Ceri

I have recently entered on a 4 yr business visa, how/when do you get a PR visa, do you need to leave the country? Also if applying for citizenship in the future does anyone know what rights to hold British passport and freely enter/leave/work in UK in the future are?

You can apply for PR anytime (I think!) , I applied at the end of my business visa, just before it expired. I was sponsored by my company for PR.

I think it depends on the type of business visa on whether you have to, or not have to leave Aus - I don't quite understand it . I did not have to leave Australia when I applied for PR like some other people have had to do. The business visa I had was a "sub class 457".

You'll have to ask one of the immigration agents here on this site for more information regarding this. If you're on the same type of visa I was on, no you don't have to leave Aus when/if you apply for PR, I didn't

cheers:).

Thanks Ceri. I also have a sub class 457 so that clears that up. i also expect my company would sponsor me for PR (as they sponsored the 457 in the first place). What are the benefits, is it possible to change emplyers once you've got PR?

Taking Australian jobs and houses??? lol - get real! For a start a lot of Brits are giving Australians employment - do you know how many immigrants are creating work and employing Australians. British companies are no 1 foreign companies in Aus, among USA, Japanese and German (I think it's Britain no 1 if not it's USA 1 then Britain 2) . Also immigrants are filling skill shortages here, that's how they get to emmigrate here!

Houses - what ain't my cash good enough??? Tax - Brit's here in Aus pay the same amount of tax as any Australian citizen does, or isn't the tax I pay good enough either?

I have a friend who has been here for over 30 years, he is married to an Aussie, he has a child who is a citizen, he owns his own company employing Australians, he does not want citizenship, he has never been unemployed here, he owns his own house, he pays taxes - who are you to say he should get on the next plane to Britain?? - what do you want him to take his company with him and sack all the Aussies he employs - get real! If Aus did that - yes it would really be the ars* end of the world , it would become a third world country!

I can't see how Brit's are benefiting from not taking out citizenship - we pay taxes, we work, we employ aussies. If we wanted benefits (to scrounge) we would have stayed in Britain where you can get more benifits.

cheers:)

P.S

I don't know if it's because you're unemployed is the reason you have such a bee in your bonnet , but Brit's are not taking Aussie jobs, it's quite the opposite .
. In most cases there is no reason to be unemployed in Australia (unless you're a single mother with heaps of kids to look after etc - some exceptions, or injured or something) , if you can't get the job you want lower your standards for a while, and take bar work, supermarket work anything which pays a wage (back packers have no prob finding work here) until you find the job which you want to do. Open your own business - you've got the internet, open a stall in the sunday markets - anything! There are plenty of hard working Aussies who do it to earn a crust/a wage instead of moaning about it and sitting on the dole, trying to blame the world for their own problems.

cheers

Yes , you can change jobs.

Benefits - most things an Aussie Citizen gets (dole if you need it but only after 2 years of PR. apply for a mortgage etc, most things)

Some things which I can think of which you can't do and only a citizen can - you can't vote, the return visa thing you need after 5 years if travelling, and you can't run for Prime minister, or represent Australia in the Olympics :D

I have been unemployed for 3 months - yes I am a single parent to an employed 16 year old, yes I am temporarily on the dole. Yes I used to have my own business, paid my taxes and input into the Australian system. Yes I have done and still do a large amount of voluntary work for those worse off than myself. Yes I applied for citizenship on the first day I was able to - 2 years to the day we arrived here. Do you think i like being out of work??

Yes Australian companies will generally only employ people under 35 years of age,with numerous degrees, yes Australian shops will generally only employ teenagers so they can pay junior rates, yes I have been knocked back for over 250 jobs in the last 3 months. Yes life is a struggle. Oh and bar work??? I am afraid I just don't have the money available to get the qualifiactions in the gaming industry and hospitality industry that are required here. I have a wonderful idea for my own business, but having no capital and no money in the bank has put paid to that. Can you lend me the $10000 to get me off the ground?? No I thought not.

And yes, if you choose to live in this country then damn well make the commitment 100%, take out citizenship when you are elegible or get out. Why do you Brits think that you run the place? This is Australia, not a county in England. If you want so badly to live here then becoming a Citizen should be mandatory.

When the day comes that you are unemployed I hope to God that no-one ever speaks to you the way you have chosen to speak to me. I am telling it like it is and not living in the fantasy land that so many recent ex-pats think they live in.

As for skill shortages - a myth - I know of lots of well qualified people from all sort of trades who cannot get jobs in their chosen trades, and who work on factory production lines, in menial jobs. Believe me I have cleaned toilets, offices and delivered leaflets to make ends meet in the past, and will do so again. So you damn well get off your high horse and respect my opinion, then I might even consider respecting yours. As I said previously - that was MY personal opinion, which is shared by many others.

Well said Wizzywozza. I agree 100%. We'll be applying for citizenship at the earliest opportunity which will mean that it will coincide, almost exactly with my 40th birthday.

There's going to be a big party that day.

Dan

13 DAYS TO GO !!!!!

Aussie Citizens can't be deported either. Which shouldn't worry any of us law abiding people. But miscarriages of justice do occur and I for one would not be happy if, for example, some idiot decided to pick a fight with me and came off worse and it ended up with ME in the dock facing deportation. Or some bent Queensland copper planted drugs in my car.

OK it's unlikely, but it happens and becoming a citizen gives you protection from being deported. More importantly it shows committment to your new country. They ought to make it mandatrory in the UK, apart from the fact we are not "Citizens" but "Subjects".


Dan

13 DAYS TO GO!!!!!!

Like I said - get real, and stop blaming people who do have jobs for your situation. PR pay the same taxes as citizens - we have no special rights - stop trying to blame others for your situation - life sucks for some people , but to blame it on others is even worse - nobody forced you to take your path in life. And yes I have been unemployed in the UK, and no I have never claimed dole- I got off my ass and did house clearances for a time working 7 days a week to make ends meet, and sold the stuff on. Like I said stop blaming others!My husband put himself through college, working three part time jobs to do so - nobody has a free ride in this life - stop moaning and do something about it!


Sorry if you're a mechanical engineer in the Valve area - I can offer you a job tomorrow! Skill shortage!

cheers:)
I wish you the best of luck , but stop trying to blame your life on others, everyone makes their own path in life.

Are you sure you're not Mr & Mrs Norman Tebbit?

Hi Wizzywozza,

I got in trouble before on this forum for expressing my opinions but I'm going to do it again!

I really do sympathize with your situation. Sometimes in our lives bad things do happen because of circumstances we have no control over so I do feel for you because I think that most people can say that they have had rough times - myself included.

However, I think its unfair to give someone a hard time because they have lived in Aus for 35 years and just didn't go through the official ropes to become a "citizen". I mean, come on, its just a piece of paper. What difference does it make. I'm sure this person has contributed to Aus society in whatever way he can for the past 35 years, in the same way he would have done if he had an Aus passport.

Unfortunately, a large part of the worlds problems are created today because people are so nationalistic. At the end of the day though, what does it really matter. The guy grew up, went to school, got married and had kids there. Would it have benefited you personnally if he had become an official citizen?

Ps. I am not expressing my point of view in search of an arguement or exchange of ugly words. I just had to say what I think.:)

If any one cares to read my posts carefully I have never said that I blamed anyone for my current situation at all. I merely pointed out a personal opinion. The personal atack on me was unwarranted and uncalled for.

And if you must know I spent the whole of last year self funding myself through college retraining as an accountant. Yesterday I applied for another 20 jobs. I support myself and my family as best I can through what is I hope a temporarliy hard time.

I 'work' three days a week with a wonderful group of people who are all freely giving their time, as I do, to help disabled children through riding for the disabled. I figure that despite the fact that I cannot find paid work just now the least I can do is input into Australian society, as I have done throughout the 12 years I have lived here.

Oh, and if you are a citizen you can, and have to, vote, in our democratic elections. Those who choose not to be elegible to vote still reap the benefits that the rest of us work so hard to get and yet will never be able to have their own say in the running of the country they have chosen to live in. I am politically active and believe that a citizen should have their right to this process.

There are also many jobs that you cannot get if you are not a citizen, or if you are elegible to become a citizen - you must have the intention of taking out citizenship in the future.

Use your rights to vote - become a Citizen of this great country.

i want to be first in the que when im eligable for citizenship. i will see it as an honer and will be very proud of myself.

And thats my opinion.

I think I'm with you there...although I think I'll always support my England football team so not sure where that leaves me on the 'full committment to Australia' stakes..

Mash...

You're a glutton for punishment, then.
:)