Hi All,
Apologies if this has been asked previously. My wife, 1 year old son and myself moved to Adelaide at end of November from the UK on a work sponsored 457 visa.
Now we are here we have fallen in love with the lifestyle here. We're convinced we won't want to return home and have thought about applying for PR early rather than waiting for the 2 years for the temporary residence transitional visa route.
Apart from loving life here, we want to buy a home here rather than renting so we can settle further and also already having a 1 year old and another baby on the way my wife would love to return to work once the baby has arrived and she has spend maybe 9 -12 months with the baby, I understand as we're on a 457 visa we wont get any help with childcare and with 2 children to pay for childcare this makes returning to work almost unviable without any help. I understand if we become PR we would be entitled to the same assistance with child care costs as Australian citizens? My wife is a secondary school teacher and even if she achieved a decent wage paying child care for 2 would eat a massive chunk out of her salary.
When looking to purchase a house we were told as we are temp residents we would need to pay $5k fee for FIRB approval for any property purchase which seems like a waste to me as id be better off spending the money on becoming PR.
What options do we have In achieving PR? Im sure my employer would be happy to sponsor PR if that is an option or I could probably achieve PR through skills.
I hope this makes sense but any advice is appreciated! Thank you in advance