[catanddave]

Hi,

I am considering immigration to Australia with my family. I am 40, my wife 38and we have children aged 11, 8 and 2.

I am an MBA qualified senior manager within a Management Consultancy with over 15 years experience in the Oil & Gas industry. I co-founded the company and it has approximately 60 employees worldwide.

My wife has a step brother (permanent resident) who, along with his wife (citizen) lives in Perth.

I have looked at the eligibility for a 176 (relative sponsored) and could get 95 points for a SOL - Management Consultancy .

Given the shortage of points, would I be advised to try for Employer sponsorship by contacting Australian recruitment agencies. Have I missed an opportunity somewhere else and what would a realistic timescale be.

Hope I have provided enough information to get a response!

Many thanks!

 

[xdorota]

Hi catandave,
I think you are not calculating your points properly, it is very hard to score 95 with your qualifications, experience and good English. If you don't have enough points then indeed an employer sponsor might be an option and there are other visas available for business people. Good news for people like is that yesterday the Minister announced some coming changes to the point system to make it easier for highly qualified people from overseas to pass the points test. It'll probably take another six months for such changes to be implemented but it looks like DIAC wants people like you to come to Australia. So, if you are sure you can't score 100 points now the options are: a sponsoring employer, another visa or simply wait for the changes in points system. Also, have you tried assessing your wife's qualifying score?
Good luck
Dorota

 

[Wanderer]

Hi,

I am considering immigration to Australia with my family. I am 40, my wife 38and we have children aged 11, 8 and 2.

I am an MBA qualified senior manager within a Management Consultancy with over 15 years experience in the Oil & Gas industry. I co-founded the company and it has approximately 60 employees worldwide.

My wife has a step brother (permanent resident) who, along with his wife (citizen) lives in Perth.

I have looked at the eligibility for a 176 (relative sponsored) and could get 95 points for a SOL - Management Consultancy .

Given the shortage of points, would I be advised to try for Employer sponsorship by contacting Australian recruitment agencies. Have I missed an opportunity somewhere else and what would a realistic timescale be.

Hope I have provided enough information to get a response!

Many thanks!

You would have to do the english IELTS test dave and get the maximum 25 points to rack up the 95 though as Dorota mentions the whole immigration scene is in a state of flux for the moment and I have put a Sticky thread at the top with a link that has other change statements linked to it.

Even under the old regime 95 points is not going to be sufficient and so you'll need to look at other options and Employer Sponsorship [ES] is one possibility, that currently being top priority category for GSM visas and the changes just announced maintain that.

There are a couple of major Gas projects announced recently for the north of WA that you may be aware of and so work in that area is a possibility though I have noted on one company web site there has been a comment re applicants for work with them already needing a work permitting visa [ so in essence not sponsoring, though sub contractors could].
I did think [given your background and if you still have an ownership/management interest in the company you co-founded ], whether an expansion of the company to Australia is a possibility to look at employer sponsorship.

Other than ES, it would seem that to get sufficient points you would have to rely on a State Nomination but I would hold off on that for one of the changes that has been announced is for the states to have a special state immigration plan ministerially agreed in addition to their standard nominations approach.

What that will mean is though occupations on agreed plans will have a priority level 2, the general state nomination applications will be in a general pool of applications with wait times of several to more years.

Another altetrnative would be to review the SOL to see if there are other management occupations you may meet - A-Z Occupations List - Australian Skills Recognition Information another listing you can use as a resource.

There are quite a few employment agencies that specialise in mining/resources areas and you'll come across them via online searching with appropriate terms and there are also the more general agencies - Welcome to Hire A Migrant , being one and though without recommending I do know that Jamie does keep abreast of immigration changes and he could be worth having a chat to.
I have actually suggested to him in the past that there's scope for ES agency work to be ramped up.

Never know, might even be scope for him to use someone like you to ramp in to the resources area!

ES will certainly be the quicker visa processing approach once you have an eligible employer/position, 3-6 months for processing time.
State Nominations alone can take up to 3-6 months and then a visa application on top of that likely to still be around 3-6 months or more for a Priority 2 and for lower priorities you could be looking at several to more years.

 

[catanddave]

Thank you xdorota and wanderer for your replies.

There seems to be a little difference between you regarding points - xdorota suggests that 95 is low whilst wanderer suggests that it would only be achievable by aceing the english test. I will, however, come back to points if need be at a later date.

Initially, I will be trying the sponsored route. My details are currently being put forward for a position in WA that would gain me sponsorship.

In order to ask the right questions if it gets to that stage, what type of visa would this get me and how would family members be included? If it is a visa with a duration, what are the prospects for converting before it expires? Would they typically cover the costs of using an agent as well as the cost of the visa?

Thanks.

 

[Wanderer]

Thank you xdorota and wanderer for your replies.

There seems to be a little difference between you regarding points - xdorota suggests that 95 is low whilst wanderer suggests that it would only be achievable by aceing the english test. I will, however, come back to points if need be at a later date.

Initially, I will be trying the sponsored route. My details are currently being put forward for a position in WA that would gain me sponsorship.

In order to ask the right questions if it gets to that stage, what type of visa would this get me and how would family members be included? If it is a visa with a duration, what are the prospects for converting before it expires? Would they typically cover the costs of using an agent as well as the cost of the visa?

Thanks.

Dorota is suggesting you would struggle to get your points and all I've done is say 95 would be the maximum available for you.

Re the sponsored route, with a postion available I assume you're now talking of the Employer Sponsored route and there is both the 457temporary and ENS/RMS permanent residency sponsorship, different eligibility requirements and being on a temporary residency for two years is another way of meeting eligibility requirements for a sponsored PR though you could be eligible for a direct PR sponsorship.

Best you have a read of both you'll find from Visa Options @ Employer Sponsored Workers - Workers - Visas & Immigration

It is up to you with negotiating as to what assistance an employer may be prepared to offer and family become secondary applicants just as on an independent visa.

 

[catanddave]

Many thanks for your help!

 

[xdorota]

Hi catanddave,

What I meant was that 'it is hard to score as little as 95 points'. After I wrote the post I realised that it could mean something different but left it unedited because I thought it was clear from the context and the balance of the information what I meant. Basically (without knowledge of specific circumstances) I thought you would score as the minimum:
Occupation 60
Age 15
English 15
Work exp 10

If you are a native English speaker or your English is good you could get extra 10points for English by sitting an IELTS test and scoring 7/4. If you are not native then you would probably qualify for extra 5 points for a community language. Also, you may get extra 5 points for partner skills.

You are doing the best thing by looking for an employer who would sponsor you. You include in your application all family members and you will all get the temporary 457 visa and stay, study and work for four years. Unfortunately, if you are not a permanent resident you will have to pay for the children's school and it might work out to be very expensive.

Once you are here on 457 you can apply for PR almost immediately (after assessment of qualifications) provided your employer wants to sponsor you for PR (which they usually do as they have sponsored you for 457). It is very important that you do not take a break from employment for longer than a usual annual leave. Many people come to Au for a long holiday to look around, find an employer, get their 457 visas but DISQUALIFY themselves from applying for an immiediate application for PR because of the break in employment (you need to have 3 years employment prior to applying). Then, they are stuck with the other option for PR, i.e. work in Au for two years, including one year for the sponsoring employer. This usually means that they are on a temp visa for at least 2.5 years and, if there are children, it is exhausting financially.

There is also a third option to qualify for an employer sponsored PR visa: being offered a highly paid executive position for min $165,000.00.

Re: agent's fees, usually if an employer sponsors you they pay agent's fees. Most of the agent's fees would be in relation to getting sponsorship and nomination approved (employer's fees). Not much work is involved in your application after sponsorship and nomination is approved.

Hope it helps and good luck
Dorota