A 457 Story!!

[Phoenix16]

So I’m just sharing a personal experience of a friend, back history is that they came on a 457 visa in the full knowlede they could never move to PR, age being the biggest factor but also so many family ties to the UK,they didn’t really want to go PR, it really was (and still is) a massive adventure to make fabulous memories. However, this guy (my friend) was very much enticed over here because of his particular talents, he came over and worked hard on some pretty major projects, as his contract ended other companies snatched him up and took over his his 457, we would host Christmas and joke every year you’ll still be here next year! They still are by the way, the moral of the story is, he was working on a project that was critical, he worked 24/7 was promised so much TOIL in return, worked public holidays, weekends the lot but as he was salary the real returns for him were TOIL down the line. Overnight the company went bankrupt, he literally got a call to say ‘don’t come in tomorrow’. To cut along story short, he was snapped up literally within days and is still here on a 457 or whatever, it was 24 hours turnaround allocating it to his new employer, but.... whilst all of his work mates got paid out for their extra hours he was told that because he was on a 457, he wasn’t entitled to anything, all of the late nights and weekends he had worked for nothing in return for extra time off was worthless, simply because of his 457 status, as I said, all of his PR and citizen colleagues were paid out by the administrators. As it is he was snapped up by a competitor instantly and offered a higher salary, they are still living their dream/adventure in the full knowledge they will return to the UK at some point, he’s made enough to complete his full retirement plans (especially being able to collect all his super as he departs) and as I said loving every minute of his life in OZ. This is not the usual story of a 457 visa holder but I wanted to highlight how his status was very detrimental to him when the company went bust and  how disadvantaged he was despite paying the same taxes as everyone else, for him it was a que sera sera moment in terms of his visa stability as his long term plans were to return to the UK but it could have been pretty devasting for others, myself included as our initial entry was via a 457 visa but many years ago under very different rules.  I just wanted to share this for those who might find it  useful.

Edited April 13, 2019 by Phoenix16
Typos

[LouDYorkie]

I don’t doubt that this happened, but it is not allowed and your friend should have challenged it.