Student visa

[Loumay]

Hello all,

Advice welcome, I'm exploring options available to me and my husband immigrating to Oz.  I will turn 44 in Sep this year, my husband will be 41 in Nov.  We do not hold any qualifications that are on the skills list.  If we went on a student visa for 2 years gain the relevant qualifications, then applied for a bridging visa whilst we get the two years experience. Then my husband, (who will be 45 at this time) would apply for a permanent visa.   Would this be possible for am I dreaming?  Thank in advance.

[VERYSTORMY]

I am afraid you are dreaming. First, the age cut off is 45. Though getting enough points after the age of 40 is difficult. Also, you can’t just apply for a bridging visa. To receive a bridging visa, you have to have actually applied (and been eligible) for another visa 

[Marisawright]

45 is the cut-off age for a visa.  I am pretty sure you must still be under 45 at the time the visa is granted, not just at the time you apply.  So there's no way you could be the principal applicant.   That means your only chance is if your husband can get qualified and apply before he's too old - and frankly, I'm not sure it would be possible

VeryStormy is right, you can't get a bridging visa to gain work experience.  He could get a Graduate visa, but they're only available for specific courses, so you'd need to check whether the course he's thinking of is eligible.  

You also need to work out what his points would be.  Once you're over 40, even if you have all the right qualifications, it can be hard to get enough points.   The 189 visa is a very competitive process, and even though you only need 65 points to apply, no one is getting invited with less than 90 points. Everyone else just loses their money.  So you'd need to look at whether any of the states are sponsoring the occupation you're thinking of, and what their requirements are.

The biggest hurdle at the moment is the coronavirus.   The international travel ban will be the last thing to be lifted.  They're talking about December at the earliest. So he wouldn't be able to start a course until 2021 and even that may be doubtful. 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by Marisawright

[Ausvisitor]

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

45 is the cut-off age for a visa.  I am pretty sure you must still be under 45 at the time the visa is granted, not just at the time you apply.

Not quite, you have to be under 45 at the point you are invited to lodge the visa application, after that because all applications take a different length of time based on processing pressures of the case agent, the age clock stops.

 

Note this age freeze is the point that immigration invite you to apply for your visa, not the point at which you lodge an EOI. 

[Marisawright]

7 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

Note this age freeze is the point that immigration invite you to apply for your visa, not the point at which you lodge an EOI. 

Thanks for clarifying that.  I was careless with my wording.  We tend to talk about "applying" for a 190 visa, when in fact what you're doing is lodging an EOI.  You have to wait to be invited to apply, and that's when the age freeze applies.  But there can be a long wait between lodging your EOI and getting an invitation. 

Edited May 30, 2020 by Marisawright