srdegnan

Hi all

My wife and I are currently looking into moving to Australia from the UK (probably Sydney or Melbourne) under the independent skilled visa. However my wife is also currently in the process of changing career ... so would appreciate some advice ....

I'm currently 35 and shouldn't have an issue getting certified as an IT Manager as I'm degree qualified and have a track record of doing this for over 10 years.

So points wise ... looks like this

IT Manager: 60
Age: 20
English Lang 20
Work exp 10
MODL 0
Aus qualify 0
Spouse bonus 5
Gov bond 5 (

= 120 points.

So far, so good. However ... this is going on the basis that my wife's historic professional experience was as an HR Manager.

For the last 6 months and the next 18, she is retraining as an occupational therapist. Now the good news there is that OT is on the MODL list.

However .... here's where the questions come in.

1. At the very least we can't move until my wife has qualified in 18 months. Any ideas on whether it would be better to submit an application earlier with my wife's previous (HR) experience and if so when?

2. An alternative would be to wait until my wife has qualified and run with her as the lead applicant. Since she's a couple of years younger than me, she gets 5 extra age points and 15 extra MODL points .... but would she actually need 12 months experience to get the 15 MODL points? That being the case would I then have to wait 30 months instead :-(

3. Once you have an application approved - how long is it valid for? Eg ... say we applied now, got approval in 9 months (Sep 2006) and I popped over to Oz to get it stamped .... would I still be able to wait another year before coming out?


Ideally I would like to make the move sooner rather than later.

Any ideas or pointers much appreciated ... I have done a fair bit of digging around on the forums but this doesn't seem to have cropped up

WESTLY

1. To get spouse points your wife must satisy the core visa criteria which include a qualifying period of work experience at the date of visa application.

2. Same issue as 1.

3. Yes

Westly Russell
Migration Agent

srdegnan

Thanks for getting back so quick Westly.

Looks like this takes things down to a couple of options ...

1. I could get a completed application in by around July 2006. This would still cover off my wife being an HR Manager for 2 out of the last 3 years (I'm assuming they are only looking at the TIME of application). Since I need the bond to get the extra 5 points to take me to 120 points ... is that taken off as soon as a visa is granted?

2. Alternatively I'd have to wait until around August 2008 once my wife has graduated and had 12 months paid experience (I'm assuming unpaid work placements don't count :-S ). If my wife went in as the lead applicant ... it's assuming Occ Therapy is still on the MODL list ... if not we wouldn't have enough points due to her not working 3 our of last 4 years ... in which case I'd still be lead applicant. Down side would be if successfull probably wouldn't be moving until at least 2009.

3. Once you've been granted the visa (and had it stamped) how long do you actually have to move over to Australia?

Answers on the back of a postcard to ....

WESTLY

3. No later than the expiry date of you penal clearences or medicals. Typically about 6 months, but this depends on how long it takes for your visa to be finalised after these are obtained.

Carruss

Just read this and wanted to point out that if your wife is on the application then you both have to go and validate your visa.

You say if you pop over and get it stamped but it has to be everyone on the application (including kids if you have them) if you just want to validate and then go back later!

Anyways, good luck with the whole thing.

R.