Can a sole trader, a partnership or a trust sponsor a worker? Which structures can be a sponsor, who signs, what the approval attaches to, and whether to restructure first

MARN 1576536

Lawfully operating a business

The criteria for approval as a standard business sponsor require that the applicant is lawfully operating a business in Australia, or is an overseas business with no Australian presence seeking to establish one, that there is no adverse information about the applicant or a person associated with it, and that the applicant has the capacity to meet the sponsorship obligations; the regulations do not limit the applicant to a company, and the Department approves sole traders, partnerships, trustees of trusts, companies, incorporated associations and government bodies, each as the legal person that operates the business and employs the staff. The question for any structure is who that legal person is, because the approval is given to it, the nominations are made by it, the obligations bind it, and a change in it is a change in the sponsor. The approved sponsor guide covers the criteria and the application, and the new business guide the business without a trading history.

The sole trader

An individual operating a business under their own name or a registered business name, with an ABN in their own name, is a sole trader, and can be approved as a sponsor on the records their business produces: the ABN and business name registration, the tax returns and business activity statements, the bank statements, the contracts and invoices, the payroll for any existing staff, the lease and the licences. The sole trader nominates an employee into a genuine position in the business, pays the salary through a payroll with superannuation, and is bound personally by the obligations, with the sanctions, including civil penalties, enforceable against the individual's own assets. A sole trader cannot nominate themselves, because the nomination is for an employee and an individual cannot be employed by themselves; a sole trader who wants a visa through the business incorporates it and reads the self-sponsorship guide, where the Department's scrutiny is at its strictest. A sole trader with no employees nominating their first is examined for whether the business can support a full-time skilled position at the threshold from its revenue, which the small business guide covers.

The partnership

A partnership of individuals or entities operating a business under a partnership ABN is approved as the sponsor in the partnership's name, with the partnership agreement, the partners' identities and the partnership's financial statements and tax returns provided, and the application signed by a partner with authority to bind the partnership; the obligations bind the partnership, which in law means the partners jointly and severally, so that each partner is liable for a breach and the sanctions. A change in the partners is examined for whether the partnership continues as the same entity for the Department's purposes, which depends on the partnership agreement and the ABN, and a reconstitution that produces a new partnership with a new ABN is a new sponsor; a partnership that expects a partner to retire or join during the sponsorship tells the Department within the notification period and plans the nominations around it. A partnership can nominate a partner's relative as any sponsor can, and cannot nominate a partner, who is not an employee of the partnership.

The trust and its trustee

A business run through a discretionary family trust or a unit trust is run by the trustee, a company or an individual, which holds the business's assets, enters its contracts and employs its staff as trustee for the trust; the trust itself is not a legal person and cannot be approved, and the sponsor is the trustee, approved in its own name as trustee for the trust, with the trust deed and any variations, the trustee's own registration and details, the trust's ABN, financial statements and tax returns, and the trustee company's directors' details provided. The obligations bind the trustee, and a corporate trustee's directors are the persons the Department deals with. A change of trustee, which trusts make for tax, succession or asset protection reasons, replaces the legal person that is the sponsor, and the new trustee is not approved and has nominated no one; the sponsored workers are then employed by an entity that is not their sponsor, in breach of condition 8607, unless the new trustee applies for sponsorship and lodges new nominations before or at the change, which the consultation plans. A trust that has sponsored and whose accountant proposes a change of trustee tells the agent first.

The company, for comparison

A proprietary company is a legal person, is approved in its own name with its ACN and ABN, employs the staff, is bound by the obligations with its directors answerable, and continues as the same sponsor through changes in its shareholders and directors, which is the practical advantage of the structure; a company's sponsorship survives a sale of its shares, a change of directors and a change of name, and does not survive the sale of its business as assets to another entity, deregistration, or a transfer of the employees to a related company with a different ABN. A group of companies sponsors through the entity that employs, or applies as a group where the Department's rules allow associated entities to be covered, and a worker nominated by one company and moved to another in the group needs a new nomination. The company is the structure the accreditation categories are built for.

The evidence each structure gives

• All: the ABN and business name registrations, the last financial year's financial statements and tax return, the business activity statements for the recent quarters, bank statements, the lease or premises evidence, contracts, invoices, the payroll and superannuation records for existing staff, the organisational chart, and the licences the business needs.
• Sole trader: the individual's identity, the individual's tax return showing the business income, and the business name registration where one is used.
• Partnership: the partnership agreement, each partner's identity, the partnership tax return, and the authority of the signing partner.
• Trust: the trust deed and variations, the trustee's registration and directors, the trust's tax return and financial statements, and evidence that the trustee employs the staff in that capacity.
• Company: the ASIC extract, the directors' and shareholders' details, and the company's financial statements and tax return.
• New businesses: the business plan, the capital, the contracts and the projections, in place of the trading history.

What the approval attaches to

The sponsorship approval is given to the legal person that applied, identified by its ABN and its registration, for five years, and every nomination under it is a nomination by that person; the approval cannot be transferred, assigned or sold, and an entity that acquires a sponsor's business does not acquire its sponsorship. A worker's condition 8607 requires them to work for the sponsor that nominated them, and a worker whose employer has become a different legal person is working for a non-sponsor and in breach, whatever the commercial continuity, until a new sponsor nominates them; the Department's practice allows a short period for the new entity to apply and nominate where the change was notified, and the consultation plans it so that the sponsorship and the nominations are lodged before the change takes effect. The obligations guide covers the notification of a change in the business.

A change of structure mid-sponsorship

1. Identify the new legal person: the company that will take over from the sole trader, the new trustee, the reconstituted partnership, the buyer.
2. Before the change, lodge the new entity's sponsorship application, with the evidence that it will be lawfully operating the business from the change, which for a successor entity is the existing business's records and the transfer documents.
3. Lodge new nominations by the new entity for each sponsored worker, with labour market testing again unless exempt, the levy again, and the nomination charge again.
4. Notify the Department of the change in the old sponsor's business within the period.
5. Transfer the employees to the new entity on the change date with their entitlements, under the Fair Work Act's transfer of business rules.
6. The workers continue on their 482s under the new nominations once approved; the Department's practice covers the gap where the sequence was planned and notified.

A business that makes the change first and discovers the sponsorship problem afterwards has workers in breach from the change date, and the sooner the new sponsorship and nominations are lodged the better the Department's reading of it.

Liability and sanctions

The sponsorship obligations bind the sponsor, and the sanctions for a breach, an administrative warning, a bar on sponsoring, cancellation of the sponsorship, an infringement notice, a civil penalty order from a court, and publication, are enforceable against the legal person: a sole trader's own assets, each partner's own assets, the trustee in its capacity with recourse to the trust's assets and, for a corporate trustee's directors, the directors where the law reaches them, and a company's assets with its directors answerable in the ways the Act provides. A sole trader or a partner considering sponsorship weighs that the obligations and the penalties are personal, and that a worker underpaid or a notification missed is a liability of the individual; a company confines the liability in the ordinary way, which is one of the reasons to incorporate.

Accreditation

Accredited sponsor status, which gives priority processing of nominations and visas and some streamlining, is available in categories whose criteria include a trading history, a proportion of Australian employees, a turnover for some categories, a clean compliance record, and, for most categories, a corporate structure; the Department's criteria exclude sole traders and most partnerships, while a trustee company and a company qualify where the other criteria are met. A sole trader or partnership that wants accreditation's speed incorporates and builds the record as a company, and the accreditation guide covers the categories.

Restructuring before you apply

A sole trader or partnership that expects to incorporate within the next five years, that wants the owner sponsored, that wants accreditation, or that wants the liability confined, incorporates before applying for sponsorship, with the accountant's advice on the tax consequences and the agent's advice on the timing: the new company shows it is lawfully operating through the business it has taken over, applies for sponsorship in its own name, and nominates once, instead of twice; a trust that expects to change trustee does the same with the new trustee. A business that will stay as it is applies as it is, and the Department approves it on its records. The consultation reads the structure, the accountant's plans and the workers to be sponsored together, and says in whose name the application goes and when. The eligibility check runs the structure questions before the consultation.

Book a consultation — $330 inc. GST, credited

General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case, and not tax, trust or corporate law advice. The standard business sponsorship criteria in regulation 2.59 and Division 2.13 of the Migration Regulations 1994, the sponsorship obligations in Division 2.19 and the sanctions in Division 2.20 and Part 2 Division 3A of the Migration Act 1958, condition 8607, and the accredited sponsor criteria as published by the Department, as in force at the date above; the Department’s practice on successor entities and on the period allowed after a change of business is a matter of its policy and the current position governs. 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.