If we migrated as my wife is a nurse, how soon would we get permanent residency?

Its a bit like asking the question "how long is a piece of string."

My wife is a nurse also, and i think it took us about seven months from having lodged our application with DIMIA to getting the grant. There was however a screw up with our application, when we went for the medical the doctor did not take all the bloods they needed for analysis from my wife (you need extra ones done as a potential Ozzi health worker.) This meant a return trip to the doctor's, and getting the bloods taken again. I think this added about two months onto our application. So i suspect we could have had our residency after about five to six months if there was not this issue.

So it really depends how complicated your application is, if it is very strait forward, i.e there are not numerous other familly members on it, and you can evidence everything easily, it may be a bit quicker than if there is a lot for the case officer to have to look at. Also if there are any screw ups like with ours this will affect it, also some people have suggested in the past that some "regions" applications are processed quicker than others, and it also seems to come down to case officers also, like with any operation in the world some staff members are more efficiant than others. I seem to remember seeing one nurses application that took only three months from start to finish, then there were others than were over the year mark who had not even had their meds or police checks requested.

Another factor is whether you front load your meds and police checks, you may get a few different opinions from different people here, but if you want your visa quickly i would submit your meds and police checks with your initial application. This means that when your case officer processes your application, he or she should have everything they need to grant you your residency. This is as opposed to having to contact you requesting them, you doing them, and then two or three months later them checking to see if you have done them (even though it may only take a fortnight for you to return them stuff to DIMIA.) I think we would have had our grant quicker much quicker had we done this.

However, i may be wrong here but i get the impression that the visas are taking a little longer to process now than when we applied (about a year ago,) but maybe someone who has more up to date info can advise on that.

Assuming you only migrate when you get the visa to allow you work, you could get PR straight away depending on your application type. Are you wanting temp, perm or just thinking of applying for anything?

You apply for a permanent resident visa, once granted then you actually migrate. The question is more how long does visa processing take.

But she might be coming on a 457 visa and then applying for PR once she is here.

can any one tell me if im am already a perm res
i have a 136 skill indipendant visa and we are due to arrive in oz in feb 07 .
im a little worried about what i am entitled to with Centrelink and medicare as my wife is pregnant

thx

There are lots of different answers to that depending on what you need to be a permanent resident for.

But you will be a permanent resident for medicare and centrelink purposes when you arrive with a 136 visa.

Thx wendy
ive been finding more info since the last post and it looks like i can get something for newborns and cover from medicare

Did you already have your VISA when your wife fell pregnant? Or did you fall whilst applying for your VISA? I ask because we are awaiting our VISA's and my wife has just fell pregnant, the processing centre told us we won't get our VISA until after the birth and an OK fro mthe wife & babies medical.

No real need for the same question on two different threads:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=419835