Sponsor sanctions: the bar, the cancellation, the infringement notice and the civil penalty, what each does to the workers, and the response that decides which one you get

MARN 1576536

The obligations that produce sanctions

The sponsorship obligations are set out in the Regulations and the obligations guide walks through them; the ones that produce sanctions are a shorter list. Paying the worker less than the nominated salary or less than an equivalent Australian worker, including by unpaid hours, unlawful deductions, cash-back arrangements or a salary that was never increased when the nomination said it would be, is the most common, and it is found by data. Having the worker perform a different occupation from the nominated one, or at a different location where the nomination specified one, is the second. Failing to notify the Department within 28 days of the worker's resignation or termination, of a change in the business's name, structure or ownership, or of the business ceasing to operate, is the third, and it is often the one that is discovered when the business next nominates. Recovering, or seeking to recover, the costs of sponsorship or migration from the worker, which the cost-recovery guide covers, is both a breach and, where a benefit is asked for in return for sponsorship, a criminal offence. Failing to keep and provide records, failing to cooperate with an inspector, and failing to pay reasonable return travel costs when asked complete the list. An employer reading this list against its own practices before a notice arrives is doing the work the notice would otherwise force.

How the Department finds the breach

The Department monitors sponsors by letter, requesting records and declarations; by data-matching, in which Tax Office income data, single touch payroll and Fair Work records are read against the nominated salary and the sponsor's declarations; by site visit, announced or unannounced, in which an inspector interviews the worker and the business and inspects the records; by the worker's own complaint, to the Department, to the Fair Work Ombudsman or to a union, which a worker who fears for their visa makes later rather than never; and by the sponsor's next nomination, in which the history of the earlier workers is read before the new one is approved. A business that has not paid the nominated salary for two years is found when the tax data is matched or when the worker, having found a new sponsor, reports it; a business that did not notify a resignation is found when the worker's new nomination shows a start date months before the notification. The monitoring guide covers what an inspector can ask and what the sponsor must provide, and the sponsor's obligation to cooperate means that refusing is itself a breach.

The notice, and the response that matters

Before the Department imposes an administrative sanction it gives the sponsor written notice: the notice identifies the obligation, sets out the facts the Department relies on and the evidence it holds, states the sanction it proposes, and gives a period within which the sponsor may respond, commonly 28 days, which the sponsor asks to have extended in writing before it expires if more time is needed for records or advice. The response is the most important document in the process. It addresses the facts: whether the breach occurred, and if the Department has them wrong, the evidence that shows it; where it occurred, how it came about, whether through a payroll error, a misunderstanding of the obligation, a change of management or a deliberate choice; what the sponsor has done since, which for a salary shortfall means the back-payment with evidence of it, for a late notification means the notification made and a system for the next one, for a records failure means the records now kept; and the sponsor's history, size, cooperation and the consequences of each sanction for the workers. The decision-maker weighs the nature and seriousness of the breach, whether it was deliberate, the sponsor's cooperation and remediation, and its history in deciding whether to sanction and which sanction to impose, and a complete response with remediation regularly moves the outcome from the proposed sanction to a lesser one or a warning. A sponsor that answers late, partially or defensively receives the sanction proposed.

The bar on sponsoring, and the bar on applying

A bar is the Department's middle sanction. It can bar an approved sponsor from sponsoring further people for a period, during which the sponsor cannot lodge new nominations for the 482 or the other sponsored visas and nominations lodged before the bar are refused or lapse, while the sponsor's approval itself continues and the workers already sponsored keep their visas and keep working. It can also bar a person from applying for approval as a sponsor for a period, which is imposed on a sponsor whose approval is being cancelled or has expired, and which prevents the business coming back through a new application; the bar can attach to the business and, in the Department's practice, to associated entities and persons, so that restructuring to a new company does not evade it. The period is set by the decision-maker within the limits the Regulations allow, and a bar of years is imposed for a serious or repeated breach. A business under a bar on sponsoring plans its workforce without new sponsorship for the period, tells any worker whose nomination was pending that it will not proceed, and reads whether the workers already on 482 visas can reach the 186 with the business, since a bar on sponsoring in the Department's practice extends to nominating for permanent residence, and the consultation reads the terms of the particular bar.

Cancellation of the approval

Cancellation ends the business's approval as a Standard Business Sponsor. It is imposed for the serious breach, the repeated breach, the breach the sponsor did not remediate, and for sponsors found to have given false information or to have been convicted of the sponsorship offences, and it is usually paired with a bar on applying again. On cancellation the nominations in train lapse, no further nominations can be made, and the sponsored workers become workers whose sponsor has ceased, which the next section covers. The business cannot sponsor again until the bar expires and a fresh application is approved, and a fresh application made after a cancellation is read against the history with the business expected to show what changed. An employer whose approval was about to expire in any event, and which has been notified of a proposed cancellation, reads whether to respond or to let the approval lapse, because a lapse leaves a cleaner record than a cancellation but does not avoid a bar on re-applying, and the renewal guide sets out what expiry does.

The infringement notice decision

An infringement notice is the Department's alternative to court. It is served for a breach of an obligation for which the Act provides a civil penalty, it specifies a penalty set in penalty units, lower for an individual sponsor than for a body corporate and higher for a sponsor that has received a notice before, and the penalty unit is indexed so that the dollar amount on the notice is the figure that applies; the court's maximum for the same breach is several times higher, and the Act sets a higher maximum for an approved sponsor than for a person who is not one. Payment within the period on the notice discharges the liability for that breach, is not an admission, and ends the civil penalty exposure for it, though not the Department's power to impose an administrative sanction for the same breach; non-payment leaves the Department to decide whether to seek a civil penalty in court, where the breach is proved on the civil standard and the penalty is set by the court. The decision whether to pay is made on whether the breach occurred and can be proved: a sponsor that underpaid, has back-paid and wants the matter closed pays; a sponsor that disputes the facts, or that is being treated as having breached an obligation that on its proper reading was not breached, takes advice before the period ends, because the period is short and withdrawal of a notice is sought on narrow grounds. The infringement notice is a civil matter and is not a criminal conviction, but it is a sanction on the sponsor's record and is read on the next nomination.

Enforceable undertakings and civil penalties

An enforceable undertaking is a written undertaking by the sponsor, accepted by the Department, to take specified action, such as back-paying workers, engaging an auditor, training managers or reporting on compliance for a period, in place of or alongside a sanction; it is a resolution for a sponsor that has breached and wants to continue sponsoring, and a breach of the undertaking is itself enforceable in court. A civil penalty is sought by the Department in the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit and Family Court for a contravention of an obligation, with the maximum set in penalty units and, for an approved sponsor, at a multiple of the maximum for a non-sponsor; the court decides whether the contravention occurred, sets the penalty with regard to the seriousness, the deliberateness, the sponsor's size and history and its cooperation, and can order the penalty against the business and, where the contravention was by an individual, against the individual. Civil penalty proceedings are brought for the serious case, the repeat case and the case the Department wants decided publicly, and a sponsor that receives a civil penalty from a court is also exposed to the prohibited employer declaration the register section describes. The sponsor facing a court application is represented by a lawyer, and the migration agent's role is the sponsorship history and the obligations rather than the litigation.

What each sanction does to the sponsored workers

The workers are the people with most at stake and least say. Under a bar on sponsoring further people, the workers already sponsored keep their visas, their nominations and their jobs, and their right to be nominated by the business for the 186 is affected to the extent the bar's terms say; a worker whose nomination was pending at the bar has no nomination and finds another sponsor within the 180-day period if they hold a 482. Under a cancellation, the workers' visas do not end automatically, but the Department can consider cancelling them on the ground that the sponsor has ceased, and the workers are in the position the 180-day guide describes: find a new sponsor who lodges a nomination, or apply for another visa, or leave, within the period; the cancelled sponsor cannot nominate them again. Under an infringement notice or a civil penalty alone, the workers' visas are unaffected, though a worker who was underpaid has a Fair Work claim for the shortfall and the Department expects it to have been paid. The employer facing any sanction tells the sponsored workers in writing what has happened and what it means for them, because they will find out in any case, because the Department reads how the sponsor treated them, and because a worker who learns from the Department that their sponsor was cancelled has every reason to say what else the sponsor did. A worker is never asked to bear any part of a penalty, a back-payment or a cost of the response; that is a further breach and, where a benefit is sought, an offence.

The register, the prohibited employer declaration and the offences

The Department publishes the sponsors it has barred or whose approval it has cancelled, with the sanction and its period, and the list is public, read by prospective workers, by agents checking a sponsor before a nomination, and by journalists. Since the employer compliance amendments of 2024, the Minister can also declare an employer a prohibited employer for a period where it has been subject to specified sanctions, court orders or convictions relating to temporary visa holders, and a prohibited employer cannot employ any additional non-citizen on a temporary visa during the period, with the declaration published and penalties for breaching it; the declaration is a separate step with its own notice and its own review, but a sponsor sanction and a civil penalty are among the things that found it. The same amendments created criminal offences for coercing, or exerting undue influence or pressure on, a worker to breach a visa condition, including by accepting an arrangement in breach of it, and increased penalties for the existing offences of allowing an unlawful non-citizen to work, of allowing a worker to work in breach of a condition, and of asking for, receiving, offering or providing a benefit in return for sponsorship. An employer that has an underpayment and a worker who was told to accept it has, on those facts, an obligation breach, a Fair Work contravention and potentially an offence, and the response to the Department's notice is written knowing that.

Review at the Tribunal

A decision to bar a sponsor or to cancel its approval is a reviewable decision, and the sponsor can apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal within the period stated in the decision notice, which is short and is not extended; the Tribunal reviews the decision on the merits, with the evidence the sponsor puts before it, and can affirm, vary or set aside the sanction. A civil penalty is a court decision with the court's appeal routes; an infringement notice is paid or not paid; and a prohibited employer declaration has its own review. Review is the second chance, and the first chance, the response to the notice, is the better one, because the Tribunal reads the same facts the Department read and a sponsor that did not respond to the notice arrives at the Tribunal explaining why. A sponsor that intends to seek review lodges within the period and continues to comply with the sanction while the review runs, since the sanction operates from the decision, and tells the workers that the review is on foot. The Tribunal guide covers the process and the fee.

Coming back from a sanction

A sponsor that is barred serves the period, and a sponsor that is cancelled applies again after the bar on applying expires; in both cases the next application or nomination is read against the sanction, and the business shows what changed. The things that show it are the things the response should already have contained: the shortfall paid, the payroll corrected so that the nominated salary is paid and reviewed each year, a person responsible for the 28-day notifications with a calendar for them, the records kept in the form the Regulations require, the managers trained on what a sponsored worker may and may not be asked to do, and no cost of any of it passed to a worker. A sponsor that received a warning or a lesser sanction because of its response is in the same position: the next monitoring letter, data match or site visit will test whether the fix held, and a second breach after a first sanction is the repeat case the Department treats most seriously. The employer that wants to sponsor for years treats the sanction as the audit it did not commission, fixes everything it found, and documents the fix so that the next nomination tells the story.

The sanction response checklist

1. Diarise the response period on the day the notice arrives; ask in writing for an extension before it expires if one is needed.
2. Read the alleged breach against the obligation as written, and pull the records that prove or disprove it: payroll, contracts, rosters, notifications, position descriptions.
3. Where the breach occurred, remediate before responding: back-pay with evidence, make the late notification, fix the records, change the system.
4. Respond fully: the facts, how it happened, what was done, the history, the cooperation, and the consequence of each sanction for the workers.
5. On an infringement notice, decide within the period whether the breach can be contested; pay if it cannot.
6. Tell the sponsored workers in writing what is happening and what it means for their visas; ask nothing of them, and pay nothing from them.
7. If a bar or cancellation is imposed, lodge for Tribunal review within the period if the decision is wrong, and comply while it runs.
8. Fix every obligation found wanting, document the fix, and expect the next nomination to be read against the record.

General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Division 3A of Part 2 of the Migration Act 1958, including the sponsorship obligations provisions, the sanctions and the publication provisions, the civil penalty and infringement notice provisions and the amounts in penalty units as indexed, the sponsorship obligations in Division 2.19 of the Migration Regulations 1994, the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Act 2024 and its prohibited employer and offence provisions, and the Department’s published sanctions practice and register, all as in force at the date above; the Department decides each matter on its own facts and the amounts change with indexation. 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.