This grant assists regional NSW businesses in identified industries attract skilled and specialised employees from NSW metropolitan areas, interstate or internationally, to regional NSW.
Key information
- Status: Closed
- Grant amount: Up to $12,500
- Application opened: 1 October 2018
- Application closed: 15 December 2023
Program objective
The Regional Skills Relocation Grant aims to:
- support economic growth in regional NSW by supporting businesses and organisations to find and attract skilled workers to live and work in regional NSW
- fill regional job vacancies
- increase the strength, diversity and size of regional economies.
This program is funded and administered by Department of Regional NSW.
Eligibility
Who can apply
To be eligible for funding, eligible businesses must be operating within an eligible industry aligned with key NSW Government policies, priorities, and strategies, including:
- 20-Year Economic Vision for Regional NSW
- 2040 Economic Blueprint
- the relevant Regional Economic Development Strategy (REDS).
Eligible industries are key industries that drive growth in regional economies and are typically categorised as ‘engine industries’, ‘emerging engine industries’, and ‘enabling industries’.
Examples of eligible industries include:
- agribusiness and forestry
- resources and mining
- tourism (where regionally significant and/or iconic)
- health and aged care (where serving populations from out of region)
- freight and logistics
- advanced manufacturing
- renewable energy
- technology-enabled primary industry.
View further information on eligible industries.
In reviewing applications, the impact of a business on local competition is considered in order to avoid advantaging or disadvantaging businesses legitimately competing in the same immediate market.
Eligible businesses
An eligible business must be a private business, or co-operative operating as a legal entity.
To apply for a Regional Skills Relocation Grant, eligible businesses must be operating within an eligible industry and:
- be relocating to, or setting up in, regional NSW and creating at least five new ongoing full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs (a mix of skilled and unskilled positions) in the local community, or
- already operating in regional NSW and seeking to recruit eligible employees.
Eligible employees
Eligible business must be seeking eligible employees. Eligible employees are skilled workers that:
- are relocating from a metropolitan area within NSW, or from another location outside NSW to regional NSW, to a residence that is at least 50 kilometres from the original residence, and is:
- within the same Functional Economic Region as the eligible business
OR - within 100 kilometres of the eligible business
- within the same Functional Economic Region as the eligible business
- are Australian citizens or permanent residents on the date they start employment
- have an occupation on the Commonwealth Skilled Occupation List for the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491 and 489). This list of occupations is specifically designed to meet the needs of regional Australia. At the Department’s discretion, other occupations may be considered if there is a demonstrated need.
Businesses whose primary operation is in the below industries are considered population serving, are not considered to be operating in an eligible industry, and will not be eligible for funding under this program:
- hospitality, except where the business is unique to the existing market and considered regionally significant and/or iconic
- retail
- localised trades
- administrative services that serve only the local or regional community.
Eligible costs covered by this grant, include the following relocation expenses:
- furniture removal including removalist services or trailer/truck or ute hire to relocate the employee’s home/residence
- pet boarding for up to three months
- travel for employee and immediate family to relocate
- temporary accommodation for up to three months, including hotel, motel, Airbnb and boarding house accommodation
- furniture storage for up to three months
Up to $1000 of the grant may be accessed to support an in-person candidate interview, or pre-employment site-visit (payable if candidate is successfully employed).
Eligible businesses can also claim up to $2500, as part of their total grant, to access qualified recruitment services, or HR professionals, to provide tailored recruitment assistance for the pre-approved role/s. The business can apply to be reimbursed once a candidate has been successfully employed.
Grant applications will be deemed ineligible if the business:
- is not operating in an identified eligible industry for its Functional Economic Region
- fills the identified role with an employee:
- not relocating from a metropolitan area or outside NSW to regional NSW
- without any of the skills listed on the Commonwealth Skilled Work List
- who is not an Australian citizen or permanent resident
- who has received funding (full or partial) from any other person (including any government agency in Australia) for relocation assistance.
- has received any other funding (full or partial) from any other person (including any government agency in Australia) for relocation assistance
- seeks reimbursement of costs not listed as eligible costs in these guidelines
- employs the candidate prior to receiving pre-approval for the grant.
The relocation grants are not available to public sector organisations, including state and local governments.
View the Program guidelines
For all information about Regional Skills Relocation Grant, including further details about program eligibility and assessment criteria, please see the Program Guidelines (PDF 9.23MB).
Frequently Asked Questions
View Frequently Asked Questions to assist in preparing your application.
Most recent recipients
What your application needs to include
Eligible businesses register their interest by email, providing their business name, location, and industry, to regionalnsw.business@regional.nsw.gov.au. Registered businesses operating in eligible industries will then be invited to complete an eligibility form via SmartyGrants.
Prepare your application with this checklist
Step 1: Register with the Department of Regional NSW and complete an eligibility form
Once registered with the Department of Regional NSW, eligible businesses will be invited to complete an eligibility form via SmartyGrants.
Step 2: Receive confirmation of grant pre-approval
Once the eligibility form has been completed via SmartyGrants, eligible businesses will receive confirmation and a grant pre-approval ID for the role(s) they intend to fill, enabling them to include the relocation grant offer in their recruitment or relocation process. Once pre-approval is received, eligible recruitment assistance can also be reimbursed once the role is filled. This pre-approval will be valid for 12 months from the date of issue.
Step 3: Fill the role
To activate the grant, the role(s) must be filled by employee(s) relocating from a metropolitan area within NSW, or from another location outside of NSW, to regional NSW with an occupation listed on the Commonwealth Skilled Occupation List for the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491/489).
Step 4: Activate the grant
The eligible business must notify the Department of Regional NSW within five days of filling the pre-approved role and complete the grant activation form. The Department of Regional NSW will verify the eligibility of the employee and provide confirmation of grant activation.
Step 5: Claim reimbursement of relocation and recruitment assistance costs
Employees must begin their employment in the regional location after the eligible business has received grant pre-approval for the role/s under the RSRG. They must also remain in the role for a minimum of three months before the eligible business can lodge a claim for eligible costs.
Eligible businesses may only claim eligible costs for candidates successfully recruited and relocated into the role/s that have received grant pre-approval.
To receive the grant payment the eligible business is required to submit a reimbursement form and evidence that relocation costs and recruitment assistance costs have been expended.
Step 6: Grant evaluation
As a condition of the grant, the eligible business and the employee agree to be contacted up to 12 months from the employee’s start date to complete an evaluation survey. Should the employee cease employment with the eligible business for any reason within this 12-month period, the business is required to notify the Department of Regional NSW within 15 days.
Address the assessment criteria
The Department of Regional NSW will assess all applications against the eligibility criteria outlined in these guidelines.
Recommendations will be provided to the relevant Program Manager for approval.
Resources for applicants
After the application is submitted
The application and assessment process will take between 2-6 weeks to gain pre-approval for your business. Please allow up to 6 weeks for pre-approval confirmation (if successful) before filling the role and/or hiring a potential candidate.
Once approved you will be sent a letter of offer and approval which you will need to sign and return to the Department within 7 days to accept the offer. You will be given pre-approval IDs for the roles you intend to fill, and you are able to include the relocation grant offer in your recruitment process.
Once approved you will have 12 months to hire an eligible employee.
Unsuccessful applicants will be sent an email response with feedback.
When you have filled the role (i.e., the date the eligible employee commences) you need to notify the department within 5 business days by activating the grant using the ‘RSRG Activation Form - Employee Details’ form - on Smarty Grants. The Department will verify the eligibility of the employee and provide confirmation of grant activation. You will then be sent instructions via email for claiming reimbursement.
Once the eligible employee has been in the role for a minimum of 3 months, but no more than 6 months, the business can lodge a claim for eligible costs using the reimbursement claim form they will be sent. This link will be sent via email, once the employee activation form has been approved, and will be visible/accessible in your SmartyGrants portal.
To receive the grant payment the eligible business is required to submit a reimbursement claim form, an invoice to the department and provide evidence that relocation costs and external recruitment assistance costs have been paid in full and reimbursed to the employee (by the business).
Key Dates
Business applications close: 5pm (AEDT) 15 December 2023
Employee activations close: The earlier of 12-months from pre-approval or 27 January 2025.
Reimbursement claims close: 6 months after employee commencement date
Notification of Business Application Outcome: 2 - 6 weeks from submitting a complete and correct business application form
Notification of Employee Activation Outcome: 2 - 6 weeks from submitting a complete and correct employee activation form
Reimbursement Claim Outcome: Reimbursement payments will be paid electronically to the nominated business account within 6-8 weeks of submitting a complete and correct reimbursement claim form
Strategic review response summary
When administration of the Regional Skills Relocation Grant was transferred to DRNSW in February 2021 we commissioned a strategic review of the grant program to identify opportunities to improve program design and increase uptake of the grant.
A strategic review response summary (PDF 254.25KB) has been prepared and is available for your information.
Support and contact
All initial enquiries should be directed to the Department of Regional NSW:
Phone: 1300 679 673
Email: regionalnsw.business@regional.nsw.gov.au