smwtorrington

Hi folks

Can anybody tell me whether you can submit a skilled independent visa then later change it to a STNI visa (i believe they are fast tracked) when the State confirms that they are willing to nominate you. The reason for asking is that we are still waiting for Victoria to come back to us on nomination (submitted early Feb 04 - chased them they say they are really busy with STNI applications) but within 4 weeks time I am 30 so lose 5 points on the points test. As I only just manage to get upto the 120 points (im a teacher) time is critical. With my skills assessment now back I think I should submit an independent application, fill in the skills matching section on the application and then if Victoria confirm nomination after this has been submitted, change my application with DIMIA. Any thoughts ?

Also my medical isnt until early May, police checks are still outstanding, can I send them any time or does it have to be eithier with the initial application or when requested. Im aware that the clock is ticking as soon as you receive them.

best wishes

Fiona

tiredwithtwins

you can apply for stni at any time....if you look on the dimia website it should give links to stni for each state (I was going to apply to SA)...the SA one told you how to go about it if you had submitted your main app, and if you hadnt. think stni is processed a bit quicker too....
sue

Nigel1

Not sure about that really. However we are going this route and have been advised by Adelaide to submit as Skilled Independent and then if they are going to nominate us take it from there. For STNI you only have to meet the pool mark which is 70.

Obviously the only problem with this is that you have to spend the money on the Skilled application without knowing for certain if you will be nominated. In your case not a problem as you have enough points at the moment but for us we only have 115 points not enough for Skilled Independant so we will wait to see if Adelaide will nominate us.

Good luck.

Alan Collett

Yes you can Fiona. Technically the Skilled Independent Visa Class BN includes subclasses 136 (also called Skilled Independent) and 137 (Skilled - State Territory Nominated Independent). You apply under a visa class and the case officer must consider your application against all the subclasses under that class.

What you can't do is apply for a Skilled Independent and then apply for a family sponsored skilled visa, as the family sponsored visas (subclasses 138 and 139) are in a different visa class.

In your situation, and given that you are over the line with the skilled independent points test, I would lodge your visa application now, and would send details of the State Nomination to the DIMIA as and when it comes through. You should also advise the Skilled Migration Unit of your visa file reference once it is available. The SMU and the DIMIA will then liaise to confirm you do indeed have a State Nomination, whereupon your application will be dealt with as a priority processed 137 application.

There is no need to fill in the Skills Matching section of the form 47SK, and medicals and police checks are not required at the time the visa application is submitted - they are usually submitted when requested by the case officer.

Hope this helps.