Fern

Yes, the 457 is valid until September 2018. Great, thank you for your feedback.

Hi all On 2nd September this year I will have been on a 457 visa for two years and my employer (a university) has agreed to support a nomination for the 186 visa under the temporary residence transition stream. My employer plans to submit their nomination in early September (as soon as the two year mark passes), and I understand it can take several months for this to be approved. Soon after the nomination has been submitted, I had hoped to spend 2-3 weeks in the UK (in late September) before returning to Australia and completing my own part of the 186 application. Is there any issue if I travel overseas while this visa application (either the employer nomination, or my part of the application) is being processed? I presume that i would continue to hold the 457 visa (rather than a bridging visa) while the 186 is in progress, but the information on the immigration website isn't clear on this. Thank you in advance for any advice, Fern

Hi everyone and thanks very much for your replies. This initial feedback sounds promising, and confirms my suspicion that any hurdles could be more university policy than immigration policy. I have checked in detail the ANZSCO job description for Marketing Specialist and believe my role to be consistent with the duties listed there. I'm still hoping to find someone that has been sponsored under this category and in a similar level position. Adam, thanks for your advice - I will look into a free consultation with a migration agent to get a professional opinion. Scattley - thanks for your feedback. Whilst I understand that it's unusual to sponsor at a level 6, I have to say that I know of many level 7 roles for which people have been sponsored in this university and many others. Perhaps the criteria is different with academic positions? I actually have support of the deputy VC so I'm pretty confident that it will be approved internally, if we think the role will pass immigration procedures. It is likely that the role may need to be re-advertised though. Blossom79, great to hear from someone else that was wanted for a role at a similar level on this. Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you - i'm hopeful that my case could turn out differently under the Marketing Specialist criteria. Thanks again everyone for your feedback. I appreciate your thoughts and I'm feeling slightly more confident about my situation now.

Hey everyone I'm hoping to hear from anyone who has been employer sponsored (457 visa) in either the Marketing Specialist (225113) or Market Research Analyst (225112) occupations... I'm a 26 year old Brit who is currently working in Adelaide on my working holiday visa; I've secured a role with a university here and can currently work for six months on my existing visa. It was a permanent position, and the university decided they would rather hire me, if only for six months, rather than any of the other candidates that applied. I've been in the role for nearly a month now and the Director of my team would like to sponsor me (on the 457) but her initial discussions with our allocated HR person have suggested that it wouldn't be possible because my role isn't specialised or senior enough to pass the immigration process. So, my Director is encouraging me to find examples of people at a similar level/in a similar role that have managed to get sponsored under these type of roles. She's introduced me out to one of the most senior people in the university, and has their support to progress discussions with more senior HR staff. A bit more about me and my profession... I work in a relatively new sector for Australia called alumni relations and development. It's essentially relationship marketing and fundraising in higher education - hence why I'm looking into the Marketing Specialist category. I am in a level 6 'Officer' role which pays around $70,000. My role basically involves identifying contacts with the ability to make major donations (5, 6, 7 figures) to our institution (through various types of research and analysis), and developing fundraising campaigns and strategies to secure those gifts. I have five years experience of working in this sector for a university in the UK, as well as level four professional qualifications in marketing and fundraising (Chartered Institute of Marketing and Institute of Fundraising) and lots of additional training. The main downside is that I do not have a degree, though I understand that a minimum of five years relevant work experience could be considered as an alternative. I'd love to hear from anyone else working on a 457 visa under either of these marketing categories, particularly at 'Officer' or 'Co-ordinator' level. Any information on how straightforward your employer-sponsored application was, and any other information that would help my case with HR would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance, Fern