Your sponsored worker has resigned or been dismissed: the 28-day notification, the costs you cannot recover, the levy refund, the pending nomination that lapses, and the obligations that continue

MARN 1576536

The first week

1. Fix the date the employment ended: the last day of the notice period, the date of dismissal, or the redundancy date.
2. Pay out the entitlements, wages, leave, notice and any redundancy, as for any employee, and keep the final payslip.
3. Notify the Department within 28 days of that date, in writing, and keep the acknowledgement.
4. Withdraw any nomination that was pending for the worker, and tell the worker so they can withdraw the visa application for the refund.
5. Claim the levy refund where the worker left within the first year and whole years of the nominated period remain.
6. Give the worker the employment reference they will need, with the dates, the position and the duties.
7. Do nothing about the visa, because it is not yours to do anything about.

The notification within 28 days

The sponsorship obligations require a standard business sponsor to notify the Department, in writing, within 28 days after the event, of the cessation of a sponsored worker's employment, whether by resignation, dismissal or redundancy, and of a change in the worker's duties, a change in the business's structure, and the other events the obligation lists; the notification is made through ImmiAccount against the sponsorship, or by the Department's notification form, with the worker's name, date of birth and visa details, the date the employment ceased and the circumstances, and the Department acknowledges it. A late notification is a breach, found at monitoring from the payroll records, and the sanctions for breaches run from a warning to a bar on sponsoring; a sponsor that has never notified anything and has had several workers leave is the sponsor the Department audits. The notification does not cancel the worker's visa, does not start any action against the worker, and is not a hostile act; it is a record the Department requires, and the worker's own obligation to tell the Department of the change runs alongside it. The obligations guide sets out every notifiable event.

The worker's visa and the 180 days

The 482 or 494 was granted to the worker and belongs to the worker; the employer cannot cancel it, cannot ask the Department to cancel it, and cannot shorten the period the worker has to find another sponsor, which condition 8607 sets at 180 days from the cessation, during which the worker may work for anyone in any occupation while they look. An employer who tells the Department the worker has left is doing what the obligations require and nothing more, and an employer who writes to the Department asking that the worker's visa be cancelled, or who tells the worker that it will be, has misunderstood the law and, where the statement was used to pressure the worker, has engaged in conduct the Department and the Fair Work Ombudsman act on. A worker who finds a new sponsor within the 180 days transfers on a new nomination; a worker who does not departs or applies for another visa; neither is the former employer's concern. The worker's guide covers their side, and the transfer guide what the next employer does.

Dismissal under the Fair Work Act

A sponsored worker is an employee with every protection the Fair Work Act, the award and the contract give an Australian employee: the dismissal must have a valid reason, follow a fair process, give the notice or payment in lieu, and pay the entitlements, and a worker dismissed unfairly has the unfair dismissal application and the general protections claim that any employee has, with the Fair Work Ombudsman treating visa holders as a priority cohort and the Department reading an adverse Fair Work finding as adverse information about the sponsor. The sponsorship obligations add that the worker must have been employed on terms no less favourable than an Australian's, so that a dismissal that an Australian would not have faced is a sponsor breach as well. A dismissal for serious misconduct is notified to the Department with the facts, and the Department does not require the employer to justify the dismissal to it; the Fair Work Commission is where the dismissal is tested. An employer who dismisses a sponsored worker within months of the grant is asked, at monitoring or in the next nomination, whether the position was genuine, and keeps the evidence of why the employment ended.

Redundancy and how the Department reads it

A sponsored position made redundant is a cessation notified like any other, with redundancy pay under the Act and the award, and the Department reads a redundancy shortly after a nomination for whether the position was genuine when nominated, since a position that was needed in March and abolished in June invites the question; an employer that can show the change in the business, a lost contract, a downturn, a restructure, with the documents, answers it, and an employer that nominated a position it did not have does not. A redundancy that is followed within months by a new nomination for the same position, with a different worker, is the pattern the Department examines most closely. The levy refund for whole years not worked applies to a redundancy as to a resignation.

The return airfare

The sponsorship obligations require the sponsor to pay the reasonable and necessary travel costs for the sponsored worker, and the worker's sponsored family members, to leave Australia, where the worker requests it in writing within the period the obligations set after the employment ended, or the Department requests it; the costs are the economy fare to the worker's home country and the reasonable costs of getting to the airport, not relocation or shipping, and the sponsor pays them within the period after the request. A worker who finds a new sponsor and stays does not request them, and most do not; a worker who is leaving Australia may, and the employer that refuses is in breach. The cost is a debt of the business that cannot be recovered from the worker and is not reduced by the circumstances of the departure, including a dismissal for cause.

The costs you cannot recover

The sponsorship obligations prohibit the sponsor from recovering, or seeking to recover, from the worker or anyone else the costs of becoming a sponsor, the nomination charge, the levy, and the costs the sponsor incurred in relation to the sponsorship and nomination, including the agent's fees for the employer's side, and they prohibit the sponsor from transferring those costs to the worker; a clause in the employment contract requiring the worker to repay the sponsorship costs if they leave within a period is a breach of the obligation on its own, is unenforceable, and is the first thing the Department reads when the worker's next application attaches the contract. A deduction from the final pay for any of these costs is a breach of the Fair Work Act's rules on deductions as well, recoverable by the worker with penalties. The employer may recover a genuine overpayment of wages, a loan documented as a loan, and the ordinary matters any employer may, under the Act's rules. The deductions guide covers the employer that has already recovered, and what to do about it.

The levy refund

The Skilling Australians Fund levy, paid at nomination for each year of the nominated period, is refundable in the circumstances the charges legislation sets, which include a nomination refused other than for false information, a visa refused on health or character, a nomination withdrawn before decision in some cases, and, for a 482, the worker having ceased employment within the first twelve months of the visa where the nominated period was more than twelve months, in which case the levy for each full year of the period that the worker did not work is refunded; a worker who leaves after eighteen months of a four-year visa brings no refund, and a worker who leaves after six months brings the refund for the three unused years. The refund is applied for through the Department's refund process with the evidence of the cessation and the notification, and is paid to the sponsor that paid the levy. The sponsorship and nomination charges are not refundable for a worker who leaves.

The pending nomination or 186

A 482 nomination lodged for the worker and not yet decided when the worker leaves cannot be approved, because the position is no longer to be filled by that worker; the employer withdraws it, the nomination charge is not refunded, the levy is refunded where the withdrawal is within the circumstances, and the worker withdraws the dependent visa application for the refund of the visa charge. A 186 nomination pending in the transition stream requires the worker to be employed by the nominating employer, and in the direct entry stream requires a genuine ongoing position for the worker, and a worker who has left defeats both; the employer withdraws it, the charge is lost, and the worker's 186 application is withdrawn for the refund. A worker who leaves and returns to the employer before the decision has an unusual case, since the employment and the position may be shown to continue, and the consultation reads it before anything is withdrawn. The refund guide covers the worker's refund, and the 186 guide the nomination's criteria.

The obligations that continue

• Record-keeping: the records of the worker's employment, pay, duties and the notifications are kept for the period the obligations set after the sponsorship ends, and are produced to the Department on request.
• Cooperation with monitoring: the Department may inspect, request documents and interview for the years after, about this worker and others.
• The airfare obligation, for the period after the cessation.
• The non-recovery obligation, which has no end.
• The obligation to provide information the Department requests about the worker.

The obligations attach to the sponsorship, which continues for its five years and covers every worker nominated under it, and a sponsor that has had workers leave and keeps clean records has nothing to fear from the monitoring that follows a notification; a sponsor that has not has the monitoring visit described in the obligations guide.

The reference, and re-sponsoring later

The worker's next sponsor, and the worker's later 186 application, will need the employer's confirmation of the employment: the dates, the position, the occupation, the hours and the salary, on letterhead, and an employer who refuses it, or writes one that does not match the payroll, has done the worker a harm the Department can see and has not helped itself; the reference is a statement of fact, written as one, and an employer who dismissed the worker for cause writes the facts of the employment without the opinion. An employer that later wants the same worker back, or a worker who returns, lodges a new nomination under the existing sponsorship as for any worker, with labour market testing again, and the Department reads the earlier cessation and the reasons; a worker who left for a competitor and returns six months later with a higher nominated salary is a nomination the Department examines for the market rate and the genuineness of both employers' positions, and the consultation reads it before the levy is paid again.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case, and not employment law advice. The sponsorship obligations in Division 2.19 of the Migration Regulations 1994, including the obligations to notify, to pay return travel costs, not to recover costs and to keep records, the sanctions in Division 2.20 and sections 140K to 140Q of the Migration Act 1958, condition 8607, the subclass 186 nomination criteria in regulation 5.19, the refund provisions of the Migration (Skilling Australians Fund) Charges Act 2018 and its regulations, and the Fair Work Act 2009 on dismissal and deductions, as in force at the date above; the periods within which the airfare must be requested and paid and the records kept are those the regulations set and the current position governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each case; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.