Luke Brown

Whilst my long term plan is to sort myself out with a permenant residancy VISA (I need another 18 months work experience before I can apply) it seems that I may have an opportunity to get out there much sooner.

The company I work for has indicated that there may be an opportunity for me to work out in their Melbourne office. Not sure if they are thinking just for 12 months or whether they see it as permanent.

Questions (sorry there is a lot!!)

1. What visa would I get?
2. Is this typically something that your company would sort out or would I need to apply?
3. Would my girlfriend (we live together and could proove defacto relationship) be able to come with me?
4. Would she be able to work?
5. would it affect me applying for a permenant residancy visa in the future?
6. If I were to leave the company would I have to come back to the UK?

Many thanks in advance

Syedney

Hi Luke

My company is also sponsoring me and right now are launching my visa application.

OK, let's try to answer your questions:

Answer to Question 1:
You have two options, and it all depends on which one is your employer is prepared to get for you. These are:

Option 1: Visa 457
Option 2: PR (Permanent Residency) Visa

457 is also known as Temp Visa.

Answer to Question 2:
With both visa, in general, your company deals with applying in your behalf. They may try to pass on some of the fees incurred but you need to negotiate a bit here.


Answer to Question 3:
My answer would be Yes.


Answer to Question 4:
I expect your girlfriend to be able to work too, as I know that once granted, the visas don't contain any work restrictions in both cases.


Answer to Question 5:
Short answer is No.
If the company is sponsoring you on the temp visa (457), no problem with applying with PR. The company, in fact, can sponsor you for PR themselves at anytime, within the 457 period, as well as the fact, as highlighted in answer 1, the company can sponsor you for PR straight away.


Answer to Question 6:
If you were to leave the company while still on 457, then you have 28 days, to get another sponsorship (with anoother OZ company) or leave the country.


There are other facts to worth knowing,s pecially if the company sponsors you on 457 (most likely), and I'll just mention this one - probably most useful:

1) You could be eligible for LAFHA, Living Away From Home Allowance, if you search through this forum using LAFHA as keyword, I expect you'll get all the answers you'll ever wish for!

If I have said something not totally correct, please feel free to correct me and we can all learn together.
Hope you do get the sponsorship.

Luke Brown

Syedney - many thanks for your very detailed reply.

I've been doing some reading on the 457 temp visa and I think that would be the most suitable. It seems to be the easiest to get and I'm not sure my company would be willing to fund a Permenant visa for me.

Unfortunately my HR department have not done anything like this before, so it's up to me to find out what they need to do and then tell them! No change there though :-)

At least it would get me out there though. At the moment it's going to be 2-3 years until my permenant visa would be approved. If I can get out there sooner and still apply for permenant while I'm out there then that'd be good.

I've also read about the 28 day rule - fairly harsh but I can see why it's like that.

JAJ

Why don't you "suggest" to them that a permanent visa would be best for all concerned? That way they don't need to worry about the obligations on the sponsor of a 457 holder (medical costs, repatriation cost etc).

Of course before you ask this question, do you know if you would be eligible for a permanent visa straight away?