I believe it is possible to apply for a temporary visa and then apply for a permanent visa once you are working in Australia. Please can anyone confirm that this is true.

If it is true should I wait until I am in Aus before applying for a permanent visa or can you apply as soon as possible after receiving a temporary visa to speed up the process.

Thanks
Heidi Riddell

You are right. We put in an application for a permanent visa on the 26th September this year, so would be waiting until about December 2002 before we got there, so on the 27th September we put in an application for a temporary business visa which we received yesterday!!!

Once we get the permanent migration visa, the temporary one becomes null and void.

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Yes it is true. But some visas (eg skilled migration) are generally offshore visas
and this means that while you can be in Australia when you apply, you don't qualify
for any form of bridging visa to keep you legal in Australia if your temporary visa
expires before your permanent visa application is decided. And you have to go
offshore (Auckland is possible) to collect your visa.

Spouse and employer nomination residence visas can be applied for onshore.

You should generally obtain the temporary visa before applying for the permanent one.
There's nothing stopping you trying it the other way around, but often it's harder to
get a temporary visa if you've shown immigration intent by applying for migration.

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Depends on what you're planning to apply for. If it's skilled migration, you should
apply as soon as possible after receiving your temporary visa, as you have to apply
'offshore' (even though processing is now done in Adelaide) whether you're in
Australia or not.

Jeremy

Did you require sponsorship for your temporary busness visa ?

thanks dave

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