457 visa delays hurting small businesses

• Cara Waters

​Simon Christie owns video production company Adventure Set Production. Photo: Supplied

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"You are not really given any timelines on how long it is going to take," Christie says. "It disadvantages small businesses massively. It's very hard for us to grow, we have put a lot of effort and time with flights and travel to China. It's just been a huge drain and we've invested a lot into driving our business into China and this has put it all on hold and it's just embarrassing."

Real cost is time away from businessAdventure Set Production produces television shows about the outdoors and driving, employs 10 people and turned over about $1.3 million last year.


Christie estimates he has spent $70,000 on the two 457 visa applications in an attempt to hire two Chinese citizens with on-the-ground, up-to-date experiences with the culture, language and marketing mechanisms in China.


"The real cost is the hours and time I've had to spend away from my business," he says.


Christie says Adventure Set Productions has missed out on substantial revenue opportunities as a result of the delays, including fulfilling a broadcast opportunity with a Chinese television station.


"We had a meeting and they said 'You put subtitles on and we will start airing them'," Christie says. "That opportunity was given to us 12 months ago but we needed the people to do the graphics and translations. That's a small business into a small provincial television station in China but their broadcast range is 80 million people. That's huge for us."

Adventure Set Productions two 457 visa applications were rejected and Christie plans to appeal the decision.


"We're now going through the appeal process which is costing us tens of thousands per person just for the basics," he says. "The outrageous part is that the government is applying new standards to old applications. New rulings mean that despite our applications meeting the requirements at the time of submission, the government has moved the goalposts, meaning we're losing time and money trying to meet all of the new demands."

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