189 EOI Timing Advice

[bella1458]

Hi all,

Just looking for some general advice for the 189 application process

My partner is looking to apply for the 189 skilled visa. He is a Software Developer so he will applying for the visa under Software Engineer or Analyst Programmer.

I know the celings for invites on these roles have already been reached for 2016-2017 programme year. However can he still submit his EOI now so its in and ready when the 2017-2018 programme year kicks in? Or is it better/do we have to wait until July 1st 2017? From doing bit of research online we are confident the roles will still be on the skills like for the next programme year (fingers crossed!)

I myself already have PR under a 186 visa, so am I right in thinking I do not need to be added to his application in anyway? We are not married but are in a Defacto relationship for almost 1 year now. Looking at going back to Australia in early 2018.

We were going to go down the partner visa route but with the recent changes to the citizenship criteria it seems 189 would be a better option as PR is from day 1 with the 189 rather then waiting 2 years on a temporary partner visa and that time no longer counting towards the Citizenship requirement of 4 years on PR.

Any help advice would be much appreciated 

[MaggieMay24]

If he submits his EOI now, he will join the queue waiting for an invitation after July 1st.  If he waits to submit his EOI until July, he'll join the end of the queue at that time (in other words, he'd be behind anyone submitting theirs today).  So best to get in line now.  If you hold a 186 visa, you do not need to be included in his application as a dependent.