Hello Michelle
Your chances of convincing DIAC that your 25 year old brother is wholly or substantially reliant on you alone for the provision of his basic needs for food, clothing and shelter are very slim indeed. Their view is that somebody of 25 is financially independent - especially if Britsh because of the Welfare State in the UK.
That said, they might not be too unhappy about the idea if you are planning to go to Oz on a subclass 457 visa, but they might well clamp down on your brother at the time when you apply for
PR.
So as long as you are aware that this would not be a risk-free strategy, I would suggest the following:
Add your brother to your 457 application and just see what hapens. The worst that can heppen is that DIAC will insist that he is withdrawn from the application on pain of a visa refusal if you refuse to agree.
If that happens then the fall-back position is that Brother could get a Working Holday Maker visa in his own right and if he plays his cards right on that, it would give him two years in Oz. However,
do NOT play this card just yet. Keep it dry because a person can only have one WHMV in his lifetime and you might need to use the WHMV later on in the game. Therefore don't throw that away at this stage unless DIAC force your hand.
If DIAC are content to allow your brother to be included on your 457 visa, do not be in too much of a hurry to convert to a
PR visa yourself because DIAC would get a second bite at Brother at that point, and you wuld want to defer the time when they do so.
What does your brother do by way of a job at the moment? Has he got any formal, paper qualifications in whatever he does? Is there any chance that he is already on his way towards skilled migration to Oz in his own right under one of the skill Pathways via which TRA assess trades skills applicants? At the moment, that woulod be skill Pathways A or B. Please see here:
http://www.workplace.gov.au/NR/rdonl...tember2007.pdf
There is a useful table which makes the narrative a bit easier to follow. Please also see this article about skill Pathway B:
Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - News
If Pathways A or B would not be feasible even with further work experience in Oz before a TRA assessment would be a goer, then the alterative is to fit Brother up so that he would be successful under Skilled Pathway E (Australian training and qualifications) instead.
If Brother has to start from scratch if he is to have any hope with Pathway E then so be it. It would make sense for him to train for a trade which is on the current MODL and is likely to remain on it. Please see here:
Is your occupation in demand? - Workers - Visas & Immigration
A-Z Occupations List - Australian Skills Recognition Information
As a secondary holder of your 457 visa, Brother would be able both to work and to study in Oz. Please see here:
Temporary Business (Long Stay) - Standard Business Sponsorship (Subclass 457)
Swot up on this carefully because there may be restrictions on how much studying a dependent of 25 or over can do on a 457 visa without needing to switch to a Student visa instead.
The plan is that ideally Brother will end up with a successful TRA assessment in his own right because that would give him a better range of options than if he is unable to get a skills assessment.
Ideally you want him to find an employer who will take a shine to Brother and will offer to hire him and sponsor him, probably for his own 457 visa to start with followed by his own ENS or RSMS visa after that. Please see here:
Employer Sponsored Migration Booklet - Australian Immigration
Skilled Workers Permanent Visa Options- Employer Sponsored Workers - Workers - Visas & Immigration
Study need not be full time. It can be part time via night school or via day-release. But there must be enough of it and there must be enough work-experience to go with it, plus it must be a course that would be OK under TRA Pathway E. The Education Agents are usually good people to check with about these needs:
STUDY OPTIONS
AIEC
The Australian Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS)
However, as a Temporary Resident Brother would have to pay full International Student rates for any course of study that he undertakes. Typically a full time course of this sort would cost between about $12,000 and $15,000 a year. The courses tend to be a bit cheaper if run by a TAFE than by a private college.
You have not said whereabouts you intend to move to in Oz? For example, the Sunshine Coast TAFE has a campus which is quite close to Brisbane. However, they only teach a limited range of courses which would be suitable for migration purposes post-completion. Similarly, there is a TAFE or someone running a bricklaying course in Melbourne but it is not a suitable course for migration purposes later. So you need to be careful about this.
If DIAC will not let you add Brother to your 457 visa then the fall back position for him is either a Student Visa (pricey, even though he could live with you) or a Working Holiday Maker Visa, or one followed by the other.
If you have to get involved with one or the other up-front then I would be inclined to suggest a WHM visa first. If Brother plays his cards right in his first 12 months on a WHMV he can get a second WHMV for a second year. Please see here:
Visa Options - Working Holiday Makers - Visas & Immigration
Australian Immigration Fact Sheet 49. Working Holiday Programme
He could use a WHMV either in the event that DIAC will not let him move to Oz on your 457 visa or if they would not let you add him to an application for
PR for yourself later (which they almost certainly wouldn't.)
If he is is on a WHMV then he might meet a willing employer just as he might do so on a 457 visa, and thereby become an employer sponsored skilled migrant in his own right.
If after 2 years on a WHMV there is still no viable skilled migration pathway for Brother and DIAC will not have him on your
PR visa, the last roll of the dice is a Student Visa for Brother. Please see here:
Students - Visas & Immigration
If necessary he could have two or three of those as long as the money to pay for them all can be found, bearing the work restrictions in mind.
All that said, do not forget that Brother might marry an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident at some point in all this......
The skills pathways etc are confusing therefore it may well be worth instructing a Registereed Migration Agent to come up with a detailed visa-strategy for Brother. I would suggest either Go Matilda or Ian Harrop for this purpose, and either firm would be happy to chat with you for 15 minutes or so on the phone free of charge. I am not a migration agent so all I can do is to make suggestions as a friend, but you should get them properly vetted to make sure they would work.
Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - Visa, Tax, and Financial Planning for Australia
Registered Australian Migration Agents, UK - Ian Harrop and Associates
best wishes
Gill
