How to find a job in Australia as a refugee

It depends on your visa, so check your own conditions in VEVO before you rely on anything below. Home Affairs decides who may work, and the details on your grant letter are what count.

• Refugee visa (subclass 200), usually granted to people referred by UNHCR for resettlement: permanent, with the right to work and study.
• Protection visa (subclass 866): permanent; you can live, work and study in Australia.
• Temporary Protection (785) and Safe Haven Enterprise (790) visas: 3 and 5 years respectively, with the right to work and study and access to services such as Workforce Australia, Medicare and Centrelink.
• Temporary Humanitarian Stay (449) and Temporary Humanitarian Concern (786) visas, held by people including Afghans, Ukrainians, Palestinians and Israelis: check your work conditions in VEVO. Holders are eligible for the EPRI employment program described below.
• People seeking asylum on a bridging visa: you may only work if your bridging visa allows it. See the next section.

While Home Affairs processes a Protection visa application, it may grant you a bridging visa, and whether that visa lets you work depends on your circumstances. For a Bridging visa E, your grant letter says whether you may work. If you work when you are not allowed to, your visa can be cancelled and you can be detained. If your visa does not allow work and you cannot pay reasonable living costs, you may be able to apply for a new bridging visa that does; Home Affairs assesses these requests case by case, and there is no fee for a Bridging visa E application.

Get advice before you act. Government-funded refugee and immigration legal services give free, confidential advice in every state and territory, including the Refugee Advice and Casework Service in New South Wales, Refugee Legal in Victoria and the Northern Territory, and the Refugee and Immigration Legal Service in Queensland.

If you arrived on a Refugee (subclass 200, 201, 203 or 204) or Global Special Humanitarian (202) visa, the Humanitarian Settlement Program (HSP) supports you on arrival. Its caseworkers focus on helping you learn English, find work and get into education or training, and most clients receive support for 6 to 18 months.

After that, or if you arrived another way, the Settlement Engagement and Transition Support (SETS) program serves humanitarian entrants and other eligible permanent migrants. Its providers can offer career advice, mentoring, pre-vocational training, work experience placements and help assessing your skills, experience and qualifications. Ask for these by name when you meet your provider.

The Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) teaches English for free to eligible migrants and humanitarian entrants. You can join if you are 18 or over, speak little or no English, and are a permanent resident, hold an eligible temporary visa, or are a citizen who held an eligible visa before. Classes run full-time, part-time, in the evening and at weekends at around 300 locations, and there is distance learning and a free app. Free childcare is available for children under school age while you are in class.

Timing matters. If your eligible visa started after 1 October 2020, you must register with a provider within 6 months, start within 12 months and finish within 5 years, though providers can sometimes allow exceptions. If you receive Centrelink payments, AMEP classes count towards your mutual obligation requirements.

Put your level on your resume precisely. “English: AMEP, currently studying at intermediate level” tells an employer more than “basic English”.

The Economic Pathways to Refugee Integration (EPRI) program funds social enterprises to create jobs and pathways to work for refugees and humanitarian entrants whose English or formal skills are still low. It began as a pilot in February 2023 and runs to 30 June 2027. Eligible visas include the Refugee (200), Global Special Humanitarian (202), Protection (866), Temporary Humanitarian Stay (449) and Temporary Humanitarian Concern (786) visas.

EPRI providers include, for example, the Brotherhood of St Laurence’s Given the Chance program in Melbourne, which supports refugee job seekers into traineeships, apprenticeships and labour-hire roles with employer partners. Ask your settlement provider which EPRI project runs near you.

Temporary Protection and Safe Haven Enterprise visa holders can also use Workforce Australia, the government’s employment service.

Start with translation. The Free Translating Service translates up to 10 eligible documents into English for permanent residents and some temporary and provisional visa holders, within the first 2 years of the visa grant. Call TIS National on 131 450 if you need an interpreter to ask about it.

Then find the right assessing body. Trades are assessed by Trades Recognition Australia, many professions by VETASSESS, engineers by Engineers Australia, and doctors need registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Some occupations also need registration or a licence before you can work. Our qualification recognition guide covers what to do if your documents were lost.

While recognition is in progress, look for a neighbouring role in the same field where your knowledge counts from day one: a lab assistant rather than a scientist, a site supervisor rather than a civil engineer. It keeps your skills current and gives you Australian experience and a referee.

Use the standard Australian format, which our Australian resume guide covers, then solve four problems specific to your situation.

• Experience from home: translate job titles into the nearest Australian equivalent and add one line on the employer: sector, size, what it did. A recruiter in Adelaide does not know a hospital in Kabul or a ministry in Khartoum.
• Gaps from flight: write one factual line and move on, for example “2021–2023: Relocated to Australia; AMEP English classes”. How much of your story you share is your choice. Our career gap guide has more wording.
• Missing certificates: list the qualification, institution and year, and add the assessment outcome once you have it. Never claim a qualification you cannot support.
• Australian experience: put volunteering, work placements and program jobs in your experience section with concrete tasks. An Australian referee, even after a short placement, is evidence an employer can check with one call.

All workers in Australia, including visa holders, must be paid at least the minimum wage. It is illegal for an employer to take your passport, and an employer cannot cancel your visa: only Home Affairs can. If you are exploited, the Fair Work Ombudsman, a union, a community legal centre or a lawyer can help, and anyone can report exploitation anonymously.

Be careful with people offering visa help. No one can guarantee a visa, paid migration agents must be registered with OMARA, and anyone who tells a friend or relative to lodge a Protection visa just to stay and work in Australia is giving dangerous advice: Home Affairs refuses over 85% of Protection visa applications, and a refusal stays on your record.

Your settlement caseworker is the first stop. Beyond that, the Refugee Council of Australia keeps a service directory of organisations that help refugees and people seeking asylum with money, employment, housing and legal advice, searchable by where you live. For free interpreting, call TIS National on 131 450. For legal advice on protection and visa matters, contact the government-funded refugee legal service in your state or territory.