Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA)

What is a DAMA?

DAMA refers to the Designated Area Migration Agreement(s). These agreements (DAMAs) are negotiated by certain regional areas with the Department of Home Affairs to allow businesses in their area to have a special employer-sponsored visa arrangement.

The DAMA is a labour agreement for a designated area that can provide access to a larger number of occupations and may have lower requirements.

The DAMA labour agreement allows employers to be approved to sponsor migrant workers through the following visas with a permanent residency pathway:

• 482 Temporary Skill Shortage Visa or 482 Skills in Demand Visa: Eligible to apply for permanent residency via the Subclass 186 visa in general after 3 years of sponsorship (reduced to 2 years in South Australia).

• 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional Visa: Eligible to apply for permanent residency via the Subclass 191 visa in general after 3 years of living and working in regional area.

Skilled and semi-skilled workers in occupations not on standard occupation lists may be able to access skilled Australian migration through the DAMA program.

Requirements under DAMAs are always highly customised. Usually, concessions vary depending on the occupation a worker will be sponsored under.

Click here to read more about Labour Agreements.

Who Needs The DAMA?

The DAMA is focused on the needs of regional business. Essentially, the DAMA is for Australian business, in regional areas, who are unable to fill positions using an Australian worker.

Applicants that would be interested in the DAMA include; semi-skilled, skilled, and other workers looking to live and work in regional areas in Australia.

Note: DAMAs are an employer-sponsored visa program and individual workers cannot apply for a visa independently.

Why Choose The DAMA?

A DAMA provides sponsorship opportunities for occupations not covered by any other visa product and may offer concessions on a range of visa requirements. This can provide flexibility for more migrant workers to be eligible for sponsorship. Concessions vary between each DAMA and depends on the particular occupation, but can relate to English language, minimum income threshold, work experience and applicant’s age.

General DAMA Requirements

The DAMA program uses the “labour agreement” stream of the Skills in Demand (“SID”) subclass 482 Visa, Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (“SESR”) subclass 494 visa, and the Employer Nomination Scheme (“ENS”) subclass 186 visa. Thus, the DAMA does not necessarily have its own requirements. The “DAMA requirements” are subject to the requirements of the stream the skilled migrant is applying through.

The Designated area has requirements for endorsement of a labour agreement which must be met. In fact, the criteria for the DAMA is based around lowering the requirements for the 482, 494 and 186 visa.

DAMA Regions in Australia

There are currently 13 DAMAs across Australia:

• Adelaide City Technology and Innovation Advancement, SA: Skilled & Business Migration
• South Australia Regional, SA: Skilled & Business Migration
• Far North Queensland, QLD: Cairns Chamber of Commerce
• Townsville, QLD: Townsville Enterprise Limited​
• Goulburn Valley, VIC: Goulburn Valley​
• Great South Coast, VIC: Warrnambool City Council​
• Northern Territory, NT: Northern Territory Designated Area Migration Agreement
• Orana, NSW: Regional Development Australia - Orana, NSW
• Pilbara, WA: RDA Pilb​ara​
• South West, WA: Shire of Dardanup
• The Goldfields, WA: City of Kalgoorlie Boulder
• East Kimberley, WA: East Kimberley Chamber of Commerce and Industry​​​​​​
• Western Australia: Department of Training and Workforce Development​

The DAMA Application Process

Applying for a visa under the DAMA program is typically a 4-step process, but it can vary for each designated area.

The below is tailored to the NT program, however, similar steps apply in other designated areas.

1. The sponsoring business applies to the designated area body (such as the Northern Territory Department of Trade, Business, and Innovation “DBTI”) for endorsement of a labour agreement
2. Once endorsed, the sponsoring business applies to the Department of Home Affairs for a labour agreement
3. The sponsoring business applies to the Department of Home Affairs for the nomination of an individual worker under the labour agreement
4. The worker applies for a SID 482 visa or SESR 494 visa under the labour agreement stream

Occupation Lists

Note some of the occupation lists have been moved to their own pages:

• South Australia DAMA Occupation List
• Northern Territory DAMA Occupation List
• NSW Orana DAMA Occupation List

Goldfields (Western Australia) DAMA Occupation List

The Goldfields DAMA includes 72 occupations and covers the areas of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Coolgardie (Kambalda), Leonora and Menzies in Western Australia.

Information of concessions (if any) is yet to be published.

Do you need help with an Australian visa application?

At Work Visa Lawyers we are experienced in assisting applicants in all matters relating to Australian visa applications, including Student Visa applications. Our areas of expertise include Student Visas, Skilled Migration visas, Business Skills Migration visas, Employer-Sponsored Work Visas, Partner, and other Family Migration visas, as well as Migration Review Tribunal, Judicial Review and Ministerial Intervention.

If you require further information regarding your Australia visa options you can contact us through:

Phone: +61 8 8351 9956
Email: info@workvisalawyers.com.au