fensaddler

2 hours ago, Curious said:

Bit of an update for those in a similar position to me... I don't know how valid the source is, but gives me some hope...

Marina Brizar, head of corporate and private client at immigration law firm Playfair Visa and Migration Services, said there was a grace period for people currently on 457s to apply for permanent residency. The changes to residency eligibility will not kick in until March 2018, so 457 holders have until then to submit their residency applications. In a statement, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection confirmed this.

"Existing 457 visas will continue to remain in effect until they expire. As is currently the case, a 457 visa holder who wishes to remain in Australia beyond the validity of their current visa, must apply for a new visa before their current visa expires," a department spokeswoman told HuffPost Australia.

"Existing 457 visa holders and applicants as at 18 April 2017 will continue to have access to existing employer sponsored pathways to permanent residence. Further details will be published on the Department's website in due course."

It's the last line that is troubling.  It suggests that the Department didn't think through the implications of many of these changes, sufficient to issue advice at the time of the policy launch.  I can't imagine they would have withheld this advice, so it rather suggests they a. weren't ready in time or b. are making it up as they go along.  Nobody appears to have thought to think through, or spent the time on thinking through, the implications of these changes on a number of very obvious groups of people caught up in the transition between policy programs.  I'm at least hopeful that this suggests a good and reasonable outcome for the many people who had hoped to transition to PR under the terms of their 457 visa.

7 minutes ago, Alan Collett said:

I agree.

The situation you are describing is a microcosm of what will be happening across the country, and doesn't augur well for the future of the economy as a whole - but 1st world countries are moving in a different direction now ...

How is Singapore looking as a destination for you?!

Best regards.

Hi Alan,

If it does block my PR at this stage, I'm washed up.  I'm 50, I've no house and no job back in the UK, and we've lived here five and a half years.  Daughter has done her entire secondary education here and speaks fluent Strine.  My colleague won't go back to the UK, she's younger and will find somewhere else.  But that's Australia's loss.

14 minutes ago, Graemsay said:

I think that @imthedave has the right plan, as the Department of Immigration has been known to make sudden changes, and there's a chance that waiting will put you on the wrong side of one of these.

The Australian and New Zealand governments are keen to bring down immigration, and it looks like the permanent visas will be the next target. Changes to the citizenship programme have also been mentioned, though I haven't heard any details.

A lot of media commentary has mentioned that the number of arrivals is running at about twice its long term average. I suspect that we'll see a halving of the intake in the short to medium term, which will make things more difficult for would be immigrants.

Certainly good advice to get yourself as permanent as you can as soon as you can.  I'm fine with Aus making policy decisions about migration levels intake policies etc - this is all entirely reasonable, but what really irks me is that once again this is poorly thought through, badly communicated, populist and significantly retrospective.  If you're going to introduce policy change, think it through, plan for the consequences to those impacted, and communicate clearly.  Particularly, don't move the goalposts on people who've made life changing decisions on the basis of your former policy - honour your moral undertakings as a country.

The other thing which really troubles me is the xenophobic glee with which this has been greeted.  Ironically, Australia is one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world, but you wouldn't know it given public attitudes to migration.  And don't get me started on the hypocrisy of settled migrants, and the descendants of migrants, being so gleefully determined to drag up the ladder behind them - not based on any real understanding of the economic or social implications, but essentially out of prejudice (and sometimes flat out racism).  You could stop migration tomorrow, and not only would Australia find it had a whole host of new problems (where's the doctor, dude?), but its existing problems that some attribute to migration - housing prices and speculation, unemployment and underemployment, transport congestion - would not go away, because the root causes aren't all about migration. It's just a convenient scapegoat that prevents pollies on both sides from having the gumption to actually tackle, and acknowledge, the real problems and their root causes.   And a country which closes its doors closes its mind too...  Sorry rant over...

Hi all, my position and advice so far.  I already have my 186 PR application submitted since October last year, but my occupation has now been deleted entirely from CSOL (we struggle to recruit in this industry, and train a lot of junior staff who quickly get snapped up elsewhere, but nobody says there's logic in any of this).  I'm advised by my MA that I am OK.  My big concern is now for a very talented British colleague, who is just approaching completing her second year here, and was planning on PR, but again, same occupation, now deleted.  Our MA does not know yet whether her implied PR rights from 457 are grandfathered or not.  She was literally weeks away from passing the two year point and getting her 186 lodged.  I can't underline how much of a loss she would be to this company, our industry, and to the country.  None of that will cut any ice with a government hell bent on populism, but as soon as anyone knows anything, please post...

Thanks Dee, that was the reassurance we wanted!

Forgive me if this info is lurking somewhere in one of these threads - a quick search didn't identify what I was looking for.

We will soon have 186 PR, transitioning from 457 after five and half years here.  We're hoping that getting PR will finally ease a lot of the embuggerations about life in Aus that come with being temporary.  However, we're not sure what our overseas travel rights are once we have PR?  Can we come and go pretty much as we choose, as we could on a 457, or do we need some sort of re-entry or exit visa?  I know there are requirements if we are away for a long time (two years in five), but would a typical trip of a few weeks back to the UK, or a holiday in NZ or Fiji for example be a problem?  We're rather hoping not, as we are more than over the endless Kafkaesque administrative hurdle jumping that goes with 457 on so many aspects of our lives.

Thanks for any advice!

Re car finance, can only say that we went with a secured loan on our first purchase, and got it about 10 days after entering the country, through the dealer where we bought the car. From what I recall, we put down about 20%, but I don't think that was essential. Your chosen bank can probably help (and will probably be most likely to lend). As soon as you get here, go to your bank, talk to the adviser they will allocate to you, and present to them everything you need them to sort. If you are a migrant with money they will usually help!!

And if you are applying for a 457, whichever you choose will tend to depend on whichever is appropriate to your job. I arrived five years ago on a 457 with one code. The second job continued this code, but the third used a different (and in my view much more appropriate) one. And its this second code I've used to apply for PR. So no, you're not tied - and it doesn't really matter so long as you can prove either - but the best is the one which best describes the job you're actually going to do.

If you're going straight to a permanent visa, then the advice above sounds fine. Just get in, then you can in theory do anything you like.

Have a look at Warragul. We looked hard at it and really liked it, but it's too far to commute daily to the CBD. But close enough to Pakenham/Cranbourne for services, and a decent town with shops, cafes etc. Train service back to the big city, or a drive of about an hour and 20 off peak to the centre of Melbourne. Green, rolling country around and affordable housing.

We're in the process of building in Lara, and have spoken to a lot of people about the place, and visited a lot. Heard nothing bad, and a lot of good. Quiet, friendly, no major problems - in fact we've heard so much positive we think we might be walking into some sort of weird twilight zone... It's a small town, but has supermarkets etc, and is growing fast, with lots of new housing releases. Flat as a pancake there, but hills and coast nearby. Our daughter will be past school age by the time we get out there, so don't know too much, but whilst the local secondary in Lara is no great shakes on paper, there is a secondary in Corio (a working class suburb on the north of Geelong, so just south of Lara), that has seen huge recent improvements in its results. The worst thing you could say about Lara is it might be too quiet for teenagers, but Geelong is close, and accessible by car or train, and the centre of Melbourne is 45 minutes in the other direction. Geelong is a nice city, and one of the big advantages for Lara.

And certainly don't call Geelong Melbourne or the locals will eat you! As someone who has given up with rising prices on the eastern side, and opted to buy land and build just north of Geelong, I'd make positive noises to you about that side, especially once you get south of Werribee. Geelong itself is a really attractive small city, on the water, nice old buildings, all the services and shops you'll need, and not pricey compared to Melbourne. Don't discount the inland regional towns such as Bendigo and Ballarat either, though for your photography, I imagine you'll want access to a big market, so access back to Melbourne will be good, and Geelong is definitely nearer (just about commutable by train). I'm biased, but Melbourne is way nicer than Sydney - just a better, nicer city to live in. But you'll get a feel for what you like, and that's different for all of us. But watch the housing costs, especially house prices. Sydney (anywhere) is out of reach except for the seriously moneyed, and most of eastern Melbourne is getting that way.