nealatsea

I have occasionally been working on and off in Australia for the last 10 years, I am a freelance offshore supervisor(O&G) and nearly all of my work is carried out on offshore on vessels, I have never spent more than 100 days in Australia in any given year. My line of work is highly specialised and I am guessing there is only about 20 other people in the whole world with similar skills and experience still willing to go offshore and work. 90% of the jobs I do are less than 6 weeks duration(most are 5 week duration which is the standard length of an offshore swing for Aussie mariners). Originally for the first couple of years I was able to work on a 456 visa because of the specialist nature of the work and the short job durations, however for the last 2 years I have had to get a 457 visa and to get this I need to be sponsored by a company. The 457 however causes me great problems as the agency who sponsor the 457 do not have sufficient work for me to only work for them. I am often offered other work with other companies but have not be able to take it on as the whole visa issue cannot be sorted in a timely manner (lead in time for my projects is typically only about 2 weeks). Thee Agency has offered to subcontract me to these other companies so that the 457 can stay in place, however their mark-up is in the region of $500 per day(even though they claim this is a zero profit markup) and this makes it uneconomic for companies to then hire me. Is there any way I could hold my own 457 rater than be tied to a sponsor? I am 45 years old and operate my own UK Ltd company but fall well short of the turn over requirement to establish a branch office in Australia. I have no plans to permanently migrate to Australia. I don't mind paying tax either.