How To Get More Points 190 Visa

[motheraugust]

Hi All,

I am a chartered engineer working in the UK with 5 years experience in Mechanical Engineering (Building Services), under 33.  I would like, in the next few years, to move to Australia to work and live (ideally PR).

I have a husband and a young daughter (3) who I would be bringing with me.

My question is, how do I increase my points in order to have a greater chance of success?  All of the points seem to be related to Australian study, Australian qualifications and professional experience within Australia.  I obviously have none of these as I received my Masters degree in the UK (Washington Accord).  Is it unrealistic for me to think that I could gain more than 65 points?  I can of course take an IELTS test and improve my score on the English front (my native and only language), but it doesn't look like there are any other ways in which the score can be improved which is heartbreaking.

I have been offered a job in Melbourne by a company that I worked for in the UK, but obviously without the points I won't waste the money on the visa without a glimmer of hope.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Lindsay

 

[VERYSTORMY]

ILETS or one of the most common ways of getting points. Most (the vast majority of applicants from the U.K. take it) 

Do though make sure you revise for it. Do not assume you will just pass it because English is your language. We regularly see things such as English teachers fail it. 

[Ausvisitor]

13 minutes ago, motheraugust said:

Hi All,

I am a chartered engineer working in the UK with 5 years experience in Mechanical Engineering (Building Services), under 33.  I would like, in the next few years, to move to Australia to work and live (ideally PR).

I have a husband and a young daughter (3) who I would be bringing with me.

My question is, how do I increase my points in order to have a greater chance of success?  All of the points seem to be related to Australian study, Australian qualifications and professional experience within Australia.  I obviously have none of these as I received my Masters degree in the UK (Washington Accord).  Is it unrealistic for me to think that I could gain more than 65 points?  I can of course take an IELTS test and improve my score on the English front (my native and only language), but it doesn't look like there are any other ways in which the score can be improved which is heartbreaking.

I have been offered a job in Melbourne by a company that I worked for in the UK, but obviously without the points I won't waste the money on the visa without a glimmer of hope.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Lindsay

 

If you are under 33 and have a masters degree and 5 years experience in a jpb on the immigration list and a job offer you should have no issues getting a temporary sponsored visa.

Even without the temporary sponsored option I would suggest you do the IELTS (or PTE) and get some points. Whilst Superior english (20 points) is a stretch, the level below that should be possible for any native without any real preparation (which gives 10 points).

Now if you are currently thinking you can get 65points (including the 5 points for 190 sponsorship) just taking the IELTS and doing "ok" in it will put you at 75.

At 75 points you have a decent chance at a 190 if the state you apply to wants your skills

[Ausvisitor]

2 minutes ago, VERYSTORMY said:

ILETS or one of the most common ways of getting points. Most (the vast majority of applicants from the U.K. take it) 

Do though make sure you revise for it. Do not assume you will just pass it because English is your language. We regularly see things such as English teachers fail it. 

Agree that getting the "gold ticket" 20 points is difficult (I know even with my Masters in English I still missed it the first time); however for any degree educated native English speaker, the "bronze standard" 10 point level should be possible without any preparation

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ausvisitor

[motheraugust]

3 minutes ago, VERYSTORMY said:

ILETS or one of the most common ways of getting points. Most (the vast majority of applicants from the U.K. take it) 

Do though make sure you revise for it. Do not assume you will just pass it because English is your language. We regularly see things such as English teachers fail it. 

Thanks, I read through a lot of other topics on this forum and seen that many people fail the superior test.  I will definitely look at undertaking a test as an extra 10 points would be good.

[motheraugust]

3 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

If you are under 33 and have a masters degree and 5 years experience in a jpb on the immigration list and a job offer you should have no issues getting a temporary sponsored visa.

Even without the temporary sponsored option I would suggest you do the IELTS (or PTE) and get some points. Whilst Superior english (20 points) is a stretch, the level below that should be possible for any native without any real preparation (which gives 10 points).

Now if you are currently thinking you can get 65points (including the 5 points for 190 sponsorship) just taking the IELTS and doing "ok" in it will put you at 75.

At 75 points you have a decent chance at a 190 if the state you apply to wants your skills

Thanks, I read through a , lot of other forum posts and apparently people with points under 90 are not even considered.  So I would perhaps only go ahead with applying if I can guarantee at least 85.  But I will look in to doing the IELTS and perhaps with a lot of study I can achieve the holy grail 20 points.

[Lavers]

1 minute ago, motheraugust said:

Thanks, I read through a , lot of other forum posts and apparently people with points under 90 are not even considered.  So I would perhaps only go ahead with applying if I can guarantee at least 85.  But I will look in to doing the IELTS and perhaps with a lot of study I can achieve the holy grail 20 points.

I wouldn't say that the IELTS is hard, if you can keep your concentration well then the listening & reading part should be fine.

The writing one is the tricky one as you could be asked anything on the day. My 1st go was writing about speed limit control measures which was easy enough, but on my 2nd test it was writing about why kids should only read educational things instead of fictional, which I struggled to write enough about.

My 1st test I got above 8 in all subjects apart from speaking haha, then my 2nd test was above 8 in all apart from writing.

I called it a do after the 2nd test and went down the 190 visa route.

I did a few practice tests online and I am only a trade worker. 

 

[motheraugust]

2 minutes ago, Lavers said:

I wouldn't say that the IELTS is hard, if you can keep your concentration well then the listening & reading part should be fine.

The writing one is the tricky one as you could be asked anything on the day. My 1st go was writing about speed limit control measures which was easy enough, but on my 2nd test it was writing about why kids should only read educational things instead of fictional, which I struggled to write enough about.

My 1st test I got above 8 in all subjects apart from speaking haha, then my 2nd test was above 8 in all apart from writing.

I called it a do after the 2nd test and went down the 190 visa route.

I did a few practice tests online and I am only a trade worker. 

 

Thanks that's really helpful.  So really not only is it testing your English ability but your ability to spout about a specific topic you may have no knowledge of.  I am doing a bit of research in to the tests now so hopefully I can get a feel for whether splurging nearly £200 on the superior will be money well spent or not.

[Ausvisitor]

5 minutes ago, motheraugust said:

Thanks, I read through a , lot of other forum posts and apparently people with points under 90 are not even considered.  So I would perhaps only go ahead with applying if I can guarantee at least 85.  But I will look in to doing the IELTS and perhaps with a lot of study I can achieve the holy grail 20 points.

You probably need to read through the forum again and take more notice of the subject - 189/190/491/Temporary

For a 189 visa it's absolutely true it is unlikely that you will get in with under 90 points - but this visa gives you rights to live anywhere from day one (and for many people is the only the option as the list of approved occupations is greatest on this list).

For 190 you and the state that sponsors basically do a "you scratch our back we'll scratch yours" deal. They publish a shorter list of occupations they feel they need in their locality and in return for them agreeing to sponsor you (and giving you 5 free points and pushing you to the head of the invite queue), you also agree that for the first two productive years of your time in Australia you will live and work in the state that sponsored you. Plenty of people get invites on the 190 track with 65/70 points I know I did and mine was granted in December 2019

The 491 is similar, but in this case the list is sometimes different to the 190 and the deal is you have to work in the regional areas of the sponsoring state and you don't get immediate Permanent Residency, you only get Provisional (which means if you screw up you lose the shot at a Perm Visa) - however they give you 10 extra points, and at present are processing these really fast (a few months, whereas 190s are around 6-9 months and 189s much longer still)

Temporary visas are yet another beast

[Marisawright]

9 minutes ago, motheraugust said:

Thanks, I read through a , lot of other forum posts and apparently people with points under 90 are not even considered.  So I would perhaps only go ahead with applying if I can guarantee at least 85.  But I will look in to doing the IELTS and perhaps with a lot of study I can achieve the holy grail 20 points.

There is no point in applying for the 189 visa unless you can get 90 points.  However there are other visas.

If there is an employer willing to sponsor you, you can get a temporary employer-sponsored visa. That will give you and your family the right to live and work in Australia for  2 to 4 years.   Obviously if you have a family, you need to consider the costs and upheaval of moving across the world, and make sure the employer is going to give you enough help with relocation costs to make it viable.  However,the advantage is that the temp visa is much quicker to process than the permanent visas - there aren't many employers who'd be willing to wait the year or more for you to get a permanent visa of any kind.

If you don't want to take the risk of a temporary move, then look at the 190 visa or the 491 visa.  These are both state-sponsored visas, and points are not nearly as important.   You will need to check which states want your occupation and what extra conditions they impose.   

Your best bet is to book a consultation with a good migration agent.  All the reputable ones offer the first consulation free of charge.  These days, visas are far too complicated to tackle yourself, especially if you're time-poor.

 

[motheraugust]

3 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

There is no point in applying for the 189 visa unless you can get 90 points.  However there are other visas.

If there is an employer willing to sponsor you, you can get a temporary employer-sponsored visa. That will give you and your family the right to live and work in Australia for  2 to 4 years.   Obviously if you have a family, you need to consider the costs and upheaval of moving across the world, and make sure the employer is going to give you enough help with relocation costs to make it viable.  However,the advantage is that the temp visa is much quicker to process than the permanent visas - there aren't many employers who'd be willing to wait the year or more for you to get a permanent visa of any kind.

If you don't want to take the risk of a temporary move, then look at the 190 visa or the 491 visa.  These are both state-sponsored visas, and points are not nearly as important.   You will need to check which states want your occupation and what extra conditions they impose.   

Your best bet is to book a consultation with a good migration agent.  All the reputable ones offer the first consulation free of charge.  These days, visas are far too complicated to tackle yourself, especially if you're time-poor.

 

Thank you, this is very useful information.  I have sent all the details to an immigration site which helps with Visa's and so hopefully they are able to advise.  You are right that upheaval for potentially only 2 years may be too much with a family, but even 2 years would be a great experience at this point.  Hopefully it is not a dead end and I can bolster my English points and an expert can point me in the correct visa direction.

[Lavers]

4 minutes ago, motheraugust said:

Thanks that's really helpful.  So really not only is it testing your English ability but your ability to spout about a specific topic you may have no knowledge of.  I am doing a bit of research in to the tests now so hopefully I can get a feel for whether splurging nearly £200 on the superior will be money well spent or not.

Lok at the practice questions for IELTS and also PTE, personally IELTS suited me more.

Read up on them and just make sure you know how to approach things properly.

I did my 1st test without looking at anything, hence me failing by .5 of a point on my speaking as I didn't go over the top with all my answers which is what they want.

[Ausvisitor]

2 minutes ago, motheraugust said:

Thanks that's really helpful.  So really not only is it testing your English ability but your ability to spout about a specific topic you may have no knowledge of.  I am doing a bit of research in to the tests now so hopefully I can get a feel for whether splurging nearly £200 on the superior will be money well spent or not.

Thats not quite true, the marker isn't looking to grade you on your knowledge of the subject (although human nature in the candidate makes you think that they will), they are instead looking to see how you use the constructs of the English language and understand instructions.

In Lavers example above " why kids should only read educational things instead of fictional" they are looking for your opinion on why they should do something, not an argument about why you think the statement is incorrect.

You could write something like.

 

It has long been suggested that children should only engage in reading for Education purposes and not partake of fictional works. This is a view that I agree with. There are many studies that show children with a high propensity to reading fictional stories are addicted to smearing Jam all over their face, which results in them getting attacked by bees which obviously is a health risk, whereas those who only read Educational tomes are much more likely to adhere to advice to eat their five a day

 

See it's a load of rubbish but it uses different sentence types, multiple words for the same thing (avoid repetition) and includes a smattering of larger/uncommon words used in the correct context to show you understand them. The fact that reading and Jam have no scientific correlation is irrelevant and wouldn't see you marked down

 

YOU SHOULD ALSO LOOK AT PTE tests - they are marked electronically so are not subject to human bias and as a result you can "train" yourslef to answer the questions according to the marker algorithm they use

[Lavers]

Just now, motheraugust said:

Thank you, this is very useful information.  I have sent all the details to an immigration site which helps with Visa's and so hopefully they are able to advise.  You are right that upheaval for potentially only 2 years may be too much with a family, but even 2 years would be a great experience at this point.  Hopefully it is not a dead end and I can bolster my English points and an expert can point me in the correct visa direction.

Would you still fall under 33 years old if you waited another 3 years to get max points in experience also?

[motheraugust]

3 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

Thats not quite true, the marker isn't looking to grade you on your knowledge of the subject (although human nature in the candidate makes you think that they will), they are instead looking to see how you use the constructs of the English language and understand instructions.

In Lavers example above " why kids should only read educational things instead of fictional" they are looking for your opinion on why they should do something, not an argument about why you think the statement is incorrect.

You could write something like.

 

It has long been suggested that children should only engage in reading for Education purposes and not partake of fictional works. This is a view that I agree with. There are many studies that show children with a high propensity to reading fictional stories are addicted to smearing Jam all over their face, which results in them getting attacked by bees which obviously is a health risk, whereas those who only read Educational tomes are much more likely to adhere to advice to eat their five a day

 

See it's a load of rubbish but it uses different sentence types, multiple words for the same thing (avoid repetition) and includes a smattering of larger/uncommon words used in the correct context to show you understand them. The fact that reading and Jam have no scientific correlation is irrelevant and wouldn't see you marked down

 

YOU SHOULD ALSO LOOK AT PTE tests - they are marked electronically so are not subject to human bias and as a result you can "train" yourslef to answer the questions according to the marker algorithm they use

Very helpful, thank you!  I will take a look at these types of tests also.

[motheraugust]

3 minutes ago, Lavers said:

Would you still fall under 33 years old if you waited another 3 years to get max points in experience also?

Sadly not, I only have 1 year to get in under 33 years of age, at that point I'll only have 6 years experience.  But if I do wait I would lose 5 points in age category and gain 5 points in experience, so really evens itself out.

[Ausvisitor]

7 minutes ago, motheraugust said:

Sadly not, I only have 1 year to get in under 33 years of age, at that point I'll only have 6 years experience.  But if I do wait I would lose 5 points in age category and gain 5 points in experience, so really evens itself out.

Ok - so I wouldn't wait, I'd get on the phone to @paulhand / @Raul Senise / @Alan Collett or one of the other migration agents on here who can give you an opinion. Immigration can take a long time and careers that are on the list today may be removed at anytime (and particularly at this time of year as the AUS immigration year runs July-July).

Once you have an invite to apply the "clock" stops - you are measured on points at time of application so if you got an invite within the year you'd be applying with high Age/medium Exp and if you didn't you'd be applying with med Age/High Exp points

The reason I say get talking to these guys is that they know what they are talking about, and you want to have a sensible 30 minute conversation with someone who can give you a view of how likely you are to succeed before you waste any time on collating documents or dreaming too much - get the facts and then decide what to do

I started my application 2 months after my 44th birthday, got my invite to apply for a 190 at 5 months after my 44th, and finally got my 190 the day before my 45th birthday - it's doable in a year; so why wait?

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ausvisitor

[motheraugust]

57 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

Ok - so I wouldn't wait, I'd get on the phone to @paulhand / @Raul Senise / @Alan Collett or one of the other migration agents on here who can give you an opinion. Immigration can take a long time and careers that are on the list today may be removed at anytime (and particularly at this time of year as the AUS immigration year runs July-July).

Once you have an invite to apply the "clock" stops - you are measured on points at time of application so if you got an invite within the year you'd be applying with high Age/medium Exp and if you didn't you'd be applying with med Age/High Exp points

The reason I say get talking to these guys is that they know what they are talking about, and you want to have a sensible 30 minute conversation with someone who can give you a view of how likely you are to succeed before you waste any time on collating documents or dreaming too much - get the facts and then decide what to do

I started my application 2 months after my 44th birthday, got my invite to apply for a 190 at 5 months after my 44th, and finally got my 190 the day before my 45th birthday - it's doable in a year; so why wait?

Thank you!  I am so keen to get it going but was unsure about risking with such low points.  Will definitely get talking to one of those you have suggested as as you say, if I miss my current age bracket I really need to wait another 3 years in order to maintain the same level of points.

[paulhand]

As mentioned above nearly all native speakers will do an English test to improve their points score. I think you may be underestimating points slightly, but if you have an employer who is willing to actually sponsor you for a permanent visa then you don't need to worry about points at all. Happy to have a chat, if you want to get in touch (details below).

[motheraugust]

5 minutes ago, paulhand said:

As mentioned above nearly all native speakers will do an English test to improve their points score. I think you may be underestimating points slightly, but if you have an employer who is willing to actually sponsor you for a permanent visa then you don't need to worry about points at all. Happy to have a chat, if you want to get in touch (details below).

Paul, thank you, I will definitely be in touch.  I am going to proceed with doing the English test as another 10 points will be very handy and an extra 20 points will be a fantastic boost.  I will approach the employer who offered me the job and see about sponsorship, but I worry the timing for that might be bad with COVID.  I am also going to get my skills assessment done ASAP to validate my qualifications.  A bit of a steer on which visa to apply for might be required though.

[wrussell]

Due to the risk of a misunderstanding I do not offer telephone advice.

[DukeNinja]

Evidently, IELTS general is easier than the academic version.

DIBP only requires the former, whereas many professional assessing bodies require the latter.

It might be a case of doing the academic version, and then deciding whether a second test is required for points purposes.

As people have said before, most native English speakers tend to overestimate their abilities, and end up frustrated and/or feel aggrieved that they did not ace the test.

There are people who have done double digit language tests, unsuccessfully.

Finally, if this test give me the points required to be given the privilege of being invited to apply for a visa, that could give my family a subjectively better quality of life, then "splurging" £200 would be the least of my concerns.

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by DukeNinja

[DukeNinja]

Have you had a proper look at what ANZSCO code most closely describes your work, and what visas that may be available to you?

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by DukeNinja

[motheraugust]

8 hours ago, DukeNinja said:

Have you had a proper look at what ANZSCO code most closely describes your work, and what visas that may be available to you?

 

Hi, yes I have, the subcode is 233512 and is a Skill Level 1 which can apply for any permanent or temporary visa, with a 190 Visa it is only applicable in VIC or NT though.

[Ausvisitor]

3 hours ago, motheraugust said:

I have, the subcode is 233512 and is a Skill Level 1 which can apply for any permanent or temporary visa, with a 190 Visa it is only applicable in VIC or NT though.

 

It looks like ACT is also an option. Until after COVID-19 situation clears up, NT is not an option (see red text from website below)

In response to the evolving COVID-19 outbreak Migration NT will stop accepting OFFSHORE General Skilled Migration applications for the Northern Territory nomination effective from 12 midnight on Tuesday 24 March 2020 until further notice.

VIC is an option for a 190, however it requires a 7 IELTS score in order to be eligible to apply, so you are going to need to take the IELTS (or equivalent) test anyway so you are going to be spending the £200 no matter what. A 7 (which you need to be allowed to apply for 190 in your career code in VIC) will give you 10 extra migration points as well