The Department of Home Affairs introduced occupation caveats for the Temporary Work (skilled) subclass-457, the TSS visa subclass-482 and Employer Nomination Scheme subclass-186 in 2017. Caveats, which are limitations on certain occupations, are designed to ensure skilled visa programs are used to fill skilled positions that cannot be filled via the local labour market.
There are caveats in place for the occupations of Café or Restaurant Manager, Cook and Chef where the position is based in a limited service restaurant. A limited service restaurant, as outlined in the regulations, includes the following:
· fast food or takeaway food services;
· fast casual restaurants;
· drinking establishments that offer only a limited food service;
· limited service cafes including, but not limited to, coffee shops or mall cafes;
· limited service pizza restaurants.
Additionally, Cook and Chef positions are also excluded from the Business Sponsored program where they are involved in mass production in a factory setting.
Interestingly, we recently received a 482 nomination approval with a pastrycook at a bakery with a factory setting.
The nominator, our client, runs a bakery producing high-quality bread and pastry as well its own outlets with over one million dollars of revenue. Their production factory is in operation 7 days a week producing a vast number of items on a daily basis, delivering to a lot of restaurants across Victoria.
The nominator wished to sponsor a pastrycook who has over 7 years of relevant work experience and a qualification in baking. As there is a caveat set for the position of pastrycook, it can be difficult to prove the genuine need for the position.
The current caveat could exclude positions that:
A. are based in a franchise or factory;
B. involve full/partial production of food for distribution to other locations;
C. predominantly involve the use of pre-prepared food from other locations.
It was a very challenging case, however, we prepared a very detailed submission to the case officer as well as the evidence such as list of products and distributions, photos of the factory, outlets and final products, etc. successfully convincing the case officer that:
a) Yes, the premises of the business is established in a factory setting but this is only because of the size of the company and amount of orders it requires.
b) Even though they produce products to distribute to others, the retail businesses that they distribute to are highly reputable hotels and restaurants, not supermarkets nor convenience stores. Also, they have their own outlets to sell their products.
c) Lastly, they produce their products from start to finish and do not use any pre-prepared products
Without any Request for Further Information from the Department, the nomination was successfully approved.
If you are in a similar situation and interested to know about it in further detail, please book an appointment with one of our migration agents!
