457 Visa - procedure?

[Tinker88]

We "may" (crosses fingers and toes) have found a sponsor!!

 

everything so far is sounding fab!

 

what will the procedure be for this visa (ive looked on the gov website etc) but i mean is it the same skills assesments, heath checks, police , etc etc. Or do you just bypass some (ie- skills because you have already been chosen for that ?)

 

 

in peoples experiences how long has this taken and how soon were you expected to land in Oz?

 

i have been told on this visa you cant purchase property so we would have to rent until we went for PR?

 

anything else we need to know?

 

thanks

[dazza9]

On our recent 457 we didn't need police checks, you only need health checks if you are going to be in direct contact with the public eg a nurse or teacher. You still need the same skills assesment as PR (thats the bit that can take time). What job is it you do/are applying for?

 

You can purchase property on a 457 but you need to be approved to buy by some government deptartment-this shouldn't be a problem so long as you plan to live in the house, you will need 20% deposit to get a mortgage. Surely you'd want to rent for a while to decide what area you like before buying though?

 

Our 457 application took 5 days to process and be approved, then you can enter Oz whenever you want (think it may be a 12month cut off), it just depends how quickly your employer wants you here. The bit that takes the time is getting the paper work together for the application.

[Rupert]

We "may" (crosses fingers and toes) have found a sponsor!!

 

everything so far is sounding fab!

 

what will the procedure be for this visa (ive looked on the gov website etc) but i mean is it the same skills assesments, heath checks, police , etc etc. Or do you just bypass some (ie- skills because you have already been chosen for that ?)

 

 

in peoples experiences how long has this taken and how soon were you expected to land in Oz?

 

i have been told on this visa you cant purchase property so we would have to rent until we went for PR?

 

anything else we need to know?

 

thanks

 

The first step is that the employer needs to get approved, if they have not sponsored before this might take them a little bit longer to get everything together. Whether you will be asked to do skills assessment (not usually), police checks, medicals will b e determined case by case. Don't do them until and unless you are asked.

 

You can buy on a 457 visa with the appropriate approvals. But think hard about that, if you lose the job you may have only 28 days to leave the country. There is a very sad case on here at the moment regarding a couple who have lost their job, can't find another and will probably need to return before they have even unpacked the container.

[VERYSTORMY]

Not all 457's require a skills assesment. In fact most dont

[LKC]

We came out here on a 457. We didn't have to have police checks, and only the children had to have medicals, because they would be at school/pre-school, although OH and I did have to have chest x-rays. OH didn't have to have a skills assessment, but he did have to prove his qualification to the Australian equivalent of his professional body. That just involved sending over his certificates and details of what was covered in his degree.

 

In our case, the 457 was applied for on the Friday, approved on the Monday, the Thursday/Friday that same week we had the shippers in, and then we flew out to Sydney on the Monday after the visa was approved. Our move had been delayed a little bit by OH's leaving date from work though, so everything including flights had been booked, and then just postponed for a couple of weeks.

 

We bought a house on the 457. At the time we didn't have to seek approval (there was a 6 month or so period where this requirement was removed and we happened to fall inside it) but now you need approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB). This isn't usually a problem if you are purchasing somewhere to live. I think that you will need a bigger deposit. We went through a broker (Aussie Loans), but had no trouble because we had a large deposit.

 

I don't know where you are moving to and whether you have children, but in the ACT and NSW there are school fees to pay on a 457.

 

There is no guarantee of PR after a 457, which is something you may wish to look in to. We were sponsored on the employer sponsored 856 for PR, but there were still certain criteria that had to be met. If you intend to stay here permanently, it may be worth checking that you would qualify for PR and if/when the employer would sponsor you if that is an option.

 

I know that many people say that the 457 is a risk, but actually it worked really well for us. The company wanted us here quickly (hence the 457), but we also had it written in to OH's contract that he would be sponsored for PR so we had the security of that. In April of last year we submitted our PR application, and exactly one week later we had PR granted!

 

Good luck with it all!

[m1tch]

Not all 457's require a skills assesment. In fact most dont

 

Do you have any details of which don't? I'm researching visas for which UK workers need to come over, sponsored by their employer, but their skill is more specialist to the job than the categories of ANZSCO. If they wen't down their official technical role of electrician it would take forever to get the assessments done for just a short period of work, which wouldn't even involve them doing electrical work.