Adam Grey

Yeah could well be a security check. In my experience be prepared for a long wait with no updates.

Always welding work around, but maybe not so much in Perth anymore. Are you qualified and are you looking to move over permanently?

Nobody knows what your occupation is, or anything else about your situation, that's the point I'm trying to make. We can sit here clutching at straws, guessing and making assumptions, but it's a massive waste of time for everyone involved and doesn't give you the information you need.

As I said on another post this is really best done via a consultation with an agent, especially if you specifically state you've found it hard so far. I'm happy to help but I would need to ask a few questions: What is it you do? What qualifications do you hold? How many years experience (post-qualification) do you have in your occupation? How old are you? What citizenship(s) do you hold? Any health issues? Character issues? What are your plans for the future? Do you have a partner or dependants? What does the company do? What base salary are they offering you? How long have you been working with them for? How long are they willing to employ you for? Would your role be unique or is anyone else working in a comparable position? How long has the company been in operation? How much is their total payroll over the last 12 months? How much did they spend on training their Australian employees? What kind of training was it? Have they got any Apprentices/Trainees/Recent Graduates? What's their wage? Do they employ any trainers? What's their job description? Do they have any internal training plans? Can I see an example? Does the business have the financial capability to meet its sponsorship obligations? Are they prepared to meet those obligations? What's their organisation structure like? Do they have any other associated entities? Are they aware of the training and other obligations? Are they willing to meet them?

Are you and your wife eligible for either of these options?

There's a box on the online application form that acts as a declaration the employer will not seek to recover certain costs (including SBS & Nomination fees & migration agent fees respective to those applications). When the applicant makes their 457 application there is another specific question asking the applicant if the employer has sought to recover these costs from them. The RMA has a responsibility to ensure that the company and you are aware of all declarations and obligations involved so even though they can process the application on your behalves, they must point this out to you. If the company agreed to have you pay any of the costs of the SBS/Nom they have breached their sponsorship obligations.

It's not "filling in the dots", there's a lot involved that you may not be aware of. But yeah I'm in firm agreement that that's too much and is definitely not indicative of the average service fee for this visa. Lynsey, that's crazy. Sometimes company's like to use the very large global migration law firms which often charge a premium, but there's often a cheaper, more personable and higher standard of service from boutique companies. I'm sure you're aware that the employer cannot seek to recover any of the costs of the Standard Business Sponsorship or Nomination (including agent fees). That's not a recommendation, it's actually part of their obligations as a sponsor.

Mate it's not a pickle, it's just something that needs to be planned for. The occupation, position and 457 vs ENS strategy depends on a number of factors including: your skills/experience, your aims, the company's aims, your eligibility for either of the visa classes, the planned salary, the company's current employees, the genuine need for a particular position, the company's training policies.....I could go on and on. The thing is no matter what people will tell you on here, the vast majority haven't got a clue about these factors and they certainly don't have a clue about you or your company's individual circumstances, so how they can possibly advise you one way or another is baffling. Not even an agent can accurately advise you without a proper consultation between the agent, yourself and the company.

Really?! I feel for you, that's very steep. For the SBS, Nomination and Application all combined we would charge less than £2,000 GBP

You could ask her to clarify.

Ethan, in a situation where there's employer sponsorship, it's slightly different because there's two (or sometimes three) separate applications being lodged by 2 different parties. Sometimes you may not require help but the employer does, or vice versa. The employer should not be relying on you to give them advice and unless you're actually working for them in HR I doubt you have knowledge of their training expenditure, plans & policy, payroll, other employee's salaries, their entity structure, organisation structure or anything else that may be required for their side of the process. That's without even getting into obligations or compliance issues, which failure to comply with can have severe financial penalties. They're responsible for that, not you.

I don't know any agent that would charge over 2k for assistance with a 457 visa application. Maybe you could update that so people in the future get an accurate representation of the costs involved with using an agent, might save them a few pounds.

Et Voila.

All of them are there to generate money, it's a profession. There's a demand for an advisory service and there's people who make a living from providing that service. If that's wrong then so is every other service industry in the world. Likewise the demand and market will determine the cost. $5,000 is very steep for anything but the most complex of applications, so shop around for a cheaper agent in that case! Again like any other service. You can't fix a price in a service market, not sure about Australia but pretty sure it's illegal in the UK at least.

Since the DIBP and other external processes vastly increased their fees this seems to be cropping up more and more. The cost of migration is huge and I guess people are looking at agents as a non-mandatory expense. As with most things in life you can do it yourself if you're prepared to put in the research and work. If my window was smashed I could learn how to replace it myself or hire a glazier, if I needed a new basin I could learn do it myself or hire a plumber....Using an agent is no different. I don't understand the people on this forum who show so much enthusiasm to tell people how easy it is and that they should go it alone. The vast majority of the time they have no indication of the applicants ability, their circumstance, or their application. Using the analogy above it's like saying "I fixed my own leaking tap so you should be able to fit that combi boiler with no problems. Go it alone! Don't waste your money!" Have a read through the posts over the last few days. You will find people who have lost thousands on rejected applications, people facing rejection and don't know what to do, people screaming for help and saying they can't sleep over what they believe to be important issues and question after question after question. I see lots of accurate and helpful responses, I also see lots of inaccurate answers that if followed will cause an issue. How do people decide which is which?......Yet despite all the non-stop questions, frustration, rejections, loss of time and money, people still say "I did it alone so you can too, don't waste your money". Then later the same person will ask a question and people say "I don't know, but hopefully an agent will come along and answer it for you". I find it bewildering.

It's every spousal/de facto relationship you've had previously. As you're applying for a partner visa on the basis of a de facto relationship it's a good idea to be familiar with all the factors that define it. http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/35relationship.htm

It's your application my friend, I've told you what you need to know, up to you to decide what to do. All the best,

Yeah people should just make unsubstantiated statements instead to suit their own viewpoint. Seems to be an increasing trend on here.

Seems like your issue is more to do with the finances of an application, in which case nobody is really going to be able to help you. Why not borrow the money for a partner visa (if you're eligible)? They're not that expensive and once you're on the bridging visa you'll have the right to work and you can start paying it back.

If a state sponsors you for a 190 visa you get 5 points extra, so yes if you have 55 points without it, this will take you to the 60 point benchmark

For a 189/190/489 the benchmark total is 60 points. The higher you score the more likely you will receive a quicker invitation. You can submit an EOI whenever you want, but for these visas you must have a valid skills assessment and competent English at the time of invitation so no point in doing it until then.

Have you looked at getting the extra 5 points from state nomination - sc190 visa?

I agree, but there's enough to start narrowing things down. Mr T - I'm going to assume he was assessed by ACS as having a bachelor degree, otherwise it's unlikely his ACS assessment would have resulted in 3 years experience. So if he does have a bachelors degree, going by the above info he currently has 50 points in the skilled migration points test. The minimum benchmark total needed is 60 points as I'm sure you know. As his occupation is on the SOL and you as his brother are an eligible family member living in a designated area of Australia, then the sc489 visa could be a possibility and would grant the extra 10 points required. The issue with the sc489 is that the invitation places are extremely limited (around 15 a month I believe for family sponsored) and it's not a PR visa. It merely allows the holder to remain in Australia for up to 4 years, and after living in a designated area for at least 2 years (and working for a least 12 months of those 2 years) they could be eligible to then apply for PR through the sc887 visa. I understand that he's taken the IELTS and only achieved band 6, but of course it would be preferable if he could score 7 in all bands to gain the needed 10 points that way and apply through sc189/190 instead. The benefit of re-attempting this until the desired score is achieved is something that has to be considered against the likelihood of him obtaining the result, and the fact that he is 32 and will lose 5 points when he turns 33 (it's not clear when this will be from your post). Age should also be considered if you do look at the sc489 visa, because as mentioned above the invitations are limited and can take a long time to be received. Different English language tests will be introduced from November I believe, but whether these will prove easier is unknown. I'm assuming again that he has no partner (for possible partner skill points) and that there's no health/character concerns. As he already holds a positive skills assessment with 3 years experience and has achieved IELTS 6 in all bands, if he were to apply for and receive a job offer in this occupation he could enquire whether they would be willing to nominate through ENS - Direct Entry rather than a 457 visa. ....There's still lots of considerations and options. As WRussell said above, more information is required to give a fully informed assessment. I've had to make a couple of educated assumptions in the above, which if wrong make the whole thing moot! As you can see its difficult to go back and forwards on a forum as questions need to be asked and sensitive details need to be known for a proper assessment, the above will give you a good indication IMO but it's no substitute for a telephone or face-to-face consultation with an RMA which will look at every aspect, and be able to ask those questions in real-time. All the best,

Ah, my apologies, I did misunderstand that comment.

I know that wasn't directed at me and I'm not an agent, but what info and advice would you like? Seriously nobody is withholding anything here. The system is buggy, it hates duplication, it hates importing, applications disappear and reappear randomly, it's not the most stable thing in the world and playing around with it as little as possible generally works best.