A good friend of mine recently asked me to tell her more about how I got my PR. So I decided that I am going to share the different types of visa available that will put you on the right path towards permanent residency in Australia. Specifically in this post, I will be covering the visa options for workers / employees / medium-income individuals who are coming in without a job offer. There are many other options out there just so you know, for business owners / high-income earners, specially talented individuals and employer-sponsored workers.
After two years of meeting this condition, provisional visa holders may apply for permanent residency via Skilled Regional visa subclass 887. One important fact to note however, is that provisional visa holders are not entitled to MediCare (public medical insurance) and hence must find and purchase their own private insurance policy. They will only be covered by MediCare once they have been granted visa 887.
The other routes that are non-provisional (in other words, immediately permanent) are visa 886, 176 189 and 190. I am not going to touch on visa 886 and 176 since they are already closed to new applications ( but still valid for those who already are on those visa ).
To quote the DBIP definition: "This visa is for points-tested skilled workers who are not sponsored by an employer or family member or nominated by a state or territory government." (link). This means the applicants will need to go through a series of checklist questions that will give varying scores depending on your answers/situation.
The kind of questions that you will be asked includes your age, English language ability (IELTS), educational level and lastly years of experience in nominated skilled occupation. The higher you score on these points, the more likely your applications will be picked up, endorsed and approved by the DBIP during the Expression of Interest (EOI) stage.
I think I need to highlight once again, that these visa are for points-tested skilled workers. This means that as part of your application, you will need to prove that you are a skilled worker that is in-demand according to the national or state-specific skilled occupation list (SOL). You can check the SOL list and decide by yourself if you are eligible. However, the necessary official proof can only be acquired by going through a Skill Assessment (google vetassess) process which is separate from the EOI.
The difference between visa 189 and 190 is that the latter is a state-nominated visa. It means you will go through almost exactly the same process described above, but for visa 190 you would have to apply for a nomination through the state immigration office (in my case, Immigration SA). This gives you an additional 5 points on your EOI application. The application for state nomination varies from state to state, but in my case it involved writing a short essay telling the reason why you want to migrate to that particular state, a declaration of assets .
So to summarize, this was my order of doing things which lead me to visa 190:
- Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 489)
- Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 495)
- Skilled Designated Area Sponsored (Provisional) visa (subclass 496)
- Skilled Regional Sponsored visa (subclass 475 or 487)
- Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)
- Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190)
- Skilled Sponsored visa (subclass 176) - Not available anymore since Sep 2015
- Sponsored visa (subclass 886) - Not available anymore since Jan 2013
I will start with Provisional Visa: 495, 475, 487 and 489. One of the conditions that come with these visa types mean that you are committed to live and work in regional (rural) areas of Australia. In South Australia case, all of SA is defined as regional, so you can live in the city of Adelaide of Port Lincoln and still meeting the commitment.
After two years of meeting this condition, provisional visa holders may apply for permanent residency via Skilled Regional visa subclass 887. One important fact to note however, is that provisional visa holders are not entitled to MediCare (public medical insurance) and hence must find and purchase their own private insurance policy. They will only be covered by MediCare once they have been granted visa 887.
Visa 189 / 190
The other routes that are non-provisional (in other words, immediately permanent) are visa 886, 176 189 and 190. I am not going to touch on visa 886 and 176 since they are already closed to new applications ( but still valid for those who already are on those visa ).
To quote the DBIP definition: "This visa is for points-tested skilled workers who are not sponsored by an employer or family member or nominated by a state or territory government." (link). This means the applicants will need to go through a series of checklist questions that will give varying scores depending on your answers/situation.
The kind of questions that you will be asked includes your age, English language ability (IELTS), educational level and lastly years of experience in nominated skilled occupation. The higher you score on these points, the more likely your applications will be picked up, endorsed and approved by the DBIP during the Expression of Interest (EOI) stage.
I think I need to highlight once again, that these visa are for points-tested skilled workers. This means that as part of your application, you will need to prove that you are a skilled worker that is in-demand according to the national or state-specific skilled occupation list (SOL). You can check the SOL list and decide by yourself if you are eligible. However, the necessary official proof can only be acquired by going through a Skill Assessment (google vetassess) process which is separate from the EOI.
The difference between visa 189 and 190 is that the latter is a state-nominated visa. It means you will go through almost exactly the same process described above, but for visa 190 you would have to apply for a nomination through the state immigration office (in my case, Immigration SA). This gives you an additional 5 points on your EOI application. The application for state nomination varies from state to state, but in my case it involved writing a short essay telling the reason why you want to migrate to that particular state, a declaration of assets .
So to summarize, this was my order of doing things which lead me to visa 190:
- IELTS & Skilled Assessment
- Booked for IELTS (General Training module) writing, listening and speaking test. (Apr-May 2014)
- Scanned, translated and declare as original in front of a public notary: college transcripts, professional courses, certificates, membership. Sent for Skilled Assessment through vetassess (Apr 2014-Aug 2014, 3 months from application until result).
- Applied for SA state-nomination
- short essay of 'why you want to live in SA'
- declare your assets and agree that you have the amount of cash to tide you up if you migrate
- With IELTS, vetassess and state-nomination all positive, proceed with Expression of Interest
- Request for a good conduct certificate from domestic police. You may be required to request for the same from other countries where you have resided priorly.
- Wait for EOI to be processed. If your EOI is picked up, approved and endorsed, you will get an invitation to apply for visa.
- Once you have received an invitation to apply for visa ( Dec 2014)
- Fill up the visa application online form
- Fill up and sign Form 80 - Character Assessment
- Perform eMedical health checkup at a recognized local medical establishments.
- Scan, translate and declare as original many documents (birth cert, passport, driving license and others, which you will be given a list of if you actually get invited).
- Wait for visa grant / rejection letter ( Feb 2015 )
For me, I started my application process by registering for IELTS on 23 April 2014 and succeeded with a grant letter received on 2 Feb 2015, so roughly 9 months. I would consider my case a very successful and smooth application. I probably could have shortened it a little more if they didn't ask me for a UK police cert, which took a month and half to apply, pay for and deliver by post due to their bureaucracy.
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