Media and Film Staff visa (subclass 423)

Sunday 5 November 2023

VISA HOLDERS

The Media and Film Staff visa (subclass 423) closed to new applications on 24 November 2012. You cannot apply for this visa. You may wish to consider whether one of the following is appropriate for you:

Temporary Activity visa (subclass 408) – for people who want to come to Australia to make a documentary or commercial
Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist) visa (subclass 400) – for people who want to come to Australia for short stays for up to three months to: make a documentary or commercial that will be shown outside Australia (and is not intended to be shown in Australia), do short-term non-ongoing work as a journalist or foreign correspondent

HOW LONG YOUR VISA LASTS

Your visa is usually valid for the period of the nominated position, with a maximum period of two years.

WHAT THIS VISA LETS YOU DO

This visa lets you:

undertake media work in Australia for a company or production house that is based in Australia
stay in Australia for the period of the nominated position, with a maximum stay of two years
bring your family with you (they can work and study)
leave and enter Australia as many times as you want while your visa is valid.

YOUR OBLIGATIONS

You and your family must:

comply with all visa conditions and Australian laws
maintain adequate health insurance while you are in Australia.

WORK IN AUSTRALIA

You must not:

stop working for the employer who sponsored you for this visa
engage in work or an activity that is inconsistent with your nominated position
work for another person or for yourself while also working for your sponsor.

IF YOU STOP WORKING FOR YOUR SPONSOR

If you stop working for your sponsor, you must:

apply for a different visa
leave Australia before your visa expires.

CHANGING YOUR SPONSOR

You will not be able to change employers while you are on your current visa. If you want to change your position or employer, you will need to apply for another visa. You can use the visa finder to search for an appropriate visa.

YOUR FAMILY'S OBLIGATIONS

Your family cannot enter Australia before you. When your visa ends, your family must leave Australia with you. They must:

intend to remain a member of your family unit
maintain adequate health insurance while they are in Australia.

Your family can work or study while their visa is valid.

REPORT CHANGES IN CIRCUMSTANCES

You must tell us if your circumstances change. This includes a new residential address, a new passport, or a pregnancy, birth, divorce, separation, marriage, de facto relationship or death in your family. Please report changes in your circumstances via ImmiAccount. If you are not able to use ImmiAccount, you can use the following forms:

Form 929 Change of address and/or passport details — if you move to a new address or change your passport
Form 1022 Notification of changes in circumstances — if there are other changes in your circumstances.

If you do not provide us with the details of any new passport issued to you, you could experience significant delays at the airport and may be denied permission to board your plane.

HOW LONG THE SPONSORSHIP LASTS

Your sponsorship is valid for up to three years.

NOMINATIONS

Each occupation, program or activity which you nominated will have its approval cease on the earliest of:

the day on which we receive written notification of your withdrawal of the nomination
12 months after the day on which the nomination is approved
3 months after the day on which your approval as a sponsor ceases if the nomination approval is given to you
the day on which your approval as a sponsor is cancelled if the nomination approval is given to you
the day on which the visa was granted on the basis of the nomination.

SPONSOR OBLIGATIONS

You must be able to comply with following sponsorship obligations:

cooperate with inspectors
tell us when certain events occur
keep records
provide records and information to the Minister
not recover from, transfer or charge certain costs to another person
pay costs to locate and remove an unlawful non-citizen
ensure the visa holder works in the nominated occupation, program or activity

You are responsible for meeting all your obligations, even if you have someone else authorised to act on your behalf, including a migration agent.

COOPERATE WITH INSPECTORS

You must cooperate with inspectors appointed under the Migration Act 1958 (the Act) who are investigating whether:

a sponsorship obligation is being, or has been, complied with
you have hired an illegal worker
there are other circumstances in which we could take administrative action.

This obligation starts on the day the sponsorship is approved or work agreement commences and ends five years after the day the approved sponsorship ends or work agreement ceases. Cooperating with inspectors can include (but is not limited to): providing access to premises, producing and providing documents within the requested timeframe, not preventing or attempting to prevent access to a person who has custody of, or access to, a record or documents, providing officers with access to interview any person on their premises.

KEEP RECORDS

You must keep records that show you have complied with your sponsorship obligations. All records must be in a reproducible format and some must be capable of verification by an independent person. You must keep a record of:

any notification that you were required to make to us
the date on which you notified us, and how and where you made the notification.

This obligation starts on the day the sponsorship is approved and ends two years after both of the following: you are no longer an approved sponsor and you are no longer sponsoring anyone. You do not need to keep any records for more than five years.

PROVIDE RECORDS AND INFORMATION TO THE MINISTER

You must provide records or information, if they are requested by a departmental officer that goes to determining whether:

a sponsorship obligation is being or has been complied with
determining whether other circumstances, in which the Minister may take administrative action, exist or have existed,

in the manner and timeframe requested by the department. We may ask you in writing to provide records or information which relate to your sponsorship obligations, and any other matters that relate to your sponsorship of visa holders. You must provide the records or information requested if it is a record or information that you are required to keep under Commonwealth, state or territory law or you have an obligation to keep as a sponsor. This obligation starts to apply on the day the sponsorship is approved or work agreement commences and ends two years after your sponsorship or work agreement ceases and you no longer have a sponsored visa holder.

TELL US WHEN CERTAIN EVENTS OCCUR

You must tell us in writing when certain events occur. Send the information by registered post or electronic mail to a specified address and within certain timeframes of the event occurring. Events where a sponsor must provide information to us include:

the primary sponsored person fails to participate in the nominated activity
the cessation of a primary sponsored person's participation in a film or television production
the primary sponsored person, apart from performers in a film or television production, ceases prior to the cessation date approved at nomination
the sponsor ceases to hold a licence that was required for the nomination to be approved
a change to the information in the sponsor's application for approval as a sponsor, relating to the person's address and contact details
If the sponsor is an Australian organization, the legal entity ceases to exist.

This obligation starts to apply on the day the standard business sponsorship is approved or the work agreement commences and ends two years after your sponsorship or work agreement ends and you are no longer sponsoring anyone.

You must send details of these events by email or to one of our state or territory offices listed below.

By email (preferred): sponsor.notifications@homeaffairs.gov.au

BY REGISTERED POST:

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY Sponsor Monitoring GPO Box 717 Canberra ACT 2601
NEW SOUTH WALES Sponsor Monitoring GPO Box 9984 Sydney NSW 2001
QUEENSLAND Sponsor Monitoring GPO Box 9984 Brisbane Qld 4001
NORTHERN TERRITORY Sponsor Monitoring GPO Box 864 Darwin NT 0801
SOUTH AUSTRALIA Sponsor Monitoring GPO Box 2399 Adelaide SA 5001
TASMANIA Sponsor Monitoring GPO Box 794 Hobart Tas. 7001
VICTORIA Sponsor Monitoring GPO Box 241 Melbourne Vic. 3001
WESTERN AUSTRALIA Sponsor Monitoring Locked Bag 7 Northbridge WA 6865

ENSURE THAT THE VISA HOLDER PARTICIPATES IN THE NOMINATED OCCUPATION, PROGRAM OR ACTIVITY

You must ensure that the person you have sponsored participates only in the occupation, program or activity for which you nominated them. If you want to engage a visa holder for a different occupation, program or activity, you must lodge a new nomination application. This obligation starts on the day the person you have sponsored is granted a visa. If they already hold a visa when you nominate them, your obligation starts on the day the nomination is approved. This obligation ends on the day (whichever is the earliest): the sponsored visa holder has a nomination approved for another approved sponsor, the sponsored visa holder is granted another substantive visa of a different type for which you sponsored them (unless that other visa is a bridging visa, criminal justice visa or enforcement visa), the sponsored visa holder has left Australia and the relevant visa (and any subsequent bridging visa) is no longer in effect.

NOT RECOVER, TRANSFER OR CHARGE CERTAIN COSTS TO ANOTHER PERSON

You must not take any action or seek to take any action that would result in the transfer or charging of costs (including migration agent costs) to another person, such as a sponsored visa holder or their sponsored family members. This includes costs that relate to the recruitment of the person you sponsored, becoming or being a sponsor or former approved sponsor. This obligation starts on the day the sponsorship is approved or the work agreement commences and ends on the following two events: you cease to be an approved sponsor or party to a work agreement and you no longer have a sponsored visa holder. Sponsors are also required to pay certain costs associated with becoming a sponsor and not pass these costs, in any form, onto another person. These include: cost of sponsorship and nomination charges, migration agent costs associated with the lodgement of sponsorship and nomination applications, administrative costs and any sundry costs an employer incurs when they conduct recruitment exercises.

PAY COSTS TO LOCATE AND REMOVE AN UNLAWFUL NON-CITIZEN

In the event a primary sponsored person (or any of their sponsored family members) becomes an unlawful non-citizen, you may be required to pay the costs incurred by the Commonwealth in locating and/or removing the primary or secondary sponsored persons from Australia. You may be liable to pay the Commonwealth the difference between the actual costs incurred by the Commonwealth (up to a maximum of AUD10,000) less any amount which may have already been paid under the obligation to pay travel costs to enable sponsored persons to leave Australia. This obligation starts on the day the person you sponsored becomes an unlawful non-citizen and ends five years after they leave Australia. This means that the department might, up to five years after the person you have sponsored has left Australia, give you a letter requiring payment of the costs that the Commonwealth paid to locate and remove the person you sponsored prior to their departure from Australia.

MONITORING OF SPONSORS AND VISA HOLDERS

You must comply with your obligations as a sponsor. We monitor your compliance with the sponsorship obligations and whether your visa holders are upholding their visa conditions. We monitor you while you are a sponsor and for up to five years after you cease being a sponsor. We do this routinely and in response to information provided to us, and in three main ways: exchanging information with other Commonwealth, state and territory government agencies, writing to you to ask for information in accordance with the obligation to provide records and information, site visits, usually to the sponsored business premises, with or without notice. Your compliance with the sponsorship obligations might be investigated by Immigration inspectors who have investigative powers under the Migration Act 1958. Failure to cooperate with inspectors is a breach of the sponsorship obligations.

SANCTIONS FOR NOT MEETING YOUR SPONSOR OBLIGATIONS

If you do not meet your obligations, we could take one or more of the following actions:

ADMINISTRATIVE

you could be barred from sponsoring more people for a specified time
you could be barred from applying for approval to be a sponsor, in relation to this visa or another one
all of your existing approvals as a sponsor could be cancelled.

ENFORCEABLE UNDERTAKING

You could be invited to enter into an enforceable undertaking. Enforceable undertakings require you to promise, in writing, to undertake to complete certain actions to demonstrate that the failures have been rectified and won’t happen again.

CIVIL

we can issue an infringement notice of up to AUD10,200 for a body corporate and AUD2,040 for an individual for each failure
we can apply to a court for a civil penalty order of up to AUD51,000 for a corporation and AUD10,200 for an individual for each failure.

OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION MIGHT BE TAKEN

In addition, you could also have sanctions imposed if: you provide false or misleading information to us or the Migration Review Tribunal, you no longer satisfy the criteria for approval as a sponsor or for variation of a term of that approval, you have been found by a court or competent authority to have contravened a Commonwealth, state or territory law, the person you have sponsored breaks a law relating to the licensing, registration or membership needed to work in the nominated position.