457 to Permanent Residency

Twinsmom
New Member



Joined: 23 Mar 2008
Posts: 1
Location: Kitchener

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:38 am

 

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Hello,

We are going to be moving to Perth on
a 457 Visa. My question is, can we
apply for permanent residency as
soon as we get in the country.

We were initially going to do the
Skilled visa application from
Canada, but the 457 allows us to
go to Australia quicker.

We have calculated the points for
the skilled visa and more than
qualify. I am aware that if you
do not have enough points then you
have to wait for two years prior
to applying for a PR Visa.

If anyone can help me with this
question, it would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks

Karen

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comet555
Super Member



Joined: 28 Jun 2007
Posts: 148
Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:17 pm

 

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Do you already have your 457 visa? If you do then you can apply for permanent anytime you like. The trick is that you can only hold one visa at a time, so if you've already got the 457 then when you were granted the 175 it would cancel the 457 and you'd be on PR.

You could apply while you're in Canada as an offshore visa but then you'd have to let immigration know you're in Australia so that they can inform you to leave to get it granted (could take a week). However, if you go to Oz on a 457 and then apply for an onshore 175 PR visa then you can stay in the country while it's granted.

If you don't mind being in oz on the 457 then I would suggest that you wait until you arrive and then apply right away. There's no reason to wait any longer unless you require extra points for oz work experience, etc. If you have the points then apply whenever you want.

Are you aware of the restrictions on the 457? Make sure to check out school fees, I know in NSW you'd have to pay a big chunk for school, but in Queensland you don't. I'm not sure what it's like in WA though.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/457_Visa_Restrictions

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comet555
Super Member



Joined: 28 Jun 2007
Posts: 148
Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:21 pm

 

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I forgot to give you this link:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=54

It's the best site I've found for immigration advice and information on Oz. It's directed at people moving from the UK but there are people from all over the world in there (Canada too). There's a poster on there from Canada who now lives in Perth, she used to live somewhere near Toronto area I think. Her screen name is Dorothy (real name too).

There's nothing wrong with this site but I think you'll find that it's incredibly slow and there's not a lot of advice given out. If you check out the other one you'll find everything you need. I used that site to get all the information we needed to apply for our PR visa without an agent.

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