hi
i went through this process 3 weeks ago. the co informed me that a pre grant letter was immanent. he asked for our travel info for grant letter, for as you know you have to be off shore to convert a 457 to a 136. we arranged to go to Singapore. we emailed travel details, and the co e- mailed our grant letter on the first day of our stay in Singapore. i down loaded it and visited the Australian embassy in Singapore to evidence passport and had pr visa put in our passports. we stayed in Singapore for 6 days, but you could do it in less, as the embassy visit only took 1.5hrs.
cheers, Dom [/QUOTE]

Hi thanks for the advice thats excellant. She was getting worried about how long she would have to sit in another country!
Thanks again
Marie

Jayr, I believe that is correct.

ENS: 121 offshore / 856 onshore
RSMS:119 offshore / 857 onshore

I went from 457 onshore to RSMS 857 onshore.....no leaving the country necessary.

Sooo... summing up... you have to be on your 457 for 2 years before PR can be granted? But you can apply straight away? So, the benefit for applying straight away, and not waiting til the 2 years are nearly up, would be any changes in PR conditions that would not affect someone who's already applied?


Bix, does that mean, if you've applied for your 457 onshore, you can apply for PR onshore, but if you've applied for 457 offshore, you can't?

Nope we applied for our 457 offshore and moved onto a 856 onshore so no problems there.
For us the advantages of applying for PR ASAP were simple in that we have 4 kids and no house in the UK so we had no LAFHA to deal with. Once we got our PR we were financially better off and my University fees are more manageable now (I had to put off my course until we got PR). 457 was fine for us in that it got us here quickly and Ian loves his job so there was never any question of him wanting to move as soon as he got PR. We had health insurance paid for by the company and had reciprocal cover with Medicare so all in all most of the disadvantages of the 457 didn't affect us.
Ian's company paid for the PR and 457 application process (but we have friends that had to fund the PR application themselves) and used agents to do the sponsored PR visa application. Most of our headaches were caused by the agents being pretty useless but all in all it was a pretty straightforward process.
Good luck
Nicky

You DO NOT have to be on a 457 for any length of time before applying for or having PR granted

No SK.

Ours was a 2 year 457 offshore but the 857 was onshore with no need to leave the country for visa grant.

Obtained the 857 after being here 6 months but there is no timeframe. As the others said you can apply right away.

Ours was quick - 31 days from lodging til grant.

Sorry SK, I've just realised my post 32 is wrong.

It should have read "I went from 457 offshore....."

Hi all

I am new at this forum so please bear with me if I ask something already asked here.
A rather large company is going to apply for 457 for me and in their job offer they have mentioned that following the successful 457 visa they will apply for ENS. I am not interested in staying on 457 but getting PR as soon as possible. I am now thinking to apply to 136 myself in parallel to 457 the employer is applying for me. I am wondering if there is any conflict between these two visas applying simultaneously. One more thing which I concern the most is which one can be granted faster? 136 by myself or ENS by company. I wanna get PR before new citizenship comes into effect.
Any comment is highly appreciated.

Thank you

Sariman


Hi thanks for the advice thats excellant. She was getting worried about how long she would have to sit in another country!
Thanks again
Marie [/QUOTE]

I'm no expert but I can't imagine DIMIA would actually let you apply for 2 visas at once - it just doesn't make sense.

Hi

Post this question again in this part of the forum, you'll get more answers there http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=32

When we spoke to the bank we were told we would have to be a permanent resident to buy a house in Australia.
AS far as i'm aware you are only entitled to family benefit if you have permenent residency, any other benefits you may be entitled to wouldn't kikc in til your there two years but not sure if you have to be Pr or not? I can't think what the website is that tells you what you're entitled to on different class visa's is it immi.com.au ???

Sorry not much help

Jen

We have our PR medicals on Wednesday.... SECURITY!

Nope, that's not true. You *can* buy a house when you're on a 457 but it's a bit trickier. You have to apply to a Govt dept before putting an offer in on a house and they decide whether or not you're allowed to buy it. If you then decide on another house, you have to reapply for "permission" again.

Do a search for FIRB - thats the body you have to apply to

That's the one! I thought it was FIRB but wasn't 100% sure