Sunlover

My husband and I are living and working in Oz on my 457 Visa.
I am obviously tied to my company but my husband is not.

We applied for our PR Visas about 6 weeks ago under Subclass 139.

The company I work for has been making people redundant. I don't think my job is at risk, BUT if I did lose my job is there any way we could stay in Oz while waiting for our PR's ?

My husband's employer is willing to write a letter saying that he is an extremley valued employee (they'd been searching for someone for ages before they employed him). Unfortunately they can't sponsor him for a 457 because they are a government organisation.

Is there any chance that DIMIA would issue our visas faster to prevent us having to leave the country if this happened ? How lenient an attitude do they take with these kinds of situations ?

ptlabs

Sunlover,

A 139 visa is an offshore visa, meaning, you will ultimately have to leave Australia in order to have the visa granted.

If you lose your job, you could try to get a visitor visa (non-ETA) to cover your stay in Australia, but bear in mind that DIMIA issues visitor visas for tourism purposes - not to tide you over while you wait for your PR visas. And you have no working rights on a visitor visa.

As a 139 is an offshore visa, I would think DIMIA couldn't care less if you lost your job yesterday and had to pack up and go home tomorrow. They will process your application on their own pace - which fortunately for you, should be quite quick because a 139 application is prioritized at the moment.

Peter

George Lombard

Hi Sunlover,

It's quite common for people whose 457s are coming to an end to go onto a
visitor visa (or other temporary visas, such as student visas) during the
period in question. Unfortunately, 139 applications aren't always completed
in six or even twelve months, so a visitor visa may not solve all your
problems.

Cheers

George Lombard
--
www.austimmigration.com.au


"Sunlover" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > My husband and I are living and working in Oz on my 457 Visa.
    > I am obviously tied to my company but my husband is not.
    > We applied for our PR Visas about 6 weeks ago under Subclass 139.
    > The company I work for has been making people redundant. I don't think
    > my job is at risk, BUT if I did lose my job is there any way we could
    > stay in Oz while waiting for our PR's ?
    > My husband's employer is willing to write a letter saying that he is an
    > extremley valued employee (they'd been searching for someone for ages
    > before they employed him). Unfortunately they can't sponsor him for a
    > 457 because they are a government organisation.
    > Is there any chance that DIMIA would issue our visas faster to prevent
    > us having to leave the country if this happened ? How lenient an
    > attitude do they take with these kinds of situations ?
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com