Getting a work visa for Australia can be easy or difficult. It depends on your personal circumstances.
There are many factors that determine how easy it will be for you to get a work visa for Australia.
These are experience, qualifications, educational achievement, age, English ability and others.
A summary of skilled and sponsored visas are listed here.
Overview of Australian Work Visas
– 186 ENS (permanent residence)
– 482 TSS (short term up to 2 years)
– 482 TSS (long term up to 4 years)
– 400 Temporary Specialist (3-6 months)
– 407 Training (up to 2 years)
– 190 State Nominated (permanent residence)
– 489 Skilled Regional (up to 4 years)
The most ideal work visa is the skilled visa.
Skilled visas are obtained through Expression of Interest (EOI) lodgement through SkillSelect.
When lodging EOI, you can only nominate ONE occupation, even though you could be eligible for more than one.
You are also limited in SkillSelect system to one account at a time.
Your SkillSelect account is linked to your passport details, so duplicate accounts is not possible.
The goal in SkillSelect is to manage your EOI to get an invitation to apply for the desired skilled visa.
You can choose as many visas as you like for consideration, but once an invitation to apply is issued, you no longer are in the system bidding for the other visa subclasses.
The key to getting an invitation to apply is effectively managing your EOI.
There are a multitude of factors to consider when positioning your EOI. These include:
- Improving your points score: (Skilled visas 189/190/489 visa are points based visas. Calculation of our score can be done here).
- Selecting the best occupation: Invitations to apply are issued against occupations in demand.
- Completing mandatory skills and language assessments.
- Including your partner's achievements and skills.
Of the points above, occupation selection is crucial. Management Accountant and Accountant General, for example, are identical occupations, but in your EOI you can only choose one.
Understanding which occupations offer the best chance of securing an Invitation to Apply requires research and a broad understanding of the Australian labour market in general and in regions in particular.
Our Comprehensive Migration Pathway Planning Service can assist you in this endeavour.
The king of skilled visas is 189, skilled independent visa, as it does not require a government nomination or employer sponsor.
The points based visas, 189 and 190 are highly competitive. Applicants from abroad and in Australia apply for these visas and the priority is given to applicants with the highest score.
Points are also allocated to applicants with post secondary studies in Australia. This tends to favour applicants with extensive study background in Australia.
For many applicants, this is a frustratingly long wait, using up valuable time whilst waiting for an invitation to apply.
We recommend that for persons eager to embark on their goal to get a work visa for Australia, that sponsored employment is also considered.
Sponsored employment will allow the applicant to remain in Australia to work in their chosen field, auditing time in occupation in Australia which boosts their underlying points score.
A number of occupations offer direct permanent migration. Regional areas, that is areas outside of major centres of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, provide much more opportunity for direct, permanent sponsored migration.
Rajita's story - A successful Migration Pathway Plan
A Better Way for Many: Sponsored Work Visas
Sponsored work visas Australia offer a more flexible way to achieve a migration goal.
Naturally, independent skilled visas are simpler and directly lead to permanent residence. However, sponsored visas allow work rights in Australia that can lead to other visa opportunities.
Your chosen occupation is extremely important in your migration plan. Certain occupations are limited to short term sponsorships, whilst others can provide flexible pathways to permanent residence.
Unlike skilled visas, sponsored visas allow for application under related occupations. Your skills, for example, as Accountant General can be used for nomination in a Management Accountant role. Skilled visa EOI only allow for one occupation to be used.
Achieving the goal of permanent migration can also be achieved through scaffolding your migration plan.
Scaffolding of your migration plan means using one shorter term and lower requirement sponsored visa, such as Training 407 or TSS 482 short term, to gain valuable experience in Australia.
If still falling short for permanent residence application, you can also seek further sponsorship with the same or another employer.
Some clients of ours have recently used this scaffolding method to progress their migration plan.
By taking advantage with short term engagements, clients have been able to demonstrate their value to the employer or to seek other opportunities in Australia.
Risk Factors
Considering risk factors, it is important to manage the migration plan well.
Applications for work visa Australia from outside of the country have minimal future risk if refused.
Applications for work visa made onshore, can be subject to so called s.48 restriction on further applications.
The risks can be managed with quality employers and a good migration history.
Candidates registered with us, even for FREE resume hosting service, are welcome to ask us for migration advice. Our migration professionals are registered migration agents and lawyers.