xenos1987

Hi there you can also call up DIBP and ask when you are eligible assuming no travel of more than 90 days has been/will be done

The Temporary Residents Program has four broad categories: • Working Holiday Makers—young people holidaying in Australia with short‑term work and study rights. At the end of 2009–10, Australia had reciprocal working holiday visa arrangements with 25 countries. • Overseas Students—(or international students) are people studying full‑time in registered courses in Australia on a Student visa valid for the length of their course. • Skilled temporary residents—people mostly recruited by Australian companies who enter as temporary skilled migrants for up to four years under the Temporary Business (Long Stay) (subclass 457) visa. • Other temporary residence—a range of temporary residence visas allowing people to come to Australia for social, cultural, international relations and training purposes. http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/popflows2009-10/pop-flows-chapter3.pdf Dunno and this pdf does not make it clearer

https://www.ecom.immi.gov.au/citz/startIntervalCalc.do [h=1]Lawful Residence date[/h]If you were granted a Temporary Residence or Permanent Residence visa before you arrived in Australia, the date that you first arrived on that visa is the Lawful Residence date. If you were granted a Temporary Residence or Permanent Residence visaafter you arrived in Australia, the date that that visa was granted is the Lawful Residence date.

Peach, I think if you decided to apply for citizenship today then if you were legally here (on any temp visa) on 24/09/2009 and you have been a PR since 24/09/2012 then you are eligible provided you meet the "Absences from Australia of no more than 1 year in the last 4 years and not more than 90 days in the 12 months immediately before applying" criteria.

I don't think so. DIMIA/DIAC is well aware that there will no longer be any further applicants from 175/176/885/886 subclasses and therefore in my opinion can assess a number of applications every year to reduce the backlog. If a cap and cease were to happen it would have happened a long time ago and 176 lodged prior to Sept 2007 would have not been the only group to be affected by the cap and cease measure.

Cool wasn't aware that it was possible that a visitor visa counts towards it - guess it would make sense since being on a student visa (temp visa) does count towards meeting the residency requirement

http://www.citizenship.gov.au/applying/how_to_apply/migrant_perm_res/ If you were granted a migrant visa offshore your permanent residence date is the date of your first arrival in Australia on this visa. If you were granted a permanent residence visa onshore your permanent residence date is the date that visa was issued. You also need to be in Australia for 4 years (1 of which as a PR) to be eligible.

Getting the 3 months work experience post graduation can become a tough experience. Employers can be reluctant to hire someone who is not a PR and someone who is also a graduate with no or little experience. However, if you are able to secure an internship while studying it may lead to better chances. Look at Universities that promote an internship of some sort because believe me it can be very hard to obtain work experience in any given field. As for the immigration rules changing we cannot predict what will happen. Skill Select seems to fix a lot of problems that plagued the immigration office so it may stay a while. You can only apply by invitation only and therefore DIMIA can control the number of people from a certain field in any given year. Read up on job opportunities in Australia in IT. I have read that there are a lot of IT employees that are having difficulty finding jobs - this may change in the future. All the best in your studies.

http://www.news.com.au/national/its-kosher-jewish-leaders-defend-yom-kippur-election-date/story-fncynjr2-1226565208415

[TABLE=class: tableborder] [TR] [TH]Visa Subclass[/TH] [TH]Priority Group 1[/TH] [TH]Priority Group 2[/TH] [TH]Priority Group 3[/TH] [TH]Priority Group 4[/TH] [TH]Priority Group 5[/TH] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Regional subclass 887 online[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Regional subclass 887 paper[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Independent (Migrant) subclass 175 online[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]15 May 2011[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Independent (Migrant) subclass 175 paper[/TD] [TD] N/A[/TD] [TD] N/A[/TD] [TD] N/A[/TD] [TD]15 May 2011[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Sponsored (Migrant) subclass 176 online[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]15 May 2011[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Sponsored (Migrant) subclass 176 paper[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]15 May 2011[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Provisional) subclass 475 online[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]15 May 2011[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Provisional) subclass 475 paper[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]15 May 2011[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Independent Regional (Provisional) subclass 495[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Designated Area Sponsored subclass 496[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]**[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Independent Overseas Student subclass 880[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Australian-sponsored Overseas Student subclass 881[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Designated Area-sponsored Overseas Student subclass 882[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Onshore Australian-sponsored New Zealand Citizen subclass 862[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [TD]All applications allocated[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Independent (Residence) subclass 885 online[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]1 January 2008[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Independent (Residence) subclass 885 paper[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]1 January 2008[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Sponsored (Residence) subclass 886 online[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]1 January 2008[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Sponsored (Residence) subclass 886 paper[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]1 January 2008[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Provisional) subclass 487 online[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]1 January 2008[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Provisional) subclass 487 paper[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]N/A[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]Within 4 weeks of lodgement[/TD] [TD]1 January 2008[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Hey Tania, I assume you are talking about getting a visa label from the Brisbane office? The counter hours are 9-4pm. Make sure that you go as early as possible. There is usually a long queue. They have two separate queues - one for visa labels, the other for visa lodgement, inquiries, etc. Hope this helps Btw, congrats on getting your visa...all the best xxx On another note, latest processing update: http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm