Sparks21

Oh wow! You guys must be absolutely buzzing!!!! Just in time for summer! ⛱ we are looking at August currently, but are fluid with our timeline. We will probably book after Christmas.

Thank you! What a rollercoaster ride it’s been! Have you booked your flights yet?

Thank you, it was a long time coming! @Kolosky I would definitely say so!

I have some amazing news, my 491 visa has been granted! 491 offshore family sponsored electrician with 90 points submitted: 10th May 2020 CO assigned: 24th August 2022 Updated: 5th September 2022 Granted: 4th November 2022 we are so, so happy and it is still sinking in.

Will do! Very jealous of you both… ha

congratulations to both of you! Such amazing news! I got my CO on August 24th requesting medicals, police certs etc which were submitted September 5th. I am praying I will hear this week!

Good luck with it! Looking forward to your next post…

Also, would you mind reminding us of the visa, your profession and state you’re aiming for? Mine is 491, electrician, WA, submitted May 2020. Cheers.

Fantastic news! So happy for you! Did they want medicals etc? I have heard of quite a few off shore people getting CO’s and grants recently. It’s finally happening!

Personally, I feel this will be reviewed very soon. There is without doubt many sectors that are suffering severe shortages, particularly, construction.

I had witnessed a migration agent with over 20 years experience state that they were confident we would hear by the end of this year, so fingers crossed, but who knows?

I am 37, 35 when the application was submitted.

I haven't seen any I am afraid, although I am not particularly active as I rely on this post predominately.

Well that's great news. Please let me know if you hear of anymore, especially 491 off shore non-critical skills. That is an interesting theory, let's hope it is right! The points were miscalculated due to us doing it ourselves. This was immediately picked up by the CO and we withdrew. Then had to pay for the visa again plus the cost of a migration agent. With a family of four, it was an expensive mistake. Being assigned a CO will be a great day, let alone the day they approve the visa. Ha.

Well if you do spot an offshore 491 electrician grant please do update me as this would be fantastic news for me, in fact, all of these are good news as non-critical skills which shows my view is slightly off. Although I would like to be proved wrong some more. Ha. I agree regarding the 491, this was a high priority visa before covid. I applied with 5 more points than I currently have and was assigned a CO within a few weeks, due to a mistake with the visa I had to withdraw it and complete a new EOI, I was then invited again within a couple of months, it was at this point covid hit and we decided to submit anyway. Obviously not knowing at the time where things were going but hoping for the best. Sounds like we are in a very similar situation in terms of times frames, medicals etc. I, like you, have contemplated completing these again in the hope that this will speed up the process but have decided to hold off until CO assigned. Although, I may go ahead and redo police certs as these aren't big money. I am sure we will be assigned a CO before the end of this visa year.

This is fantastic news!!!! Do you know which occupations?

I have heard of offshore 491 grants in the last 3 months but mainly for occupations on the critical skills list, or skills closely related to the critical skills list. In my opinion, the 491 programme certainly hasn't been abandoned, but for occupations that are not on the critical skills list and are offshore, then these are not being processed, or so few are being processed that it is negligible. After the announcement in the budget regarding skilled migration I was expecting a wave of ecstatic offshore applicants who form the backlog (us) to be announcing that they have been assigned case officers. Alas, I have heard of none this month. I can only assume that this is because the department have not yet given the nod to officially start prioritising us, but I am sure it is coming very soon. I have been told by a reliable source that there is skills shortages for tradies in many states and the housing market/rental market is struggling because of this. Fingers crossed they prioritise us soon.

Congratulations! When you apply please keep us updated. I would be interested to hear the progression of a 190 submitted now for an electrician…

Fantastic news! When I hear a few tradies getting grants I will really start to get excited… but is great to hear off shore people getting grants. Thank you for the update.

Wow! I am sure you will hear something very soon! Please let us know when you do.

Exciting! I haven't seen any... Do you know which state the 190 electrician is applying for? Got any more information on the others granted offshore ie profession? 491/190? etc. I believe they are leaning more towards 190 as is a permanent visa.

Well it is fair to say you have certainly done all you can. I am currently sitting at 22 months. If my understanding is correct many CO's which were assigned to handle the wave of travel exceptions are slowly being assigned back to handling other cases, so hopefully they will start to manage the back log of offshore applicants shortly. I also think it is accurate to say that most states are experiencing a shortage of tradies too, so when they decide to address this hopefully we will have our turn. I am confident we will hear something soon!

Just checking in... Any light at the end of the tunnel for off-shore non-critical 491 applicants? I keep telling myself 'any day now', it will be a fantastic day when we are finally assigned a CO.

Exactly! Fingers crossed…

This was my interpretation too! It would be amazing to hear something before Christmas but I’m not getting my hopes up… but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. We have been patient so hopefully we are nearly there…