alan dell

Hi everyone,

I have heard that if your job is on the 'jobs in demand list' your application is priortised.Is this so?
From recieving your visa how long do you have to sort things out before you have to land in Australia(is it dated from your medicals and if so how long?)

Alex Hall

In general you have 1 year in which to validate your visa from the date of your medical or police check (which ever is the earliest). This may however depend on other factors such as your health etc where the validation may be more like 6 months. Once you have validated your visa you can leave Oz again and do not need to return for 5 years (although due to visa extensions etc it is usually recommended to return and live in Oz before 3 years have passed).

If you have a house to sell them timescales can be a little frantic!

While if your job is on the MODL list it should be fast tracked (with an anticipated processing time of around 3 months if all goes well), a lot of people are finding their visas being processed in 3-4 months irrespective of whether they are sponsored, MODL or non-MODL. At least this is the case for people who send in their visa forms after July 2004.

Note that the processing times mentioned do not take into account the time it takes to have your skills assessment.

There is quite a bit of useful information on the forum and DIMIA website so is usually worth investing some time to investigate.

hth and good luck

:-)

Alex