I'm currently on a 457 but my company are happy to sponsor me for ENS (pr) ..

Are there REALLY that many benifits .. my position it definately long term and they are happy to renew my 457 whenever it needs renewing?

I'm approximately $600 a month better off due to the living away from home allowance and would feel it if i lost that

I know about medicare etc but we haven't really felt the effects of only being on the reciprical agreement and have got treatment for free at public hospitals and bulk billing doc's

I understand if they decided to let me go i would but in trouble but assuming i'm fairly safe in my job .. is there any other reason to move accross .. (i will one day but i'm thinking of dragging out the process and saving the money for a deposit for a house!)

Thoughts?

It can be a personal point of view but you do not have a lot of protection on a 457. For me even though I was very happy in my job I changed over as soon our PR came through. We had to pay school fees here in NSW and depending on your income in the first year we would have been entitled to children and rent support had we been on PR.

The four weeks to get out of the country bothered me as well as making a perm future with our kids (who were older) buying a house and having to liase with FIRB. They are all minor points to some maybe but ones that bugged us.

Once you have PR it is then two years until Citizenship and the real right to come and go to Australia as you want. It can be long time and a lot could happen and force you to leave and not have the right to return.

Anyway this is just a personal viewpoint

Cheers

Edit

- you are supposed to have medical coverage the reciprocal agreement is not for 457 people - this is my understanding

Totally agree with what you've said and its the stability bit that worries me.

Emily, my daughter, is only 2 so we have a while before we have to worry about that (plus up here in qld i dont think we have to pay anyway)

We have to save for a deposit for a house so that will be a couple of years as well so this is what i'm thinking .. take advantage of the 600dollars extra a month and try and put as much of it away as possible .. then move over to pr .. buy the house, get the first time buyers rebate etc

we may well just take the hit now, just for the stability .. but i can't think of any other reason that makes it worth moving over, at the moment anyway

Depends upon your circumstance.
For me, I changed from 457 within months of being here purely for 2 reasons:
1) Stability for wfe and family even though I 100% trust my sponsor what if he died? (small company I work for!)
2) Ability to change jobs (trying!)
3) Entitlement to benefits that lowered private nursery costs for the wee one.

Bought a house stratight away so LAFHA never came into it.
Employer paid for private health ins so Medicare not an issue.

So for me, I am financially better off becoming PR

Andrew

And if you got run over by a bus while here on a 457, your wife and child(ren) would have no protection here either - they'd be deported, presumably....? We've had this conversation as we're also on a 457. It's hard to arrange finance, few benefits are available, and security is zilch. We're applying for PR as soon as IE Aust recognise dh's chartered engineer status - assuming they do, of course.

We have a medicare card which states we are covered by the reciprocal agreement and we are on a 457.

so do we .. it does say something like emergency treatment only or something like that but we have yet to be declined treatment (my daughter has been seen at a hospital and a bulk bill doctors for free)

This is the clincher i guess .. i have life insurance but i think she would want to stay here

It will just take longer to save a deposit as i'll lose the LAFHA .. but saying that i can rent a much better house than i could afford to buy anyway so its no big deal

if we wanted to stay here long term we would bite the bullet and do the PR thing. The work situation for us is also quite stable and we only ever intended coming over for 3 years anyway so hopefully his job will last for that period, if not we move on.

We are the same as you - on a 457 but we did negotiate before we came with the company that they would sponsor and pay for PR once we were here. We are going to wait a couple of years and then apply because the LAFHA payment is worth quite a lot to us. However, I am looking at doing a course in remedial massage at Uni and I would have to pay overseas rates which is about $7k a term and it is 18 months. This drops considerably if I was on a PR visa.

Cam,

Here are the things that come immediately to mind.
I am sure there are others.

You have a bust up at work and get sacked.
You have a bust up which makes working there intolerable.
The work changes and you don't like it.
The work changes and you can't do it.
The company goes into liquidation.
The company is bought by another with different ideas.
The personnel change and have new ideas.
They change their mind and won't sponsor for PR.
You want to work somewhere else.
Education is expensive / varies by state and age dependant.
No Centerlink cover.
Restricted Medicare cover.
The immigration / visa requirements change - they do regularly.
Sponsored PR visa categories are scrapped - some have beenin the past.
You can't satisfy latest visa requirements.
Any member of your family developing a health problem could prevent you all getting a PR visa.
FIRB approval needed for house buying.
Job restriction for non PR status will affect your family.
Someone gets into trouble with the law. Police records marred. Not good for visa application.
You kick the bucket - family can't stay.
Sense of belonging.
Time on temp visa does not currently qualify for citizenship.

A lot of the above events, if they came into play, would mean you have to leave the country within 28 days. Is that risk worth AUD 600 per year ?

Some of them would restrict how you might decide you want to live. We all change our minds over time and sometimes unexpectedly. Is that risk worth AUD 600 per year ?

My opinion is that PR is a valuable commodity and should be gained at the earliest opportunity. Unforeseen events could bite you in the ass and prevent you getting it in the future. Why risk it ?

Your decision. Hope this helps you weigh it up.

also you wont qualify for the first home owners grant unless you have PR

All this though, is assuming that these individuals desire a longer term/ permanent life in Australia, and not just a few years experience in another country before moving on

The point about PR is that it gives you options - lots of people on temporary visas would like to stay in Australia but have to leave, whether they like it or not.

FWIW, I'd say it's definitely worth going for PR. I'm on a 457 now too, (also came from Birmingham area!) but would love to get PR, just for the peace of mind and security that, if anything did go wrong at/with work, I'd have time to find another and not be put on the next plane home (after 28 days). Also, you get child benefit, better medical benefits, etc.

My company are willing to sponsor me for ENS/ PR but I don't earn enough yet (has to be 160k, I believe) for them to do so. So if you have the option, I'd go for it in your place.