mark1988

Hi All, I am currently on a student visa which is due to expire mid 2018. I have finished one year of study and have been accepted and am due to go on to start the cert 4 of the course in February. ( there was a 6 month extension of the course for everyone to gain work experience in order to have a work experience book signed to get the qualification ) . I strongly do not want to do the next course as I have no interest in the particular course and don't see how it will benefit me in any way. the course is 15,000 dollars and I would have to study 3 full days a week, which was the same as last year and a huge struggle to make ends meet with working part time and everything else. I have been with my partner ( New Zealand citizen ) since June last year so almost a year and a half, we have been officially living together since January, we registered our relationship in January and have had a joint bank account for well over a year. Have plenty of evidence of a genuine relationship like photos together at family events like weddings, Christmas, birthdays etc etc. We decided to apply for a 461 visa, have filled out both forms and started gathering evidence, all I need to do now is send off for a uk police check and should be everything we need. I am a bit confused and concerned about what I should do in this situation. Given that I don't want to do the next course that starts in February, should I apply for 461 and cancel my student visa ? I have been told by someone that If I do this I will have my visa denied because they will think I wasn't a genuine student or something. This obviously worries me a lot because I have been a genuine student and am working in the trade I have studied so there is no doubt that studying has helped me to get further with my trade and also to contribute towards australias economy. The next course however will not benefit me in the same way. What is my best option in this situation? Also, I have my 30th birthday coming up in February which my mother has said she wants to get me a flight home for my birthday and come home and see my family, my partner is supposed to be coming too. Am I going to run into troubles given that i will likely either be on a bridging visa then or having to study the course that I don't want to be studying as it begins in February ? Hopefully I can apply for the bridging visa that allows me to travel, if I can get off of the student visa. Can anyone help ? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi All, I have been in Australia for around three years, two of which on a WHV and currently here as a student, studying Carpentry Cert 3 at TAFE. I have been accepted to do the Building and Construction Cert 4 course after the carpentry course. I will qualify from the current course in mid June. I was chatting to a friend today and had a look at one of the point tests on an immigration agent website and it seems that with me finishing the carpentry course I should have 60 points provided I can get 8+ on the IELTS test. I think with a bit of study, this is definitely attainable for me. I have been working doing carpentry work for the last theee years, on a self employed basis mostly. If they allow me to include any of my experience previous to being qualified, I will have 65 points, presuming it is only one year experience I add. I am wondering what the process is if I nominate my trade as carpentry after qualifying from the Cert 3 course? I read somewhere that this counts as a valid skills assessment but I am more or less clueless on the matter so would like to know if anyone has any idea? Or would I need to do a seperate skills assessment after I finish up at TAFE? I feel I can do nearly everything in carpentry, unassisted, but I haven't done a great deal of roofing for example, so this could be an issue. Another option I have is applying for a 461 visa with my girlfriend as she is Kiwi. This would allow me to build up more experience before I apply, but I am wondering if I can bypass all of that and apply for a 189 when I qualify. Studying here, as some of you will know, is very expensive and I would like to save myself the hassle of paying another 15,000 to get an extra 5 points if I could just apply for it now. What advice can you give me on my current dilemma? Thanks in advance, Mark