A complex, precise process, run properly, end to end. When an Australian business sponsors an overseas worker, the Department of Home Affairs requires a genuine test of the local labour market first. We run that entire process for you and hand you the complete picture, so you can make your decision with confidence.
Sponsoring an overseas worker starts with proving you tested the local market properly. The rules are precise: approved platforms, exact durations, specific content, strict evidence. A single advertisement can draw hundreds of applications, and every one must be considered and recorded. Most businesses face this once or twice ever, and a misstep surfaces months later, when the nomination is on the line.
ProveHire takes that complexity off your desk. We run the whole test properly, end to end, and give you the complete picture to make your decision with confidence.
When an Australian business wants to sponsor an overseas worker for a skilled visa, such as the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) or the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa (subclass 494), the Department of Home Affairs requires the employer to first test the local labour market. In practice, that means running a proper, well-documented recruitment campaign and demonstrating what the market showed.
The requirement is mandatory for most employer-sponsored nominations, the rules on where, how long and what an advertisement must say are precise, and testing must be completed within a set window before the nomination is lodged. The test itself is a genuine recruitment process: run openly, assessed fairly, with the outcome being whatever the market shows. What carries the weight is the record, because the documented evidence of a genuine process is what a case officer assesses.
Done correctly, labour market testing is a routine step in the sponsorship process. Done poorly, it puts the entire nomination at risk months after the fact. And because it is a real recruitment process, it sometimes delivers a bonus: a strong local candidate you did not know existed. Either way, the outcome is a documented fact rather than a hunch, and the decision stays with you.
A refused nomination means lost fees, months of delay, and starting again. Labour market testing carries real weight in that outcome. The good news: it is entirely manageable. It simply rewards precision, and precision is easier when it is all you do.
Platforms, duration and advertisement content are all set by the Department of Home Affairs, and none of them is negotiable. Working with ProveHire means every requirement is met precisely, the first time.
The test we run is a real recruitment process, advertised openly and assessed fairly. That is exactly what the Department expects to see, and it is what makes the result defensible.
You receive a complete, professionally prepared record that demonstrates the process was done properly, ready to travel with the nomination.
One engagement covers the entire labour market testing process. Our process involves a briefing, compliance review, advertising, assessment, and reporting and delivery. You receive the complete, factual picture of what the market showed, and the decision about what happens next is always yours.
The detail belongs in a conversation. Make an enquiry and we will walk you through exactly how it works for your role.
Make an EnquirySome clients also need position descriptions written, organisation charts prepared, or practical record-keeping systems set up. That is ordinary recruitment and HR work, our home ground, and we offer it as an optional support. Ask us when you enquire.
Sponsoring an overseas worker involves more than the labour market test, and it helps to see the whole picture before you start. Below is an example of a typical employer-sponsored journey. Tap any stage to see what it involves and who leads it.
This is a general illustration of a typical path, not migration advice. Your registered migration agent or immigration lawyer guides the pathway for your specific situation.The business identifies a role it may need overseas talent for, and a registered migration agent or immigration lawyer advises on whether sponsorship is the right pathway, which visa stream fits, and what the journey will involve. This is migration advice, and it belongs with a registered professional.
Before nominating anyone, the business itself must be approved as a sponsor. Your migration professional manages the application; the business supplies its records: financials, company details, and documents about how the organisation is structured and operates.
Where we can help: many businesses discover their organisation charts and HR documentation need tidying at this point. That is ordinary HR work, and we can support it on request.
The position itself needs to be clearly defined: what the role actually does, where it sits in your structure, and how its salary compares with the market. Getting this right early makes everything that follows smoother.
Where we can help: position descriptions, organisation charts and market salary information are recruitment and HR work, our home ground. Ask us.
This is our entire practice. The role is advertised openly to the Australian market on approved platforms for the required period. Every application is received, recorded and objectively assessed on its merits. The whole process is documented as it happens, and you receive the complete factual record of what the market showed.
With the full picture in front of you, the business decides what happens next. Sometimes the test surfaces a strong local candidate and the search ends there: a good outcome, and a simpler one. Otherwise, you proceed toward nomination knowing the market has been through a genuine test. Either way, the decision is made by you, on the facts.
If sponsorship proceeds, your migration professional prepares and lodges the nomination and the candidate's visa application. The labour market testing record travels with the nomination as part of its evidence.
Approved sponsors carry ongoing obligations, including keeping proper records and notifying the Department of Home Affairs of certain changes. Your migration professional advises on what the obligations are; meeting them day to day is mostly disciplined record-keeping.
Where we can help: practical record-keeping systems and reminders, set up as ordinary business administration.
The advertising period is a minimum set by the Department and cannot be shortened. Everything around it moves quickly.
Want to know exactly what happens at each step? Make an enquiry and we will take you through it.
Make an EnquiryWhether you find us directly or your migration agent refers you, our client is the employer. The test is about your role, your business and your hiring decision, so we work with you directly, and the completed record is always delivered to you, for you to decide.
Sponsoring an overseas worker starts with a genuine test of the local market. We run that process end to end, working directly with you throughout, and deliver the complete picture for your decision.
Many engagements begin as a referral from a registered migration agent or immigration lawyer. They own the visa strategy; we deliver the test beneath it, and we coordinate with them so everything lands when the nomination needs it.
Labour market testing should not come with open-ended billing. We quote a single fixed fee for the complete engagement, confirmed in writing before any work starts, with no hourly rates and nothing added along the way.
Tell us about the role and we will come back with the scope, the timeline and the fee, usually within one business day.
Request a QuoteA small team of specialists. Not a recruitment firm with a side offering, not a migration service bolting testing on. Labour market testing, done properly, is the whole practice.
Twenty years in recruitment and talent acquisition, much of it in compliance-heavy hiring environments. Costa founded ProveHire to fix the problem he kept encountering: labour market testing handled expensively, opaquely and unreliably. He looks after agent partnerships and client relationships.
If something is not covered here, ask us directly.
Tell us about the role and the situation. We will confirm whether testing is required, and come back with the scope, the timeline and a fixed-fee quote, usually within one business day. No obligation.
The fastest way to reach us. We usually reply within one business day.
Working with employers Australia-wide, alongside their migration agents and immigration lawyers.