How to Join the PALM Scheme From Fiji in 2026 (NEC Guide)

To join the PALM scheme from Fiji you register, free of charge, with the National Employment Centre (NEC) Work Ready Pool under the Ministry of Employment, and an Australian “approved employer” then selects you from that pool or interviews you in Fiji through NEC. There is no agent, no fee and no shortcut: the Fijians who get picked fastest are the ones whose documents are complete on day one and who can show they are physically ready for farm, factory or care work.

What the PALM scheme is (and what it is not)

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme is the Australian Government programme that lets approved employers in rural and regional Australia (and anywhere in Australia for agriculture) hire workers from Fiji, nine other Pacific countries and Timor-Leste, either for seasonal jobs of up to nine months or for longer-term roles of one to four years.

It is run by Australia’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Workers travel on the Temporary Work (International Relations) visa, subclass 403, PALM stream. Fiji has taken part since it joined the old Seasonal Worker Programme in 2015 and is now one of the scheme’s largest sending countries.

What it is not is a migration pathway. The 403 visa is temporary and does not lead to permanent residency; the separate Pacific Engagement Visa does (see the FAQs).

The two streams

• Short-term (seasonal): up to 9 months, mostly fruit and vegetable picking and packing, meat processing and seasonal hotel work. Casual or full-time employment. Most first-time Fijian workers start here.
• Long-term: 1 to 4 years in a full-time job in aged care, meat processing, hospitality, agriculture, fishing or aquaculture. A limited family accompaniment pilot lets some long-term workers bring a partner and children.

Who is eligible from Fiji in 2026

• A Fijian citizen aged 21 or over, fit for physical work. There is no upper age limit.
• A valid Fiji passport.
• Able to pass Australian health and character checks (a panel medical and a police clearance).
• No history of breaching an Australian or New Zealand visa. Workers who “disengaged” (absconded) on a previous stint are excluded, and NEC will not re-register them.
• Registered and cleared by NEC. Fiji’s Ministry of Employment prioritises unemployed and under-employed Fijians and discourages workers in critical shortage areas such as nursing, teaching and some licensed trades from leaving under the scheme, so expect to be asked about your current occupation.

There is no English test, but NEC screening and employer interviews are conducted in English.

Step by step: getting into NEC’s Work Ready Pool

Step 1: Get your documents together first

Incomplete paperwork is the single biggest reason Fijian applications stall. Gather everything below before you walk into an NEC office.

Document	Where to get it in Fiji	Notes
Fiji passport	Department of Immigration (Suva, Lautoka, Labasa)	Needs validity to cover the whole contract. Apply early; it is the slowest item.
Birth certificate	Births, Deaths and Marriages (Registrar-General’s Office)	Original or certified copy.
Police clearance	Fiji Police Force Criminal Records Office (Suva, Lautoka, Labasa)	Must be recent. A further character check follows at visa stage.
Medical fitness certificate	Any registered doctor for NEC; a full visa medical later at an Australian panel clinic (Suva, Lautoka or Nadi)	Be honest about existing conditions.
FNPF number and TIN	FNPF office; Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS)	NEC records both. You will want them for voluntary FNPF contributions while abroad.
Bank account	Any Fiji bank or licensed mobile wallet	For remittances home. You open an Australian account after arrival.
Character reference	Turaga-ni-Koro for village residents; Advisory Councillor or District Officer for others; plus a church, community or employer reference	NEC treats these seriously. They are how Fiji vouches for you.
CV, certificates, licences	Yourself; FNU, APTC, FNU’s National Training and Productivity Centre	A driver’s licence, forklift ticket, first aid or Certificate III lifts you above the crowd.

Step 2: Register and be screened

Register at an NEC office (Suva, Lautoka, Nadi, Labasa and other centres) or through the Ministry of Employment’s periodic online and mobile registration drives, announced on its Facebook page and in the daily papers. You will be interviewed, your documents verified and your fitness for physical work assessed. Registration is free: anyone asking for money to “put you in the pool” or “fast-track your visa” is running a scam.

Step 3: Selection by an approved employer

Selection is employer-driven and happens in one of three ways:

• Pool selection: the employer tells NEC what it needs (say, 40 orchard workers for Tasmania from March) and NEC shortlists from the Work Ready Pool.
• In-country recruitment: the employer or its labour-hire agent comes to Fiji and interviews shortlisted candidates, sometimes with a practical lifting and stamina test. NEC supervises.
• Employer-led recruitment: employers request past workers by name. This is why finishing your first contract properly matters more than anything else on this page.

Some workers deploy within weeks of registering; others wait a year or longer. You cannot choose your state, farm or employer, although you can tell NEC what type of work you can do.

Step 4: Contract, visa and medical

Your written offer must set out role, hours, pay rate, accommodation and every planned deduction. Read the deductions schedule line by line before signing. The employer then supports your subclass 403 visa application while you complete the panel medical, biometrics and police checks. Health insurance for the whole stay is compulsory; your employer arranges the policy and deducts the premium from pay.

Step 5: Pre-departure briefing

NEC’s pre-departure briefing is mandatory. It covers Australian workplace law, visa conditions, budgeting and remittances, accommodation rules, and organising your family while you are away. Bring whoever will manage money at home.

What you actually earn: pay, tax and deductions in 2026

PALM workers must be paid the same as an Australian doing the same job: the national minimum wage or the relevant award rate, whichever is higher, plus 25% casual loading if employed casually.

• Wage floor: Australia’s national minimum wage was A$24.95 an hour from 1 July 2025 and is reviewed every 1 July, so check the current figure on the Fair Work Ombudsman site before signing a 2026 contract. Meat processing and many packing-shed roles pay award rates above the minimum, and horticulture piece rates must still guarantee the hourly minimum.
• Minimum hours: employers must offer at least 120 hours of paid work in every four-week period (an average of 30 hours a week).
• Tax: a flat 15% from the first dollar under the PALM tax arrangement. If PALM wages are your only Australian income you generally do not need to lodge a tax return.
• Superannuation: your employer pays 12% on top of wages into a super fund. You can claim it as a Departing Australia Superannuation Payment after you go home; it is taxed on withdrawal, so expect less than the headline balance.
• Deductions: only agreed, itemised costs: accommodation, transport to work, health insurance and the balance of your international airfare (the employer must contribute at least A$300). Every deduction must appear on your payslip.

A realistic weekly take-home example

A short-term horticulture worker on a full 38-hour week at the minimum wage in the first months of a contract:

• Gross: 38 hours x A$24.95, about A$948
• Less 15% tax: about A$806
• Less typical deductions (accommodation A$150 to 200, transport, insurance and airfare repayment of A$50 to 100): roughly A$450 to 600 net

At 2026 exchange rates that is very roughly FJ$650 to 900 a week, rising once the airfare is repaid and overtime kicks in at the peak of the season. It is real money (personal remittances into Fiji passed FJ$1 billion a year in 2023, largely on the back of labour mobility), but it is not the “A$1,000 a week in your pocket” figure that circulates back home. Budget on the lower number, and compare transfer fees on SendMoneyPacific; a transfer straight into an M-PAiSA or MyCash wallet is often far cheaper than bank to bank.

Short-term or long-term: which should you aim for?

Factor	Short-term (up to 9 months)	Long-term (1 to 4 years)
Typical jobs	Fruit and vegetable picking and packing, meat processing, seasonal hotel work	Aged care, meat processing, hospitality, dairy and broadacre farming, fishing
Entry bar	Fitness and reliability; no qualification needed	Often a Certificate III (for example Individual Support for aged care) or trade skills
Employment type	Casual or full-time	Full-time only
Family	No	Limited family accompaniment pilot

For long-term aged-care work, the practical route is the Australia Pacific Training Coalition (APTC), which delivers the Australian Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing) at its Fiji campus, the same qualification Australian aged-care providers ask for. FNU’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Studies in Namaka is the equivalent pathway for cookery and hospitality roles. The trade-off is time: one to four years away, usually with no Fiji job to return to, so long-term suits workers with a specific goal rather than those testing the waters.

PALM vs New Zealand’s RSE scheme

Many Fijians in the Work Ready Pool are also eligible for New Zealand’s scheme, and NEC handles both. The Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme lets New Zealand horticulture and viticulture employers hire Pacific workers, including Fijians, for up to seven months in any 11-month period.

	PALM (Australia)	RSE (New Zealand)
Minimum age	21	18
Length	Up to 9 months, or 1 to 4 years	Up to 7 months in any 11
Sectors	Horticulture, meat, aged care, hospitality, agriculture, fishing	Horticulture and viticulture only
Pay floor	Australian minimum wage or award (A$24.95/hr from July 2025, revised each July)	NZ minimum wage (NZ$23.50/hr from April 2025, revised each April), with a premium for experienced returning workers
Tax	15% flat	10.5% flat non-resident seasonal worker rate
Long-term or family option	Yes	No

Mistakes that get Fijian workers sent home, or never picked

• Paying a “facilitator”. NEC does not charge and no third party can move you up the queue. Report anyone selling places to NEC or the Police.
• Disengaging (absconding). Leaving your employer to work illegally elsewhere cancels your visa, bans you from PALM and RSE, and NEC will never re-register you. Fiji has had one of the higher disengagement rates in the scheme, which is why screening is now so strict. If a job is genuinely bad (unpaid hours, unsafe housing), use the formal transfer process, tell Fiji’s country liaison officer in Australia, and call the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94.
• Hiding a medical condition. Diabetes, hypertension and old injuries are common reasons workers fail the panel medical or are sent home at their own cost mid-contract.
• Arriving with no cash. First pay usually lands two to three weeks after arrival. Take at least a few hundred Fiji dollars’ worth for the first fortnight.
• Alcohol and visitor breaches in accommodation. Accommodation rules are part of your contract; drunken incidents and unauthorised guests are among the most common reasons for early termination.
• No plan for the family at home. Decide before you leave who controls the money and how much is saved. Marital breakdown and squandered remittances are the two stories NEC hears most.
• Doing nothing between seasons. A forklift ticket, first-aid certificate or Certificate III earned in Fiji between contracts is the fastest route to a better-paid role next time, and returning workers requested by name skip the queue entirely.

Coming home: make the stint count

Make voluntary FNPF contributions while away, because Australian super is a separate, taxed pot, and keep every payslip and your separation certificate as evidence for future employer-led selection. The workers who turn labour mobility into a house, a boat or a small business in Fiji are almost always the ones who went back for a second and third season on the strength of a clean record. The short version: register free with NEC, be document-ready, tell the truth on your medical, finish your first contract cleanly, and the next contracts come to you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it cost anything to register with NEC for the PALM scheme?

No. NEC registration, screening and selection are free. You pay only for your own passport, police clearance and medical, and your employer covers the upfront international airfare (recovering part of it later through agreed deductions shown on your payslip). Anyone charging a fee to get you into the Work Ready Pool or to "guarantee a farm" is a scammer and should be reported to NEC or the Fiji Police.

How long does it take from NEC registration to leaving Fiji?

There is no fixed timeframe. Selection depends on employer demand for your type of work and the season in Australia: some registrants deploy within weeks, others wait more than a year. A current passport, complete documents and relevant licences are the only things you control that shorten the wait.

Can I choose the employer, state or type of job?

No. Approved employers select workers, not the other way round. You can tell NEC what work you are physically able to do and any licences or certificates you hold, but you cannot pick a farm, company or state. Returning workers can, however, be requested by name by a previous employer, which is the fastest route back.

Can PALM scheme workers get permanent residency in Australia?

Not through PALM itself. The subclass 403 visa is strictly temporary and you must leave when your contract ends. The Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) is the permanent-residency pathway for Fijians: a separate annual ballot for people aged 18 to 45 who secure a job offer in Australia. It runs independently of the PALM scheme, although PALM experience and references can help you land that job offer.

Can I take my family with me on the PALM scheme?

Short-term (up to nine months) workers cannot. Some long-term workers on one-to-four-year contracts can bring a partner and dependent children under Australia’s family accompaniment pilot, but only if their employer is participating and can meet the accommodation, schooling and support requirements. Ask about this before signing a long-term contract rather than after arrival.

What happens if I am injured or get sick while working in Australia?

Work injuries are covered by your employer’s compulsory workers’ compensation insurance, which pays medical costs and lost wages. Non-work illness is covered by the health insurance your employer must arrange for your whole stay (the premium is deducted from pay). Report any injury immediately, keep copies of medical reports and payslips, and remember that being injured is not a visa breach; you cannot be sent home simply for making a claim.