Skilling Australian Fund (SAF) Levy

The Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) was established and introduced in 2017 as an ongoing arrangement by the Australian Government to ensure the businesses that benefit from employing foreign migrants are also providing skill assistance to local Australians. This initiative replaced the previous Training Benchmarks A or B, which ceased on 12 August 2018.

The Fund has been managed through the National Partnership on the Skilling Australians Fund. This fund is meant to assist in the delivery of state and territory projects as set out in individual bilateral agreements between the Australian Government and the six participating states and territories.

To be brief, for employers that want to nominate and sponsor foreign workers, they must pay their share of contributions to this fund.

 When to pay the Levy?

The Levy must be paid at the time of nomination when an employer nominates a position online. The Department’s online systems will tell you what will be the levy based on the information the employer or the nominator provides.

What visa nomination needs to pay the Levy?

The following visa subclasses need to pay the Levy:
TSS 482 visa
ENS 186

How much levy an employer need to pay?

The levy amount is determined by two factors:

  • the size of the sponsoring business and;
  • Proposed period of stay time of the nominee in Australia. This means how many years of visa they want to apply for;
Business size TSS visa ENS/RSMS visas
Small business with annual turnover less than A$10 million A$1,200 per year or part thereof A$3,000 one-off payment
Other businesses with annual turnover of A$10 million of more A$1,800 per year or part thereof A$5,000 one-off payment

Check with Korrylink if you have any queries about how much you must pay for the SAF levy.

VISA OPTIONS FOR SPONSORED VISAS

TSS 482 visa

Regional Employer Sponsored visa 494

Employer Nomination Scheme(ENS) 186

186 Transition Stream from subclass 482

186 Occupations List


OTHER RELATED ISSUES

Caveats on Occupations

Labour Agreement

Labour Marketing Test

Standard Business Sponsorship

Sponsor Obligations