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 genuinely tested the local market. The rules are precise: approved platforms, exact durations, specific content, strict evidence. 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 or the regional 494 — the Department of Home Affairs requires the employer to first test the local labour market. In practice, that means advertising the position properly, for the required period, on approved platforms, and then demonstrating what the market showed.
The test is a genuine recruitment process. The role is advertised openly to the Australian market, every application is received and considered, and each candidate is assessed objectively on their merits. The outcome is whatever the market shows — and the entire process is recorded, giving the business the facts it needs and the evidence that accompanies a nomination.
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 — which is why it deserves specialist attention rather than being treated as paperwork.
A refused nomination means lost fees, months of delay, and starting again — and 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. The test is only valid when every requirement is met precisely.
This is a real recruitment process, not a formality. Every application is considered and every candidate assessed fairly on their merits — that is what the Department expects to see.
The record of the test is what travels with the nomination. A complete, accurate, professionally prepared record is what does the job.
One engagement covers the entire labour market testing process. We check the role against the requirements, run the advertising, receive and objectively assess every application, and document all of it. What you receive is the complete, factual picture of what the market showed — and the decision about what happens next is always yours, made with all the facts in front of you.
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 genuinely been tested. 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 — 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.
Labour market testing is a real recruitment process, and real processes sometimes uncover real talent. Because every application is assessed objectively, the test only ever produces good outcomes — the question is which one.
A genuinely suitable Australian candidate applies. We assess them objectively and tell you straight — because a strong local hire may be simpler, faster and closer than a sponsorship journey. Some businesses end their search right here.
No suitable local candidate emerges, and now that is not a hunch — it is a documented fact. You proceed toward nomination with confidence, holding the complete record of a genuine test.
The advertising period is a minimum set by the Department and cannot be shortened. Everything around it moves quickly.
Whether 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.
Hands-on experience delivering labour market testing and Department of Home Affairs compliance work. Luke owns operational delivery and quality control, and is responsible for every report meeting the standard before it leaves. Obsessed with getting the details right.
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.