CASE STUDY
DGA Ltd
Establishing a subsidiary of a UK business in Australia and moving critical staff to Australia for the medium to long-term.
Introduction
DGA Ltd (DGA) is a London based international consultancy with offices in the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. It provides a range of commercial and programming services across all sectors of the construction industry.
Background
Imagine that you are already delivering services in Australia from your HQ in the UK or Europe but the business in Australia is growing to such an extent that you can no longer efficiently service your contracts remotely.
You are thinking about opening a subsidiary business in Australia and then moving key personnel to Australia to grow your Australian entity.
This was the scenario faced by DGA in 2018.
The business opportunities in Australia were too good to pass up and this required senior staff to locate to Australia for the medium to long term.
We were first approached by the HR manager at DGA in October 2018. She asked us to assist with obtaining a visa for their CEO and his wife. The plan was that he would come out here for a period in order to service contracts already in place and to kick start the operations and to oversee the recruitment of staff in Australia for the new office
The Solution
We advised that their CEO should apply for a 482 Temporary Skills Shortage visa as Corporate General Manager of the new entity. This visa would allow him and his wife to move to Australia for a period of up to four years, with an option to extend for a further four years if needed. Importantly, the visa did not require him to reside in Australia for the whole period; an important aspect given that his presence is required in the other four offices.
We advised that for speed, the UK entity should be the initial sponsoring entity. We made this decision as the Australian entity was not actively trading at the time and thus could not meet the requirements for business sponsorship. We had in mind that the Australian entity would take over sponsorship of the 482 visa at some point when it was properly up and running.
While DGA used their own expertise to set up the Australian entity we were able to provide useful information to DGA on office accommodation, insurance, Australian HR requirements and the 482 visa obligations imposed on Australian sponsors.
The Outcome
We assisted DGA to obtain Standard Business Sponsor (SBS) status.
We lodged a nomination for their CEO taking advantage of the exemption to the general Labour Market Testing requirement that attached to the majority of sub class 482 nominations. The exemption was available due to the fact that he was filling a senior management role and that the UK is a WTO member country. We advised DGA on the appropriate salary level to be paid so as to meet the Australian Market Rate Salary requirement and for the Genuine Temporary Entrant requirement.
We applied for and obtained the 482 visa for the CEO and his wife, having advised on the skill, language, character and health requirements.
As soon as the Australian entity was up and running, we applied for it to gain SBS status and transferred the CEO’s sponsoring to the new entity. This was important to DGA for tax reasons. From a visa perspective, it opened the possibility that the CEO could apply for permanent residency in the future based on his employment by an Australian (as opposed to an offshore) entity.
Events over the last few years,
The Australian business has grown in the past four years and now employs a local Director. It employs five professional staff and we have been involved in gaining visas for all of their offshore staff.
These staff entered Australia using various pathways. Some were here already on Working Holiday Visas and we applied for 482 visas for them. Others were overseas but were needed in Australia urgently. For these candidates we applied for 400 visas and then applied for 482 visa once they were onshore. For others we simply applied for 482 visas from their home countries.
TorFX Pty Ltd (TorFX)
Helping with a speedy deployment and creating a pathway to permanent residency
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