Assistance needed

[Guest nuthq]

Hi Everyone,

 

I hope you are all well. I am currently on a student visa studying for a diploma of community welfare in Melbourne. I finish studying in 7 weeks and need to work out what I am going to do in regards to my visa application, since all the new deadlines came into force on the 23rd September (Thanks, Mr. Evans!!)

 

My 2 options seem to be:

 

1) Apply for Skilled Independent visa (onshore) and with no family in Australia wait until (potentially) 2012

 

or

 

2) Accept a job offer from a charitable organisation to run their student placement/work for the dole program. This position would not be full time and I am not sure of the salary but it would be directly linked to my qualification (see above) and would be quite easy to prove that there is no one in Australia that could do this role (assuming you need to be an international student and a welfare student to do the role correctly).

 

Let's say, hypothetically, my new employer would be willing to give me a contract of employment that said 40 hours per week and met the minimum salary requirements for the visa, what should I do?

 

Do I apply now and wait under skilled independent or go through my (potential) employer?

 

I know I am not good at waiting for things, and the idea of having to wait until December 2012 just for a decision does not sit well with me. I want to buy a house, get a car etc which all require finance I would not get on a TR visa.

 

Lastly, my sympathies to everyone that has been affected by this decision regarding skilled migration,

 

Thanks,

Nuthq

[Guest sassygal]

can do both (someone correct me please if I am wrong) to run along side each other, employer sponsored will let you work and then when your independant skilled comes thru you will be able to do what ever you want and superceed your sponsored visa. I am sure I have read this on here somewhere, have a search for it.

[basil]

Do you have the job offer?

 

I'm a bit confused than you mention accepting a part time job will low salary and then mention hypothetically having evidence of it been fulltime and a good salary.

 

If you have a job offer, like the job, have work rights and want to stay then if it was me I would accept that offer while running your independant visa application alongside, that may take up to 3 years.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hello nuthq

 

Welcome to Poms in Oz.

 

2) Accept a job offer from a charitable organisation to run their student placement/work for the dole program. This position would not be full time and I am not sure of the salary but it would be directly linked to my qualification (see above) and would be quite easy to prove that there is no one in Australia that could do this role (assuming you need to be an international student and a welfare student to do the role correctly).

 

 

Why would you need to be an ex International Student in order to be able to do the job you describe? If you would be able to do it, surely an Aussie new graduate of the same course would be able to do the job as well as you or instead of you? Neither of you would have any hands-on experience in the role as yet, after all.

 

Are you musing about the possibility of a subclass 457 visa for the job above? If so, you need to be aware of the following:

 

1. Subclass 457 visas are not available unless the job is genuinely a full time job. In this context a full time job means not less than 38 hours a week.

 

2. Market rate of pay must now be given to the worker and we can expect DIAC and DEEWR to monitor this requirement very strictly.

 

3. In order to show eliginbility for a 457 it must be shown that giving the job to a migrant would be of "Benefit to Australia."

 

Please see the following links:

 

Agents Gateway

 

Whats New - Employer Sponsored Workers& Immigration

 

In the first link above, the concept of "Benefit to Australia" i described but it is not defined.

 

The Minister has been crowing that demand for 457 visas is only 50% of the demand for the same visa this time last year. He attrubutes this to the global financial crisis. Although he must be right in whole or in part, I wonder how many Aussie employers have abandoned thoughts of sponsoring migrants for 457 visas simply because the Minister has made the visa so unattractive?

 

I've no idea whether all or any of the drop in demand can be ascribed to my hunch but if I were an Aussie employer right now, my instinct would be to avoid the 457 visa if I possibly can and I might even think about hiring the Aussie runner up on my shortlist of candidates simply because he wouldn't cause me to have to tussle with visas whereas hiring the better of the two candidates would necessitate visa hassle.

 

Glenn Pereira is a migration agent in Melbourne with particular knowledge and experience of "Student visa issues" including those of how an International Student can get to remain in Oz after the course ends. Please see these threads:

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/70255-studying-oz-view-future.html

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/70356-future-migration.html

 

It is clear from Glenn's posts that more changes are on the way before the situation will start to settle down.

 

Also with the Aussie Govt alarmed by an unemployment rate of 6%, I suspect that they might be very unsympathetic to any devices which would keep ex-International Students in Oz unless it can genuinely be shown that Aussies do not want the job in question. I don't know this for sure - I am in the UK - but this is my hunch about what seems to be happening in Oz.

 

Let's say, hypothetically, my new employer would be willing to give me a contract of employment that said 40 hours per week and met the minimum salary requirements for the visa, what should I do?

 

Stop indulging in fantasy! A reputable charity is highly unlikely to make any offer which is not 100% kosher!

 

Do I apply now and wait under skilled independent or go through my (potential) employer?

 

You could do both. If you apply for a 175 and a 457 soon, and then later your employer offers you an ENS or RSMS visa, DIAC will waive their fees for the visa application for the employer-backed PR visa in recognition of the fact that you won't need the sc 175 after all.

 

In one of the threads above, Glenn says he thinks that the Govt will keep the brakes on with migration until after the next General Election in Oz. If the present Govt is re-elected, Glenn predicts that that will then take their feet off the brakes pretty rapidly.

 

If we assume that real recovery in Oz will begin in the resources sector in WA, the owners of the WA projects are predicting that they will have a massive need for workers from 2011 onwards and that Australia by itself cannot supply the size of workforce that the WA project owners will need.

 

So if the Govt does as Glenn predicts, the Govt will have gotten its timing spot on. Once there is full employment for Aussies who want it, the voters will stop worrying about migrants allegedly pinching their jobs.

 

If it is all happens as Glenn suggests, you might not have to wait till 2012 or beyond for a subclass 175 visa...... as long as you don't wait for the upturn before you apply.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest wanderer]

Hi nuthq,

1) Apply for Skilled Independent visa (onshore) and with no family in Australia wait until (potentially) 2012

 

or

 

2) Accept a job offer from a charitable organisation to run their student placement/work for the dole program. This position would not be full time and I am not sure of the salary but it would be directly linked to my qualification (see above) and would be quite easy to prove that there is no one in Australia that could do this role (assuming you need to be an international student and a welfare student to do the role correctly).

 

Let's say, hypothetically, my new employer would be willing to give me a contract of employment that said 40 hours per week and met the minimum salary requirements for the visa, what should I do?

 

 

Leaving aside the hypothetical bit, whatever visa you can apply for really ought to be based on what you are eligible for regardless of when granting may occur. ie.

 

An onshore independent skilled visa would either be a 885/886 or employer sponsored.

 

The 885/886 are points based visas and appropriate qualifications are required to suit various occupational categories.

If you haven't visited Workers - Visas & Immigration before, that is a good starting point and being menu driven it is easy enough to navigate.

 

First Page of Professionals and Other Skilled Migrants - http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1121i.pdf has the Skilled Occupations List [sOL] link at the top and you can look at the occupational categories there and going to assessing authority web sites listed at the rear of that document you can start reserching what your qualifications may make you eligible for.

 

If you find one but are short on points, have a look at the 886 visa re a state nomination that could work in well with a job offer.

With state nomination you only need 100 points.

 

That does not do a lot for you re priority level but at least you have a job and if it is part-time, that probably suits as I expect you'll get a bridging visa and they usually allow you to continue with conditions of the visa you had and you could check with the immigration department if that means you are restricted to student hours until getting an 886 or whether you can work normal hours as students are able to utside of semesters.

 

The other option you have hypothesised on alludes to going for a sponsored visa and there are different eligibility requirements to check out, the employers also needing to meet requirements.

 

The government has just made an announcement re student/GSM visa relationships and worth a read - Students and General Skilled Migration

 

Personally, my thoughts are that the GFC is far from over, there being many unhealthy indicators about and there could yet be a dramatic domino effect in Australia so if you find you have the opportunity for what will hopefully be stable employment, I would grab it for improvement in global/australian economics is the only thing which will give long term improvement in employment and a raising of immigration levels that could yet be lowered further before a rise which I feel may be quite a few years off.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi again nuthq

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/70325-what-would-you-say-minister-immigration-really-4.html

 

Jamie Smith of Hire A Migrant has obtained some facts and figures from DIAC concerning the GSM program. Please see Jamie's posts from page 4 onwards in the thread above because they are hugely relevant to your planning.

 

Cheers

 

Gill