tonytony

Hi, I want to move to Australia at the end of the year (I have commitments until then) with my fiancee. My job is on the skills list and at the moment I have 120 points exactly so I should be able to get visa no problem. The issue is that I turn 30 in August so after that I wont have enough points.

The question is can I apply for the visa now while I am still 29 and not move to australia until the end of the year? Will this be acceptable or will it not work?

shar07

What visa are you looking at I applied for a 176 June 08 and have not got my visa yet, I think you can wait up to 12 months for visa and maybe longer depending which one you are going on. What is your occupation as you may have to do Vetassess or equivalent beforehand as well. Good luck with it though

melbert

You can apply for your visa now, it'll probably take a good few months (over 6) to be processed. As far as I know, it's the age you are on application, not when the visa is granted. Leave doing your police checks and meds for a few months or until you are allocated a CO then you'll have longer to validate/make the move and like Shar says, you'll probably have to do a skilss assessment first, or if you apply after August, you could look at state sponsorship if your occupation is covered by the state you're wanting to go to.

Good luck!

Mel

fifty_pence

It may well be another year before you get your visa - considering the time taken for skills assessment (4-6 weeks minimum) and case officer allocation (6-12 months). Of course you'll need time to get your stuff together for applying for skills assessment and the actual visa application.

Even if you do get your visa before December, you'll have some time to get in to Australia .. depends on WHEN you get your medicals and PCCs done.

My advice - submit your application ASAP and get on with your life. When you have a CO you will be asked to get your medicals & PCC's done - which will than give you another year to get into Australia and validate your visa.

Good Luck

tonytony

Thanks for the replies! I am looking at the 175 visa. I'm a software developer which is currently on the skills list but I heard that might be reassessed soon, so thats another reason to apply asap . I didnt actually realise it would take so long to process! but I guess thats kinda good news for me.. Thanks again for the replies!

cookiestar

I think that the end of the year for a move to Australia is ambitious to say the least, if you've not had your skills assessed yet. That can take a good few months (took us 10 weeks) and then the visa application can take a year (even longer if you're not on the new Critical Skills List).

varsanik

Get the ball rolling, the rules may change and you wont go anywhere.

Aitchy

Agreed. I was in the same boat this time last year (I want to go to Oz in summer 09) and an agent advised me to hold off on the basis 176 visas were only taking six to eight months to process. What he failed to tell me was that it may take much longer than eight months and that the rules may change at any given moment.

If I were you I'd get my skills assessed asap, the funds in place to pay for everything and the application prepared and ready to go.