@yowyosh said:
Hello everyone! I hope someone can help us with our situation.
So here it goes. My mom is currently a permanent residency visa holder (partner visa) in Australia. She is currently residing in Darwin NT and has a permanent job there as an Admin Assistant. Her husband, an Australian born and citizen, is also well established in his field of work. My mom is currently applying for her Citizenship this year.
Now the question is this, what visa subclass do we go if I'm (30M) and my brother (28M) are not totally dependent anymore from our mom and have a stable career on our field. Both of us are University graduates with a Bachelors Degree in Communication from the Philippines. I have a 7 years of experience in my particular field of endeavour, and 3 years of experience for my brother.
With the information that I've stated above, what are the possible course of actions that we can explore? My mom and step-dad are willing and able to provide financial support and accommodation for us.
So far we've checked the 491, 189, and 190 for the skilled visa; 115 and 835 for the family visa. Though family visa is a hit or miss for us since it will take years nay decades to be approved.
190 visa is what we're eyeing for cause based on the eligibility for nomination on the NT website, we've checked mostly of the criteria except for the skillselect score since we haven't taken any test yet. Question is, will it be viable to push for this or just take the 491 visa?
If we're going to hire a migration agent/agency, will it expedite the process? And for those who have hired one, how much is the going rate now for those agent/agencies?
If any of you there have the same situation and have succeeded in living in Australia, kindly tell us your experience.
Thank you!
Find out which occupation on the skills occupation list (SOL) closely matches your work experience—that's what you can nominate as your occupation under skilled migration. Here's the official list: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skill-occupation-list It's important that your experience fits the duties stated (you can click the ANZSCO code of the occupation on the list, and it'll take you to the ABS website, which lists the duties), not the job title per se.
The SOL also lists out the visa options for each occupation, and the assessing body for the skills assessment.
As for visa options, note that if your nominated occupation is eligible for both a 190 and 491, you can actually lodge expressions of interest (EOI) for both, if you want to take that route. For now, I would say figure out your nominated occupation + skills assessment first to get the ball rolling.
To weigh in on hiring a migration agent/agency, it won't expedite the process. There are mixed opinions and experiences, but the choice to get one or not really depends on your circumstances (capacity to research or invest time learning/doing the whole process, complexity of your case, and your budget, among others) and your priorities (for example, if it's highly important to you to have sole control and access to your application, then DIY might suit you fine; but if you want to put more focus on your life and have your application running in the background, then an agent might be for you).
I've seen some DIY'ers take longer, others on agents progress quicker, and vice versa. Timelines differ on a variety of factors, not just whether the applicant had an agent or not, so it's difficult to generalise.
Whichever you choose, I'd advise you to still do your own research (yes, even if you have a knowledgeable agent). Doing so would help you play a proactive role in the process, rather than just wholly depending on the agent's orders or requests. Communication is key when working with an agent as there will likely be a lot of back-and-forth.
So far, the price range I've seen runs between PHP 100–300k. Should you employ one, ensure that you have the agent's registration number (MARN), which you can validate on the MARA website.