Regional Skills Relocation Grant

This grant assists regional NSW businesses in identified industries attract skilled and specialised employees from NSW metropolitan areas, interstate or internationally, to regional NSW.

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.

To be eligible for funding, eligible businesses must be operating within an eligible industry aligned with key NSW Government policies, priorities, and strategies. 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.

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 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 
• 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)launch. 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.