Visas

I’m a little overwhelmed by the visa process. Hopefully by writing it out and sharing in my blog I can gain a little clarity.

(Found this sign near the Kings Cross fountain. Accurate picture of how I feel right now)

Recently, I’ve been going to a lot of networking events and immigration lawyers. While I have been working, I haven’t been hired at a job that can lead to sponsorship and the ability to stay in Australia after June 2012. Fellow Americans seem to fall into four categories: They are here on a Work and Holiday Visa and only plan on staying a year, they are a student, they or their spouse work for an American company that moved them here for 6-18 months, or they have been here more than four years before the immigration policies changed. It seems difficult to find a sponsored visa once here. It may have something to do with the first question on every application being “Are you an Australian citizen or permanent resident?”

Basically, I have four options:

1. Option A Work and Holiday Visa: I can approach this year as a sabbatical or gap year. Filler jobs are easy to get and pay surprisingly well since Australia has a living wage versus a minimum wage. I can take the whole year, travel around Australia (scuba!), NZ (absailing!), and the little known country of Vanuatu (volcano surfing!) then move back to a random city in the US and start again.
2. Option B Student Visa: Because the US has such strict immigration policies, I cannot stay longer by working at fruit picking, nor can I take a single course at a time to get a student visa. I would have to be a student full time for at least two years. I don’t have the money or desire to get another degree.
3. Option C Employer Sponsored Visa: I can work at filler jobs while applying to companies that may provide me with a temporary (4 year) employer sponsored visa. This would allow me to stay in Sydney, hopefully doing something I love. It isn’t easy to get. Employers and the specific job have to qualify based on a select list. Companies don’t like to have all their inner workings reviewed by the immigration office. Not saying it is impossible, just highly unlikely. If it doesn’t work out, option A moves into effect.
4. Option D State Sponsored Visa: Because I have my MSW, I can qualify for a state sponsored visa. This area of immigration has changed drastically in the past few years, even just within this past year. When I applied for my initial visa a year ago, an MSW gave me a lot of points on a skilled assessment test, helping move my application along. By the time I moved here, however, social work was removed from the Sydney SOL (Skilled Occupation List). Therefore without an Employer Sponsored Visa I cannot stay in Sydney. In order to get a State Sponsored Visa, I have to be sponsored by the Western Australian government, who just added social work to their SOL yesterday. It is an expensive process but would allow me to stay in Australia an additional three years.

I have to make a decision soon to start the appropriate visa application. Unfortunately I cannot pursue both option C and D at the same time. I have to choose a path. Do I keep trying for an Employer visa hoping to beat the odds? Or do I go for the more expensive State Visa which has a better chance of success but I would have to move to another city just as I’m finally hitting my stride in Sydney? Or do I just drop it all and take the easy way out, the gap year.

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I still have no idea. Bummer.