ENS 186 advice

[aussiegal71]

Hi there

We are from the UK with British passports but moved to NZ in 2002. We got NZ citizenship in October 2010 and moved to Australia in January 2011. My husband has worked for the same company since 2003 as a technical sales representative for a large agricultural company in their turf division, he has been in the industry for 22 years. His job is pretty specialised and he is seen as the expert in his field in Australia and NZ although he has no formal qualifications except for some basic registration quals. They moved him over here to grow the company in Queensland and NT and as Kiwi citizens we are here on the SCV and don't "need" PR. However, we would love my mum to join us from the UK. I have one brother in the UK with whom neither my mum nor I have a relationship. She applied on the off chance for the 461 NZ Family Relationship but was contacted almost immediately by Australia house and advised to withdraw her application as she wasn't eligible (the clerk also said "Who on earth advised you to apply for that visa? Of course your daughter isn't dependent on you - she's married" - was a bit confused as I am the NZ citizen and we were applying as she is somewhat dependent on me, not the other way around!) So it seems our only remaining option is to get PR, which in the long term is preferable to us and our 2 children anyway - the only route I can see available to us is Employer Sponsorship through Direct Entry. Then if we get that I am sure if my mum comes on holiday she may change her mind and want to lodge an onshore APV. I have seen some excellent advice on here and wondered if someone could clarify if I am correct in my thoughts? How long does PR take using this path? It is a bit of a strange one as he is already here legally doing the job he will be applying to do on the sponsorship, if that makes sense. If he gets refused, nothing changes and he will continue to be able to legally do his job indefinitely. The only difference will be that we can't sponsor my mum.

Thoughts?

[aussiegal71]

Hi there

I have been going round in circles with the above problem, got in touch with a migration agent who said that because my husband does not have a degree he would not be eligible for a 186 under the Direct Entry Stream and that we would need to apply for a 457, which will accept experience in lieu of formal qualifications, hold that for 2 years then go for the 186 Temporary Residency stream.

However I have just found the following exemption on the Au Immigration site:

 

Exemptions for the ENS Direct Entry stream will require applicants to:

 be nominated as an academic by a university in Australia

 be nominated as a scientist, researcher or technical specialist by an

Australian Government agency (for instance, CSIRO or ANSTO)

 be nominated as a Minister of Religion by a religious institution

 have nominated earnings at least equivalent to the current Australian

Taxation Office top individual income tax rate**

 be in Australia as the holder of a subclass 444 or 461 visa and have

worked with their nominating employer in their nominated occupation

for the last 2 years (not including any period of unpaid leave) in the

period of 3 years before the visa application is made.

 

My husband definitely qualifies under the last point - he has in fact been working for his employer for 10 years - previously in NZ and for the last 2 yrs and 2 months here in Australia. Can someone confirm? Obviously it makes me nervous if a migration agent hasn't seemed to pick up this point and was encouraging us to go down the 457 route, thus adding 2 years to our plight! Gollywobbler, are you there?

[freesia]

I don't know the first thing about this, but seems you're a bit on your own with it here & that's never pleasant. I'll at least bump your thread up for you ! I did look up the 461 though & it is predominantly for the children of the Special category visa, or a widowed relative who normally lives with you & is dependent. That bit is not designed for adult UK relatives it seems!

Since you're pretty sure your DH meets the exceptions though.....your next step would seem to be to ask his company to sponsor for the 186? They would use a MARA agent on yours & their behalf possibly, so they would only go ahead presumably if they were made to feel pretty confident of a successful application. Then in time your mum could apply through the Parent route, contributory or otherwise.Hope this makes some sense at least

[jim and adel]

It might be worth posing the question on the bigger 'poms in oz' site as more people will see it there. It's seems like a specialist area that few typical migrants would be able to advise on (at least with any degree of authority!) The only thing that struck me on reading this is that the 'dependent' route seems unlikely; you've lived in a different country to your mum for over a decade so unless she's suffered a recent and substantial deterioration, it seems unlikely she'd be regarded as your dependant.

 

Jim

[wrussell]

Seek another opinion.

[aussiegal71]

Just an update to this story - we applied for PR ourselves with employer sponsorship (the 186 the immigration agent said we weren't eligible for) - it came through remarkably quickly and a year later applied for and received citizenship! So we are here forever, regardless of changes to government, rules etc - I've always been worried they would change their minds about kiwis at some stage... so we are done and it was painless (except for my bank account - ouch!). A happy ending.

[cliffy]

So does that mean you hold joint citizenship to UK, NZ and Aus? or did you have to rescind one to keep the others. And which passports do you hold and travel on?

I ask because my daughter is a Au/NZ citizen presently living and working in Europe!!! Just thinking about the future!!

[aussiegal71]

We didn't have to "give up" any of our citizenships so we hold all three. My cousin who lives in the US had to give up her British Citizenship when she became an American, however if she were to return to the UK I'm pretty sure they wouldn't turn her away as she is a natural born citizen so could apply to be a citizen again (you can do this once only). Happily this is not something I have to worry about! I currently hold a valid NZ passport, an expired UK passport and have an Australian passport application pending. I returned to the UK for my first trip in almost 9 years in January and travelled on my NZ passport - no trouble at all. Just went to NZ with only one month left on my passport, no trouble there either (I did check before I left). My Aussie Citizenship was applied for as an NZ citizen, not a British one. My husband and kids also have all three citizenships - I don't think the kids realise how lucky they are yet but I'm sure once they want to start travelling they will! I don't see any point keeping all passports current, that would be a very expensive business. My husband needed one after he had been approved for citizenship but before his ceremony, he just renewed his NZ one which is for 10 years so he won't bother getting an Aussie one before then. Both kids' NZ ones will expire next month so I will get them Australian ones but I will probably have to renew my 17 year old's UK one in the next couple of years as I think he will want to go to the UK for a while and work there.

[sraza]

We didn't have to "give up" any of our citizenships so we hold all three. My cousin who lives in the US had to give up her British Citizenship when she became an American, however if she were to return to the UK I'm pretty sure they wouldn't turn her away as she is a natural born citizen so could apply to be a citizen again (you can do this once only). Happily this is not something I have to worry about! I currently hold a valid NZ passport, an expired UK passport and have an Australian passport application pending. I returned to the UK for my first trip in almost 9 years in January and travelled on my NZ passport - no trouble at all. Just went to NZ with only one month left on my passport, no trouble there either (I did check before I left). My Aussie Citizenship was applied for as an NZ citizen, not a British one. My husband and kids also have all three citizenships - I don't think the kids realise how lucky they are yet but I'm sure once they want to start travelling they will! I don't see any point keeping all passports current, that would be a very expensive business. My husband needed one after he had been approved for citizenship but before his ceremony, he just renewed his NZ one which is for 10 years so he won't bother getting an Aussie one before then. Both kids' NZ ones will expire next month so I will get them Australian ones but I will probably have to renew my 17 year old's UK one in the next couple of years as I think he will want to go to the UK for a while and work there.

Hi Aussiegal17

I am a NZ citizen living in Sydney since 2009 and worked last 2 years full time delivery driver. Just wondering...do I need skill assessment and what documents do I need from my employer in order to nominate them. Thanks Syed

Edited January 26, 2016 by NicF
fixed quote