too old to qualify for points at assessment?

[mademoiselle]

hello everyone, this is my first post so please excuse me if I don't get all the jargon right. I did the NAATI (Australian Translators Accreditation) test in December and awaiting a positive skills assessment. I am 42. If I get a positive assessment I have to work for a year as a Translator then apply immediately.

Am hoping to apply to DIAC approx 1 year and 2 months away from my 45th birthday. Apparently applications are ACCEPTED up to the age of 45 BUT I am concerned i will not get the 15 points for age if my application is ASSESSED after the age of 45.

Will go for 475 or 176 visa. Apparently the 475 has quicker processing times.

Has anyone experienced problems with points for age at assessment time? and what are the current processing times for 475/176 - sorry I realise this is a how long is a piece of string type question.

[Jules2409]

I am almost certain that it is the date on which your application is submitted that is relevant in terms of your age so you don't need to worry about that.

I don't know what a 475 is but a 176 gives you immediate permanent residency and that is extremely important however you would need to stay in the state that sponsors you for two years & it is a tie you may not want - it is difficult to know whether you will like a place, find work, friends etc. until you actually live there.

I've had my visa a while so out of touch with current processing times - you should find a sticky on here to a spreadsheet or look at beupdate.com

With time not on your side it may be worth using a migration agent to be sure you take the best path and get everything right.

Jules

[melbournegirlinny]

Hi. Why do you feel you can only do the 12 mths’ work experience requirement after you have received your assessment as a translator? Are you currently working as a translator? If so, for how long have you been doing that?

The 475 visa is a regional sponsored visa where a state government sponsors you. But you do not get permanent residency (PR) with that-only provisional residency. It is supposed to lead to getting PR but only after you have worked in the regional area for one year and lived in a regional area for 2 yrs. If you meet all the requirements of your 475 visa then you are eligible to apply for PR and can go for a number of visas but the one set up to flow on from the 475 visa is the 887 visa. I had to check this and from what I can see (which is just the DIAC website-I don’t have access to policy documents like an agent does) the age requirement is not there for the 887 visa-presumably because you satisfied the age requirement at the 475 visa stage.

With a 176 visa you get PR immediately, which is always better if one is able to do so.

Take a look at this link which has all the states and territories website links to check whether any state is sponsoring a translator for a 176 visa.

State & Territory Migration Sites - australia.gov.au

Your age is locked in at the date of application and you will get PR immediately as the other poster mentions.

Here is a link to the DIAC website with info on the 176 visa and the calculator to see if you get 100 points as required:

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/gener...-applicant.htm

The DIAC site states that if you were on the CSL then a 475 visa would be processed a bit more quickly than a 176 visa. But if it were me, and translator is on a state’s 176 visa sponsorship list, I’d go for the visa giving me PR immediately rather than one that gives me a provisional visa. In addition, and you may well know this already, have you researched how many jobs for translators there are in regional Australia? I presume there would be court work at the County and Supreme Courts when they sit on circuit in the country areas but I cannot imagine they’d need translators that often. What is your other language?

Also, if you do not have recent work experience as a translator and will need to work as one for 12 months prior to applying for a visa of course you do not know at this moment what the priorities will be for visa processing when you finally apply. Things could well change and probably will!

[Squeezle]

Hi hope this may help you out, We applied for our 176 GSM visa 6 days before my husbands 45th birthday, and he was over 45 when we swapped from a family sponsored to a SS visa this caused no problems, it seems as long as the application is in before your 45 you should be fine if your skills are wanted.

Pauline

[melbournegirlinny]

Yes age is a time of application criteria.

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Mademoiselle

Welcome to Poms in Oz.

We had a translator on here a few months ago. Her user profile is below. If you search for threads and posts by Karin & Mervyn it may help. Hit "statistics" in Karin's user profile and work it out from there, I suggest:

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/member...nd_mervyn.html

Karin was on Poms in Oz only a couple of days ago so I should think she would definitely help another Translator if you send her a Private Message.

Cheers

Gill

[wrussell]

Your age is locked in at the date of visa application.

You might want to take advice about whether you would be assessed a fully competent as a translator in the time before your skills assessment.

[Pumpkin]

The question about age points is easy, as others have said yes you will get them if you apply before your 45th birthday.

But I wanted to ask about state sponsorship, have you actually made any enquiries about this, e.g. off list nominations or something? Because I look at the sponsorship lists a bit for people and don't remember ever seeing translator on there, so I have just looked again specifically and did not see it. I just thought I would mention it as sometimes people are not aware than not every state sponsor every occupation. Apologies if you are aware of this and have already covered that angle off.

Good luck with your application.

[mademoiselle]

Thank you very much for all the helpful information. The age points was the thing that was worrying me the most. It was actually my Australian migration agent that told me that so I think I might have to sack her! she seems sure that age points (in my case 15 points) are only given at assessment and not at application. Without those 15 points for age I will not get the passmark so its crucial for me to get correct information.

I don't know where this State Sponsored idea has come from but i am not intending to be state sponsored. I had a vague idea that State Sponsored applications are the only ones being processed at the moment though is this correct?

My twin sister lives in Northern NSW and will sponsor me. I have been resident in France for 5 years,have a linguist diploma and have already done localisation translation work (for French Google) so when I saw Translator carried 60 points it was a natural step for me to do the NAATI (Australian TRanslation Accreditation Association) skills assessment test. If I pass this (apparently the pass rate is very low but I am hopeful) then it is enough to get me into Australia as long as I fulfil all the other criteria (age, language etc). I will need 25 points on English language proficiency but am hoping the IELTS band 7 will be a breeze after the NAATI test. I will also need one year Recent Work Experience prior to lodging application so will become a self-employed translator as soon as I get my test result and work for a year then put my application in directly after. As I am not currently working I will be obliged to do the 12 months recent work experience.

In answer to wrussell NAATI have already assessed my linguist diploma as being sufficient to allow me to do their skills assessment test, I wouldnt have been able to without it. According to them you need a language degree or suitable post-secondary linguist diploma to be able to do their test.

in my opinion NAATI is mainly a vehicle for the Australian Govt to have on tap a large pool of translators ready to provided translated certified documents for all the people who want to migrate to Australia. NAATI assessment is expensive (and their preparation literature - ethics booklet and past test papers are all indispensable if you want to succeed at their test). I also had to travel to the Netherlands for test, pay for hotel etc so in total cost for all that has come to $2000 AU. I spent several months preparing for the test and now have to wait 2-4 months for the result. The joys of bureaucracy... and I thought France was the worst. Another advantage of passing the test will be obtaining an extra 5 points for Designated Community language (French).

I am hoping to carry over any established clients I may have when I migrate to Australia and be self employed there thus avoiding the hurdle of having to find work with an Australian employer.

thanks gollywobbler I will chase the translator link you have given.

thanks also melbournegirlinny - I didnt know that about the 887 visa - that will be useful if I end up doing the 475 temp visa since its not age related.

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Mademoiselle

I don't know about your skills.

The only visa that is not age related is the subclass 457 employer sponsored visa. Don't get muddled between that and the Shilled Regional Sponsored sc 475 I suggest. It is confusing because the numbers are stupidly similar.

Translator might be on the Quota list for the ACT for the immediately permanent State sponsored sc 176 visa but I don't know. You would need to check all the lists.

State & Territory Migration Sites - australia.gov.au

Karin obtained an off-list sc 176 Nomination from WA but WA have changed their rules since that time.

If possible, you want State sponsorship because of the document below:

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/gener...processing.pdf

Ideally you want to be in Cat 5 if possible because DIAC are starting to process those. Their Year End is 30th June 2010. DIAC say that they will not be able to finalise all the Cat 5s by the Year End and they will not be able to start on the Cat 6s during this current Year. Which is NOT to imply that they might be able to do the Cat 6s during the next Financial Year, starting on 1st July 2010. It depends on how many applications they get from people in higher processing categories and it depends on what the Minister decides about the quota of skilled visas for 2010/2011. The public won't know the new quota till the Fedeeral Budget is released in mid-May 2010.

You need to think very carefully how long it will take before the whole situation settles down, methinks.

Cheers

Gill