keyurlavingia

Hi All,

I have a friend who is thinking of migrating to Oz. He has a sister-in-law who is about to get her PR there. She has been residing in Oz (Sydney) for about 2 years now on a Spouse Visa. Can she sponsor her sister and brother-in-law as soon as she gets her PR?

My friend has an IT degree but due to his age (38) he is not able to score 120 and gets only 110 points. The sponsorship would get him another 15 to make it through. The only concern is wether the sponsor has to be on PR for two years or just resident for two years. The exact text from form 40 (Sponsorship for Migration to Australia) under "Who can sponsor" says:

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"In all cases, the sponsor must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen aged 18 or over who lives in Australia.

If you wish to sponsor one of the following persons, you must also have been resident in Australia for a reasonable period, usually 2 years."
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Does this mean resident for two years after getting the PR or just resident for two years? I know it says just resident in the text, but I am not sure if it can be interpreted differently by DIMIA.

Thanks in advance for all your help and comments.

Keyur

JAJ

She can sponsor as soon as she gets her PR. The text you've quoted is incomplete - if you read further you'll see the list of visas for which the 2 year settlement requirement applies does *not* include skilled sponsored.

Make sure there's someone able and willing to act as an assurer.

And a word of warning. There is rumour of new restrictions on skilled sponsored migration where the sponsor lives in Sydney. This is as a result of pressure on DIMIA from the NSW Government.

No details are available on the exact timing or form of the changes (it seems there may be a special Sydney skills shortage list which your occupation would have to be on for subclass 138), but you should not waste time with your application, and in the circumstances your friend should hire a professional agent to make sure it's right first time. If he makes a mistake with his application he may not have time to fix it before the rules change.

And there is always a risk that the change in rules will be retrospective.

Jeremy

keyurlavingia

Thanks a lot for your comments Jeremy. For the assurer, my friends' brother-in-law (sponsor's spouse) is the candidate. He is also a Oz citizen.

Thanks a lot,

Keyur