Advice?

[Guest andrew_obrien]

i cam back from SA 1 3/4 years ago because i couldnt hack living alone (was the 1st time away from parents) but i am now ready to try again i am aware that i would not be able to go back to SA on SS ( only 1 year left on visa) but was thinking about moving to Perth for a year and applying for State sponsorship thier as i have everything that they require and should be accepted. I was wondering if i am allowed to have 2 475 visa's or are you only allowed 1 in your lifetime?

[Gollywobbler]

i cam back from SA 1 3/4 years ago because i couldnt hack living alone (was the 1st time away from parents) but i am now ready to try again i am aware that i would not be able to go back to SA on SS ( only 1 year left on visa) but was thinking about moving to Perth for a year and applying for State sponsorship thier as i have everything that they require and should be accepted. I was wondering if i am allowed to have 2 475 visa's or are you only allowed 1 in your lifetime?

 

Helloooo Andrew!!!!!

 

How the very devil are you, my friend?

 

To answer your question, there is nothing to prevent you from obtaining more than one subclass 475 visa.

 

However I would strongly suggest that you go back to George Lombard and ask him about whether your idea of getting a second sc 475 visa is viable. I sound the caution because:-

 

1. The Vetassess rules for skills assessments were changed completely on 1st January 2010. It might be that you could now get a skills assessment from the ACS instead - I don't know anything about computing skills myself, so unless you have reasearched this and you are certain about what is possible, I would recommend asking George Lombard, as I suggest.

 

2. It is no longer possible to get a skilled independent visa for Oz unless your skill (as shown by your skills assessment document) is on one of the State Migration Plans for one of the States and then you obtain State sponsorship from the State in question.

 

So the rules now are completely different from the ones that applied when you obtained your current sc 475 visa and the DIAC website has not been kept fully up to date, so that it is now fairly misleading.

 

What happened with you last time was that the Aussies' system for GSM visas was much more flexible than it is now. Immigration SA applied the then-rules partocularly flexibly, too. George was able to exploiit this flexibility so as to ensure that you obtained your current visa. Under the new rules, it is impossible to do that again so this time around it is essential to ensure that you are still eligible for GSM migration under the new rules

 

Your personal situation is not uncommon. I think the statistics are that around 30% of British migrants turn into "Ping Pong Poms." That is, they get their visas and move to Oz. For whatever reason, they don't settle in Oz well and so they come home. A few years later, they try again and the next time they go back to Oz, they usually stay there. My first cousin and his family are Ping Pong Poms as it happens!

 

My sister was nearly a PPP but not quite. She had been in Oz for about 3 or 4 years and suddenly she decided it was too far from home. She rang me (I was in the UK) in such a state of distress one July that I promised her that I would definitely go out to Oz for Christmas that year. I told her to stay where she was until I got there to take a look at the situation. I told Mum & Dad that if Elaine was not happy in Oz, I would bring her home with me. However I think that promising to visit cheered her up because she was fine when I got there 5 months later, there was nothing wrong with her set-up and she no longer wanted to come home. There was no reason for me to drag her home, so I left well alone.

 

I would suggest that you start by examining the SMPs for all the different States. (Immigration SA call theirs the SSML but it is their SMP all the same.) The link is below:

 

State and Territory Migration Sites - australia.gov.au

 

If you think that you tick one of the skills boxes, check the ACS website and make sure that you would be eligible for a new skills assessment from them. As far as I can gather, the Aussie Government has become particularly fussy about computer-wizards.

 

Also, there was some sort of bungle in July 2010 concerning computing professionals. What happened was that on 30th June 2010, Australia ditched its old ASCO Code (which classified occupations for the purposes of immigration amongst other things.) On 1st July 2010 they adopted the new ANZSCO Code instead. ANZSCO is much newer and it is a joint Oz/NZ document. Apparently some of the computing skills listed in ASCO did not "map across" into ANZSCO in the way that had been intended. The Australian Computer Society stepped in to try to sort the mess out because the "mapping across" between the two Codes had left people with the impression that they were no longer eligible when in fact Australia was still screaming out for their skills. George Lombard was involved in sorting it out so he knows the details. I ran and hid - which is what I always do when anyone mentions "computers" to me! So I was aware that there was a problem and roughly what it was about but apart from that I steered well clear!

 

Are you still single and childless? If yes, I'm not convinced that Perth would be the ideal billet for you, my friend. Perth is VERY expensive for houses nowadays and it is also a pretty parochial sort of a place. It is brilliant for families with young children but fairly dull for most other people imho. I think that if you are single and childless, you would do better to consider QLD. However this is just my personal opinion.

 

Above all, though, I would say, "Please double check everything with George."

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

PS. I meant to add this.

 

Your sc 457 visa is still valid and it can be extended for an extra year if need be, to give you more time in which to apply for a subclass 887 visa and thus obtain PR. It also does not require you to return to SA. You could move to any other State if you prefer, as long as either the whole of the new State is Regional Oz (the whole of SA, the NT, the ACT and TAS) or you move to a "Regional" part of the new State. A new 475 visa would prevent you from moving to Perth Metro in any case and your existing sc 475 visa would also keep you out of Perth Metro, so there is no difference there.

 

There is no reaon why you should not use your existing sc 475 visa in order to return to Oz. Once you are back in Oz, the 1 year extension possibiility might not be enough but an employer-sponsored ENS or RSMS visa would solve the problem completely. It might also be a way to enable you to "test the water of separation" again without spending another shed load of money at this stage?

[Guest andrew_obrien]

Wow gill thanks for the advice i never knew about the 1 year extension thats would solve most of my problems, PS. i am fine doind well for myself but i have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that i am ment to be in Australia and am currently saving every penny i can. I have been in touch with a recruitment firm that i visited when i was in oz last to see if they can help by setting up a few interviews so that i can fly out for them or webcam so hoping to hear something sooner rather than later. I would love to move back to Glenelg as it was beautiful thier just never realised i could get the 1 year extension. I would have gone back last year but couldnt afford it what with the recession but lets hope i can this time. keep in touch

 

 

andrew.obrien@obs-pcs.co.uk

[Gollywobbler]

Wow gill thanks for the advice i never knew about the 1 year extension thats would solve most of my problems, PS. i am fine doind well for myself but i have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that i am ment to be in Australia and am currently saving every penny i can. I have been in touch with a recruitment firm that i visited when i was in oz last to see if they can help by setting up a few interviews so that i can fly out for them or webcam so hoping to hear something sooner rather than later. I would love to move back to Glenelg as it was beautiful thier just never realised i could get the 1 year extension. I would have gone back last year but couldnt afford it what with the recession but lets hope i can this time. keep in touch

 

 

andrew.obrien@obs-pcs.co.uk

 

Hi Andrew

 

Thanks very much for your news.

 

Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Provisional) visa (subclass 487)

 

You have not done anything to breach the conditions of your existing visa, so I imagine that you could extend it if need be. I don't know the nuts & bollts about how to do that but I am sure that George Lombard would know.

 

I don't know whether you have to be in Australia in order to extend the sc 475 visa or whatever. I'd suggest it would be worth e-mailing George to get some advice about how viable the idea of an extension might be and what the drills are for getting an extension.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest andrew_obrien]

Hi Andrew

 

Thanks very much for your news.

 

Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Provisional) visa (subclass 487)

 

You have not done anything to breach the conditions of your existing visa, so I imagine that you could extend it if need be. I don't know the nuts & bollts about how to do that but I am sure that George Lombard would know.

 

I don't know whether you have to be in Australia in order to extend the sc 475 visa or whatever. I'd suggest it would be worth e-mailing George to get some advice about how viable the idea of an extension might be and what the drills are for getting an extension.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

 

Hi Gill would be great if i could extend my visa im sa would if i had a job offer or i could i apply for a PR if i had a job offer (how many more points) as i had the following email today

 

"I have just had a look at your resume and I do have a permanent 3 year contract role ICT Support Officer based in Port Pirie (North of Adelaide) supporting Catholic Schools.

The salary for this role would be $57,400 + Super (good salary for Adelaide) would you be interested in this role? "

 

 

This would be a great start i think

[Guest andrew_obrien]

Just had a look at port pirie definatly doesnt seem like the place for me, does anyone have any info on port pirie i know it had a big smelting factory