Which Aged Care and Disability Employers Can Sponsor You, and How to Check
Search this question and you will be told, confidently and repeatedly, to check the government register of approved sponsors. Several AI answers say it outright. It is the most common piece of advice on the topic, and until at least October 2026 it is wrong, because Australia does not have one. The United Kingdom publishes a searchable register of well over 100,000 licensed sponsors as a downloadable spreadsheet. Australia has never had an equivalent. That is changing, but it has not changed yet, and in the meantime a lot of care workers are being sent to look for a page that does not exist.
Quick Answer
Only aged care providers holding an Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, or employers holding an individual DAMA labour agreement in a designated region, can sponsor a Certificate III level care worker. There is currently no public register you can search to confirm this. A register was legislated in April 2026 and must be live by 8 October 2026. Until then, asking the employer directly is the only reliable check, and there are three secondary checks worth doing.
This article is a companion to our detailed guide on how a Certificate III aged care worker actually gets sponsored for a 482 visa. If you have not read that first, the ACILA and DAMA mechanics referenced throughout this article are explained in full there.
Trying to Verify Whether an Aged Care Employer Can Actually Sponsor You?
There is no public register to check yet, and most online lists tell you nothing about whether the employer holds the labour agreement your occupation needs. Speak with a migration professional to work out which providers to target and how to ask.
The Register Is Real, But It Is Not Live Yet
The Migration Amendment (Combatting Migrant Exploitation) Act 2026 passed both Houses of Parliament on 1 April 2026 and received Royal Assent on 8 April 2026. It gives the Department of Home Affairs the power to publish a public register of approved work sponsors on its website.
The Act commences on a date fixed by proclamation, or automatically six months after Royal Assent if no earlier date is proclaimed. That puts the outside date at 8 October 2026.
The explanatory memorandum is unusually direct about who the register is for. It states that the purpose is to help temporary skilled migrant workers find a new sponsor, and to give them a public resource they can check to confirm that a sponsoring employer is legitimate. That is precisely the problem this article exists to solve, and in a couple of months it will be considerably easier to solve.
When it launches, the register is expected to show the type of approved work sponsor, the sponsor name, the ABN and postcode, the number of nominations the sponsor has made, and the occupations those nominations covered. That last field matters most to you, because it will let you see whether an employer has actually nominated direct care roles rather than simply holding sponsor approval in the abstract.
What This Means for You Right Now
If your employer will not give you a straight answer today, you will be able to look it up yourself before the end of the year. That is worth knowing before you resign from a job or pay anybody to find you a sponsor.
Your Employer Needs Two Things, Not One
This is where most people go wrong. They ask whether a provider is an approved sponsor, get a yes, and assume the matter is settled. For a Certificate III care worker it is not.
Direct care occupations sit outside the Core Skills Occupation List, so approved sponsor status on its own does not allow a provider to nominate you. They also need a labour agreement covering your occupation. A provider can be a perfectly legitimate approved sponsor, actively sponsoring registered nurses under the Core Skills stream, and still be completely unable to sponsor a personal care assistant.
| What the Employer Holds | What They Can Nominate | Can Sponsor a Cert III Carer? |
|---|---|---|
| Approved sponsor status only | Roles on the CSOL, such as Registered Nurse | No |
| Approved sponsor plus ACILA | Direct care roles in aged care | Yes |
| Approved sponsor plus a DAMA labour agreement | Roles on that region's occupation list | Yes, in that region |
| Approved sponsor plus a company-specific labour agreement | Roles negotiated in that agreement | Possibly, depends on the agreement |
| No sponsor approval at all | None | No |
Which Employers Can Actually Sponsor a Care Worker
Residential and Home Care Providers With an ACILA
This is the main route. As at 30 June 2025 there were 132 Aged Care Industry Labour Agreements in effect nationally, with capacity for more than 30,000 direct care workers. Larger residential groups operating across multiple sites are far more likely to hold one than a single-site operator, simply because negotiating the required Memorandum of Understanding with the unions takes organisational effort that small providers often cannot justify.
Disability and NDIS Providers, Where It Gets Complicated
The occupation Aged or Disabled Carer covers disability support work, so the role itself is eligible. The Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, however, is built for aged care providers. A pure NDIS provider with no aged care arm generally cannot access it.
That leaves disability providers with two options: negotiate a company-specific labour agreement, which is slow and rare, or operate in a DAMA region and seek endorsement there. This is the single biggest gap in the system and the reason so many disability support workers find that the pathway which clearly exists on paper is unavailable to them in practice. If you work for a provider delivering both aged care and disability services, you are in a much stronger position than someone at a disability-only provider.
Regional Employers Under a DAMA
Thirteen Designated Area Migration Agreements operate across Australia, each with its own occupation list and its own negotiated concessions on age, English and salary. Care roles appear on many of them. If you are working outside Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane, check the DAMA covering your region before you assume ACILA is your only route. Employers must be endorsed by the Designated Area Representative for the region before they can lodge a labour agreement request. Our guide on the DAMA visa framework covers how the thirteen regional agreements actually operate.
Hospitals and Clinics, With a Caveat
Hospitals do sponsor, but usually for Registered and Enrolled Nurses, which are on the Core Skills Occupation List and follow the standard pathway. A Certificate III qualification does not make you eligible for those nominations. Job advertisements from hospitals mentioning visa sponsorship are frequently aimed at nurses even where the ad also lists assistant roles.
Labour Hire Firms and Recruitment Agencies, Usually Not
Agencies generally match workers to providers rather than sponsoring directly. Some do hold sponsor approval, but an agency offering to arrange sponsorship for a fee should be treated with real caution. See the section on payments below, because that arrangement is very often illegal.
Four Ways to Check, in Order of Reliability
Ask the Employer Directly
Unglamorous, and by a wide margin the most reliable thing you can do. The three questions to ask:
- Are we an approved work sponsor with the Department of Home Affairs?
- Do we hold an Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, or a DAMA labour agreement?
- Have we nominated anyone in my occupation before, and how recently?
A genuine answer sounds specific. Someone will know, usually in HR or people and culture rather than your immediate manager, and they will be able to say when the agreement was signed or which migration agent handles their nominations. A vague answer is not necessarily a no. In many providers the conversation has simply never been had, and some do apply for an agreement when a specific worker they want to keep is on the line.
The Accredited Sponsor List Released Under Freedom of Information
Home Affairs has released lists of active accredited sponsors in response to Freedom of Information requests, and several third-party sites host them. This is genuinely useful but narrow. Accredited sponsors are a small, high-compliance subset of all approved sponsors, so absence from the list tells you almost nothing. Presence on it tells you the employer is an established sponsor, which is a good sign but still does not confirm they hold a labour agreement.
Third-Party Sponsor Directories
Several sites publish searchable databases of Australian sponsors compiled from departmental data. Treat these as a source of leads, not as proof. They are usually out of date, they rarely distinguish between sponsor types, and none of them show labour agreement status. Use them to build a list of providers worth approaching, then verify by asking.
Job Boards
SEEK and Indeed both carry hundreds of listings tagged for visa sponsorship in aged care and disability. The tag is applied by the advertiser, not verified by the platform, and it is used loosely. Some ads mean the employer will sponsor. Some mean they will consider candidates who already hold work rights. Some are agencies collecting resumes. Read the ad body rather than the filter, and treat any listing that asks for a payment as a warning sign.
Paying for Sponsorship Is a Criminal Offence, Including for You
This section matters more than anything else on this page, because the people asking this question are exactly the people being targeted.
What the Law Actually Says
Section 245AR of the Migration Act 1958 makes it an offence to ask for or receive a benefit in return for a sponsorship-related event. The penalty is imprisonment for two years, or 360 penalty units, or both, with a separate civil penalty of 240 penalty units. The offence is committed even if the sponsorship never actually happens, which is written into the section explicitly.
Benefit is defined broadly and deliberately. It captures cash, gifts, unpaid work, salary deductions, loans that are really cost recovery, and payment for goods or services above market value. The law looks at the effect of the arrangement rather than how the paperwork describes it.
Two points that are almost never mentioned, and that you should know. First, section 245AS extends the prohibition to the person offering the payment. If you offer money to secure a nomination, you are exposed too, not only the employer. Second, subsection 116(1AC) of the Migration Act creates a visa cancellation ground connected to these arrangements. Paying for sponsorship can cost you the visa you already hold.
Separately, under Regulation 2.87A a sponsor cannot recover the sponsorship application fee, the nomination fee, the Skilling Australians Fund levy, professional fees for the sponsorship and nomination stages, or recruitment costs from you in any form. If you are experiencing employer pressure or arrangements that feel wrong, our guide on reporting employer exploitation without risking your visa covers your protections and the safe channels for raising it.
The Red Flags: Genuine Offer vs Walk Away
If you are being approached with a sponsorship offer, this side-by-side is worth screenshotting. Every column shows the same criterion tested for legitimacy.
Signs the Offer Is Genuine
- Employer names the agreement and when it was signed
- HR handles the process and uses a named migration agent
- You are asked to pay only your own visa application charge
- A written employment offer comes before any visa discussion
- You are told honestly that a decision will take time
- Salary matches the award or better
Signs to Walk Away
- Employer cannot say whether they hold an agreement and will not find out
- You are told to use one specific agent and no other
- You are asked to pay for the nomination, the levy, or a placement fee
- A visa is promised before any interview or job offer
- You are told to pay quickly to secure limited places
- Salary is discussed as being partly repaid to the employer
What to Do This Week
- Ask your employer the three questions. Put them in an email so you have a written answer.
- If your provider delivers both aged care and disability services, make that clear when you ask, because it may bring ACILA into range.
- Identify whether your workplace sits inside a DAMA region and, if so, which occupations that DAMA covers.
- Build a shortlist of larger multi-site providers in your state and check their careers pages for sponsorship language.
- Do not resign from a role that supports your current visa until you have a written offer elsewhere.
- Bookmark the Department of Home Affairs website and check for the approved work sponsor register from October 2026.
- If anyone asks you for money in exchange for sponsorship, stop, and report it. It is a criminal offence and it can cost you your current visa.
If your current visa is running down and no employer offer is close to landing, our guide on finding a new sponsor as a work visa holder covers the wider search strategy beyond aged care specifically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need Help Verifying an Aged Care Sponsorship Offer?
A migration professional can confirm whether an employer actually holds a labour agreement, review any offer for red flags, and help you approach the right providers without wasting time or money.