The Employer Sponsored Visa Program Enquiry Form: What It Covers and How to Use It
What Home Affairs’ Employer Sponsored Visa Program Enquiry Form covers, who can use it, what to attach, and what it cannot do.
It is an online enquiry form for people with, or applying for, an employer sponsored visa (subclasses 482, 494, 186 and 187), and for their sponsors and representatives. It covers 16 specific situations, such as adding a baby, asking for more time to give documents, or requesting priority processing. It is not a visa, sponsorship or nomination application, and Home Affairs states no response time.
- The form covers 16 listed situations for people who hold or are applying for employer sponsored visas (482, 494, 186, 187). It is not an application.
- For the 482 and 494 there are three steps: sponsorship, nomination and the visa application; for the 186 the employer nominates. The enquiry form sits beside these and never replaces them.
- Home Affairs states no response time and asks you not to send follow-up emails; extension outcomes come by email.
- Extension requests must be made before the deadline and show the steps you took; priority requests need a statement and evidence and carry no guarantee.
- The form is not for eligibility questions: for agents it says it will not pre-assess or interpret policy. Check conditions in VEVO and update contact details in “Changes in your situation”.
You lodged an employer sponsored visa, or you sponsor someone who did. Then something changed: a baby was born, the job with the sponsor ended, or Home Affairs asked for a document that cannot be provided in time. Somewhere on the Home Affairs website there is a form for that. The question is whether it is this form.
This guide explains the Employer Sponsored Visa Program Enquiry Form in plain English: which situations it handles, who can submit it, what to attach, and, just as important, what it cannot do. Every fact below comes from Home Affairs’ own pages, which we read on 30 October 2026. The form page was last updated on 23 October 2026.
The enquiry form at a glance
The form is for specific, listed situations by people who hold or are applying for the listed visas. It is not a general helpline, a place to ask whether you qualify, or a way to lodge an application. Home Affairs says that information already covered on the page “will not be answered by lodging this form”.
What the form is, and why it exists
The form sits at the end of a long “important information” panel. That panel answers the questions Home Affairs gets most: how to apply, how to check processing times, which documents to attach, what to do about health checks and police certificates, and what sponsors must tell the department. At the bottom it says: “Select Next if you still have an enquiry or need to submit documents.”
The pattern is clear: self-service tools first (ImmiAccount, VEVO, the processing-time guide), and the form for what those tools cannot handle. The information panel covers subclass 482 (listed as Temporary Skill Shortage/Skills in Demand), 494, 186, 187 and 457. The form’s own screening question, however, offers 482 (under both names), 494, 186 and 187, but not 457.
One rule is easy to miss: you must still apply for the visa itself online in ImmiAccount. The enquiry form does not replace that.
Who can use it
The form opens with two required tick-boxes: that you have read and understood Home Affairs’ privacy statement and its security statement. Then it asks whether you, or someone you represent or sponsor, are applying for or hold one of the listed visas. If you answer “None of the above”, the form stops with a plain message: it “is only for applicants, potential applicants, or holders of the previously listed visas”.
Further in, you say who is completing the form. The options are:
- a sponsor or employer
- the primary visa applicant
- a registered migration agent
- a legal practitioner
- an exempt person
- an authorised recipient
- other
Migration agents, legal practitioners and exempt persons are asked for their OMARA registration or legal practitioner reference. Everyone gives an Application ID, Client ID or File Number, plus their name and email.
Employers and visa applicants use the form for different things. Choose yours.
Source: Home Affairs, Employer Sponsored Visa Program Enquiry Form. The interactive guide further down shows what to have ready for each situation.
The 16 situations it covers
After the screening questions, you choose the situation that applies to you. Here are the 16, grouped by what they are about:
| Group | Situations the form lists |
|---|---|
| Your application | Request priority processing. Occupation code is not listed on the application form but is on the relevant list. Cannot give documents by the deadline. Problems uploading documents to ImmiAccount. |
| Your family | Add a dependent spouse or child, or tell Home Affairs about a baby. Relationship with your partner has ended. |
| Your details | Name, date of birth or passport number is wrong in your approval letter. |
| Your job | Employment with your sponsor has ended or changed (the form continues only if you do not have ImmiAccount access). 494 holders reporting address, work or study location (only if you cannot use the Regional Contact Details form in ImmiAccount). |
| Travel and status | Bridging Visa B and imminent travel (you must have made the application in ImmiAccount, with a compelling and compassionate need to travel within the next week). Bridging Visa A or C and you are unlawful or your visa is about to expire (only if your application has not been actioned and your visa expires within the next week). Passed the “Must enter by” date and not yet travelled. |
| Letters | A letter to apply for a police certificate. An alternative identity letter for health exams. |
| Specialists and employers | Migration agents and legal practitioners with a complex policy query. Employers requesting a Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) refund (for nomination applications, and only if you cannot lodge the request in ImmiAccount). |
There is also “None of these apply to me”, with a warning: if the information at the start of the form can answer your query, you will not receive a response. Some topics are not handled through the form at all: the page sends you elsewhere for checking visa conditions (VEVO), updating passport or contact details, reporting business changes, and appointing an agent.
The questions and uploads change with the situation you pick, so choose the one that matches yours. Where you can do the task in ImmiAccount, several situations end with a message telling you to do it there.
Is this the right tool for you?
The form itself sends you elsewhere in several cases. Answer the questions below to find your route and to see what to have ready.
Answer two quick questions. The routes below are the ones the form itself points to.
1. Do you hold, or are you applying for, a subclass 482, 494, 186 or 187 visa?
Source: Home Affairs, Employer Sponsored Visa Program Enquiry Form (page last updated 23 October 2026). General information, not advice on your case.
- For
- One of the 16 listed situations
- Who
- Sponsors, applicants, agents, legal practitioners, exempt persons, authorised recipients and others, for the listed visas
- Not for
- Applications, or what the page already answers
- Reply time
- None stated
- For
- A technical problem with ImmiAccount or an online application
- Who
- Anyone with a technical problem
- Not for
- Visa eligibility or options, or the status of an application
- Reply time
- Aims to respond within ten business days; asks for no repeat requests
- For
- Applying for the visa
- Who
- People applying for the visa
- Not for
- Not applicable: this is the application itself
- Reply time
- See the visa processing time guide
Source: Home Affairs, the enquiry form page and the ImmiAccount Technical Support Form page.
How to complete and submit it
- 11
Read the information panel
It answers many questions already. The form will not answer what the panel already covers.
- 22
Select Next
Tick the privacy and security statements. Both are required.
- 33
Answer the screening questions
Which visa you hold or are applying for, and quick checks that may point you to VEVO or ImmiAccount instead.
- 44
Choose your situation
Pick one of the 16 options (or “None of these apply to me”).
- 55
Give your details
An Application ID, Client ID or File Number, who you are (employer, applicant, agent and so on), and your contact details.
- 66
Answer and attach
Each situation has its own questions and uploads. Uploads accept PDF, PNG, JPG and JPEG files. Every upload field states a 2 MB maximum, and the multi-file children’s birth certificate field also states a 10 MB total.
- 77
Declare and submit
You declare that your information is complete, correct and up to date. The page also offers “Save As Draft” by email.
If your upload keeps failing, the form points you to Home Affairs’ ImmiAccount help page and then the ImmiAccount Technical Support Form, not to a second attempt at this one.
What to have ready
Documents by situation, as the page states them
0/8 doneWhat happens after you submit
Home Affairs states no response time for this form. In the section on requests after a decision, the page says it is “unable to provide a specific timeframe for a response” and asks you not to send follow-up correspondence. By contrast, the ImmiAccount Technical Support Form says it aims to respond within ten business days.
Pick what you are asking for. Home Affairs states no response time for the form itself.
Source: Home Affairs, Employer Sponsored Visa Program Enquiry Form. The ImmiAccount Technical Support Form, a different form, says it aims to respond within ten business days.
Neither extra time nor priority is guaranteed, as the explorer above shows. For SAF refunds, Home Affairs says there is no standard processing time.
For the general picture, use the visa processing time guide, which shows times for recently decided applications and is not specific to your case. Home Affairs’ skilled visa processing priorities page adds that temporary skilled visas are processed under Ministerial Direction 121 and provisional and permanent skilled visas under Ministerial Direction 122. Both took effect on 19 September 2026.
What the form cannot do
- It is not a visa application. You must apply online using ImmiAccount.
- It does not answer what the page already covers. Home Affairs says so in the first paragraph.
- It does not pre-assess your case. None of the 16 situations is an eligibility question. In the option for migration agents and legal practitioners, Home Affairs says it will not respond to queries about your understanding or interpretation of policy or legislation, or seeking pre-assessment of whether a scenario will meet the criteria for a visa.
- It cannot add a spouse to a 494 or 482 after lodgement. A spouse needs their own subsequent entrant application in ImmiAccount. For a 482, the same applies to a child born before lodgement.
- It does not withdraw an application. You withdraw in ImmiAccount.
There is one narrow channel for specialists. Migration agents and legal practitioners may use the form for a “clear and complex policy query” that cannot be answered from their professional resources or the Home Affairs website. The form asks them to name the legislation or procedural instruction, the visa subclass and the background.
“Will my job qualify?” is not one of the 16 situations, and for agents the form says it will not answer pre-assessment queries. Questions about your own circumstances are for a registered migration agent or legal practitioner.
Employer sponsored visas explained: sponsor, nominate, apply
Many enquiries on this form arise part-way through the sponsorship process, so it helps to know the parts. For the 482 and the 494, Home Affairs’ visa pages describe three steps:
- Sponsorship. The employer becomes an approved sponsor. For the 482, Home Affairs says an employer can only nominate if it is an approved sponsor or has at least submitted an application to become a Standard business sponsor.
- Nomination. The employer nominates the worker for a position and receives a nomination Transaction Reference Number (TRN). The 494 page puts it simply: ask your employer for the TRN, because you need it to apply.
- Visa application. The worker applies for the visa online in ImmiAccount.
The 186 is different. In the Temporary Residence Transition stream, the nominating employer must be the one who last sponsored you; the Direct Entry page describes a nomination by an Australian employer whose business is actively and lawfully operating, with no separate sponsorship step. Either way, the enquiry form sits beside these applications. It can tell Home Affairs about a change, ask for more time or priority, or carry documents, but it never replaces any of them.
The temporary and provisional visas. The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) has more than one stream; two of its streams are compared here with the regional 494 and the permanent 186. Choose a visa to see its requirements.
Choose a visa. Each line is how the visa’s own Home Affairs page states it.
482 Core Skills
Temporary visa (Skills in Demand)
- Occupation
- On the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL), paid at least the annual market salary rate and no less than the Core Skills Income Threshold
- Work experience
- At least 1 year, in the occupation or a related field
- Age
- No age requirement
- Skills assessment
- Mandatory for some occupations (IMMI 18/039)
- English
- Minimum standards, unless exempt
- Stay
- Up to 4 years (5 for Hong Kong passport holders)
- Also
- Adequate health insurance for the whole stay; work for the nominating employer in the nominated occupation (or an associated entity, for an Australian business sponsor), unless exempt
Source: Home Affairs visa and stream pages, read 30 October 2026. Income thresholds were indexed from 1 July 2026; see Home Affairs for the amounts.
Both 482 streams also require adequate health insurance for the whole stay, and work only for the nominating employer (or an associated entity, for an Australian business sponsor). Home Affairs says skilled visa income thresholds increased from 1 July 2026 in line with changes to annual Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings; the amounts are on its page “Annual indexation of skilled visa income thresholds from 1 July 2026”, so we do not repeat them here.
The permanent visa. The Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) lets skilled workers nominated by their employer live and work in Australia permanently. Its streams are the Temporary Residence Transition stream, for people already working for their sponsor on a 457 or 482 (explained step by step below); the Direct Entry stream, which requires an occupation on the CSOL, usually at least 3 years of relevant work experience and a positive skills assessment; and a Labour Agreement stream. Both of the first two are usually for applicants under 45, with exemptions.
Home Affairs says criminal and civil penalties can apply to anyone who asks for, receives, offers or provides a benefit in exchange for visa sponsorship. For the 482, you and any secondary applicants must not have engaged in such conduct in the past 3 years, unless the Minister considers it reasonable to disregard it. If an employer or anyone else asks you to pay for sponsorship, that is a red flag.
Not sure which stream fits your business or your job offer? That question turns on the occupation, the salary, the work history and the employer, and the enquiry form will not answer it. Book a consultation with our registered migration agent to go through your situation.
From a 482 to a 186 application: the transition stream
Many readers reach this form because they hold a 482 and are heading for the 186. Home Affairs’ Temporary Residence Transition stream has its own steps, set out below as the page states them.
- 11
Hold a 457 or 482 (or an eligible bridging visa)
Your employer must have been the last person to sponsor you to work full-time on your subclass 457 or 482 visa.
- 222 of the last 3 years
Build 2 years of eligible sponsored employment
You need a total of 2 years of eligible sponsored employment in the 3 years before you apply for the 186. The page lists conditions for what counts, including that it is full-time work in Australia.
- 33
Your employer nominates you
The employer lodges a nomination for the Temporary Residence Transition stream, pays the application fee and the Skilling Australians Fund levy, and gives you the nomination reference number.
- 44
Apply with an approved nomination
You need a nomination from an Australian employer that Home Affairs approved in the 6 months before you apply.
- 55
Other requirements include
At least Competent English, plus health and character requirements. The page lists more, such as age, skills, licensing where required, the Australian values statement and no unpaid debt to the Australian Government. Home Affairs decides the application.
For the Direct Entry stream, see the comparison above. Home Affairs states no timeline to a grant on these pages; use the processing time guide for recently decided applications.
Common mistakes to avoid
Employers: the sponsor section of the page covers withdrawing sponsorship or nomination (requests must be in writing), notifying changes (through ImmiAccount, or by email to sponsor.notifications@abf.gov.au if you cannot) and refunds. A SAF refund request goes through ImmiAccount if you can lodge it there.
Registered migration agent: Ranbir Singh, MARN 1069570
Global Migrations is the trading name of Global Migration & Education Solutions (ABN 22 998 014 414). You can look up our registered migration agent on the official register of migration agents.
Related guides and next steps
- Direction 121: how your subclass 482 is now prioritised
- 482 vs 186 employer visas: which is right for your situation?
If your situation does not fit one of the 16 options, it is usually a sign that you need a different route, or professional advice about your own circumstances. The form says it is for listed situations and complex policy queries, not for assessments.
Want your sponsorship, nomination or visa situation reviewed? Book a consultation or contact our migration team.
This is general information, not personal migration advice. Visa requirements, forms and fees can change without notice; the figures above are as at 30 October 2026. Global Migrations is the trading name of Global Migration & Education Solutions (ABN 22 998 014 414); our registered migration agent is Ranbir Singh, MARN 1069570. We are not part of the Australian Government.
Wondering how this applies to your situation?
Get an honest, no-obligation read on your pathway from a MARA-registered agent.
People also ask
What is the Employer Sponsored Visa Program Enquiry Form?
It is an online form on the Home Affairs website for people who hold or are applying for employer sponsored visas (subclasses 482, 494, 186 and 187), and for their sponsors, registered migration agents and legal practitioners. It lists 16 situations, such as adding a baby, asking for more time to give documents or requesting priority processing.
Is the enquiry form a visa application?
No. Home Affairs says you must apply online using ImmiAccount. The form handles listed enquiries and document submissions, not the visa, nomination or sponsorship applications.
Who can submit the form?
The form lets you choose sponsor or employer, primary visa applicant, registered migration agent, legal practitioner, exempt person, authorised recipient or other. It is only for applicants, potential applicants or holders of the listed visas.
How long does Home Affairs take to reply?
Home Affairs states no response time for this form. It says it is unable to provide a specific timeframe and asks you not to send follow-up correspondence. For extension requests, it tells you the outcome by email.
Can I ask for priority processing?
Yes, once you have submitted all required documents. You must attach a statement of your reasons and supporting evidence. Home Affairs says there is no guarantee of higher priority, because other applicants may have equally or more compelling circumstances, and a request with no specific circumstances will not receive a response.
Can I ask for more time to provide documents?
Yes, but Home Affairs says timeframes are set and it cannot guarantee additional time. It only considers requests made before the original timeframe expires, and the request must show the steps you have taken, such as a payment receipt or booking confirmation.
Can I add my spouse or a baby to my application through the form?
It depends on the visa. For a child born after you lodge, update ImmiAccount and then tell Home Affairs using the form, with Form 1022, the child’s Australian birth certificate and passport pages. A spouse cannot be added to a 494 or 482 after lodgement; for the 186 and 187, you need Form 1436 and the visa application charge.
What if my employment with my sponsor has ended?
Home Affairs points you to its “Your job situation has changed” page. If you do not have access to ImmiAccount, you can tell Home Affairs directly through the enquiry form.
Will Home Affairs tell me if my situation qualifies for a visa?
Not through this form. None of the 16 situations is an eligibility question, and in the agent and legal practitioner option Home Affairs says it will not respond to queries about your interpretation of policy or legislation, or seeking pre-assessment of whether a scenario will meet the criteria for a visa.
What is the difference between the 482, 494 and 186?
The 482 (Skills in Demand) is a temporary visa for up to 4 years with no age requirement and at least 1 year of relevant experience. The 494 is a 5-year provisional visa for positions in designated regional areas, generally for applicants under 45, with at least 3 years of full-time experience and a skills assessment unless exempt. The 186 is permanent: through the Temporary Residence Transition stream after 2 years of eligible sponsored employment, the Direct Entry stream or a labour agreement; both main streams are usually for applicants under 45.
Can I pay an employer to sponsor me?
No. Home Affairs says criminal and civil penalties can apply to anyone who asks for, receives, offers or provides a benefit in exchange for visa sponsorship. For the 482, you and any secondary applicants must not have engaged in such conduct in the past 3 years, unless the Minister considers it reasonable to disregard it.
Where do I check my visa conditions or update my passport details?
Not on this form. Home Affairs points you to VEVO for visa status and conditions, and to “Changes in your situation” for passport, address or contact details.