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This article sets out in simple terms the main Australian visas that are available to a working holiday traveller in Australia. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but a useful summary giving guidance on some key visa options.

Understanding your options The first step is to categorise each visa. Determine whether the visa is an independent visa option, obtainable by the applicant alone? Or does the visa require the sponsorship of an employer, spouse, family member or state body for the visa to be granted? Continue Reading

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Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) has now released details of the Job Ready Program.

The Job Ready Program will affect international students completing trade qualifications (eg cookery, hairdressing) in Australia and who wish to apply for General Skilled Migration.

The Job Ready Program will be a 4-step process, and the total cost will be about $4,500. 

1. Provisional Skills Assessment
2. Job Ready Employment
3. Job Ready Workplace Assessment
4. Job Ready Final Assessment

Within this article we will cover the four step process in a little more detail and will try to summarise the effect of the change on your own visa application. Continue Reading

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Before moving down under to Australia for good, one of the best ways to get to know the place that one day may be your future home is by going on holiday to Australia.

Once you have decided to have an Australian holiday, the next thing to consider is to get your Australia visa. Before you could even think about scuba diving, outback tours, and lying in the pristine beaches, you should first consider getting an Australian visa.

Listed below are some helpful guidelines regarding Australia visa: Continue Reading

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When a parent wishes to come or migrate to Australia it is necessary to obtain a Visa in order to do so, and it is called a parent visa. Of course that parent needs to have either a stepchild, adopted child, or natural child be either a settled eligible or settled permanent inhabitant of either Australia or New Zealand.

Further the applicants need to have at least ½ of their children permanently living in Australia, and have more of their children living in Australia than in other countries. Continue Reading

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 Australia is a very hot destination for the students of the overseas countries. Australian Government has released 14.7$ billion in 2009 for providing the highly sophisticated infrastructure to schools and various educational institutions.

The government of this country is highly dedicated to provide world class educational methods to the future generations. The students who are seeking admission to the schools or colleges of Australia must obtain a student visa. Student visa permit you to stay in Australia as a temporary resident according to your course duration.

An applicant of a student visa will prove his eligibility in terms of personal, financial and academic substances. The capability to afford Airfares, tuition fees, accommodation, ability to support the dependent family members in the course of the studies etc are included in the financial eligibly of the applicant. Continue Reading

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Australia Immigration figures show applications for 457 visas (temporary skilled workers visas) fell 49 per cent in the five months to November, after the laws were tightened requiring employers to pay equal wages and lift conditions for foreign workers.

Despite these changes, the numbers for the same visa class began to pick up through October and November as employers became more familiar with the rules. Currently, more than a third of the country’s temporary skilled migrants work in NSW.

The Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, said a report released Monday on temporary workers provided evidence the changes were having the intended effect as the Australian average salary jumped to AU$85,300, from $74,700 in the same period a year earlier. Continue Reading

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Western Australia job advertisements surged 6% in December which is the strongest monthly growth since May 2007.

Experts say that the renewal of the mining boom could force business to compete ferociously for workers. This isn’t good news for businesses in WA but it could be great news for folks looking to migrate to the state.

Just one day after Western Australia was declared the nations best-performing economy, treasurer Troy Buswell called for a state-based migration scheme as WA businesses were warned to brace themselves for skilled labour shortages. Continue Reading

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From today (1st of January 2010), applicants applying for an offshore GSM visa who are nominating a trade occupation will no longer be able to meet the Australian Study Requirement. These applicants are now only able to meet the work experience criterion.

Work experience means that an applicant must have been employed in a skilled occupation for a minimum of 12 months of the 24 months immediately before the day on which the visa application was made.

This change relates to the following visa subclasses: Continue Reading

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From the 1st of January, as part of the skills assessment process for certain onshore GSM applicants who nominate a trade occupation, applicants will be required to demonstrate that they are ‘job ready’.

This new requirement will be assessed through the Job Ready Program (previously referred to as the Job Ready Test). The Job Ready Program has been developed by the relevant assessing authority, Trades Recognition Australia (TRA), in consultation with industry and unions and will include a workplace assessment by a TRA approved assessor.

The new job ready requirement will ensure that people who wish to migrate to Australia as skilled migrants in trade occupations are able to participate in the labour market in the area of their skills and knowledge. Continue Reading

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VETASSESS conducts assessments for over 200 occupations for people applying to migrate to Australia under the General Skilled Migration (GSM) and Employer Nomination Schemes (ENS).

From the 1st of January 2010, VETASSESS will be changing the requirements for assessment against these “Generalist Occupations” which are managerial, administrative, professional and associate professional occupations.

The new assessment process will help to ensure that applicant’s who meet the requirements under the new process are job ready and have the relevant skills and qualifications for employment in Australia in their nominated occupation.

From 2010, in order to receive a positive assessment, you will need: Continue Reading

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Prior to the 1st of January 2010, applicants applying for permanent migration based on one of the onshore General Skilled Migration (GSM) visa subclasses were required, at time of application, to provide evidence that they had applied for a skills assessment by the relevant assessing authority. At time of decision, a suitable skills assessment was required.

From the 1st of January 2010, applicants applying for either the Skilled – Independent (Migrant) Visa (Subclass 885), Skilled – Sponsored (Migrant) Visa (Subclass 886) or the Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Migrant) Visa (Subclass 487) will be required to have obtained a suitable skills assessment prior to applying for migration in order for the application to be valid and assessed for a decision. Continue Reading

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From the 1st of January 2010, the Migration Regulations are being amended to allow Student visa holders who have been affected by the closure of their education provider in the preceding 12 months to lodge an application for a further Student visa to continue their studies and be entitled to a nil visa application charge.

Transitional provisions are being implemented from the 9th November 2009 to enable Student visa holders who were affected by an education provider closure in 2009 to lodge an application for a VAC refund.

This provision is available to students in circumstances where they need to apply for a further Student visa to continue their studies as a result of the provider closure.

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Since starting my new role in the mining industry, I’ve found myself working for an organisation which is much more reliant on skilled resources brought in from overseas.

I was chatting to one of the hiring managers the other day about this and being quite interested in the subject, I managed to steer the conversation onto the subject of Australian immigration and the challenges faced by companies following the many recent changes in immigration law.

One thing that I didn’t really appreciate until now is the hoops that the Australian Immigration Department are making companies jump through in order to justify bringing on board ‘foreign’ workers on 457 Visas. Continue Reading

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The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship announced earlier this month that the amount of funds international students will need to demonstrate and have genuine access to in order to be granted a Student visa will increase under proposed new changes.

Legislation changes are being pursued to increase the basic rate of living costs under the Migration Regulations from the previous rate of $12 000 per year. Subject to approval by the Governor-General, it is proposed that these changes will come into effect from 1 January 2010.

Under the proposed new regulations, prospective Student visa applicants and their family members must have access to the following funds to meet the living costs requirements: Continue Reading

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The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, has set new priority processing arrangements for certain Skilled Migration visas. These arrangements are designed to better address the needs of industry by targeting skills in critical need across a number of sectors. The current priority processing Direction commenced on 23 September 2009.

The Direction applies to applications in the pipeline that have not been finalised, and to applications lodged with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, on or after 23 September 2009.

To assist the visitors to our site, we have included the Frequently Asked Questions from the Department Website below.

To discuss these latest changes then post a comment at the bottom of this post or visit the thread in our forums which you can find by clicking here. Continue Reading

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The Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) is going to be overhauled whilst the Critical Skills List (CSL) will be phased out completely.

The Australian Department of Immigration is near to concluding its review of the MODL. As part of their review, the department will examine and report on the role and purpose of the MODL in targeting skill needs in relation to the General Skilled Migration (GSM) program, to complement the supply of tertiary qualified Australians.

It’s hoped that the review will enable DIMIA to use the MODL as a more strategic tool ensuring that skilled migration is better aimed at responding to future skill needs which cannot be addressed through domestic training and skills development.

The arrangements for the transition to the new MODL will be determined once the outcomes of the review are finalised. Continue Reading

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