glittababe

Can anyone help? Moving to Qld in 4 weeks on a temporary sponsorship visa (up to 4 years), how difficult is it to apply for PR once we're out there (thats if as a family, we want to stay permanently). Anyone come across this before. Thanks ever so Annie

Muse

Hi Annie,
Sorry but I can't answer your question. I just wanted to ask you a question really. How did you get sponsorship from a company? Were you working for a company in the UK that had an office in Australia? I was interested because i'd like to do it.

Thanks, and sorry i'm just asking a question.

George Lombard

Hi Annie,

Depends on the industry and occupation, employer's situation, your skills and age. Yes, there is a category of employer sponsored visa available for PR, but probably the most difficult issue in every case is persuading the employer to pursue it.

Cheers,

George Lombard

www.austimmigration.com.au

glittababe

Hi there,

I visited Oz in 2002, loved it and decided it would be a fab place to bring up the kids but didn't want PR at the time. I wrote letters off to health districts (I'm a nurse) and attached my CV. Hospitals contacted me almost straight away, they were all so lovely and one company sent someone down to London (I live close by) to meet me, my husband and 3 kids. We sorted stuff out from there. Does this help? There are a lot of companies that do send employees to work in Oz, BT and Nestle are but a few! Good luck with it all

JAJ

And to add to what George says, agents in Australia see 457 holders in a visa mess with depressing regularity.

Sometimes it's because they've been laid off, or their employer is ineligible/refuses to sponsor for PR, sometimes it's because they've discovered some health or other problem that makes them ineligible for PR.

It's important to have a 'PR plan' in place, and a fall back plan if employer sponsorship does not work out. And accept the risk that if you are ineligible for PR in the end, you've got to go home.

On top of that there's a range of disadvantages of 457 visa status vs PR. For example:

- the main visa holder can't change jobs and has to find a new sponsor quickly if he's laid off,
- the spouse has work rights but may find it harder to get career orientated jobs because employers usually want people with citizenship or PR,
- overseas student fees for uni
- restricted Medicare access, unless a reciprocal arrangement applies
- time on the 457 does not count for citizenship, if you do get PR
- children born in Australia won't normally be citizens
- in some states (eg NSW) school fees of almost AUD5k per child per year to send them to the local school

Normally it's a good idea (in my opinion of course) to sort out PR in advance before leaving an established life in the UK. I'm always surprised to see people looking at the 457 visa seemingly without doing a thorough due diligence on the pros and cons involved.

Jeremy

glittababe

Thanks Jeremy, depressing but honest! I intially didn't want PR as I wasn't sure whether my husband or kids would like living in Australia. Tha plan at the moment is to work in Qld as a Registered Nurse for a year, return home and re evaluate everything. We are keeping our house here (just renting it out). My concern is that what if we didn't want to return to the UK? We will obviously come back to sort out selling the house etc but how do we start the PR programme in Australia? Is it complicated?

Thanks again best wishes Annie