pread

I'm on a 457 visa, and I've been working for a Company for almost a year now on a contract basis, via an Agency. The Company have said they would like to sponsor me for Permanent Residency. However, the Agency are officially my employer. In reality, I've only been to their office once, and work full-time for the Company itself. To all intents & purposes, I work for the Company. The Agency are my sponsor, and pay my wages, although they claim that back from the Company (plus their cut of course).

With this setup, can the Company sponsor me for PR, when I've never officially been employed by them ? The Immigration requirement of "the applicant has worked full-time in Australia in the occupation for which they have been nominated for the last 2 years, including at least the last 1 year working for the nominating employer", is what I'm concerned about.

Thanks, Paul.

JAJ

Paul
Get some professional advice from an agent expert in ENS (not all agents are) but my feeling is that this might cause you a problem.

Alternatives to the 2 year on 457 requirement are:

- you get an ACS skill assessment; or
- the salary is above the 'high skill' threshold of approx A$151k pa


Jeremy
Jeremy

oryx

Paul,

The company who are willing to sponsor you, will have to apply for ENS Nomination status. If they are qualified, they are allowed to sponsor any non-australian either already in Australia or abroad.

Once the company has approved ENS status, the second part will take place which is applying for a visa for the relevant individual to be sponsored.

You need to meet 1 of 3 conditions,
either have worked for the company for more than 2 years
OR earn a salary of at least $151 500
OR have had your skills assessed as suitable by the relevant skills assessing authority (published in a Government Gazette Notice) and, unless exceptional circumstances apply, have at least 3 years experience in the occupation.

As soon as you have your skills assessed, you are eligible to be sponsored by the company from the day your skills assessment is approved. (which you already might have, which means that you are already ‘qualified’ today)

You may submit both the ENS Nomination for your company and your PR application together, which will speed things up.

It will take a few weeks for both you and the company to get all the documents sorted out before you submit them.

I will also suggest to include your medicals and PCC with the application as when I submitted the ENS application, they said that they should have a result within 8 weeks. (It has been 14 weeks since and my case officer is now on holiday so I suppose I will have to wait another few weeks but if I had my medicals submitted in the beginning, I am sure it would have been granted by now as the medicals were requested on 23 June)

All the best

pread

Jeremy,

Unfortunately, I don't earn that kind of salary as a contractor, and as an employee I would earn far less. So that options out. I guess I've been avoiding an assessment with the ACS thus far, as I don't have any relevant qualifications, just plenty of experience. But, point taken, I will consult an agent expert in ENS. Any recommendations ?

Cheers, Paul.

TheRossers

Just a thought Paul but will the Agency not sponsor you for PR if you ask them or am I missing something. Surely if they are getting a cut then it would be in their interest to do their bit to keep getting it!!

pread

Unlikely. The Agency basically would have to guarantee me a job for 3 years, which they wouldn't want to do in the first place. If the Company no longer required my services, they would be stuck with me, have to find me another job or have to pay me out.The company wants to reduce costs by changing me from a contractor to an employee as well, which wouldn't happen with this arrangement. Neither the agency, nor the company end up with what they really want.

To me it seems a little unreasonable that just because I've worked through an Agency, my time with the Company itself seems to be irrelevant. But then thems the rules and you have to go with them. I sometimes wish their processes were not so objective, but then as soon as you introduce subjective reasoning into a process like this, you can end up with inconsistencies. Moan over.

Cheers, Paul.

Pootle

Hi!
When was your application? Ours was 31st march (ack 19th April). We did meds unreq on 8th June. I e-mailed CO who said the usual wait was 12 weeks, but at the moment there is a backlog!! Don't know how long now....

oryx

Hi Paul,

I see the following solution.

1) Start your ACS assessment as soon as possible. As soon as you receive that, which can take around 3 months, you can then apply for the ENS. This will also take around 4 months so a best case scenario will give you a PR in 7 months. I am not sure whether the company will be willing to wait so long if they are looking at bringing you onboard to save money.

2) Get the company to sponsor you a new 457 visa under the same conditions as you would have had with a PR. (If you have children, try to get them to pay the $4500 school fees) This will take much less time and you don't need to do an ACS assessment. I have friends who had to wait only 1 week for a new 457, but others who had to wait 7 weeks. After 2 years, you can apply for your PR. If you don't want to wait the 2 years, you can immediately start your ACS assessment and when that is done, apply for the PR. This way you have time on your side and the company is already saving money.

All the best,
Wayne

Pootle

You don't need to pay state school fees in vic on a 457

pread

Wayne,

Thanks for the info. I believe the company would wait for a certain amount of time, but not 2 years. But then if my Company were willing to sponsor me on a 457 before sponsoring me for PR, wouldn't it only need to be one year ? The Immigration requirement as I understand it is "the applicant has worked full-time in Australia in the occupation for which they have been nominated for the last 2 years, including at least the last 1 year working for the nominating employer".

Cheers, Paul.