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Many visa applications are lodged directly. A registered migration agent or immigration lawyer helps with complex or refused matters.

What is a Section 48 bar?

It limits the visas you can apply for while unlawfully in Australia after a refusal or cancellation. A professional can map your options.

Can I appeal a refused visa?

Often yes — the Administrative Appeals Tribunal reviews many decisions, but strict time limits apply.

My employer threatens to report me for working over my visa hours in Australia 2026

What Australian law says when an employer uses your visa hours as a threat, and how underpayment fits in.

If your employer says they will report you for working over your visa hours, that threat is itself treated as migrant worker exploitation. The Department of Home Affairs lists "threaten to report a worker to immigration authorities" among the behaviours that are against the law for employers, on its Information for employers and labour hire organisations page current as of October 2026. Under the Migration Act 1958, it is unlawful to use someone's immigration status to take advantage of them or to treat them badly at work, and employers and labour hire organisations can face criminal charges and civil penalties, including large fines, for exploiting temporary migrant workers.

The Department's migrant worker protections case studies page, current as of July 2026, sets out this exact situation. A student visa holder named Chen takes weekend shifts at a petrol station, goes over his allowable 48 hours of work a fortnight, and is underpaid. His manager knows about the extra hours but keeps rostering him. When Chen raises the underpayment, his boss says that unless he stays quiet he will report him and his visa may be cancelled. Home Affairs states that underpaying someone and allowing someone to work in breach of their visa conditions were already against the law, and that pressuring a worker to break their visa work conditions is a further breach.

This article is general information only and is not a substitute for advice on your own circumstances, which depend on your visa conditions and the facts; check the official pages or speak to a qualified professional about your situation.

Is it legal for my employer to threaten to report me?

No. Threatening to report you to immigration authorities is one of the specific behaviours Home Affairs names as unlawful, alongside threatening to cancel a visa, threatening future visa applications, pressuring someone to work more hours than their visa allows, holding a passport, sexual harassment, and underpayment.

The threat does not become lawful because it is tied to something you did. Home Affairs states that it is illegal to exploit migrant workers even if they have broken their visa rules or do not hold a valid Australian visa. The two issues are separate: your hours are one matter, and your employer's conduct is another.

Does it matter that I actually worked over my visa hours?

It matters for you, but it does not excuse your employer. Your visa conditions are your own responsibility, and a breach of them can have consequences for your visa. What it does not do is give your employer a lawful weapon.

The case study makes the split clear. Allowing a worker to work in breach of their visa conditions is against the law on the employer's side, and pressuring that worker to break the conditions is a further offence. So if a manager keeps rostering you past your limit and then uses those same rosters as leverage, both parts of that conduct sit with the employer.

Employers are also expected to know the limits. Home Affairs directs employers to check a potential employee's visa work conditions through VEVO (Visa Entitlement Verification Online), with the visa holder's permission.

What if the same employer is also underpaying me?

Underpayment is a separate breach, and your migration status does not change your entitlements. Home Affairs states that under the Fair Work Act 2009, all visa holders and migrant workers have the same workplace rights and protections as other employees in Australia, regardless of their migration status.

That means the wage question stands on its own. Underpaying a migrant worker is listed as unlawful employer conduct, and asking a worker to repay sponsorship, nomination or recruitment costs, or to pay for sponsorship, is also listed as unlawful.

What can happen to the employer?

Home Affairs sets out a range of consequences under the Migration Act 1958, from a direction to take action or stop doing something, through fines, to criminal prosecution and civil penalties. Employers found guilty of serious breaches can be declared a "prohibited employer", banned from hiring new temporary visa holders, and have their business name published on the Australian Border Force website.

For serious, deliberate or repeated breaches, the maximum penalties include up to 5 years' jail and fines of up to $131,040 (360 penalty units). Breaching a prohibition can lead to criminal prosecution and up to 5 years' jail, and/or a fine of up to $131,040, or both.

Consequence	What the official pages say
Direction or fine	An employer can be directed to take certain action or stop doing something, or be fined
Prohibited employer	Banned from employing new temporary migrant workers; business name published on the Australian Border Force website
Prohibition length	Up to 10 years for a criminal offence other than human trafficking or modern slavery; up to 5 years for other migrant worker sanctions; no maximum for human trafficking and modern slavery
Serious, deliberate or repeated breaches	Up to 5 years' jail and fines up to $131,040 (360 penalty units)
Sponsorship obligations	Infringement notices, for example $79,200 for a body corporate or $15,840 for an individual for each failure, and civil penalties of up to $396,000 or $79,200 respectively

Sanctioned sponsors can also have their business or personal name published on the register of sanctioned sponsors.

What if the threat is about a future visa or sponsorship?

The same reasoning applies. One Home Affairs case study describes a sponsored IT worker whose manager makes unwanted sexual comments and touching, then tells her that if she causes trouble she will have no chance of being nominated for a permanent visa. Sexual harassment is against the law, and Home Affairs states that under the offences protecting migrant workers, using a person's visa status to exploit them could bring additional criminal charges.

Threatening future visa applications is named separately in the list of unlawful employer conduct, so a threat does not need to be about cancelling your current visa to count.

What should I do first?

Work in this order.

Write down the date, time and place of the threat.

Write down the exact words used, as close as you can recall.

Save your rosters, shift confirmations and messages about shifts.

Save your payslips, bank deposits and any records of hours worked.

Keep copies outside of work devices and work accounts.

Do not sign anything you have not read or do not agree with.

Do not delete messages, even ones you sent.

Can I report it without giving my name?

Home Affairs states on its Information for employers and labour hire organisations page that you do not need to give your name when you make a report. Border Watch is the channel named for reporting people who take migrants' passports, use a migrant's visa situation to threaten or force them to work, or force migrants to live in overcrowded and unsafe housing. The Fair Work Ombudsman is named for workplace rights advice and for reporting employers who are not following workplace laws on pay and wages, leave and other entitlements, and discrimination.

Home Affairs also publishes a help page for people seeking support about workplace justice and visa protections.

Could my visa still be affected?

The pages used here describe the employer's conduct, not how any individual visa decision would be made, so they do not answer that question for a particular person. What they do say is that a breach of visa work conditions is a real issue for the visa holder, while threatening to report, threatening cancellation, and pressuring someone to work over their limit are separate breaches by the employer.

Because the two sit separately, an employer cannot make a threat lawful by pointing at your hours. Check your own conditions on your visa grant record, and treat any change in rules or penalties as subject to the latest official publication.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my employer report me for working over my visa hours, and is that legal?

Anyone can make a report, but using the possibility of a report to pressure you is what the law targets. Home Affairs lists threatening to report a worker to immigration authorities as unlawful employer conduct, and states that exploiting a migrant worker is illegal even where the worker has broken their visa rules.

Is it still exploitation if I agreed to the extra shifts?

Yes, agreement does not change the employer's position. In the Home Affairs case study, the student accepted the weekend hours to cover living costs, and the manager's conduct was still unlawful because he knew about the limit, kept rostering the worker, and used the hours to pressure him.

I do not have a valid visa, or I have already broken my conditions. Do I still have rights?

Home Affairs states that it is illegal to exploit migrant workers even if they have broken their visa rules or do not hold a valid Australian visa. Under the Fair Work Act 2009, visa holders and migrant workers have the same workplace rights and protections as other employees in Australia, regardless of migration status.

What penalties can my employer actually face?

Home Affairs lists fines, a direction to take or stop certain action, criminal prosecution and civil penalties, and being declared a prohibited employer with the business name published. For serious, deliberate or repeated breaches the stated maximums are up to 5 years' jail and fines up to $131,040 (360 penalty units).

Can I make a report anonymously?

Home Affairs states that you do not need to give your name when you make a report. Border Watch is named for reports about passport confiscation, visa-based threats or forced work, and unsafe housing, while the Fair Work Ombudsman is named for pay, leave, entitlements and discrimination matters.

What if the employer is a labour hire company rather than my direct boss?

Using a labour hire organisation does not remove the obligation. Home Affairs states that employers must still know and follow the law, and one case study describes a labour hire company that was already breaking the law by sending an unlawful worker to work and underpaying her, and says it could face additional criminal charges after threatening to report her when she complained.