drewbty

Also would add that as well as filling in and manually attaching a bridging visa A application through the online web form, you can additionally apply to get it reinstated directly from your pending substantive visa application in the immi account, which I didn’t lodge myself so I couldn’t see! It won’t be available to apply for in the options under ‘new application’ (more bad comms from immi). It’s quick and easy from there and both the wife and I’s were approved 2 hours after lodgement.

18 hours ago, paulhand said:

... until your visitor visa expires and the BVA comes into effect  ... so 14 days for the 600 and three months for the 651.

There is a 24 hour operations centre in Canberra that the airline can call.

If you have a 651, the ETA won't be in effect. You can't hold two in effect visas at once.

Yes thanks, comes into effect it should say! I would like to edit this with the correct language but it doesn’t let me unfortunately. 
 

Re: point 3. The ETA got approved first, which has a visa grant number. A few hours later the 651 got approved with a separate visa grant number, which am aware then outplays the 601 ETA. Didn’t mean holding 2 ‘active’ visas simultaneously which is impossible.
What was interesting in this part of the process was that I wasn’t able to cancel the 651 application from my immi account once the ETA was granted, there’s no facility to cancel a 651 it seems.  
 

I will also add some potentially critical info for any future readers that given the ETA/eVisitor just gets granted for 3 months you won’t legally be able to work for 3 months until this visa expires, which is obviously a load of nonsense (the whole process is obviously broken, which starts with needing to ask for permission/pay for a BVB to go on holiday). For this reason, and especially if you work for a bigger company who are aware of your situation and have HR procedures in place, I would highly recommend you just swallow the bullet and pay the $150 offshore lodging fee well as accepting the longer processing time for the 600 long form visitor visa, even if you come from a country that’s eligible for ETA/651. On the 600 application you can give custom information about your case in the online lodgement form and all being well you should get a 14 days visitor grant at the end of it. 

Yes I have. The post was really just to ask if there’s anything anyone knows of to get things fast tracked given the situation of her being needed back to work. 

As it turns out, immi or Jakarta won’t help. They will only fast track in cases that involve critical industry and that doesn’t include disability support (the covid list of critical industries aren’t used anymore)

Amazingly the wife got approved for her 600 visitor visa after just over 1 business day. The mid mark estimation (50% of applications) was 12 business days so I’m quite shocked at that. 
 

My 651 eVisitor visa took an extra day even though 90% of applications are <24 hours (they must have flagged for manual review) 

For anyone in this situation in the future, the wife got granted a 14 day stay 600 visa, with instruction in the accompanying letter to apply for a bridging visa straight away after landing in Australia. You can’t legally work on a visitor visa, so you shouldn’t really be back at work until you get granted your new bridging visa. 

After getting spooked by the unusual wait time for my 651, I applied for an ETA 601 through the app as I hear these are generally auto granted, which it was for me too. So I now have 2 visas to come back and we have booked our flights for tomorrow. If you’re from an eligible country, I would encourage you to apply for an ETA over a 651 for this reason. There is a $20 fee for the ETA but def worth it if time is of the essence. 

When you return to Aus, it’s a bridging visa A you need to apply for. They tell you to apply for a bridging visa (don’t tell you which one which could trip people up) through your immi account but bridging visa A is not there as an option (only a bridging visa E is available which is a special class of visa for people who are unlawful). So you need to apply and attach a document through the online web form here - https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/departmental-forms/online-forms/bridging-a-b-c-visa-application-online

Another heads up I would warn you about is to go to the airport during the day early and go to information desk for your airline. I did this today just so they scan our passports and make sure everything is ok. Mine scanned fine to board but the wife’s got a ‘contact immi for approval’ message because she had 2 visas, a valid 600 visitor as well as a ‘do not board’ tag on the old BVA. This was with Jetstar and amazingly they get on WhatsApp right then and there and have a realtime convo with some official in Denpasar to authorise the travel. The consulate closes at 4pm so if you have a later flight you’re probably not travelling if you don’t do this prior. 

I’ve been living in Australia for 10 years and travelled out of the country about twice a year for holidays whilst on various work sponsor visas. Last October I was finally able to apply for a 186 ENS which I did, and was granted a BVA in the meantime. 

A couple of weeks ago the wife and I travelled to Bali for our 1 year wedding anniversary without realising you have to ask for ‘permission’ now to leave the country, in the form of a BVB. 
 

Long story short we weren’t able to board the plane as the BVA is auto cancelled once we left, and we’re now stuck in Bali…

I believe the plan of attack for us is apply for tourist visas to get back into the country and then from there, apply to have our BVA’s reinstated. This seems strange to me as you should really be a GTE to apply for a tourist visa, but I’ve been assured it’s the best path open to us. 
 

I’ve applied for a evisitor subclass 651 for me which should hopefully be granted on Monday. The issue is my wife is Brazilian so we could only apply for a long form 600 tourist visa. This could take up to 5 weeks to be looked at by immi, from the current guidelines on timeframe on the website. 
 

I’ve emailed the Jakarta embassy asking for special circumstance to look at my wife’s application and get it expedited. My wife is due back in work on Monday and is a social worker by trade who works in a disability support centre, who are short staffed as it is. I’ve argued that each day she is waiting on processing is harming Australian citizens with disability. 
 

From the auto generated response I’m not sure if they will even consider looking at the application though. They spoke about only helping act on cases that have gone directly through them by appointment. 
 

I’m not sure if there’s anything else I can do besides also calling them on Monday and see if I can talk to someone at the embassy. Again I don’t know if they’ll help her with consulate services as she’s not Australian. 
 

Any other advise for things I can try to get a decision on her tourist visa fast tracked?

TIA

On 27/11/2021 at 17:46, Marisawright said:

I have every sympathy with people who are highly experienced and who miss out on jobs because some greenhorn with a degree is valued above them.  Seen it happen often and it's unfair.  However, I have no sympathy with anyone who's been living in Australia on temp visas for 13 years.  Let's be honest, by the time anyone has been living in Australia on temp visas for 5 or 6 years, they know full well that they've got no chance they'll ever get PR.  If they think otherwise, they're living on dreams.  So if they decide to stay on precarious temp visas, it's 100% their choice to put themselves in that situation.   Unless they're from a war-torn third-world country, they could go home any time. 

 

You're missing an important variable. Change in government/goalposts moving. Lots of temp skilled visa holders want to remain as such for as long as possible as if they go permanent they can no longer claim their Super early if they decide to move back home. The introduction of the STSOL changed this for lots of people (including me). In my situation I've been here 9 years always on 457/now 482 visas. I was made redundant twice (once by a takeover and once by COVID) both times as I was approaching the 2 years I required to be with the same company. Now I'm stuck on a 482 no permanent pathway visa with 1 further renewal available. I'm holding out for positive news from Alex Hawke announcement and/or a Labor win this federal election  (which will almost certainly move the goalposts back to where they were at a minimum)

On 26/11/2021 at 19:33, paulhand said:

So far it’s just press announcements. What they are suggesting is that any 482 concessions will be primarily for those working in health, hospitality and the regions.  The devil will, as always, be in the detail. 

Does anybody know the number of people who are currently primary 482 visa holders in Aus?

The ministers statement specifically mentions that this could affect 20,000 482 visa holders https://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/AlexHawke/Pages/visa-changes-to-support-the-reopening-of-australia.aspx

“There are currently about 20,000 primary Temporary Skill Shortage and 457 visa holders in Australia who may benefit from these arrangements. Most of these workers are employed in the highest-skilled occupations and the largest cohorts of workers benefiting from these changes include those currently employed in the health and hospitality industries, including many workers in regional Australia,” Minister Hawke said.

I have been reading some speculation that the tail of this statement could be interpreted literally, and it only applying to e.g.. nurses and people who work as ''chefs'' in restaurants so they qualified for 482, but it seems to me that the question can be answered best by the numbers. e.g. if there are 40,000 primary 482 holders currently in Australia then it will only apply to a slice. If there are ~20,000, it will apply to all of them. 

Judging by this - https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/temp-res-skilled-quarterly-report-311221.pdf nurses and people in hospitality only make up a small part of the temp skilled visa allocations. I certainly don't think the number of primary 482 visa holders in ''politically friendly pandemic occupations'' would be near 20,000 so my prediction is that it will be all primary 482 holders which were granted between X and Y date (during the pandemic). 

Have any migration agents on this forum (or someone with direct experience) familiar with this scenario. Basically, I was on a 482 visa and ceased working with my ex employer 4 months ago (my ex-employer did inform the department as they were supposed to). Therefore I have breached visa condition 8607 on my current 482 visa, which expires in Nov 2020.  

Now obviously COVID is happening right now and I have been led to believe from a friend who had knowledge within the department that they weren't/aren't actively enforcing these breaches of ceasing to work conditions right now due to manpower and discretion over COVID. To date I haven't received any communication from the department and on VEVO my visa is still active.

I have recently found a company that want to hire me and re-apply for a new 482 visa and nomination for me. 

The question now becomes, even though the department were undermanned and seemed to be appreciative of the fact that some breaches of visa conditions couldn't be helped as not everybody on temporary visas could leave Australia during COVID- would they be so gracious with discretion when assessing my new 482 visa application? It would just take a quick look at the dates for the assessing agent to see that I had breached the 60 day max no work condition (this is providing that when my ex-company informed the department of me ceasing to work back in April that this note was stored on my department file, which I can't be sure of). 

TIA