Hiring a Sushi Chef in Melbourne: Talent Pool, Labour Hire, Visas

Melbourne has a serious food culture and a steady supply of Japanese restaurants, but a thinner local pool of Japanese trained cooks than Sydney. That changes the hiring maths. This guide focuses on what is different about hiring in Melbourne and Victoria. National rules (award rates, penalty rates, working holiday tax) are covered in our Sydney guide, and the sponsorship process in hiring a Japanese chef in Australia.

1. Melbourne's Japanese community is smaller than you think

Japan's foreign ministry counts Japanese nationals by city each year. As of 1 October 2025:

Melbourne ranks twelfth among cities worldwide, but it has about 62% of Sydney's Japanese population, and it was the only one of these five to shrink in the latest count. The year before, it had grown 6.5%, so one year is not a trend. Still, the direction of the latest figure is worth knowing when you plan a search.

Across Australia, MAFF counted 2,230 Japanese restaurants in 2025, up 230 on 2023. MAFF does not break the figure down by city.

2. What a smaller pool means for hiring

Fewer Japanese residents means fewer experienced sushi and washoku cooks already holding full work rights in Melbourne. Three practical consequences:

• Search earlier. Start recruiting for a head chef role three to four months before you need the person, not three weeks. If you end up sponsoring, labour market testing alone requires ads to run at least 4 weeks.
• Recruit interstate. A Japanese chef in Sydney or Brisbane with permanent residence can move to Melbourne without any visa step. Include relocation support in the ad if you want them to consider it.
• Train local cooks for the middle of the kitchen. Keep scarce Japanese trained cooks for the roles where they make the difference (the counter, fish preparation, menu), and build a local team around them. Our guide on training local staff in Japanese cuisine covers how.

Working holiday makers are part of Melbourne's pool too. Since 1 January 2024, restaurants are in a critical sector where a working holiday maker can stay with one employer beyond 6 months without asking permission. The working holiday guide has the details.

3. Victoria's labour hire licensing, and the 1 October 2026 change

This is the rule that most distinguishes Victoria for a restaurant. Under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 (Vic), labour hire providers must hold a licence, and hosts must only use licensed providers. A host is any business that takes workers through a labour hire provider, in any industry.

If you fill kitchen gaps through an agency that supplies and pays cooks who work in your restaurant, you are a host. The Labour Hire Authority says hosts who engage an unlicensed provider can face penalties exceeding A$660,000 for a corporation and A$160,000 for an individual.

A recruitment agency that finds you a chef whom you then employ directly is usually a different arrangement from labour hire, because you, not the agency, employ and pay the chef. If you are unsure which side of the line an arrangement falls, the Authority's guidance on the general definition is the place to start.

4. Melbourne versus regional Victoria

Under Australia's regional migration settings, Melbourne is a Category 1 "major city" and receives no regional incentives. Geelong is Category 2 ("cities and major regional centres"), and the rest of regional Victoria falls in Category 3. Regional categories open up incentives that a Melbourne restaurant cannot use.

For a restaurant group with sites in both, it is worth asking a migration agent whether a regional site changes the options for a particular role. For a single Melbourne restaurant, the standard Skills in Demand route is the one to plan around.

5. Sponsoring a chef from Melbourne

The national rules apply. In summary, as of September 2026:

• The chef's guaranteed earnings must be at least the Core Skills Income Threshold of A$79,423 (nominations lodged 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027) and at least what an Australian in the same role would earn.
• Government charges for a small business on a 4 year nomination come to about A$9,565: A$420 sponsorship, A$330 nomination, A$4,800 SAF levy and A$4,015 for the chef's visa application.
• The chef needs 1 year of relevant experience and, for a Japanese national, an English test at IELTS 5.0 in each band or equivalent.
• Labour market testing means two ads of at least 4 weeks within 4 months before nomination, unless a trade agreement exemption covers your nominee.

Given Melbourne's thinner local pool, sponsorship is more often the realistic answer here than in Sydney for a head chef or itamae. The local advertising is still worth doing properly: a candidate who applies is someone you might hire, and a failed search is your evidence.

6. Keeping the chef once you have one

A sponsored chef who leaves takes your fees with them. If they leave within the first 12 months of a longer visa, only unused full years of the SAF levy can be refunded; leaving later is not one of the refund cases Home Affairs lists. The retention basics:

• Housing help in the first month. Melbourne rental searches are hard to run from Japan.
• A clear career path. Say at the offer stage whether you would support a permanent residence application later, and under what conditions.
• Pay that stays at market. Sponsors must keep terms equivalent to an Australian doing the same work for the life of the visa. Review pay every July when thresholds move.
• Someone to speak Japanese with. In a smaller community, this matters more than employers expect.

A Melbourne hiring sequence

1. Set the pay band from the award (including weekend penalty rates) and, if you might sponsor, check it against the A$79,423 CSIT.
2. Advertise in English and Japanese, locally and interstate, and make the ads meet labour market testing rules from day one.
3. If an agency supplies any kitchen staff, confirm its labour hire licence on the register, now and again after 1 October 2026.
4. Check each candidate's work rights on VEVO and note visa expiry dates.
5. Run a paid trial shift. Our sushi chef interview questions help structure it.
6. If nobody local fits after 4 weeks, move to sponsorship with the evidence you already have.

See also retaining Japanese chefs and onboarding a chef from Japan.

General information checked against official sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Victoria's labour hire rules change on 1 October 2026 and guidance may lag the new regulations. Confirm with the Labour Hire Authority, Home Affairs or a registered migration agent before acting.