Employers have often invested a lot of time and effort to understand their immigration obligations. They must navigate the complex immigration law and abide by the immigration framework that imposes obligations on all sponsoring employers. Employers who do not comply with these mandatory obligations are subject to severe consequences from the Department of Home Affairs.
There are three distinct compliance frameworks within the Migration Act 1958, each of which imposes distinct obligations on organisations:
- Work Rights Verification obligations: Organisations must ensure they only employ temporary visa holders who have the right to work and abide by any visa conditions.
- Charging for a Migration Outcome: these laws require organisations to ensure there is exchange of a benefit in exchange for visa sponsorship.
- Sponsorship Obligations: These laws require registered business sponsors to track records, notify Home Affairs of certain events such as changes in circumstances, and cooperate with immigration inspectors.
Breaches of these regulations can result in administrative, civil and criminal penalties, including jail time for executive officers of the organisation where there is found to be reckless or negligent conduct.
In addition, breaches of immigration laws can result in serious and long-lasting reputational damage. Where these issues garner media attention there can be serious consequences for brand value and social licence.
These risks can be managed through effective compliance and risk systems.
- Visa Entitlement Verification Online system (VEVO)
VEVO system allows visa holders, employers, educational institutions and other organizations to verify visa conditions.
Organisations must ensure they only employ visa holders who have the right to work in Australia.
- Human Resources Information System (HRIS)
Managing “human capital” has become a necessary and complex process. The HRIS function is to track existing employee data, which traditionally includes personal background, visa holders expiring date, onboarding and offboarding, skills, abilities, achievements, and salary.
By using computer systems such as HRIS, organisations can track employee records and meet their legal obligations towards employees. Likewise, the Complize Knowledge Base provides orgnaisaitons with the tools to check visa status, track visa exprity dates, work conditions, and other immigration obligations.
- Complize (all in 1 immigration compliance tool)
Complize is a cloud-based immigration regulatory compliance toolkit that integrates with Home Affairs’ systems to ensure organisations can meet their immigration legal obligations in real-time.
The Complize platform provides three core modules:
Workforce: Provides record management for any temporary visa holder, including employee onboarding (automated VEVO check), offboarding, automated work rights verification, automated compliance notifications to Home Affairs, and guided self-audit function.
Knowledge: Resources to enable HR and other business stakeholders to access up-to-date immigration information. The immigration guides are maintained in real-time as a reliable information source by immigration lawyers. The product also provides templates and checklists with ‘smart document’ functionality to enable the organisation to manage employer-sponsored immigration matters with greater clarity and security.
Training: Provides access to 10 compliance certification modules for employees and contractors of the organisation. These modules are designed to be completed on an annual basis and targeted to different staff profiles, including visa holders, line managers, and HR.
If your business has struggled to stay on top of all the immigration requirements imposed by the Department of Home Affairs then Complize is tailored for your needs. Contact us now for a quick demonstration.
Authors: TJ & Jackson Taylor