Ozmaniac

You were wise to check on what DIBP told you but in this case, their advice was correct. Applying for citizenship has no effect on your permanent visa. Your visa is cancelled when you are granted citizenship and have attended a citizenship ceremony but not before then.

VETASSESS only mentions the experience required to meet their experience requirements for the nominated occupation unless you have also applied for Points Test Advice. If you have 4.5 years of eligible experience and documentation to support your claim, the fact that it isn't mentioned on your assessment will be OK. If you're unsure about the eligibility of any of your experience, you should consult a good RMA for advice or get Points Test Advice from VETASSESS before you lodge your visa applicaiton.

If you meet the requirements for a 189 (i.e. SOL occupation, positive skills assessment and 60 points), that is definitely the best option for you. It would be the best option even if you were happy in your job as it doesn't rely on the co-operation of an employer. A skills assessment for a 457 is usually only required for trades and is a specific 457 assessment and not the same as the one required for a points tested visa. I'm pretty sure you will need a different, new skills assessment.

What answers did you give in the Qualifications section? And, I think you will be wasting your time asking immi. They're notorious for giving incorrect info over the phone here in Australia and I suspect that they'll be at least as bad if not worse in NZ.

You must pay for yourself as the Primary applicant and for your wife as an adult secondary applicant i.e. $3520 + $1760.

Your assessment has already expired - DIBP now only accepts assessments up to 3 years old unless the assessment has an earlier expiry date. You have no option but to work on getting your English points up and topping up your qualifications so that you can get a new positive skills assessment. The English scores required for a new skills assessment will give you the additional points you need for the points test. There are now several additional acceptable English tests and you should try one of them rather than IELTS Academic. The accounting assessment authorities and DIBP now accept Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE), IELTS Academic, PTE Academic,and TOEFL iBT - I suggest PTE Academic as it appears to be a much fairer test than IELTS. I don't know anything about the other new ones.

Yes, I believe I was mistaken - my apologies for that. I hadn't realised that the other visas were 3 years and the 489 4 years hence the provision for an extended stay pathway for holders of the repealed visas.

There's no way of knowing if it will still be on the SOL after 1 July though the new one should be announced within the next couple of weeks - they don't usually wait until the end of June to release it. If it is removed from the SOL and you need to nominate a different occupation, you can apply for a review of the assessment if your existing assessment was issued within the previous 60 days. If it was issued more than 60 days earlier, you'll need a new skills assessment.

You use the old one. If you've forgotten it, contact the ATO. https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Tax-file-number/

If you come to Australia as planned by 1 June 2015, and live and work in an eligible regional area (e.g. Adelaide), you will be able to apply early in 2017 for another 489 via the Extended Stay pathway which, if granted, will give you an extension of another year to 3 April 2018. If you apply for the extension in Australia, you will be granted a Bridging visa that will take effect when your original 489 expires if your 489 extension hasn't been granted by then. Bridging visas are only granted for onshore applications. The time spent on a Bridging visa that was granted because of an onshore application for a 489, can be counted in the 2 years residence (and the 1 year work) requirements for eligibility for an 887 permanent visa application.

I'm not sure if you can apply from your home country for a 489 via the Extended Stay pathway but in your case, it's irrelevant. If you apply for and are granted an extension, it will expire on 28 May 2017 and unless you arrive in Australia by May 28 2015, you won't be able to meet the 2 years residence in a specified regional area requirement that you need in order to be able to apply for an 887. You should also keep in mind that DIBP can also do the calculations and they will come to the same conclusion as we have so I'm not even sure if an application for an extension would be successful. Extensions to 475s and the other provisional visas are granted to give people the opportunity of getting a permanent visa if they meet certain conditions. If that opportunity doesn't exist because of the time frames involved, there is no point in their getting the extension.

Time in New Zealand is counted as time overseas in exactly the same way as time in the UK or China or any other country is counted.

You've evidently completed the EOI incorrectly. You would have done the age and probably the Australian work experience sections correctly but it sounds like something has gone wrong with the overseas work experience and/or the qualifications sections - that's where most people seem to have problems. If your 10+ years of overseas work experience is all post-qualification and you're absolutely positive that you can claim 15 points for it, re-visit that section and check the dates you've entered. Anything pre-qualification should be marked as 'Not relevant'. If you were with the same employer pre- and post-qualification (e.g. during and after your apprenticeship), you'll need to separate that experience into two parts with only the claimable portion being marked 'Relevant'. If there's the slightest doubt about whether any of your experience is eligible, DON'T claim it - mark it as Not relevant. If you're not positive, consult a good RMA which will be MUCH less expensive that losing your VAC because you've overclaimed points. For Qualifications, you should have answered Yes to the question 'Has the client completed or is currently enrolled in studies at secondary level or above?' and then selected your AQF (or Other qualification or award recognised by assessing authority) from the list of qualifications in order to get 10 points for qualifications. If you check everything and are short of points, try doing the PTE Academic English test - don't let the 'academic' worry you, it's not at all like IELTS Academic. See the following threads describing other member's experiences with PTE vs IELTS. http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/231707-ielts-v-s-pearson-test-english-academic-pte-academic-my-personal-findings.html#post1936733023 http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/227823-any-one-done-pearsons-english-test-yet.html

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here. Occupation ceilings are the maximum number of visas that can be granted to people in those occupations to ensure that, unlike in some earlier years, a disproportionate number of visas are not granted to particular occupations. They have nothing to do with 'planned figures' or the demand for workers in each occupation group. The overall number of 189 visas that are available is set in the Federal Budget each year and once that number is reached, no more visas can be granted until the next Program Year. Occupation ceilings and the overall number of available visas are not related.

Trades are assessed by TRA and their guidelines say: All documentation in support of an application must be certified copies of the original documents. A certified copy is a true copy of an original document that has been sighted and certified by an acceptable person and annotated with: I certify that I have sighted the original document and this is a true copy. The certifier’s name, title, registration number (where applicable) and their signature and date must be included. Copies of signatures are not acceptable. If a document has multiple pages, the first page must include the signature of the certifier, the date and the total number of pages of the document. The certifier must initial and date every page in the document. Documents certified within Australia must be certified by a registered migration agent or by people who are listed in the Statutory Declarations Regulations 1993 as persons before whom a statutory declaration can be made. This list is available through the Australian Government’s Attorney-General’s Department website: http://www.ag.gov.au/Publications/Pages/Statutorydeclarations.aspx For documents certified outside Australia, certified copies are copies authorised, or stamped as being true copies of originals, by a person or agency recognised by the law of the country in which the applicant currently reside or by an Australian registered migration agent.