The problem with travelling is that the more places you see, the more places you want to see. Every time you tick a destination or experience off the wishlist, you find yourself hearing about and adding three more in the process. The result of this is that whatever visa you’re on, you increasingly notice the tick tock at the back of your head as your Aussie visa edges towards its expiry date. But this need not be a problem, as extending your visa isn’t as hard or costly as you might think it is.
If you arrived in Australia on a three-month tourist visa, it’s relatively easy to get another three months as a tourist. The 676 visa costs $255 when lodged within Australia, but remember it’s illegal to work on a tourist visa.
Likewise, if you’re on a student visa and your course is nearing its end, you can apply for a tourist visa, a working holiday visa or sign up to another course and get another student visa. Alternatively, being a student in Australia is one of the quickest routes to gaining permanent residency, skipping the sponsorship stage, under the Skilled Migration Scheme.
There are several options for students hoping to gain residency (notably the 885 and 886visas), but take note that generally you need to have completed two years of study in Australia and you must be qualified to do a job that is on the government’s Skilled Occupation List. The list, which basically covers all the professions for which Australia has a shortage of workers, includes a wide range of roles, from accountant to carpenter, via social worker, teacher and mechanic.
The vast majority of travellers Down Under, however, arrive on a working holiday visa. This can be extended for a second year by completing 88 days of “specified work” in a “regional area”. Most commonly this is fruit-picking or volunteer work (try WWOOF or CVA), but can also include some construction and mining roles. Make sure you look at the government’s immigration website to check that the post code of where you’re planning to work is classified as “regional”. Another website, www.jobsearch.gov.au/harvesttrail is a good place to start when looking for fruit-picking jobs.
If you’re hoping to extend your Aussie stay by a much longer period, then thing get more complicated, but are still far from difficult. The easiest and most common route (unless you go down the hitch up with an Aussie or Kiwi, er, root), is to find a company to sponsor you. Due to only being able to work with one firm for six months on a working holiday visa, this will mean acting fairly fast once you get a
job you like.
The most common sponsorship visa is an employer-nominated 457 visa. To qualify, you must be in a job that pays at least $47,480 (excluding superannuation) and is on the government skills list. The visa costs $685 in fees, but if you’re lucky your firm will pick up the tab. You might also have to get chest X-rays and pay $300 for a skills assessment. Sponsorship will let you stay in Australia for up to four years, but only if you stay in that job. If you quit, you’ll have just 28 days to leave the country or find another employer willing to sponsor you.
Beyond sponsorship, the next step is permanent residency, which means you can stay in Oz for the rest of your life (unless you leave for an extended period) and can do any job, or none at all. It will set you back around $3,000 and you’ll need to have a full medical and provide police checks and educational records. For info on all visa options, visit www.immi.gov.au
April 4th, 2011
