Hello Maggie and welcome to the forum
I'm not in a similar position to you, but a couple of other readers of this forum are also 45 and looking for ways to get out to Oz, so your information is bound to encourage them too.
What I really want to do is to learn more from you, if you will let me, in order to help some of the others. Dunc and The Armchair Detective both spring to mind. In return, I can offer you a few pointers, but I am *NOT* a registered migration agent or anything, and there is no substitute for proper advice, which I cannot provide.
What sort of visa is the hospital offering you? It is a 457 visa, which grants temporary residence in Oz for up to four years at a stretch, or is it a Labour Agreement? Please see the two links below:
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/skill.../sbs/index.htm
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/skill...s/la/index.htm
I've heard of hospitals in Oz bringing medical staff in on both of these visas.
A Labour Agreement can be a permanent or a temporary visa, so it says in the cue-cards, but I've no idea how they work beyond the brief description given in the cue-cards. It is easy to see how there could be "exceptional circumstances" justifying hiring someone over 45 in the health field particularly, I would have thought, where there is probably no viable substitute for many years of hard-won, hands-on experience in a particular speciality.
I believe that 457 visas are more common, though, and probably a lot quicker to process than Labour Agreements.
As you say, it is possible to enter Oz on a temporary visa to start with and then upgrade it to a permanent visa later on. The ENS and RSMS visas are the ones most of the Agents seem to describe in this context. Please see here:
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/skill...-permanent.htm
With both the ENS and the RSMS, there is provision for the employer and the employee to make the case for ignoring the fact that the employee is over 45. There is a good table about it if you click on the links.
However, from your own point of view, I would recommend a free chat with Phil Olsen, the "resident migration agent" on this forum. With many employers, the first offer they make visa-wise is not always the best offer they could make if you push them a bit.
Phil has recently been negotiating with a haulier which needs truckies. The obvious route is to bring the truckies in on 457 visas, but the truckies are then in the lap of the gods about whether or not the haulier would offer to sponsor them for RSMS visa in due course. Phil has perduaded the haulier that it is in the haulier's own best interests to sponsor the truckies for RSMS visas straightway, presumably because those are harder for the employee to walk away from than 457 visas.
I would always recommend a proper chat with a Registered Migration Agent in a situation like yours, because the Agent might be able to broker a better deal for you than you might be able to negotiate by yourself. For instance, buth you and the hospital might be very unsure how to set about organising a permanent ENS visa for you. The words do seem to describe a daunting process. However, an Agent with plenty of experience of ENS visas (or RSMS visas) from the point of view of both employer-clients and employee-clients can take all the potential doubt and uncertainty out of the situation, thereby creating a win-win for both sides straightaway.
If you wish to contact Phil (who is a really nice guy as well as clued-up) his details are here:
Phil Olsen BEng ACA MMIA
Registered Agent number 0637276
email
philipo@imaus.com.au
Good luck with your plans.
Cheers
Gill
