Shayman

The Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Provisional) Visa (Subclass 475) is of interest to me because I both have close Australian family who are willing to sponsor me, and am willing to locate to a regional area.

My main stumbling block at the moment for applying for the general skilled permanent visa would be a lack of experience in any of the SOL professions. I am only 4 months into a 3 year graduate trainee scheme to become a chartered accountant.

When nominating a 'skilled' profession for a sponsored regional visa, is there more leniency than when you are applying for regional/sponsored visa? By this I mean would being only part-qualified (but with training and a good degree) give me a chance of being successful?

Bermudashorts

No there is not any more leniency in this respect.

You need to meet the requirements of skilled migration, from what you have said on your other thread you do not at the moment. You do not have the work experience and also you are not going to pass skills assessment at the moment.

But it is something you are on the road to working towards.

newjersey

"nominating" an occupation means that you have already had your skills assesssed as suitable for migration purposes by an assessing authority, specializing in that field. It requires education, experience or both to a sufficient level. Some occupations, like Engineers can get through assessment on education alone with no experience requirement, some trades and IT can get through solely on experience without formal education. You really need to pick an occupation (at least know what assessment body you will apply to), learn their assessment criteria and work through the list. Afaik, there is no leniency, simply because of oversupply of applications - look at year to two year long queues of people who satisfy all of what's asked for, why would they arbitrarily relax rules.

Shayman

four more years at least of depressing british winters it is looking like then!

Thanks for the help anyway.

Just as a side query, I was fortunate enough to work on Hamilton Island for 5 months during my working holiday. While the job I did was unskilled (scooping ice cream ) I became very close to the couple who owned the place and they gave me a very flattering reference which helped my get my graduate job in the uk. Could a positive reference from them improve an application?

Bermudashorts

NO!

DIAC will not be interested in how flattering your ice cream job reference is.

Like the rest of us, you have to work at things in this life, it doesn't always come on a plate.

newjersey

You wrote in your other thread that you have an Economics degree. Out of curiosity, did you research what that translates to in terms of the occupation codes and assessment criteria? Is it really four years of experience they want to see? Just wondering how you came up with four - remember there is around a year of visa processing as well, judging by today's rate.

Shayman

Seriously though, I can scoop the stuff to perfection...

It is frustrating how long its gonna take, especially when I know id be a good member of society! Oh well will have to forget about it for a few years I guess

Shayman

Yes my degree was in Economics, with a fair bit of accounting included. I did research and 'Economist' is on the SOL. however I have taken the option of training to be an accountant. The reason I said four years is because it will take me around 3 before I am fully qualified in accountancy; is it not the case that only post-qualified experience counts towards the 12 months skilled work required?

Bermudashorts

On another thread he talks about studying for accountancy, will take a good three years to pass the exams and hence pass skills assessment, I think that is where the timeframe estimate comes from

newjersey

Ok, sounds fair. Perhaps I misread the intentions to migrate asap. It appears that using an existing degree the OP could get there way sooner than in four years. But respecting the choices made - best of luck.

Shayman

I want to migrate asap, but I thought having a degree was not enough to nominate a profession with?

Id be off in a shot if given the opportunity!

newjersey

It's true that you need work experience and for all I know need to be closely related to your degree. If I were in your shoes, I'd compare your option of qualifying and then migrating as accountant (4 years give or take, as already been said) to using you'd existing degree. No matter what the occupation, you need 12 months skilled work experience to meet basic requirement for the skilled visa. Same period may be used to cover your skills assessment - not sure what the requiremens are for economists though, you will have to find out. Then same 12-ish months of visa processing and vous a la you are permanent resident in about two years instead of four. Just a thought.

Shayman

Thanks.

My current job is as a credit controller, however it requires a lot more skill than some may think, especially with the industry I work in. As opposed to just calling people up telling them to pay bills, at my firm I have to properly manage accounts, frequently liase with our legal team on debt issues and explain technicalities about the energy industry (there are many). My company pays well and only employs graduates with a 2.1 or 1st degree from good universities. Would this count for anything if I tried to present myself as having completed skilled work?

Bermudashorts

I am not sure I understand this strategy, what would be the occupation, what occupation would you put this work under? Economists do not do credit control and nor do accountants. Well as a senior accountant myself, I have had a credit control teams reporting into me when I was CFO, but no way would they contain qualified accountants, I would consider credit controllers to be clerical, as would anyone in my profession.

newjersey

To echo what Bermudashorts has said, may be it is time you speak to the reputable migration agent (several are part of this site or find your own via the MARA site - as you please). If you will be able to establish that what you are doing is an Economist's job (hardly, but for argument sake), or "a closely related" occupation then you are golden. If not, you may be flying off of the charted territory.