval, disability registration, health service accreditation, and the absence of adverse information about the body and its office holders, which for a body with a large volunteer board is read for each director. A government body provides its legislation, its budget papers or appropriation and its annual report in place of accounts, and the Department accepts them. The evidence is more than a company provides in some respects and less in others, and a body that provides it in a single organised bundle is approved in the ordinary time.

The obligations and the levy, without exception

Nothing about the body's purpose alters the obligations. An approved sponsor, whatever its form, must pay the sponsored worker no less than the nominated earnings and no less favourably than an equivalent Australian worker, keep the worker in the nominated occupation and position, notify the Department within 28 days of the events the Regulations list, keep the records and provide them on request, cooperate with inspectors, pay reasonable return travel costs on request, and not recover or seek to recover from the worker any cost of the sponsorship, the nomination or the recruitment; and it is exposed to the same sanctions, the bar, the cancellation, the infringement notice and the civil penalty, which have been imposed on non-profits and public bodies as on companies. The particular risks for the sector are its own: a restructure driven by a funding change that moves a sponsored worker to a different role without a new nomination, a pay classification review that leaves the sponsored worker behind the Australian colleagues, a school that does not notify a teacher's departure at the end of the year, a council that lets a sponsored engineer act in a different position for months. The training levy is paid with every nomination by every sponsor, with no exemption for charities, schools, councils or government, at the rate for the body's turnover band, and the levy guide sets out the rate and the refunds. The obligations guide applies to the sector without change.

The occupations and the streams that fit

The occupations the sector sponsors are largely on the Core Skills Occupation List: registered and enrolled nurses, midwives, medical practitioners, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, psychologists, social workers, counsellors, community and welfare workers and their managers, teachers across the levels, early childhood teachers, education managers, civil and environmental engineers, planners, surveyors, environmental health officers, IT professionals, accountants, and managers across the functions. The direct care occupations that are not on the list, aged care workers, disability support workers, personal care assistants, are sponsored under the aged care industry labour agreement and the disability arrangements, which the sector guides cover. The streams follow the position: the 482 Core Skills stream for a lasting position, the 494 for a body in a regional area with the regional certifying body's advice and the 191 at the end of it, the 186 for permanent nomination after two years in the position or by direct entry, and the Specialist Skills stream for the rare non-profit or public position paid above its threshold. A body with several positions to fill and a recurring need reads whether an industry agreement or a company-specific labour agreement fits better than serial nominations, and the labour agreements guide covers the choice.

Ministers of religion and religious assistants: the agreement

A religious organisation that wants to bring a minister of religion, a priest, a pastor, an imam, a rabbi, a monk, a nun, a granthi, or a religious assistant, does not use the standard 482 nomination for that position, because the occupation is handled through the Minister of Religion Labour Agreement, a template agreement between the Department and the religious organisation that allows sponsorship of ministers of religion and religious assistants in the labour agreement stream of the 482, with concessions on requirements that do not fit religious appointment, without labour market testing, and with a pathway to permanent residence through the 186 labour agreement stream for the minister, including an immediate pathway for the most senior position in the organisation in Australia. The organisation applies for the agreement with evidence that it is a religious institution, that the position is a genuine religious role within it, that the person is qualified by training and standing for it, and that the organisation will meet the agreement's terms; once the agreement is in place the organisation nominates under it, and the agreement runs for years and covers successive appointments. The same organisation's teacher, nurse, accountant or welfare worker is sponsored on the standard route, and a religious worker coming for a short period for a specific activity may fit the temporary activity visa instead. The labour agreements guide covers the agreement beside the others, and the organisation that is unsure whether a role is a religious role or an ordinary employment reads the two routes before applying.

The positions that cannot be sponsored

Some positions in the sector cannot be sponsored, and the honest answer is given early. A position that requires Australian citizenship or permanent residence under the employer's own rules or the law that creates it, which covers many public service, defence, police and security positions, is filled by a worker who already has the status. A volunteer position is not employment and cannot be nominated, and a body that wants a volunteer from abroad reads the volunteering guide and the temporary activity visa. A position whose duties match no listed occupation and that is paid below the specialist threshold, in a body outside an industry agreement, a fundraising officer, an administrative assistant, a general support worker in a service not covered by an agreement, has no route in the ordinary case, and the occupation not listed guide covers the alternatives. A position funded for a short period with no prospect of continuing is read for genuineness, since a nomination is for a position that will exist for the visa period. And a body that cannot pay the nominated salary from its funding, or whose funding ends with the grant, is refused on capacity as any sponsor would be.

The non-profit sponsor checklist

1. Identify the legal entity that employs the worker: the association, the company limited by guarantee, the trustee, the council, the department, the district, the university; it is the sponsor.
2. Gather existence, governance, activity, people and lawfulness evidence in one bundle; a government body uses its Act, budget and annual report.
3. Check the position: a listed occupation, a salary at or above the threshold and the award or agreement rate, a genuine lasting role, and no citizenship requirement of the employer’s own.
4. Test the labour market as the instrument requires, or document the exemption; public-sector merit recruitment is not automatically compliant.
5. For a minister of religion or a religious assistant, apply for the Minister of Religion Labour Agreement, not a standard nomination.
6. For direct care roles not on the list, use the aged care or disability agreement.
7. Budget the levy; there is no sector exemption.
8. Treat the obligations as a company would: pay, position, notifications, records, and nothing recovered from the worker.

General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The criteria for approval as a Standard Business Sponsor in regulation 2.59 of the Migration Regulations 1994 and the Department’s published policy on the meaning of lawfully operating a business, the nomination criteria in regulation 2.72, the sponsorship obligations in Division 2.19, the Skilling Australians Fund levy provisions, the labour agreement provisions and the Minister of Religion Labour Agreement template as published by the Department, and the state and territory associations incorporation, local government, education and health legislation under which the bodies described are established, all as in force at the date above. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.