Are you a Café or Restaurant Manager looking to migrate to or work in Australia?

Qualified Café or Restaurant Managers have visa options to migrate to or work in Australia as this occupation is in the different skilled occupation lists, meaning it is an occupation that is needed in Australia or there is a skill shortage that needs to be addressed.

The visa options for a café or restaurant manager, depending on the applicant’s circumstances, can either be employer-sponsored or under the general skilled migration (GSM).  

The visas available for a café or restaurant manager, depending on whether they are eligible includes:

• Skilled Nominated (subclass 190)
• Provisional (temporary) visas that can lead to permanent residency visas:
  • Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 489) - State or Territory nominated
  • Temporary Skill Shortage visa (subclass 482) - Short Term Stream (subject to caveats)
  • Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (provisional) (subclass 494) - Employer sponsored stream
  • Skilled Work Regional (provisional) visa (subclass 491) State or Territory nominated
• Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186)

Applying under the General Skilled Migration (GSM)

If you are applying under the GSM or the state-nominated visa, you need to:

1. Check your eligibility first and checking if you have the required points needed.

Points are based on the following:

1. Age
2. English language skills
3. Skilled employment/work experience (outside and in Australia)
4. Educational qualifications
5. Australian study requirement
6. Specialist education qualification
7. Credentialled community language
8. Study in regional Australia
9. Partner Skills
10. Professional year in Australia
11. Nomination or Sponsorship

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2. Get a positive skills assessment

The assessing authority for café or restaurant manager is VETASSESS.

Generally, to get a positive skills assessment the qualifications required is a s a qualification assessed as comparable to the educational level of an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Diploma or higher (ANZSCO Skill Level 2).

To meet the assessment criteria, you should be able to meet any of the following:

1. Have the minimum the comparable Diploma or higher AQF level AND highly relevant major field of study PLUS 1 year highly relevant employment duration OR
2. Have the minimum the comparable Diploma or higher AQF level AND a minimum AQF Certificate IV level with highly relevant major PLUS 1 year highly relevant employment duration OR
3. Have the minimum the comparable Diploma or higher AQF level PLUS 2 years highly relevant employment duration OR
4. If employment is prior to the completion of the qualification at the required level - Have 4 years of highly relevant paid employment duration with at least 1 year of highly relevant employment within the last five years before applying PLUS have the minimum the comparable Diploma or higher AQF level. The remaining three years of pre-qualifying period may be within the last ten years.

3. Submit your Expression of Interest

You do this through the Department of Home Affairs’ SkillSelect website. In your EOI you would need to provide the details of your:

• Your English language test
• Educational and qualifications
• Skills Assessment
• Employment history

This is where the points you are claiming will be calculated.

4. State nomination

The requirements for each state and territory for state nomination differs. The process may defer depending on which state you want to sponsor you. Some states like Tasmania requires the applicant to submit their Registration of Interest and wait for an invitation to apply for state nomination.

5. Invitation to apply for the visa

6. Apply for the visa

If applying for an employer-sponsored visa

If you have an employer willing to sponsor you, you can look at the employer-sponsored visa options.

Subclass 494

If you are based in a designated regional area in Australia and have an employer who is willing to sponsor you, have at least 3 years relevant work experience then this visa may be for you.  This visa is valid for 5 years and after 3 years of holding this visa and upon meeting the eligibility requirements, you may be able to apply for the Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa (subclass 191).

Subclass 482

If they have an employer who cannot find a qualified Australian worker to work as café or restaurant manager, then the employer may be able to sponsor you for the Subclass 482 visa – Short Term stream.  However, caveats apply for nominating a café or restaurant manager for this visa, that is, you will not be eligible if you work in a limited-service restaurant. Limited-service restaurants are those places such as fast food or takeaway food services, fast casual restaurants, drinking establishments that offer only a limited food service, limited-service cafes similar to mall cafes.

Subclass 482 visa holders may be sponsored by their employer for permanent resident visa, the  Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) visa, after they have worked for their employer for at least 3 years full time while holding a sc-482 visa.

Subclass 186

As mentioned above, eligible subclass 482 visa holders may be able to apply for this visa if they have worked full time for their sponsoring employer for at least 3 years. Note that from 1 July 2022, eligible 457 and TSS – short term stream visa holders will be able to apply through the Temporary Residence Transition stream. The pathway will be accessible for two years from its commencement on 1 July 2022.

Alternative tiles:

• Food and Beverage Manager
• Restaurateur

Others occupation titles that might be consider:

• Café or Restaurant Manager
• Hotel or Motel Manager 
• Hotel Service Manager
• Accommodation and Hospitality Manager
• Cook 
• Chef
• Pastry Cook

If you want to check if you are eligible for any of the above visas, please contact our office on (+61) 08 8351 9956 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Or book an appointment with one of our experienced Immigration Lawyers and Registered Migration Agents here.

Our team of experienced Immigration Lawyers and Migration Agents look forward to assisting you with your Australian visa or appeal.

This article is not intended to be or taken as migration legal advice. The author of this article disclaims any liability for any action or omission on the information provided or not provided in this article. You should always consult an immigration lawyer or a registered migration agent (like Work Visa Lawyers) to form an informed opinion on your immigration matter.

There are always work needed from both sides for any employer sponsored visa in Australia.

- Employer Sponsored Visa nomination for employer

- Visa application for employee (main applicant)

As an employer trying to fill a skills shortage in your organisation, the requirements for sponsoring an overseas worker can feel overwhelming sometime. If you do not have a good team who is able to handle it, Work Visa Lawyers is here to help.

As skills shortages continue to get worse rather than better, I hope to set out some of the key steps in any employer sponsorship process to make the system easier to understand. Of course, this short blog could not include every possible requirement and is a starting point only.

We can summarise the “skeleton” of an employer sponsorship program as:

• Standard Business Sponsorship (if required)
• DAR endorsement (if required)
• Labour Agreement negotiation (exclusively for Labour Agreement Stream including DAMA)
• Nomination application (may require Labour Market Testing)
• Visa application stage

Before Diving In

The very first step before jumping in is determining which of the employer sponsorship streams is most appropriate for you and your business.

The most common visa options for employer sponsored visas include:

• Temporary Skills Shortage Visa 482 ( TSS 482 Visa) - This includes Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMA)
• 186 Employer Nominated Scheme ( Permanent) Visa
• 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) Visa

The main factors for business to decide are:

• The nature of the role you are trying to fill
• How long you need to fill it

If you have already conducted recruitment efforts at this point and located the worker you are looking to sponsor, their age, English language ability, qualifications or years of work experience can influence which programs you are limited to.

The DAMA program is specifically designed to allow sponsorship of workers in areas of key need where the worker may be older or have a lower level of English language ability than is permitted under the other programs.

Labour Market Testing (job ads)

Labour Market Testing is an important part of the Government's systems for “putting Australian workers first”. The requirements have grown more rigid of the last 4 years and have moved further away from modern business practices.

Often the Standard Business Sponsorship is described as the first step of “sponsoring a foreign worker”. However, as Labour Market Testing takes a minimum of 4 weeks to run properly, this is often the first thing you want to do to get your new staff member onboard as soon as possible.

Generally, 3 online ads are the best way to go, one of which being on JobActive. There are requirements to include the salary if the worker will be paid under a certain threshold.

Most DAMA programs currently allow for 2 job ads that have been run in the last 12 months before submitting the linked nomination application.

Labour Market Testing is not required where International Trade Obligations override the Government’s interest in putting Australian workers first.

It is important to note that the 186 visa program does not formally require Labour Market Testing, however, conducting job ads can be a good way to demonstrate that the position being nominated is genuine in the Direct Entry stream.

Standard Business Sponsorship

If you are using the medium-term stream or short-term stream of the 482 visa program, or the employer-sponsored stream of the 494 visa program, your first application to the Department of Home Affairs will be a Standard Business Sponsorship.

This is centred entirely on your business and requires demonstrating that you are lawfully operating a business (two requirements: lawful and operating). The Department will also consider any adverse information and determine whether your business’ track record is suitable for the employer sponsorship program (this can include records of breaches of laws, especially employment laws, insolvency, or untruthfulness).

Designated Area Representative (DAR) endorsement

For the DAMA program, you need the endorsement of the Designated Area Representative (who would have negotiated the DAMA for the area) before you can “negotiate” a Labour Agreement with the federal government.

Requirements for DAR endorsement are thoroughly unique to the local area and the occupation(s) being nominated.

Generally they will require you to demonstrate that you have a business in the local area, a need to use the program, and will also want to check almost all requirements for the business and visa applicant before endorsing.

Labour Agreement negotiation (DAMA and other labour agreements)

Once endorsed by the DAR if required, the business then applies to the federal government to enter into the desired labour agreement.

If successful, the Department of Home Affairs will send you a labour agreement to sign, which might include a range of different terms depending on the particular labour agreement program being used.

Nomination application

For the sponsoring business, the nomination application is the one constant through all programs. Whether you are using the 482, DAMA, 186, 494 or any other employer-sponsored program: no-one escapes the nomination.

While the Standard Business Sponsorship is not related to any particular roles in the business, and the DAR endorsement and labour agreements can set out multiple roles the business is seeking to fill with overseas labour, the nomination identifies one single position and one single person who will be filling that role.

If you have 5 nurses to fill workforce shortages, that means you will be doing 5 nomination applications – one for each of them.

Visa application

Once all above steps have been successful or at least sent to the Department, the worker can submit their visa application.

This is the main stage where the worker’s qualifications, work experience and English language ability, as well as heath and character, are assessed by the Department. If partner and/or children are included in the application, the Department will be checking that they also meet their own requirements.

Applicant skills and English requirements are set, among other reasons, to ensure that foreign workers are able to enter Australia and fill the required skills shortage quickly and effectively.

Once it’s all over (or is it?)

Once you have the visa, the endpoint of all this, it is time for the worker to travel to Australia to join your business.

Once on-staff, it is important that you comply with all the sponsorship obligations. You can read more about sponsorship obligations here. Obligations will vary to some extent between 482, 186, DAMA and 494, but are largely overlapping for the 482 and 494, as well as the DAMA route of accessing those.

Put simply, it’s important to follow through on the range of commitments made to the Government throughout the sponsorship processes discussed above, most obviously paying the worker at least the guaranteed amounts you had set out. The Department can undertake monitoring activities to ensure this is being done.

Sources/further reading:

• https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/employing-and-sponsoring-someone/sponsoring-workers/learn-about-sponsoring/how-to-sponsor-a-worker
• https://www.workvisalawyers.com.au/services/employer-sponsored-visas/tss-482-visa/tss-482-sponsorship-obligations.html
• https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/employing-and-sponsoring-someone/sponsoring-workers/nominating-a-position/labour-market-testing
• https://www.workvisalawyers.com.au/services/employer-sponsored-visas/tss-482-visa/tss-482-nomination-labour-market-testing-lmt.html