Killara

You are right that you have a complicated situation. You have immigration, AVO, and family law issues tied up together, and potentially others (a breach by other party of the AVOs could lead to criminal law proceedings for example), so you should be getting advice from a lawyer who can advise you and act for you in all of those areas. You don't mention whether you had a lawyer acting for you in the AVO proceedings taken by your wife against you, but if you did, unless that lawyer is also a registered migration agent, they probably won't have been able to advise you on effect on your visa application. It is possible that you can still be granted the partner visa. The 820 visa can be granted when the relationship has broken down since the date of application for the visa and the applicant has suffered domestic violence during the relationship. However, to properly advise you, it would be necessary to review the court orders which have been made in relation to the AVO proceeesings, the police report, and other evidence of domestic violence (for example the witness statement of the neighbour). It would also be nessecary to look at the avo order granted against you. If there are family law proceeesings, it would also be necessary to look at that. Did the agents / lawyers you spoke to look at all of these? If not, that would potentially explain them giving you different answers. You really should be using a lawyer that is familiar all aspects of these matters who will look at all of the material, not just the one particular aspect that they are acting for you on (for example a lawyer acting for you only in the AVO matter). For these reasons also, the very helpful members on this forum are not going to be able to give you much further guidance then what you have received from the agents/lawyers you have spoken to, because forum members here have for example not seen the court orders that have been made (and you would not want to be publishing those court orders here - that is something that should not be posted to a pub ic forum). For responding to DIBP, I would strongly recommend that you bring your documents to an immigration lawyer who ideally also acts in AVO, criminal, and family law matters, so that the lawyer can make submissions to DIBP on the domestic violence and related law affecting your circumstances.

The SLAA will not want to know about the Vetassess assessment for occupation of legal executive as it is not relevant to their assessment of your qualifications. The SLAA may ask for details of any applications made to other SLAAs in Australia, but you do not need to disclose the legal executive assessment if asked this as it is not an SLAA assessment (not that it would have any bearing on their assessment either way). Though you can provide evidence that you have worked as a lawyer in India, this does not mean that you would therefore get a positive skills assessment for the occupation as a solicitor in Australia. In most cases your assessment will state what additional academic or practical legal training subjects you would need to sit and pass in Australia in order to be eligible for admission as an Australian Lawyer. In most cases therefore, it will not be possible to get a positive skills assessment for the occupation of solicitor until those additional requirements have been complied with. If you intend to migrate to Australia permanently, then pursuing admission as an Australian Lawyer would open up better prospects for you to obtain a permanent visa.

As you must know, being a legal executive does not permit you to do the work of a solicitor. DIBP know this too. So, unless you are actually qualified as a solicitor and/or eligible for admission in Australia as an Australian Lawyer, then you will not be able to apply for a visa as a solicitor. Can you apply for a skill assessment under the occupation as solicitor? Well, you can apply to the State Legal Admission Authority (SLAA) of the State where you intend to reside for an assessment of your qualifications... but you are a legal executive not a solicitor, you will not get a positive skills assessment from the SLAA for the occupation of solicitor. If applying to an SLAA for assessment for the occupation of solicitor, you will need to submit result of the Academic version of the IELTS with a minimum score of 7 in each of the bands. The General IELTS will not suffice.

That is correct. The bridging visa would only kick in when your substantive visa (the WHV) expires.

In addition to what Lady Rainicorn and blossom79 have said, you should also keep in mind that many employers will not know anything about how to sponsor you. It would be wise to familiarise yourself now with the various options which may be open to you in the event that you do find a suitable employer willing to sponsor you. When you interview for jobs on your WHV, some employers may be concerned about the 6 month limitation and may ask you in the interview about options after the 6 months. It is good if you are well informed on your options so that you can explain that it will be possible to work past the 6 months if both they and you wish to. If you haven't bothered to look in to the options yourself, then a prospective employer may think well why should they bother looking in to it if you haven't or consider it to demonstrate a lack of motivation. If you are conversant with all the options which might be available after the 6 months, then a prospective employer will likely consider that this demonstrates motivation, enthusiasm, and perhaps even a commitment to their company because you are showing that you have looked in to how you might be able to stay with them past the 6 months and perhaps permanently. There are other possibilities which may be open to you while on your WHV other than the standard 457 business sponsorship, for both temporary and permanent visas, so it is worth doing the research on this now before you go, or consult a registered migration agent and obtai a written assessment of the various visa options which may be open to you and what you (and a potential employer) should be doing during the course of the WHV To set this up. I was very similar to you - was granted first WHV just befoe I turned 31, arrived having turned 31, worked with an employer who did not know how to sponsor but was willing to do it if I could do the work (basically they said their side would be to sign whatever they needed to sign and provide whatever cheque was needed for it; totally fair enough!). One of the reasons I probably got the job was because the employer was reassured that I knew what I was doing and would be able to work with them to stay with them for longer than the 6 months. Good luck.

1. Yes, you can get jobs in the legal sector with a WHV. I know plenty who have (including my own personal experience of it when I got my WHV at the same age as you). However, what @engaus has said about the legal sector in Australia is correct, and also the difficulties encountered by being over-qualified for a paralegal role. However, the more experience you have, the more likely you are to be able to get a job on a WHV provided you are prepared to accept a cut in pay until you have been admitted as an Australian Lawyer. Overseas lawyers with less than 3-4 years experience would struggle to get a legal position in Australia in my opinion. With more experience than that, you should be able to find a legal role, even on a WHV. 2. To get a 189, you will need a positive skills assessment from a State Legal Admission Authority. That can be difficult to get without being admitted as an Australian Lawyer, though it is possible. A complicating factor is your intention to have a baby in the near future. This raises issues about eligibility for WHV, cost considerations, and visa status / citizenship of the child. I would suggest that you consult a registered migration agent who has experience dealing with these type of cases. Consideration of your case goes beyond the general advice that can be given on this forum.

If it is with the same employer that sponsored you for the 457, then most likely you do not need another visa and can travel to Australia and work for that employer on your current 457 visa; however I would recommend that you first consult a registered migration agent before you do this to confirm that all is still in order for you to travel to Australia and work for this employer. You will need to check that the visa hasn't been cancelled. Also, you say that you are in talks with the employer... If the contract of employment changes, you may need to apply for another visa (for example in particular if the role or other fundamental terms of the employment contract have changed)

A girlfriend is not a family member. A defacto partner is. Do you consider yourself to be, say, to use another term with which you may be familiar, are you in reality "common law wife" of your boyfriend? Is your relationship with your boyfriend akin to a spousal relationship. The definition of defacto partner is here: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s5cb.html For a 190 visa, you will ordinarily need to have been in a defacto relationship for a period of 12 months. You will need evidence to demonstrate that. if included on the application as defacto partner, evidence of defacto relationship will need to be submitted, so this could delay the grant of the visa if sufficient evidence is not provided. If sufficient evidence is ultimately not provided, then it is likely that the visa for you would be refused, but your boyfriend would likely still be granted his visa, provided he is eligible and doesn't provide any misleading or false documents or statements in the application (e.g. false documents or statements trying to support defacto relationship would put his own visa in jeopardy). In terms of having until 21 Feb to pay for the visa application, you are presumably also aware that there is an additional charge to include you as a secondary applicant.

I really hope that you choose to do it, and that you decide before you go that you are going to intentionally adopt a positive thinking mindset about it. I say intentionally, because adopting a positive mindset is something that you can choose to do. I think you are right here - Given that you have always lived at home, and are now thinking of flying the nest, and not just to somewhere close to home, but to almost as far away as you can go, and to use your savings, which I am sure you have worked hard to earn and put aside and being one of the things that you have to show for your adult life so far, then yes, it is natural to have some doubts. To me, that of itself doesn't make you a pessimist. To my mind, it simply shows someone who thinks about things and likes to evaluate proposed courses of action, particularly with something that could be considered to be a big decision to make. Now, I'm not saying that you're not a pessimist; just that I don't think simply evaluating the decision as you have been doing and having some doubts about it means of itself that you are a pessimist. I do that all the time too and consider myself on the whole to be an optimist. I also have a lot of respect for the opportunist: "Dear optimist and pessimist, while you have both been arguing over whether the glass was half full or half empty, I've drunk whatever was remaining in the glass. Many thanks, the opportunist." I think this is what you need to do - force yourself to put yourself out there a little bit more. You have nothing to lose. If you make an effort to interact with people in Australia and even if it didn't work out, you know what... so what.. these people in Australia you will never see again if you choose to go back home after, they will be on the other side of the planet. But, I think you might be pleasantly surprised by how well forcing yourself to interact more pays off. I actually think that you might end up making so many friends here that you won't want to go home. There are also meetup groups on these pomsinoz forums for wherever you might go to in Oz, with people in a similar position as you would be in: in Oz and looking to make friends. Australia may very well be the perfect place for you... if you can handle people calling you "mate" all the time! ...But you'll never know unless you go.

Congrats on your visa grant!

Happy New Year! 4 years ago late on New Year's Eve I boarded my first flight to Australia. It was one of the best decisions I have made. New Year's Eve will always remind me of that new beginning, and the hope that New Year brings. Best wishes to all intending migrants hoping to make their new home in Australia in 2015! May 2015 bring you all the happiness you deserve, and may it be everything you are hoping for.

In a situation like this, you and your girlfriend should really consult with a registered migration agent to decide on the best visa option. It is really good to see that you are seeking advice early on; your options are increased with this - with still 7 months to go before you would apply for a visa, and 8 before the baby is due. This has increased your prospects for a positive outcome, but you should consult with a registered migration agent now, not only to decide on the best visa strategy, but also to ensure that you are doing everything that you need to be doing between now and the visa application. The 457 requires only 6 months defacto, so you have enough time to ensure that you would meet that to include your girlfriend as a defacto if you were to apply for a new 457 in July. However, if you intend to stay in Australia in the longer term, then you should be looking for the permanent residency option. As you will not meet the 12 month defacto relationship, this will require more careful preparation. There may also be other visa options open to both you and your girlfriend, so to decide on the best visa strategy for you and your girlfriend, consult a registered migration agent. You have taken the very prudent step of seeking advice early, so, so far you are doing everything right! Best wishes.. and also congratulations!

You have contracts with: (i) the agent, (ii) the headhunter, and (iii) the employer. These should be written contracts - the contracts with the employer would certainly have needed to have been a written contract for DIBP to grant your visa. The contract will specify in writing when the job is to commence. What the headhunter has to say about it is irrelevant - it is what is in the signed contract of employment. If you are looking for legal advice, you should consult a lawyer in person. A lawyer will not give you legal advice on a forum such as this. To start with, it would be necessary to see the actual contracts, and previous correspondence between you, and the agent, head hunter, and employer. For migration advice, you should consult a registered migration agent. I know you used an agent in the visa application process, however I would recommend that you obtain independent advice from another registered migration agent, particularly given the arrangement that was put in place between you, the agent you used, the headhunter and the employer. It sounds as though the agent you used is caught up in all of this, and has also made mistakes in the past on your application. That doesn't inspire confidence. What others have said about only DIBP being able to cancel visas is correct, not the headhunter or employer. However, that is not to say that there is nothing that the headhunter or employer could do that would put your visa in jeopardy. There is. They could contact DIBP and allege that you never intended to take up the employment for example. I would recommend that you contact a lawyer who can both represent you in your dealings with the agent, headhunter, and employer, as well as help you to avoid having your visa cancelled and represent you in dealings with DIBP if the question of visa cancelation arises.

CollegeGirl has it correct. If your 189 is granted while you are still in Australia on your holiday visa, then you will not need to leave Australia and re-enter. If you are in Australia on your tourist visa when the 189 is granted, the 189 will come in to effect on grant. Be careful that you do not overstay your holiday visa though waiting for the 189 to be granted. If you applied for the 189 offshore, and then applied for and were granted a tourist visa while the 189 is still pending, you will not have a bridging visa to allow you to stay in Australia beyond the expiry date of your holiday visa.

If you register your relationship, then the 12 month requirement will not apply, but you will still need to prove that the relationship is akin to a married relationship, so you will need evidence of joint committment to a life together to the exclusion of others. So yes, things like joint bank accounts, bills in joint names, are important as they provide some evidence of committment to each other, but your relationship will likely be examined in quite a bit of detail. The time you spend waiting for the 820 visa to be processed will count towards the two years for the 801 permanent residence visa.

Police checks from India, Ireland, and the UK will be required

I actually wouldn't be too surprised if someone from immigration did tell him that. Whether that is recorded in their records however is another matter. Either way, it doesn't sound like he wasn't here illegally - unless the 820 was cancelled some time before the 457 was granted... and it doesnt sound like that happened... in which case, he was here legally on his 820 visa, just that he no longer qualified for it and it would have been subject to cancellation by immigration if they had been informed and acted on the information. The way this is most likely to affect you and your partner now is that it may either lead to credibility issues with his new partner visa application, or raise concerns about compliance with conditions of previous visas. I would think that your partner will be able to submit his new partner visa application, but it would be advisable to establish what the Department's records show about his previous partner visa. This can be obtained through a Freedom of Information request. Like others have said, I would recommend that you and your partner speak to a registered migration agent for professional guidance and advice with this application.

You cannot extend your WHV but if you do not receive an invitation to apply before your WHV expires, you might still have other options for extending your stay in Australia such as by applying in Australia for another visa that you may also be eligible for. I suggest you speak to a registered migration agent now about what options you might have if you do not receive the invitation in time (particularly given the tight timeframe involved before your visa expires); that way the agent can be ready to submit an application for you before your WHV expires so that you can stay in Australia and allow more time for the invitation to be made if you haven't received it by then. You may have more options than simply leaving if you do not get an invitation before your WHV expires. Having said that, as others have pointed out, given there are 2 more rounds of offers, you have good prospects of receiving an invitation to apply in time.

Promises can form part of the contract, even if not included in the signed contract of employment. To enforce the promise, you would need to at least have it in writing. (Emails can be sufficient). You will not be able to force the company to sponsor you for PR, but you may be able to recover from the company your financial loss (the cost of applying for PR). If the company agreed to pay for the cost of your return to your home country at the end of the 4 years, and this is in writing (emails can be sufficient), then you may be able to recover this from the company. It sounds however that what the company promised was that they would sponsor for PR, not that they would pay for the costs of you returning to your home country. That makes it more difficult (but not impossible) for you to seek to recover the costs of retuning home (apart from flights which they are required to pay for).

As others have said, and as you clearly already know (as you have indicated that you are worried about being kicked out of Australia), you have been in breach of your visa conditions for the past 6 months. Both you and your ex-partner were required to inform DIBP upon the breakup of your relationship. Of course it is clear that you did not inform DIBP when the relationship broke up because you did not want to be kicked out of Australia. I don't know why your ex-partner did not inform DIBP when the relationship broke up though - if your ex-partner had informed DIBP, she would be ok, she would still have been able to stay in Australia; only you would have had to leave. Maybe it was because she was hoping that you two may get back together again or maybe it was because she just didn't want to do that to you even though the relationship had broken down, or maybe she was just ignorant of her obligations to do so - but no matter what the reason, your ex-partner now risks being dragged down by you. Do you care that your ex-partner might also lose her visa because of you? In fairness to her, I think you should let her know that you are thinking about applying for another visa and that this could bring to light the fact that each of you have been in breach of your visa conditions. You risk dragging her down with you. If you don't care about that, then remember that when you make a subsequent visa application for your new defacto relationship, your ex could make claims to DIBP about your ongoing relationship with her, which could form the basis for a refusal on a new defacto visa application with your current girlfriend. As others have asked, what visa subclass? Is it 457? Or is it a permanent residence sponsored visa? This is an important question. However, in terms of being considered a defacto on your current girlfriend's visa, DIBP will not include any period during which you are on your ex-girlfriends' visa. As others have already done, I would very strongly recommend that you speak to a registered migration agent / migration lawyer as soon as possible. Ideally with both your new girlfriend and your ex-partner, because you are all mixed up in this. At the very least, speak to the migration agent / migration lawyer with your new girlfriend and inform your ex-partner what you are intending to do. In your own best interests however, the migration agent / lawyer would prefer to speak to you, your ex and your current girlfriend, however - doesn't need to be all 3 of you at same time. Quite a few people in this thread have said that you are now in Australia illegally. This is technically not correct. While you have certainly breached your visa conditions, the visa has not yet been cancelled, and therefore you not considered to be illegally in Australia. However, as you have breached your visa conditions, your visa is subject to cancellation. Upon the cancellation of your visa, should you remain in Australia then you would be illegally in Australia. The fact that you have breached your visa conditions is something that of course could adversely affect any future visa application because the Department take in to account the extent to which a visa applicant complied with the conditions of any previous visa which they held. You seem to be confused. Speaking to a registered migration agent / lawyer is not going to result in you being kicked out of Australia. Registered Migration Agents do not work for the Department. Information which you provide to registered migration agents is protected by requirements of client confidentiality. Information which you provide to a migration lawyer and advice which you receive from a lawyer is not only protected by requirements of client confidentiality but also protected by legal professional privilege. Without your express permission, neither you nor the lawyer can be required to disclose the contents of information given by you to the lawyer for advice nor the advice which you receive from the lawyer. A registered migration agent / lawyer will help you maintain lawful status in Australia.

Tax returns and bank statements may not necessarily prove that you are working in the nominated occupation. Depending on the occupation, there may be other documentary evidence which can be provided to show that you are working and being paid for work in the nominated occupation (and performing the required tasks for the occupation which is what DIBP are looking for) - for example, in some occupations you may have entered into contracts with clients/customers - you could include copies of some of these; or for other occupations, there may be people or organisations who you regularly do work for, and in these circumstances, letters or stat decs from these people can confirm that you perform the tasks associated with the occupation that DIBP are looking for and that you get paid for performing the occupational tasks which DIBP are looking for evidence of. Tax returns and bank statements will show that you are earning money, but you should try to show that the money is being earned performing the specified tasks of the nominated occupation.

From my own professional experience, I disagree. As I've said, the facts involved for this UK family are similar to a matter which I am currently dealing with for clients in Australia. That resulted in an investigation by DIBP. As a result of that investigation and legal proceedings taken, a substantial sum of money will be available to compensate victims. Have you actually had a case involving fraudulent visa grant notices in which DIBP took no action?

I am currently representing clients in Australia where there has been a similar history of fraudulent visa grant notices and deceitful emails. I would also be happy to review the UK family's case and determine whether there may be something that can be done for them here. DIBP should be notified of the fraudulent visa grant notices. They will conduct an investigation and seek to bring criminal charges against the person(s) responsible. This is worth doing even though it is a UK company. If I can assist this family, I would be happy to.

You should be able to check this using VEVO: https://online.immi.gov.au/evo/firstParty?actionType=query If you can login using VEVO, it should show the status of your visa and it should show current location as "offshore". If you do not have TRN, grant number or password (one of these is needed to login in addition to your passport details), then you could ask any MARA agent to check using your passport details - should only take a few seconds to check and you can get a pdf confirmation that DIBP have you recorded as now being offshore. Let me know if any difficulty.

A statutory declaration to explain it should be fine.