stokie123

Hi Woody, I’d actually be employed based on my skills and it’s our children and their schooling I’m thinking about.

Hello! I’m eligible for a skilled employer sponsored visa (subclass 482) and am looking into options for moving to Melbourne to be near family. The old 457 visa is showing as being exempt from school fee payments but I can’t see any update on the Victoria state website since the changes made to the 457 and the move over to the new Visa options for MLTSSL. Does anyone know the rules for these new visas for paying school fees please? Thanks in advance!

Many thanks for the responses. For stability for the family it sounds like the state sponsored visa is the best option but I'm going to need another few years of working in my field to qualify which is a shame (I don't have the 'right' kind of degree to boost the professional experience I've gained). The 457 would give us an opportunity to move sooner and without so many initial restrictions but it would be risky considering we could be deported at the end if we don't have the points required and our employers are not happy to continue sponsoring us. Its such a hard thing to weigh up when you have children to support but I see lots of families doing it anyway (chancing it on a 457) regardless of the risks involved.

Hello all! We are in the exciting/daunting first stages of looking into moving our family to Australia from the UK and would love some general advice on which options to look into for our specific situation. We are looking to move to Melbourne where we have family who emigrating there some years ago. Both myself and my partner work full time in the IT Software industry in London. I work as a Software/Applications Manager and my partner is in Software Sales. My skills are on the Victoria state occupational list but although I have been working in the industry for more than 10 years, reaching senior level, this has not been done by achieving any certification to prove my skills (Official Project Management or BA certification) and has been done by natural progression and experience only. The other option is the employer sponsored route of which both mine and my partners occupations are applicable. However, I have heard that this route would mean that we may have to pay for our children's schooling until we get some kind of permanent residency? My key questions are: 1. Should I study to get official certification to boost my chances of getting a state sponsored Visa which is overall going to be a much more costly route (£1000 for the certification course and higher price for the visa)? 2. If I do get state sponsored visa what visas would the rest of my family need? 3. What are the benefits vs the downsides of going state/employer sponsored considering we are a young family and need to ensure stability for our children? Thanks so much for your help in advance! Sophie