Skilled Regional Sponsored 475 Visas
The Skilled Regional Sponsored visa is a 3-year provisional visa which requires the holder to live and work in regional Australia to qualify for permanent residence.
Applicants must be sponsored by an Australian relative living in a designated area or nominated by a state or territory government.
The pass mark for this visa is 100.
Visa Criteria
- Age
-
-
The main applicant must be under 45 at the date of lodgment.
- Occupation
- The main applicant must have a positive skills assessment in a Skilled Occupation.
For offshore applicants, the skills assessment must be finalised before lodgement, but onshore applicants just need to show that they have applied for skills assessment at date of application.
- English
- The main applicant must have at least:
- Competent English: in most cases
- Vocational English: if nominating a trade occupation
- Concessional Competent English: if suitable arrangements for English tuition are available in the relevant state.
Family members aged 18 or over must show at least Functional English, otherwise they may need to pay the English Education Charge.
Evidence of threshold English must be provided at date of lodgement
- Recent Work Experience
-
Offshore applicants must have worked in skilled employment for at least 12 of the last 24 months prior to application.
- Study in Australia
-
International students do not need to show recent work experience. Instead, they must show that they either:
- Working Holiday Makers and Occupational Trainees
-
Working holiday makers who have been in Australia for at least 6 months and Occupational Trainees who have completed their Australian training can also apply onshore and receive a waiver of the recent work experience requirement.
- Points Test
- The main applicant must achieve a score of at least 100 points to qualify for the visa.
- Family Sponsorship
- You can be sponsored by the following family members, so long as they are an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible NZ Citizen:
- Brother or Sister
- Parent
- Non-dependent child
- Uncle or Aunt
- Nephew or Niece
Note that you can be sponsored by a relative of your spouse, defacto spouse or interdependent partner.
Half- and step-relatives can sponsor your application.
The sponsor must be usually resident in a designated area to sponsor your application, and would provide 25 points to your application.
- State Nomination
- Each Australian State & Territory produces a list of occupations in demand in the state or territory.
The states and territories may specify requirements over and above the visa criteria, particiularly in relation to English langauge ability, work experience and funds available for settlement in Australia.
If you are nominated by a state or territory government, you will receive an additional 10 points.
Duration and Conditions
Results in the grant of a 3-year visa. You will face restrictions on where you can live, work and study as follows:
- Sponsorship by Relative in Designated Area: you must live, work, or study in a designated area. This need not be in the same state as your sponsor;
- State/Territory Government Sponsorship: If nominated by a state/territory government, you must live & work in certain regional or low population growth areas. You would be able to live and work anywhere in Australia except in Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, NSW Central Coast, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Perth, Melbourne or ACT.
Once you have lived in Australia on your Skilled - Regional Sponsored visa for 2 years, you may be eligible for permanent residence through the skilled regional visa.
|
