Cornerstone HR & Migration

02/09/2026

SPONSORSHIP IS NOT A FAVOUR.

A strong employer-sponsored migration strategy begins before the nomination or visa application. It begins with the employer.

Before a skilled worker relocates—especially with family—ask:

• Can the family realistically settle in the location?
• Are housing, schools, childcare, healthcare, transport, community support and partner employment accessible?
• How has the employer treated current and former employees?
• Will the worker receive a proper induction, supervision and reasonable skills-gap training?
• Or will they be expected to understand every Australian system and work autonomously from day one?

A highly experienced worker may still need time to learn one employer’s equipment, procedures, safety systems and expectations. Setting someone up to fail is not workforce planning.

Pay and costs must be lawful and transparent. Prohibited sponsorship, nomination and recruitment costs must not be passed on or indirectly recovered through wages, deductions or side arrangements.

Sponsorship must never be used as leverage. A worker should not be made to feel the employer has done them a personal favour—or that they must tolerate unfair treatment and “suck it up.”

The employers who attract and retain high-calibre people offer:
• genuine employment
• fair, lawful and market-aligned pay
• proper onboarding and support
• respectful treatment
• career development
• timely sponsorship planning
• honest discussions about future pathways

When workers and their families can build stable lives, businesses improve retention, regional communities grow and new jobs follow.

It starts with the employer.

Cornerstone Migration
Strategy-Led • Law-Driven • Recruitment-Integrated

Free 10-minute initial consultation: 07 3737 7649
MARN 1173091



General information only. Individual circumstances differ.

02/09/2026

Planning to lodge a VETASSESS professional skills assessment? Fees increase from 9 September 2026.

The full professional skills assessment fee will rise from $1,096 to $1,146 before GST. Priority Processing increases from $825 to $863, while the subclass 485 assessment fee increases from $416 to $436.

The increase applies to professional skills assessments and several related services. It does not apply to trade occupation assessments.

VETASSESS states that applications received before 9 September 2026 will be charged at the current rates. However, applicants should not rush an incomplete or poorly supported application merely to save the fee difference.

Cornerstone HR & Migration can assess the correct occupation, pathway and supporting evidence before lodgement.

General information only. Fees and assessment requirements depend on the service and the applicant’s circumstances.

25/08/2026

19/08/2026

09/07/2026

Something worth knowing if you're going through a 186, 482, or 494 visa application.
Home Affairs doesn't have to come back and ask you for anything you've missed. If a document isn't there when you lodge, your case can be assessed on what was submitted, gaps and all.
That includes family members added to the application too.
So the real work happens before you hit submit, not after. Police certificates for every country you've lived in for 12 months or more since you turned 16. Employment evidence. Everything that supports your case, right there from the start.
I'd rather see people get this right the first time than watch a good case get decided on an incomplete file.

05/07/2026

Tasmania has just used up every nomination place it had for this program year — 1,200 for subclass 190, 650 for subclass 491. Queensland's program has closed the same way. Every place gone.

If you've already got a nomination or an application in progress, this doesn't touch you. It keeps moving.

If you're still holding a Registration of Interest that hasn't been invited yet, it doesn't disappear either. Both states will hold it and reconsider it once they get their next allocation from the federal government — nobody's confirmed yet how big that will be or when it lands, so I won't pretend to know either.

What I will say is this: the worst thing you can do in a gap like this is nothing. Not panic, not give up — just use the time. Firm up your points. Check your evidence is airtight. Look at whether a backup pathway makes sense while you wait. When the doors open again, you want to already be ready to walk through.

If you want a second set of eyes on where you actually stand, that's exactly the kind of conversation worth having now, not after the next round opens.

30/06/2026

• 482 Skills in Demand visa: $4,015
• 186 Employer Nomination Scheme visa: $6,140
• Partner visa 820/801: $11,710
• Student visa 500: $2,500
• Visitor visa 600: $250