Nick Perth

I certainly will be lobbying them all. Under the current rules the 457 visa and PR both count to PR as long as you have one year PR and a total of four years here. I can't see why this should change or at least there should be transitional rules.

Exactly my point. What's particularly frustrating is we have friends who arrived on PR after us who will be unaffected as they were already on PR not a 457. We couldn't have foreseen these changes so the complaint is the retrospective and arbitrary nature of these changes! I'm not sure if a minority will be caught. This article shows 31,000 people on PR will be caught. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/collateral-damage-exliberal-leader-slams-impact-of-visa-changes-20170522-gwa368.html

I came to Australia in January 2014 on a 457 visa with my wife and three kids. I've only applied for PR in May 2017 under the transitional PR route. My eldest son is in year 9 so he won't get a Commonwealth Place for two-thirds of his Uni degree and taking a gap year wouldn't help as time outside Australia may not count to citizenship clock. You can check on fee calculators for domestic degree rates. They are only slightly less than the overseas rates. $70,000 per annum for medicine and $30,000 for science and engineering. We'd be better off going back to the UK for £9,000 a year! But technically you lose your rights to a UK degree if you've not been there for the past three years! I'm very stressed about the whole thing. I've written to Tony Burke at Labor and Nick Xenophon. All the media coverage has been on the English language test and us Brits are exempt from this. So if you are equally impacted like me I suggest you make your voices known. See my reply from Nick's team. They do hear us, but Xenothon is the swing vote so we need to persuade him if you similarly want a 457 visa to count! Dear Nick Thank you for your email to Nick Xenophon. I am responding on his behalf. Thank you for making Nick aware of your concerns regarding the Australian Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Requirements for Australian Citizenship and Other Measures) Bill 2017, and for sharing your experience. I have passed your comments on to Nick and his senior advisors for their reference and consideration. This legislation was only introduced to the parliament on 15 June 2017, and the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) have raised concerns about several aspects of the bill, in particular the retrospectivity of the proposed changes. You can read more about this here: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jun/22/nick-xenophon-team-says-its-deeply-worried-about-coalitions-citizenship-bill. The legislation is currently before the House of Representatives, and you can find more here:http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5914. You can also listen to a recent interview Nick did on the issue here: https://radio.abc.net.au/programitem/pgeGQyj9MG?play=true Thank you again for writing to Nick, and please be assured he will keep your views in mind should this legislation come before the Senate. Kind regards Ellen McDonald| Diary Manager/Electorate Officer | Office of Nick Xenophon Senator for South Australia Lvl 2/31 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide | TEL: 08 8232 1144 | FAX 08 8232 3744 |www.nickxenophon.com.au