The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has recently reviewed the Australian Immigration Sponsored Business (Short Stay) Visitor (subclass 459) visa program.

The Sponsored Business (Short Stay) Visitor visa allows overseas business people who have an approved sponsor in Australia to enter and operate within Australia for business purposes for a period of up to three months.

Business purposes may include activities such as a conference, business negotiation meetings or exploratory business visits. This visa class allows a business person to bring a partner or children with them to Australia for the duration of their business visit.

A requirement of this 459 visa subclass is that the applicant be sponsored by an approved Australian sponsor. DIAC has amended the list of approved organisations which may sponsor applicants for an Australian visa under the 459 program, resulting in the removal of 79 sponsoring organisations, and the addition of seven new sponsoring organisations.

The changes made to this list of approved sponsors will take effect from the 15th February, 2011.

All subclass 459 visa applications made from this date must refer to the updated list of approved sponsoring organisations to ensure that the application is sponsored by a currently approved sponsoring organisation.

The updated list of organisations approved by DIAC to sponsor subclass 459 visa applicants now includes the following organisations;

• Afghan Australian Development Organisation
• African Enterprise
• Anvil Mining Pty Ltd
• Austal Ships Pty Ltd
• Australian Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc
• Australian Biotech Investments Pty Ltd (trading as the Australia-China Developments Centre)
• Barambah Regional Medical Service
• BJ Process and Pipeline Services (Australia) Pty Ltd
• BJ Services Company (Australia) Pty Ltd
• Brunel Energy Pty Ltd
• Burrup Fertilisers Pty Ltd
• Business SA
• Chamber of Commerce and Industry Australia Philippines Inc
• Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia
• Council for International Trade and Commerce South Australia Inc
• First Quantum Minerals (Australia) Pty Ltd
• Fugro Survey Pty Ltd
• Fusion Australia Ltd
• Geoservices Australasia Pty Ltd
• G.L.O. Ministries Ltd
• Go Marine Group Pty Ltd
• Imdex Ltd
• MRA – Initiatives of Change
• NSW Business Chamber Limited
• Paladin Energy Ltd
• Production Services Network Pty Ltd
• Proteus Global Solutions Pty Ltd
• Queensland Chinese Forum
• Rio Tinto Ltd
• Santos Ltd
• Satyam Computer Services Ltd
• Siemens Ltd
• Southern Cross Enterprise Group Pty Ltd
• Syngas
• Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Weatherford Australia
• WorleyParsons Services Pty Ltd