stefian

Hi

we are here in Brisbane on a four year temporary visa, but we are thinking of going for the skilled independent perminent visa, while we are here. We have only been in Australia for five months. does anyone know if we have to be here a certain length of time before we can apply? and also for the pr visa to be granted do we have to leave Australia? if so how long for? and where do we then recieve our pr visa?

if anyone can help thanks

Stephanie

melbournebound

Hi Stephanie,
I am in Australia with my son as part of my wifes temp 457 visa (for 1 year - Visa can be upto 4 years and can be extended every 4 yrs), If this is the same visa that you are on then you can apply for pr at anytime. We posted our permanent residency application last night after spending 2 months gathering all the information that was required.

The visa that you have to apply for is an offshore visa i.e. you will have to leave australia for the visa to be granted - most people take this as a holiday and head for New Zealand or another of the nearest Australian Overseas missions i.e. Fiji etc. From talking to the dimia yesterday you only have to be out of the country a couple of days. If you need to clarify information and you are in Australia ring the dimia info line on 131881.
Hope this helps.

Melbournebound

P.s. my wife is a nurse and when I mentioned this to dimia yesterday they said it would only take 3 months for visa grant. Yippee

stefian

Thanks for the infor and phone number

My hubby is a toolmaker and they have just put it onto the demands list so i'm hoping it won't take long either.

thanks again
Steph

CasG

Last part is excellant news - I am going over to Melbourne on the 10th Jan on a 457 with view to applying for PR asap. I'm also a nurse (mental health)
Where does your wife work? I have a job with North Western Mental Health, but not sure which hospital yet - either the Royal Melbourne, Western or Sunshine Hospital. Will start work beginning of Feb, so have a lovely 2/3 weeks to sort myself out.
Cas

tonyk38

When I was at the migration fare the other week, I was told that to be on the safe side, you probably need to be out of the country for about 5 days. So you could easily just go for a week's holiday (employers permitting) in say NZ and do it that way.

As mentioned before, you can apply for PR anytime, so long as you meet the basic requirements on age, skills etc, but also experience. For example, I would need to be in Aus on a temp visa for at least two years to get the extra points I would need for experience to reach the 120 point passmark for the Skilled Independent visa. This may not be a problem for you, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

Good luck anyway!

Bix

I agree I think you can apply for PR at any time.

However, I thought I read a post the other day (from JAJ?) that suggested NZ had tightened up to prevent people using their shores as a stopover for offshore visa grants ?

I am not sure but certainly worth checking out. If I got it right you may have to go to Bali - wouldn't that be a shame ?

JAJ

Definitely not from me. There's no problem with going to NZ as long as your passport allows visa free tourist entry to NZ (British citizen passports do, some others don't).

Can't see NZ changing this as it's great for Auckland tourist and AirNZ revenues.

Jeremy

luvit

Hi
We came to Oz just over 2 years ago on a 457. Waited 6 months for the extra points for Aus work experience then applied, (you wont need to now due to MODL) took 8 months to get, then we had to leave for 5 working days for processing, so we took a hol in Fiji, (NZ was too cold at the time) however we priced Fiji, NZ, and Bali and Fiji was the cheapest.
Go for it, took me 2 months to gather information then sit and wait.
Good Luck.

stefian

Bali mmmmmmmmmmmmmm Just not the same as Blackpool is it, but I suppose I could force myself to go there

Thanks guys
Steph

Exited coz we are going to Steve Erwins zoo tomorrow