transitioning from student visa to PR?

[Ltrain]

Hi all. I have been lurking for awhile, and have found this forum extremely helpful!

 

I'm hoping to apply for a skilled independent (189) visa later this year. I will be finishing my ACCA exams in June, and hopefully become a qualified accountant once I get my exam results in August. Realistically, I think it will be at least a year from now before I could move to Australia. (I'm aware that accountants may be removed from the SOL. I will worry about that when it happens :cool:)

 

Meanwhile, I have been eyeing up a graduate certificate / masters degree at University of Technology, Sydney for a couple of years. As I finish my exams in June, I could potentially start this course in July. I would probably start with the graduate certificate (1 semester) before deciding whether to do the full masters degree (1.5 years). So if I do this, I would be on a student visa that would expire in November, or thereabouts.

 

If I apply for the PR while in Australia on a student visa (573 I believe), how likely is it that I would be able to get a bridging visa to be able to stay in Australia while a decision is made? If I were to get a bridging visa, and wanted to continue on to do the masters degree, would the bridging visa be sufficient for that, or would I need to apply for another student visa? Assuming I will eventually get PR, I'm trying to figure out how to manage things so that I can stay in Australia continuously from July, rather than having to keep moving back and forth.

 

I hope that makes sense. I would be grateful for any advice you can give me

[blossom]

I know there were some people turned down for the rsms visa as apparently you can't apply for that while on a student visa (even if pre qualified etc, crazy).

I would get a good agent to have a look over your plans as there are a few things which could go wrong. Someone had a student visa turned down a couple of weeks ago as you have to prove your intention to leave at the end of your course, and as they had already applied for pr immigration did not believe they were a genuine student.

[dxboz]

Have a look at post study work visas. This would allow you to work for a while after you have qualified to gain experience in your field of study. However you would have to reapply for a student visa again of you decided to do further study

[blossom]

Have a look at post study work visas. This would allow you to work for a while after you have qualified to gain experience in your field of study. However you would have to reapply for a student visa again of you decided to do further study

I believe for just about all of those you must have already studied in Australia for at least 2 years.

[dxboz]

Yes you are right Blossom I misread the post and thought the op had been studying here

[Ltrain]

Thanks for the replies! I have looked into it a bit more since posting and wrapped my head around how bridging visas work (sort of), so I think I will be ok. Looking at the info on the DIBP website, they specifically say they're happy for international students to apply for PR if they can fill genuine skill shortages. Seems a bit backward to turn someone down for a student visa just because they have already applied for PR! After thinking about it a bit more, I decided to apply for the full masters degree course, so I probably won't have to worry about having to "renew" my student visa or faff around with bridging visas after all. I plan to use a migration agent for my 189 application in due course, but I was hoping to manage the student visa on my own as it seems more straightforward. Thank you both for your help & advice!