I wonder if the type of employment you're being sponsored for has relevance here? As with Emma, my husband is being sponsored by a hosp for a nursing post in mental health and this was on the back of a recruitment campaign where the NSWs health reps came over to the UK to interview and had heavily advertised in the nursing journals etc. Surely they genuinely need this skill set from the UK (and elsewhere) if they were pushing such an expensive recruitment campaign - or am I/we being naive? We are very realistic re the implications of the 457 visa although... I have to admit the recruiters were keen to say the hosp would be happy to sponsor a PR in the future so this was an attraction for us.