No Further Stay!! Calling Immigration Agents - come and take me money!!

[Guest Jasper Smallman]

HiHas anyone had a 'No Further Stay' stamped on their (holiday) visa? If so, has anyone managed to get rid of it? My son has had this stamped on his visa (he has used up his working holiday visa). We have PR but it looks as though we may have to hire the services of a migration agent. I know that the immigration website has a list of those fit to practice, but has anyone (or their friends or rellies) ever had to use one? If so, would they recommend them to anyone? Your advise please guys as ever. I have a feeling this is going to cost either way or both. In Higher (International) Education fees (he wants to study) and sponsorship fees.Any light you can shed on this one would be appreciated.TTFN:unsure:Jasp

Edited April 30, 2012 by Jasper Smallman
spelling mistake

[keldaz]

Hi Jasper, tap Migrate Mates into google, we used them to get PR visa's, highly recommend. Good luck with that.

[snifter]

No further stay means that.

 

Go Matilda gets good feedback. And a couple of others. TBH I think its your best course of action. Before you use anyone though, check on here and PIO and see the feedback on the company you are considering. There are a few not so great ones out there that people still seem to manage to sign up and hand money over to

[Guest smit]

we used migration solutions in the city quite a few years ago.............at that time he was far cheaper than the english ones and very good as well.

[Alan Collett]

Maybe telephone my colleague Sarah White to discuss: 03 9935 2929 (Melbourne).

 

Best regards.

[Gollywobbler]

HiHas anyone had a 'No Further Stay' stamped on their (holiday) visa? If so, has anyone managed to get rid of it? My son has had this stamped on his visa (he has used up his working holiday visa). We have PR but it looks as though we may have to hire the services of a migration agent. I know that the immigration website has a list of those fit to practice, but has anyone (or their friends or rellies) ever had to use one? If so, would they recommend them to anyone? Your advise please guys as ever. I have a feeling this is going to cost either way or both. In Higher (International) Education fees (he wants to study) and sponsorship fees.Any light you can shed on this one would be appreciated.TTFN:unsure:Jasp

 

Hi Jasper

 

I know that it all seems terribly worrying at the moment but I promise you that things are not as bad as you imagine.

 

It would not be possible to get Condition 8503 lifted from your son's current visa unless something happens that is completely outside his own control.

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/52bWaiving_Condition8503.htm

 

It sounds as if your son has had a Working Holiday Visa which has now expired so he obtained a subclass 676 visa as a follow-on from the WHV and DIAC have imposed Condition 8503 on his Tourist Visa?

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/676/

 

It sounds like your son wishes to attend University in Australia next? Or at any rate, he wants to go to a College that provides tertiary education, eg a TAFE? That is no big deal visa-wise, though it is a heckuva big deal costs-wise! What subject would he want to study, please, and what type of institution would provide what he wants?

 

It sounds like your son is thinking of obtaining one of the Student Visas next but which Student Visa will depend on what type of course he wishes to study:

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/students/

 

The effect of Condition 8503 is merely that your son would need to be physically "outside Australia" at the time when he applies for his Student Visa and he would need to be outside Australia again at the time when his Student Visa is granted. The whole of the rest of the planet is "outside Australia," my friend!

 

It sounds to me like the most sensible option would probably be to do this in two steps. Step One, get your son the NZ equivalent of a Working Holiday visa and send him off to explore NZ for a while:

 

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/work/workingholiday/

 

He would NOT need to leave Australia in order to apply for a visa for NZ. Condition 8503 has no extra-territorial effect, so there is no reason why your son should not stay in Oz until his working holiday visa for NZ is granted, provided that he could get the NZ visa before his current Aussie Tourist Visa expires.

 

Step Two: Once your son is in NZ, where he would be able to earn some money because of his NZ working holiday visa, he then applies for a suitable Aussie Student Visa next.

 

Very, very few Australian Registered Migration Agents are similarly licenced to enable them to advise about visas for NZ as well. The few RMAs who are able to advise about visas for both countries are usually Kiwis themselves, you would find. That said, it is no more difficult to obtain a working holiday visa for NZ than it is to obtain one for Oz, ergo I wouldn't bust a gut to try to find a Kiwi-licenced NZ Immigration Advisor (or whatever the official job-title is for them in NZ.) There is no reason why your son shouldn't be able to work it out by himself simply by reading the NZ Government's official Immigration website (link above) and doing whatever it says on the tin!

 

Student Visas for Oz are becoming fiddly to organise. The background is that some years ago the Aussie Government made an informal promise that if people became International Students in Oz and thereby obtained an Australian qualification, this would be a more-or-less guaranteed pathway to PR in Oz. International Education promptly turned into a bonanza and at its height there were about 500,000 International Students in Oz whereas the Government only wanted to grant about 130,000 skilled PR visas each year. Obviously, the numbers were going to conflict with each other. DIAC issued repeated warnings to successive Australian Governments but politicians never listen until the crisis actually occurs! When the crisis has already occurred, pollies then specialise in trying to slam the stable door after the horse has already bolted! You know how it is with pollies!

 

The upshot is that the Aussie Government could have dealt with the entirely foreseeable crisis in an elegant, streamlined way several years ago but they sat on their hands instead, so they now have an almighty mess to clear up. Consequently, there were then several hastily-commissioned Official Studies, as a result of which an entirely new approach to International Education is in the process of being introduced in Australia.

 

The new system of International Education is brand new so it is still fairly messy around the edges, to judge from what I've been reading. Some of the details will have to be re-considered etc before the whole thing starts to work really smoothly once more. The main thrust has been to de-couple the notion of International Education in Australia from the notion of obtaining PR in Australia later on. That bit does seem to be working.

 

The remainder of the details depend on what sort of International Education is contemplated by the prospective International Student. I believe that Australia's new Student Visa system is fairly encouraging if the Student wants to study for a degree but I have heard that it is more difficult if the Student wants to do a VET course instead (eg he wants to learn to become a bricklayer, for instance.) I'm not a migration agent myself so I haven't investigated all the details - I am merely passing on my general impression, as it were.

 

It is not easy to find an RMA who really understands the new Student Visas and the Education courses that go with them inside out. If I were in your shoes myself, I would contact an RMA over in Melbourne called Glenn Pereira:

 

https://www.mara.gov.au/agent/ARDetails.aspx?ud=3103&FolderID=394

 

Glenn has been extremely closely involved with all the recent changes involving Student Visas, has been on some of the Official Committees about how to change the system etc. I used to moderate one of the other internet forums devoted to the subject of moving to Oz. Whilst I was doing that, I had several chats with Glenn Pereira by e-mail.

 

I am *extremely* difficult to please where RMAs are concerned. I am an English-trained and qualified lawyer, so I can spot waffle from a mile away and I am extremely tough with the perpetrators of inaccurate waffle got up as "legal advice." I make no apology for that because there is no excuse for a so-called 'expert' who gives out inaccurate legal advice.

 

Glenn Pereira passed muster with me. He clearly understands the subject of Internationsl Education in Oz inside out and he understands the various visas that go with it. This particular facet of Aussie Immigration Law doesn't interest me particularly so I know very little about it myself, ergo if I were your son's parents, I would turn to Glenn for advice if it were me.

 

No doubt there are RMAs in South Australia who also understand the whole subject well (though I doubt whether any other RMA shares Glenn's really in-depth knowledge about the subject) but I don't know the names of any of the RMAs in SA who specialise in this particular field.

 

Alternatively, Go Matilda in Melbourne would not let you down. They seem to specialise in obtaining visas for Britons and Sarah White is said to be very competent and very pleasant to deal with. GM have LOADS of experience of obtaining visas for British clients and, personally, at the moment I would seek advice about Student visas because the new system is so new that most people do not, as yet, understand exactly how it will all work. (I'm not sure whether DIAC themselves really understand exactly how all the different bits of the jigsaw will fit together.) I've never seen anything except praise for Sarah White on any of the internet forums, so I reckon you would be very safe in her hands.

 

What I would NOT do, though, is just to go bowling along to see just any old RMA. Sod's Law says that if I did that, I'd choose an RMA who does not understand this aspect of Aussie Immi sufficiently properly & thoroughly. I'd spot that in 5 seconds, whereupon I would simply become very stroppy with the RMA concerned and blah blah. So, personally, I'd choose an RMA who comes on personal recommendation from someone else who has convinced me that s/he understands what s/he is talking about in making the recommendation.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Jasper Smallman]

Hi Jasper, tap Migrate Mates into google, we used them to get PR visa's, highly recommend. Good luck with that.

 

Thank you all for your replies esp Gill. Wow. All that info certainly gives us hope. The frustrating thing is that we were ALL on a temp 457 in 2009. But we left to go back to the uk for personal reasons. which is why our son had to change his visa to a sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll working holiday visa as he stayed on. then he met an aussie girl and fell in live and thats when things began to get complicated. they applied for a defacto visa but at the same time she was seeing someone else. he returned to uk penniless and alone whilst we had just returned to melbourne. it really is heartbreaking. he wants to do a BA in acting (he has a diploma and loads of practical experience). He is 22. We are having to pay for everything for him - everything as he cant or is not permitted to work. We have talked to rrpresntatives at flinders uni and national institute of drama of australia (NIDA). both have courses whicb would suit him. we could cry for him as he's got the bite back for acting and he is getting his hopes up about staying. thank you all for sharing your thoughts with me. it really is a worry and we need to get it sorted as soon as. otherwise he has to go back to the uk and start again with nobody there to help him. its so upsettingto have to face that possibility. thsnk you all soooooooo much again. xx

Edited April 30, 2012 by Jasper Smallman