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Overseas students applying for permanent
residence in Australia
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Can I stay in Australia
after I finish my course?
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In many cases, you still can.
The latest changes to the skilled migration program have certainly made
it a lot harder to make the transition from student to permanent
resident, but there are still "pathways" available, to use the
government's term.
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Who is eligible?
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Generally speaking, you may be eligible if you
have, in the past six months, completed a professional or trade course
in Australia over a period of two academic years, or if you hold a
subclass 485 (see below) or 476 visa.
Other information you may need to know is whether
your occupation is on the "Skilled Occupations List" (SOL) and how many
points it is worth:
Failure to comply strictly with all of the
application requirements could mean that your application is treated as
invalid and will be sent back to you, although this may take several
weeks and by the time you get it back it could be too late for you to
apply again.
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How do I apply?
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You will need to apply for your skills
assessment, medicals and police checks as quickly as possible and then
lodge an application for one of three types of permanent visa:
- Skilled - Independent (subclass 189)
- Skilled - Sponsored (subclass 190)
- Skilled - Regional (subclass 887)
If you do not satisfy the criteria for a
permanent visa immediately, you may also apply for a Skilled - Graduate
(subclass 485) visa. This will give you up to 18 months to complete the
requirements or gain any necessary work experience.
More
information about skilled migration requirements, and the new
SkillSelect system.
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Can I stay in Australia
while the application is being processed?
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Yes, if you satisfy the requirements for applying
onshore you can stay in Australia while the permanent visa is
processed. You can also work and travel in and out of the country.
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What if I don't meet
the requirements for an onshore application?
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There are several other possibilities open to
students who are studying in Australia, before and after finishing
their courses. You may be able to lodge a skilled migration visa as an
offshore applicant even while you are physically in Australia,
providing you have some other legal visa that allows you to stay here
-- such as another student visa or a temporary resident visa. When the
visa is ready for approval you will have to make a short trip overseas,
either to your home country or somewhere else like New Zealand, to
collect it.
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Where can I get help?
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You might be excused for thinking that the rules
about applying are deliberately made so complicated in order to ensure
that only people with a high IQ can work them out. Unfortunately, just
getting one detail wrong in the application can be disastrous.
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If you think you need some
help, either with the whole application or just to make sure you've got
it right before sending it off yourself, contact us to talk
about how we can help you.
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Copyright © 2013
Michael Jones ~ Solicitor. All rights reserved.
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