What Is VEVO Checking and Why It Matters for Employers

Australia’s skilled migration framework relies on a shared understanding between employers, the Department of Home Affairs, and visa holders themselves. At the heart of that understanding is one simple question: does this person have the legal right to work? The tool used to answer it is VEVO.

VEVO, or Visa Entitlement Verification Online, is a government system that allows employers to confirm a worker’s visa conditions in real time. It’s a critical part of employment compliance, yet many organisations continue to treat it as a one-time recruitment step rather than an ongoing responsibility.

What VEVO Checking Actually Does

A VEVO check provides visibility into a visa holder’s current status, including:

• Whether they hold a valid visa
• The visa’s expiry date
• Any conditions attached (such as employer sponsorship, work limitations, or study restrictions)

For sponsored workers, a VEVO check can confirm that their employment aligns with the conditions of their visa subclass (e.g., 482, 494, or 186). For international students or bridging visa holders, it can clarify work rights that are often misunderstood or incorrectly applied.

Why VEVO Checks Are Not Optional

Employers have a legal obligation to ensure that all employees have valid work rights. Relying on a copy of a visa grant notice, a passport alone, or even outdated internal spreadsheets is no longer sufficient.

Failure to conduct proper VEVO checks can lead to serious consequences:

• Civil penalties of up to $79,200 per breach
• Executive liability for directors and managers under the Migration Act
• Inclusion on the “prohibited employer” register, barring access to new visa holders for 5 to 10 years
• Reputational damage, especially in regulated sectors like aged care, education, and hospitality

Recent changes to the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Act 2024 have raised the stakes. Site audits and joint inspections by Border Force and the Fair Work Ombudsman are on the rise. Any organisation employing visa holders can be targeted, whether by design or due to poor record-keeping that fails to demonstrate compliance.

VEVO Checking Is Not Just a Recruitment Step

Many HR teams run a VEVO check during onboarding, file the result, and move on. This is a risky approach. Visa conditions can change mid-employment. Workers may apply for a new visa, move to a different sponsor, or let a bridging visa lapse.

VEVO checks should be part of a structured, ongoing compliance program. This includes:

• Initial verification at recruitment
  
• Routine follow-up checks (e.g. quarterly or at key visa milestones)
  
• Trigger-based checks when circumstances change
  
• Recordkeeping of every check and action taken
  

Organisations that treat VEVO checking as a tick-box exercise are leaving themselves vulnerable to penalties that could have been prevented.

The Operational Burden of Doing It Manually

While VEVO access is free, managing it at scale is anything but. For employers with dozens or hundreds of visa holders, keeping on top of checks can become a full-time job. Spreadsheets must be updated, alerts manually tracked, and HR teams constantly trained on interpreting complex visa conditions.

Worse still, relying on manual processes increases the chance of human error, missed expiry dates, overlooked conditions, or failure to act on updated visa statuses.

How Complize Helps

Complize automates VEVO checking and integrates it into a broader immigration compliance framework. Our platform:

• Runs VEVO checks on a schedule or when triggered by key events
• Provides real-time alerts for expiring visas or condition changes
• Records each check for audit purposes
• Links visa status to employment roles and sponsorship obligations

For HR teams, this means peace of mind. For legal and compliance teams, it means reduced exposure. For executives, it means staying out of the headlines.

As immigration enforcement intensifies, staying compliant is no longer a back-office function. VEVO monitoring is mission-critical, and Complize makes it seamless.