Originally Posted by JAJ

As far as I'm aware Victoria does not charge school fees to temporary residents the way that NSW does. It's different at tertiary/uni level as this is federal, not state.

Check with the Vic education department as policies like this are always subject to change.

If you're going to Victoria, take a look at the Vic state migration website, if you've not already done so:
http://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au

Jeremy

Originally Posted by pread

Jojo,
Almost three years ago I brought my family out on a 457 Visa. Although I could have gone the PR route at the time (I had plenty of points back then), I didn't as I didn't have the required degree experience and would have to have undertaken the RPL exercise. That would have put my timeline out, and as my company at that time was offering redundancies & good packages, I decided to go the 'easy' route. The Management Company that sponsored me at the beginning assured me that they would consider me for PR via ENS after I had worked for them for a year.

It didn't quite work out that way. Immigration changed the rules early last year, meaning that I had to change my 457 sponsor. Just before the 12 months mark as it happens, but I don't think they had any intention of sponsoring me for PR. I didn't actually work for them, I never even met them, they were just my sponsoring 'umbrella company', and took a cut. Anything that seemed like any effort, they weren't interested in.

Anyway, immigration moved the goalposts regarding the points, can't remember when now, last year or the year before. The IT Skills were taken off the MODL list, the passmark was upped to 120, and I moved into the next age bracket. All of which meant that I didn't have sufficient points to meet the passmark. Not happy, but then I'd been warned that IT skills were going to be dropped from the MODL. Now, ironically, IT skills are very much in demand in Oz at the moment, with nothing on the MODL. But that's another story.

Anyway, I've been contracting with one company now for almost a year, and they expressed that they'd like to take me on permanently. Last time when I checked ENS, there were all these hoops the company had to jump through if the job was not on the MODL, like advertising in the National press, interviewing people, basically to 'prove' there was no-one else in the country who could do the job. Now I hear ENS has changed in April, I need to check it out again. So there may be hope for me yet.

As for now, I've been contracting solid for over two years, with barely a day off. Can't/won't buy a house, as if I'm ever out of work for a while I can be kicked out, and would have to sell the house immediately. The thing about the 457 is that it can keep getting extended all the time you're working, but even if you worked solid for 10 years, (paying plenty of taxes and getting no medical insurance), that still doesn't help get you PR. And if you're out of work for a while your sponsor can pull the plug, and that's it. You leave, unless you find another sponsor, drag the kids out of school etc, that's it. It's not the best feeling in the world to have this uncertainty all the time.

But then that's the choice I made and I can't complain (although it certainly sounds like I am). I love it here, and don't want to leave. Would I do it all again, knowing what I know now ? Not sure about that - getting PR from the get-go would have been the smart move, and we would have been secure in the knowledge that we couldn't have been booted out barring criminal activity or whatever. But then I wouldn't have had the redundancy payout to pay for the move and tide us over in our first few months. But no regrets whatsoever about coming to Oz, maybe just the way I went about it.

I'll let you know if anything happens with the ENS.

Cheers, Paul.

Originally Posted by TracyAnne

Hi Paul,

I notice that you are in Dandenongs, we are heading out to Berwick in November.Can you tell me if you have to pay school fees for your children whilst on a 457 visa. We are already coming over on a student visa but in the last few days we have found out that there is a possibility that my husband can get sposnsored for a temp visa as a HGV driver, hence if the children could go onto his visa then we hope not to pay school fees like we have to on my student visa.
Look forward to your reply.
Tracy

Originally Posted by wandrews

Do 457 visa's have to be skills assessed?