Sabs Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 Hi all, Received a 189 invitation for Civil Engineer occupation. Since wife is currently pregnant, our agent is recommending us to travel to Australia on a Visitor Visa, convert it to a Bridging Visa A, and get child delivered there for direct citizenship of the child. As per the agent, if child is delivered offshore (and after visa grant), we'll have to apply for a separate child visa which is an expensive and tedious process. We were thinking of deferring wife's medicals until after delivery and adding the child to visa application so that whole family gets 189 grant at the same time (whenever that happens). If we go by the first route, it will be almost halfway through third trimester of wife (due to collection of PCCs, medicals, and visitor visa), and we're concerned about her health and the long travel. Any suggestions as to what would be the best step forward? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 If you aren't PR at the birth of the child, ie on a bridging visa, the child won't be Australian anyway and you'll still have to go through the shenanigans of applying for their visa. And there are lots of potential pitfalls to delivering a baby in a foreign country when you are only a visitor, not to mention expense - the child visa would probably end up cheaper. You'll likely have to delay your wife's medicals until after the birth anyway because she's not going to want an xray while pegnant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rammygirl Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 An agent told you the child would automatically become a citizen? Not so unless you are PR at the time of birth. You should ask again about this, you may have misunderstood your agents plan….. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 6 hours ago, Sabs said: our agent is recommending us to travel to Australia on a Visitor Visa, convert it to a Bridging Visa A, and get child delivered there for direct citizenship of the child. This sounds strange. A child born in Australia does not get citizenship (the law changed in 1986), so their suggested strategy seems pointless. I'm sure you're also considering how your wife will cope with giving birth in a foreign country. Living in a new country and trying to get settled is a stressful process already, never mind adding childbirth to the mix. Also, she'll have no support network -- no friends, parents or relatives. If you're coming straight from the UK, you'll be covered by Medicare, so the expense should not be unreasonable (though remember that unlike the NHS, Medicare doesn't cover everything). You just need to be careful and remind your GP, specialist etc that you want to be treated in the public system. Most GP's in Australia are so used to people having private health insurance, they'll refer you to a private specialist without thinking, and then you'll find yourself thousands of dollars out of pocket. My vote would be, go ahead with your 189 application as normal and worry about the child visa later. It's not going to be as tedious as any of the alternatives. Remember the child can always travel with you on a visitor visa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabs Posted October 8, 2022 Author Share Posted October 8, 2022 8 hours ago, Quoll said: If you aren't PR at the birth of the child, ie on a bridging visa, the child won't be Australian anyway and you'll still have to go through the shenanigans of applying for their visa. And there are lots of potential pitfalls to delivering a baby in a foreign country when you are only a visitor, not to mention expense - the child visa would probably end up cheaper. You'll likely have to delay your wife's medicals until after the birth anyway because she's not going to want an xray while pegnant. Going by the replies, I agree that there's too much of a risk involved - we'll defer her medicals like you said until after the delivery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabs Posted October 8, 2022 Author Share Posted October 8, 2022 6 hours ago, rammygirl said: An agent told you the child would automatically become a citizen? Not so unless you are PR at the time of birth. You should ask again about this, you may have misunderstood your agents plan….. We were wondering about this as well, will consult again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabs Posted October 8, 2022 Author Share Posted October 8, 2022 5 hours ago, Marisawright said: This sounds strange. A child born in Australia does not get citizenship (the law changed in 1986), so their suggested strategy seems pointless. I'm sure you're also considering how your wife will cope with giving birth in a foreign country. Living in a new country and trying to get settled is a stressful process already, never mind adding childbirth to the mix. Also, she'll have no support network -- no friends, parents or relatives. If you're coming straight from the UK, you'll be covered by Medicare, so the expense should not be unreasonable (though remember that unlike the NHS, Medicare doesn't cover everything). You just need to be careful and remind your GP, specialist etc that you want to be treated in the public system. Most GP's in Australia are so used to people having private health insurance, they'll refer you to a private specialist without thinking, and then you'll find yourself thousands of dollars out of pocket. My vote would be, go ahead with your 189 application as normal and worry about the child visa later. It's not going to be as tedious as any of the alternatives. Remember the child can always travel with you on a visitor visa. I didn't mention about my wife's brother living in Aus (he's a citizen), but then again, like you said, it's a foreign country and we'll definitely take time to get settled in. We'd also be traveling from India, and I believe the healthcare systems in both countries is quite different, so that will be another thing to adjust to. Our agent didn't suggest the possibility of bringing the child on a tourist visa; it seemed like their 'onshore delivery' was the only option we had, which did stress us out a bit. So we're going to apply with the necessary documents, wait for the baby to come, get wife's medicals done, add the baby to the application, submit it and then pray for the grant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 2 hours ago, Sabs said: Our agent didn't suggest the possibility of bringing the child on a tourist visa; it seemed like their 'onshore delivery' was the only option we had, which did stress us out a bit. So we're going to apply with the necessary documents, wait for the baby to come, get wife's medicals done, add the baby to the application, submit it and then pray for the grant. Once you've both got PR, I'm almost certain you can bring the child to Australia with you on a visitor visa then apply for the child visa, and he/she will get a bridging visa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raul Senise Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 If your wife is pregnant she won't be able to do the medicals required for the PR to be finalised, so the point is moot. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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