Lisa De Leon

The travel exemption will be needed for the visa application, not the sponsorship.

Parents will be recognised as Immediate Family for the purposes of a travel exemption request from 1 November 2021. It will then be possible to apply for a travel exemption in the Immediate Family category after this date. Once a travel exemption is approved the visa application can progress.

Your calculations are incorrect. These numbers also include non-contributory applications.

I see nothing about 15 - 18 years. Yes there is a backlog, and that is where the 870 visa can be useful so that families can be together while they await processing of their parent visas.

The Family Sponsorship process for an 870 visa application is a separate process. It is not the same as a sponsor for a 143 visa application. It sounds like you need assistance.

Where do you get this information? The current processing time is 5 - 6 years.

The 870 visa allows continuous stay in Australia for the period of visa grant. Your friends are referring to a 600 Visitor visa where you can only stay 12 months upon each entry.

Hi Scott. The issue at the moment is getting a travel exemption approved. Under the current Border Force definition of immediate family member, this only includes partners and children but not parents. The visa cannot be granted without an approved travel exemption. This is also the case with Visitor visas. The application can be lodged, but the visa will not be granted until the associated travel exemption request (TER) is approved. These TER are requiring a ridiculous amount of relationship evidence to be approved for partners, almost as much as a partner visa application. Until they include parents in the Inward Travel Directive they will not be able to be granted a visa while offshore. It's a different story for 870 applicants who are onshore. inward-travel-restrictions-operation-directive.pdf

TSPV 870-Australian Visa Options.pdf

According to a Facebook group for Registered Migration Agents, there have not been a lot of 870 Sponsor approvals thus far. Agents were still waiting at beginning of July for sponsorship applications lodged in April. My first application took about 8 weeks. The visas are capped at 15,000 places annually, and I have heard that around 500 sponsorship applications have been lodged so far.

What would you like to know?

If the nomination is refused you can withdraw the visa application but you won't get a refund of the visa application charge. I would suggest to lodge them at the same time if your wife's 45th birthday is looming.

It can take more than 6 months. If possible, lodge onshore and lodge the visa application at the same time. Your wife could work for the employer on her bridging visa while the 186 is being processed. Alternatively, the employer could sponsor your wife for a 482 to get her here faster. Nominations in the Short Term stream are taking around 49 days, and nominations in the Medium Long Term stream are taking around 38 days. Midwife 254111 is on the MLTSSL.

NSW also has a similar system where they invite people with high points, the other states will consider at 65 points. Unless the occupation is on a Supplementary list like South Australia where you can still get nominated if you have high points.

Due to the high number of applications, Victoria has introduced a new selection process for State Nomination under the following occupations: ICT, Nursing, Engineering and Building occupations Applicants now need to lodge an Expression of Interest into Skill Select and indicate your interest for Victorian nomination. You do not need to notify Victoria that you have submitted an EOI. If selected, an email invitation to apply for Victorian visa nomination will be sent to your email address used for the EOI. There is no set timeframe to expect an invitation after submitting an EOI. Invitations are not guaranteed. If selected you must lodge your application with the Victorian government within 14 days of receiving the invitation. If successfully nominated by the Victorian government you will then receive an invitation to apply for the visa through Skill Select, and will have 60 days to do so. As you can see it is highly competitive and obviously the highest scoring applicants will be invited first. If you are not selected you will not receive an email, and your EOI will stay in the Skill Select system. I would consider a points score of 75 or above to have a good chance. 70 points will take longer, and 65 points only getting approved with a job offer.

Yes, as long as you work in a regional area designated by postcode (see below link): www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/visa-1/887-?modal=/visas/supporting/Pages/skilled/regional-post-codes.aspx To be eligible for the permanent 887 visa down the track, you both need to have lived in a regional area for a period of 2 years, and worked for at least 12 months. Work can be in any occupation, not necessarily the one in your original 489 visa application. And you can obtain a release letter from the sponsoring State or Territory government if you can show a job offer interstate and can't find employment there.

You can request that the processing of your son's 101 visa be expedited as you need to enter Australia by the date on your visa grant. DHA are usually pretty efficient in these cases. Otherwise your son's ETA can be extended in Australia to allow him to stay more than 3 months (up to 12), but he will need to leave Australia for visa grant.

Never trust what they tell you on the DHA hotline, 9 times out of 10 it will be incorrect.

Most invitations are being issued at 75 points. Have you considered State Nomination? Extra points and an immediate invitation.

From 17 November 2018 current Subclass 405 (Investor Retirement) as well as Subclass 410 (Retirement) visa holders in Australia can transition to permanent residence through the 103 or 143 Parent visas. You do not need a sponsor or to pass the Balance of Family Test, and will receive a bridging visa to allow you to stay in Australia while your application is being processed. Contact us for more information to see if you qualify

The latest processing times have been published on the Department's website. For a 143 visa it is now taking 49 - 55 months. www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/access-accountability/service-standards/global-visa-citizenship-processing-times

In breaking news tonight, the changes to the Assurance of Support scheme will be scrapped in the face of an impending loss in the Senate. Here is a link to the story: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/exclusive-coalition-backflips-on-parent-visa-crackdown?cid=newsapp:socialshare:whatsapp

Breaking News - the changes to the AoS have been overturned! http://www.sbs.com.au/news/exclusive-coalition-backflips-on-parent-visa-crackdown?cid=newsapp:socialshare:whatsapp

The following was announced in the federal budget announced tonight (8 May 2018). An implementation date has not as yet been announced. Retirement visas - permanent pathway A pathway to permanent residency for holders of Retirement (subclass 410) and Investor Retirement (subclass 405) visas will be introduced. A portion of the parent permanent migration places will be quarantined for retirement visa holders each year. Retirement visa holders in Australia will be eligible to apply onshore for a permanent visa through the Parent (subclass 103) or Contributory Parent (subclass 143) visa streams. Retirement visa holders will be exempted from some parent visa requirements that they would typically be unable to meet, such as having family in Australia. The pathway will remain open until all retirement visa holders who wish to transition to permanent residency have done so. As part of the establishment of the pathway, the Government will close the subclass 405 visa to new applicants. The subclass 410 visa is already closed to new applicants.

The increase in the income requirements affects all who have not lodged the application for the AoS with Centrelink before 1 April 2018. The person who gives the AoS is now required to demonstrate a minimum income for the current financial year and the two previous financial years.