Visa options - help required

[Jim911]

Hello all, 

I have come here for advice, as we are struggling to comprehend a lot of the information we are coming across, as well as trying to make sense of the myriad of options available to us. I will give a bit of a back story and if any body with experience can try and explain our potential options for emigration, that would be ideal. 

My partners parents emigrated in 2015, on a regional skilled visa (I believe) to a suburb an hour from Perth. They have (last month) been granted residency and have bought a house. We are hoping to follow within the next 2-3 years, ideally sooner if possible. I have looked at various options and we are still perplexed as to which route to take. As she is the one with a degree and close family already there we will be going on her visa. I will give you a brief run down of where we stand.

 

Partner

Age 25 - Has BSc Hons Degree in Health & Community Studies (several A Levels and has British Sign Language to a level 3, is due to start an NVQ this year also) She has worked for our local council since graduation for family support as a Project Support Officer (family welfare, looked after children etc)

I myself have nothing higher than NVQ/A Level/BTEC Diploma, have done a combination of hospitality and sales but do have various City & Guilds in welding/fabrication. (from a few years ago)

 

I think mainly we are wondering if having her parents as residents is going to be of any substantial advantage to us; I have seen family visa and sponsorship but getting my head around it is difficult and have heard conflicting stories. We did contact an agent who was very unhelpful and said we would struggle as my partners occupation wasn't on the skilled list and seemed very dismissive. Another agency seemed more upbeat about being able to secure a regional visa in either the northern territorys or the south. Ideally we wouldn't want to spend another two years away from family but if that is the only option it is something we are happy to do.

 

Would appreciate any help and or guidance. 
 

Thank you!

[Marisawright]

I'm sure others will pitch in to explain the family visa options.  As I understand it, they apply only if you're a dependent, which you're not.  If it had been an option for your wife, one of the agents would've suggested it, so I'd say you should assume it's not on the table.

It sounds like your only option is a regional visa, but the fact that one agent didn't even suggest it raises alarm bells for me. The first, agent was turning away work by saying you didn't stand a chance, so it's more likely he was being honest than being dismissive.  The second agent could be offering you a pipe dream just to claim his fee (there are unscrupulous agents who do).  I'd suggest getting a third opinion, and make sure you're speaking to a registered MARA agent.

When people migrate, they often assume it will be easy for family members to join them later. Unfortunately, it's a harsh reality that there are thousands of well-qualified, hard-working people for whom there is NO pathway to migrate to Australia.    Having relatives already in Australia is no advantage whatsoever.  

[Alan Collett]

The key is going to be ensuring the nominated occupation is on the relevant skilled occupations list.

If it is and you want (or need) to leverage the family relationship you might look at a family sponsored subclass 489 visa.

If it isn't the existence of close family in Australia isn't going to help.

Have a look at the skills lists here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2017L00850

I agree this isn't the easiest of documents to interpret.

Best regards.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Alan Collett

[VERYSTORMY]

Will just add that what you need to do is go through the skills lists and see if any occupation looks possible. Be fairly broad with this as occupations can have different names to the UK. But it is the actual duties that matter more. So, if you think you see one, look up the skills assessment for it. This will detail the experience and duties much more that a particular occupation 

The only help family there are likely to be is in the event of a 489 family sponsored visa. This though would require the occupation be on the long / medium term list, but would award more points. 

[Alan Collett]

To edit VERYSTORMY's post (hope OK!) - you need to look at the ANZSCO Code descriptor for the occupation.

You can do this by typing the ANZSCO Code into the search box at this website:  http://abs.gov.au/

Best regards.

[rammygirl]

Also don’t assume that more qualifications mean more chance of migration.  It is having an occupation on the right list that matters, not all of those require a degree.  Just having a degree or even a PHD won’t help if your occupation isn’t on the list.

 

So look at both of your occupations and see if either of you can get a match.

[Jim911]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I will try and clarify a few things.

 

9 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I'm sure others will pitch in to explain the family visa options.  As I understand it, they apply only if you're a dependent, which you're not.  If it had been an option for your wife, one of the agents would've suggested it, so I'd say you should assume it's not on the table.

It sounds like your only option is a regional visa, but the fact that one agent didn't even suggest it raises alarm bells for me. The first, agent was turning away work by saying you didn't stand a chance, so it's more likely he was being honest than being dismissive.  The second agent could be offering you a pipe dream just to claim his fee (there are unscrupulous agents who do).  I'd suggest getting a third opinion, and make sure you're speaking to a registered MARA agent.

When people migrate, they often assume it will be easy for family members to join them later. Unfortunately, it's a harsh reality that there are thousands of well-qualified, hard-working people for whom there is NO pathway to migrate to Australia.    Having relatives already in Australia is no advantage whatsoever.  

I am being a bit unfair to them by saying they were dismissive; the initial contact was fairly brief and I just got a sense of them wanting us to pay to get anywhere, even if it was just an assessment. They certainly didn't say we didn't stand a chance. The early conversations with the second group were really positive and they even suggested a few occupations that were a very close fit. 

7 hours ago, Alan Collett said:

The key is going to be ensuring the nominated occupation is on the relevant skilled occupations list.

If it is and you want (or need) to leverage the family relationship you might look at a family sponsored subclass 489 visa.

If it isn't the existence of close family in Australia isn't going to help.

Have a look at the skills lists here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2017L00850

I agree this isn't the easiest of documents to interpret.

Best regards.

Hi Alan,

There are 2-3 occupations that sit very closely related to my partners current occupation; just how interchangeable do they need to be? While she works very closely and supports social workers, she is more administration and or project support (but with much more to it) Welfare worker was one of the ones suggested as was Community Worker and Project Administrator. I don't think anything on the Skilled list would qualify, at least not without a bit of imagination but definitely the short term list. Would this mean regional sponsorship?

4 hours ago, VERYSTORMY said:

Will just add that what you need to do is go through the skills lists and see if any occupation looks possible. Be fairly broad with this as occupations can have different names to the UK. But it is the actual duties that matter more. So, if you think you see one, look up the skills assessment for it. This will detail the experience and duties much more that a particular occupation 

The only help family there are likely to be is in the event of a 489 family sponsored visa. This though would require the occupation be on the long / medium term list, but would award more points. 

This would be a great route, but as above. I will have a look at the occupation descriptions and go from there. I think the first stage is identifying an occupation she feels confident with. 

I've had roughly 5 years in hospitality management and 2 years in Sales (just starting a new sales role this month) so could also relatively easily pick off the Short Term List. 

I will say we observed their process from start to finish and we have no misconceptions about how difficult it can be, but we are very keen and would happily re-train if need be. Certainly not expecting a free pass! :-)

Thank you for the help so far. 

Edited January 4, 2018 by Jim911

[VERYSTORMY]

I would actually appoint an agent to deal with this, as it is invaluable in cases where the occupation is harder to pin down. Though I personally believe in using an agent full stop. 

A note on retraining. Be aware the lists change regularly - over 200 occupations removed last year and I expect to see a lot removed this year. So, if you retrain, do it because it is something you want to do regardless of if it gets you a visa. 

[Jim911]

To be honest we wanted to go down the agency route, just mainly for the support and expertise. We did flirt with just submitting an EOI ourselves but we really do not want to do anything wrong or put an application in jeopardy. We are in contact with one at the moment. 

Re: re-training. You're completely correct, it would only be something positive for us going forward whichever country we end up in. Getting a PGCE and teaching sign language for example is something she has always wanted to do. 

Is there a way to see which regions/states are requiring which occupations from the short term list? 

[VERYSTORMY]

You can use the anzco search function, but I have found errors before. The safest is to look at each states list. But, your occupation still has to be on one of the main immigration lists.