Hello Charmed
Welcome to Poms in Oz.
I'm not a migration agent, so I'm not sure that I understand your Agent's advice fully, but roughly I think the gist is as follows:
TRA used to assess tradies' skills under 5 different "Pathways." One of these, Pathway D, enabled people to get a positive skills assessment if they had enough "on the job" work experience but no paper qualifications, apprenticeship etc. TRA suddenly closed Pathway D in September 2007 after allegations that a series of people had allegedly obtained Pathway D assessments based on bogus claims about their skills.
Officially TRA are still saying that they intend to bring in a "new, improved version" of Pathway D. Back in February they claimed that the new scheme would be up & running on 1st July 2008. Which is only about 5 weeks away, with no sign of this proposed new scheme. Everybody is becomng doubtful about whether this new scheme will actually materialise and I don't think that even TRA would now claim that it will still happen on 1st July.
Which has led to Agents and their clients examining the alternative skilled Pathways. It sounds as if your Agent originally suggested that Hubby should gear up for an assessment under Skilled Pathway B. Please see this article by Alan Collett of Go Matilda, and please cclick on the link to the Uniform Assessment Criteria at the foot of the article. The UAC document contains a table which shows the four remaining TRA Skilled Pathways and the requirements for each of them.
Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - News
However since that article was written - and it is quite old now because all this visa stuff moves with the speed of light - I have heard that Agents have been encountering a different problem with Pathway B lately. I have seen a few posts about it by Alan Collett on here or on British Expats. I am NOT clear about the details, but I think it is something to do with TRA perhaps jibbing at certificates produced on the basis of workplace assessments rather than completion of a course of study. I am NOT sure of the exact problem, though. so you should ask your Agent to clarify it. It sounds, though, as if your Agent is aware of the same thing that Alan has mentioned and that he feels it would be better to keep the money safe for the moment and wait to see what TRA are actually going to require. NObody wants to encourage you to spend money on obtaining a document that TRA might not accept, obviously.
I have seen a pretty recent post by Alan Collett in which he said that his hunch - only a hunch - is that there wil not be a return to a system where a skills assessment can be obtained with no formal qualifications at all. His comment was that he thinks that TRA probably will require formal qualifications in future but that they will perhaps be less finicky about how it is all done.
The 457 visa is a temporary visa only and it needs a willing employer-sponsor. However, it is possible to go to Oz on a 457 visa without doing a formal skills assessment at all. I think what your agent is saying is that one option would be to use a 457 visa in order to get out to Oz, wait to see what everntually happens with The TRA skilled Pathways, and then submit a skills assessment based on whatever TRA's detailed requirements turn out to be. If that depends on a work-place based theory & practical work assessment, it would be cheaper to get it done in Oz than in the UK.
Do you have relatives in Oz who would sponsor you for a subclass 176 visa or would you be seeking State Sponsorship for it instead? Also, are you sure that the Agent suggested the 176 visa and not the subclass 175? Please see below:
Skilled – Sponsored (Migrant) visa (subclass 176)
Skilled – Independent (Migrant) visa (subclass 175)
Australian General Skilled Migration Booklet
You need 120 points for a 175 visa. If you cannot get 120 points then the next option woud be to consider a 176 visa instead because you only need 100 points for the 176.
However you can't apply for either of the 175 or the 176 unless you first have a positive skills assessment, plus the main visa applicant (Hubby) must be under 45 on the date when the visa application reaches DIAC.
How old is Hubby now, please? As long as he is comfortably under 45, then considering that it does not seem that he has an employer-sponsor lined up, plus you are worried about cash-flow at present, I'd have said that the most sensible plan for you might be to sit tight and do nothing for the moment. One option would be to wait & see how the cookie actually crumbles with the TRA once they eventually act on the Pathway D problem.
Best wishes
Gill
PS: More information about the 457 visa is here:
Temporary Business (Long Stay) - Standard Business Sponsorship (Subclass 457)
Sponsoring a Temporary Overseas Employee to Australia
Potentially,if Hubby finds an employer-sponsor you could be out to Oz on a 457 visa very quicky. If he then did nothing at all about a skills assessment, Hubby woud qualify to upgrade to Permanent Residence after a minimum of 2 years on the $%& visa, using either an ENS or an RSMS visa. Please see here:
Skilled Workers Permanent Visa Options- Employer Sponsored Workers - Workers - Visas & Immigration
Employer Sponsored Migration Booklet - Australian Immigration
For what it is worth though (and it is only my personal opinion) if there is no particular hurry to get out to Oz quickly and Hubby is still well below 45 then I would - myself - wait until I had either a 175 visa or a 176 visa before I would uproot and head off to Oz.
Some people, like Mrs Braveheart and her husband, do not have a choice because Billy Braveheart had turned 45 before his employer-sponsor was found. But single very best piece of advice that was given to Billy was given by Welshtone, one of the Migration Agents who helps with Poms in Oz. Tony advised Billy to get a positive skills assessment before leaving the UK because it is easier to get the references etc together whilst one is still in the UK. Billy took that advice. The result is that Billy was able to apply for
PR under the ENS scheme after her had only been in Oz for 3 or 4 months, and they should have Permanent Residence bu the time they have been in Oz for a year.
However, Billy is also the first to say that if he had started the process two years earlier, he would have gone for the 136 visa (the precursor of the 175 visa) from the beginning even if it mean delaying their move out to Oz. His own scheme is brilliant for Billy because he had no other choice. If you do have a choice then I would be guided by Billy on tis question.
)... we need every penny we can get atm
