Ozmaniac

You are correct and what you've been told by your so called 'migration expert' proves that they're not as expert as they claim. Once you are legally married, you no longer need to have lived together in a de facto relationship AT ALL. You must be able to provide evidence that yours is a 'geniuine and continuing' relationship and having lived together prior to your marriage will help with that, but it's by no means a requirement. Does anyone seriously believe that the Australian government would ever require that a married couple need live 'in sin' before their marriage?? No way! If you didn't misunderstand and they really did tell you that, you should seriously consider dispensing with their services. How much other wrong info will you get from them? And for married couples, 12 months doesn't come into the equation at all. You could have met for the first time (even if it was initially on the internet) a few months ago, fallen in love, married and decided to commit totally to your relationship and that would be OK if you can provide satisfactory evidence of that commitment.

Because your partner lives in Queensland, you will be able to register your relationship and that will provide an exemption from the 12 month relationship requirement. You'll still need to provide as much relationship evidence as you can come up with but you must have a fair bit given the history of your relationship so far. Hopefully you already have joint bank accounts and similar things. At the end of the day though, the decision rests with DIAC and it's up to you to provide evidence that will convince them that your relationship is 'genuine and continuing'. You will need to be able to provide evidence of your current residential address as part of the required documentation for the relationship register but only one of you needs to have been resident in Queensland for 6 months. There's a delay of 10 days between applying and for the registration to take effect so get a move on so that you can lodge an onshore Partner visa application before your current visa expires. It will cost more and take longer than an offshore application but you'll get a Bridging visa with unrestricted work rights - that's now standard for onshore Partner visa applications.

Yes, I believe so.

As I understand it, DIAC will generally accept an assessment by the ACS that a degree is comparable to an Australian degree but they don't simply accept any assessment authority's judgement on work experience - they seem to check work experience claims again even when you have a separate statement from them on work experience.

When you apply to the ACS for skills assessment, they will require you to provide full details of your degree including Statements of academic record or a transcript showing all subjects studied and the marks or grades you received. If the ACS accepts your degree as being comparable to an Australian Computer Science degree, you should be able to claim 15 points for it.

I was thinking the 186 might be a better visa at the moment because of the question of work experience years and the points for same. If you don't have IT qualifications, the ACS won't accept all of your recent work experience (for points purposes they reduce your experience by the number of years they equate to an acceptable IT qualification) and you may not have enough experience as a qualified accountant during the last 10 years if you go down that route. I completely agree with Rupert that a 189 would definitely be the way to go if you can get to 60 points with the occupation you decide to go with.

My link is to the requirements for Functional English for visas under SkillSelect. Yours is for FE under the previous GSM visas (e.g. 175, 176) but there's very little difference between the two (though they've removed the primary/secondary school part for the SkillSelect visas). It seems pretty obvious to me. If your degree meets the requirements (i.e. least two years of full time study or training with all instruction conducted in English), stick to that. If it doesn't and you don't meet any of the other requirements for the visa you've applied for, then do IELTS. You'll obviously sail through it if the English you've demonstrated in your posts here is any indication.

The second instalment is only payable if the additional applicant does NOT have Functional English. If they are assessed as having FI, no second instalment is payable for them. http://www.immi.gov.au/skills/skillselect/index/functional-english/ Functional English

Would your employer consider sponsoring you now for a 186? You don't need to wait for 2 years provided you have 3 years work experience in your occupation and skills assessment (which you'll need anyway for a 189 application). Because you need skills assessment for any of your current options, the occupation you select should be the one that gives you the best chance of getting a positive assessment and that will largely depend on your formal qualifications rather than your work experience. The ACS (Business Analyst) and the 3 accounting bodies (Accountant) have very different requirements so IMO, that will be the decider. Also, if nominate Accountant as your occupation, you'll need at least all 7s in Academic IELTS for skills assessment even if you're not going for a 189 points tested visa but the ACS don't require IELTS for people from English speaking countries. In that case, you would do IELTS only if you need points and it could be the easier General test.

For Partner skills, the partner must have a positive skills assessment in exactly the same way as if they were the main applicant.

Only the main applicant must be under 50 - doesn't matter how old their partner is. If your wife has skills that are eligible for a visa so that she can be the main applicant, you could still be eligible to apply for a few more years.

Provided you meet the other requirements for the visa in question (186 ENS or 187 RSMS), age isn't a problem until you turn 50. Hopefully you still have a year or so until then.

A State sponsored visa is a General Skilled Migration visa. RSMS is a 187 visa.

Chefs are assessed by TRA and an NVQ2 is equivalent to an AQF Cert III. I'm pretty sure that when you apply to TRA for skills assessment with the documentation you've mentioned, they will know exactly what you're talking about - they must have had applications from thousands of people with NVQ qualifications over the years. Another point that occurred to me though is that unless you're looking for employer sponsorship (rather than going for a 190) or unless you're here on a WHV and need short term work, there doesn't seem to be much point in applying for jobs in Brisbane. Chef isn't on Queensland's list of occupations eligible for state sponsorship so if you want a 190, you'll need to find a state that will offer sponsorship for that occupation and you will have to work in that state for the first couple of years after you get your visa.

If you apply for an onshore visa, you are automatically granted a Bridging visa that enables you to stay in Australia until a decision is reached on the new application. The BV takes effect when your current visa expires and carries the same work conditions as that visa. Note that you must have actually lodged a visa application - submitting an EOI doesn't get you a Bridging visa.

I assume you want to cancel your 457 so you can access your superannuation. Here's the form you need: http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1194.pdf

If the state you're applying to does required you to have a job offer, you'll find it much easier to get that than to find 457 sponsorship. A job offer is simply that whereas sponsorship requires the employer to jump through so many hoops that many employers are simply not willing to make the effort. WA and SA don't usually require job offers for sponsorship eligibility but check the respective state migration sites to be certain.

Whether you need a job offer will depend on the requirements of the state in question. In any case, you must first submit an EOI for a 489 and can't apply for the visa until you've received an invitation to do so. There is no way you could possibly get an invite in a week so if you can apply for the visa, it will have to be after 1 July. Given that you're not as short of time as you thought, you would be much better to take lebourvellec's advice and do IELTS for additional points so you can apply for a 189 or 190.

Most people can do either General or Academic as either is equally acceptable to DIAC. The only people who need to do the Academic test for work visas are those whose skills assessment organisation requires the Academic test e.g. nurses, teachers, accountants and a few others. Most people seem to find General a bit easier than Academic but if you're comfortable with A, then go for it.

After you start work with an employer, you have 28 days in which to provide a TFN before you will be taxed at the highest marginal rate. TFNs only take a couple of weeks to be issued so if you apply as soon as you arrive, you will have plenty of time to get one before the 28 days is up. When you start work, your employer will give you a Tax File Number Declaration form - just check the box to say that you have applied for a TFN http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.aspx?doc=/content/38760.htm Online TFN application for new arrivals http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.aspx?menuid=0&doc=/content/6360.htm&page=9&H9 Q1 on the form

Before you can apply for NZ passports for your children, you will have to apply for New Zealand citizenship by descent for them - it doesn't happen automatically. http://www.dia.govt.nz/Services-Citizenship-New-Zealand-Citizenship-by-Descent New Zealand citizenship by descent For Australia, there is a special subclass 461 New Zealand Family Relationship visa which is for the partners and family members of NZ citizens who are not themselves NZ citizens. A 461 is a temporary (though renewable) 5 year visa which allows you to live and work in Australia without restrictions but it provides no pathway to PR or citizenship and doesn't provide eligibility for Medicare - a visa condition is that you have health insurance. http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/family/461/ 461 visa You should also be aware that although NZ citizens can live and work permanently in Australia, they are not Permanent Residents and never become eligible to apply for citizenship. They are eligible for Medicare and tuition as domestic students but are not eligible for major income support benefits (e.g. the dole, Youth Allowance etc) and only Australian citizens are eligible for government student loans for tertiary education. As Rupert has suggested, it would be a good idea to see if you qualify for skilled immigration a because a permanent skilled immigration visa is the only way any of you can ever become eligible to apply for Australian citizenship

It depends on the state. All 6s is the DIAC minimum and some states don't specify anything higher. Some will specify a higher requirement but only for some occupations. You'll need to refer to the migration site for the state in question. http://australia.gov.au/topics/immigration/state-migration-sites State migration sites Also of course, many applicants need higher IELTS inorder to get to the 60 points required that they need before they can submit an EOI or get an invite.

Victoria doesn't charge school fees for the children of 457 visa holders. AFAIK, school fees in government schools are only charged in NSW and the ACT. If you come on a 457, your employer can sponsor you for a permanent visa at any time if you meet the requirements for a Direct Entry stream permanent employer sponsored visa (186 or 187). If you don't meet the Direct Entry requirements for some reason (no skills assessment, not enough work experience or whatever), they can still sponsor you for a permanent visa on the Temporary Residence Transitional stream but only after you've been on the 457 for 2 years.

The work can be in any field and doesn't need to be related in any way to your nominated occupation.

From the DIAC website... "Based on current planning levels, if your are applying for a Parent (non-contributory) visa you can expect an approximate 15 year wait before visa grant consideration after being allocated a queue date." To make the wait even longer, I understand that it can take as long as a couple of years to get a queue date. http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/family/parent-visa-processing-priorities.htm