Migration Centre of Australia

Day: July 16, 2018

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Student Dependent Visa – Bring your family and partner on your Student Visa

Moving abroad and starting a new life as a student can be an extremely tough, depressing and lonely experience for anyone. Most people leave their families and spouses behind to start afresh, all alone. There is a big solution for that though, a visa that not many people are aware of; the student dependent visa (500).  Student dependent visa is not an individual visa. It is the same subclass as student visa (subclass 500). An international student with a student visa of 12 months or longer is allowed to bring their family members, spouses or their kids of less than 18 years of age to enter the country on a dependent visa. Required documents You must declare your family members in your visa application form in order to be eligible to bring them as dependents on your Australian student visa, even if they are not travelling with you to Australia. If you do not declare all family members in your visa application, they might not be eligible to apply for a dependent visa once you arrive in Australia and there are chances of a refusal. There is an exception for partners. If the primary applicant does not include their partner in the visa application form for the simple reason that they were not in a relationship at the time, they are eligible to apply separately if they can provide substantial evidence to claim the same. Eligibility Criteria for Australian Dependent Student Visas For dependent spouse or partner The dependent must be your spouse (the person you are married to) or de facto partner (including same sex partners) If the dependent is your de facto partner, you must have been living with your partner for at least 12 months, and you must share a genuine and exclusive relationship with your partner (see more about partner visas) For dependent children The dependent child must be your child or that of your partner The child must not be married or engaged to be married or in a de facto relationship The child must be less than 18 years of age and must be still in continuous education (i.e. studying A-levels) If you are including your dependent family members in your original student visa application, then you must include all your family members on your original Form 157A (Application for a student visa). If you are applying for family members to join you after you have started your course in Australia, then you must submit the following documents: Form 919(Nomination of student dependents) Form 157A (Application for a student visa) An original letter from the education provider stating: The course you are studying The duration of the course and the expected date of completion If you are satisfying all course requirements Evidence to prove your relationship with your dependent in the form of legitimately issued birth certificates or marriage certificates Evidence of having enough funds to support your dependents in Australia Evidence of school enrolment for your school-aged dependents Evidence of health insurance for each dependent Rights Granted Under Dependent Student Visa Dependent applicants are allowed to work in Australia. The rights are dependent on the course of study of the student which include: A dependent partner can study in Australia for any course of 3 months or lesser duration For a student pursuing a bachelor’s degree, the dependent partner will be allowed to work up to 40 hours per fortnight For a student pursuing a master’s degree or a doctorate degree or doing research work, the dependent partner will have full and unlimited work rightsAll other conditions can be read here.   6 Steps to follow for the dependent visa application   Download as PDF to access links    
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Government issues “boutique” visas in areas with skills shortage

The Australian government is offering “boutique” visa deals in regions with niche skills shortages as revealed by an SBS report. The areas of Northern Queensland and Goldfields in Western Australia’s southeast are two regions that will benefit the most in the upcoming months. According to the report there have already been 322 special labour agreements in place with certain businesses and industries across the country, but the Minister for Citizenship Alan Tudge wants to go further and do arrangements on the basis of geographical locations. “In the Goldfields, they’ve got a shortage of drillers. They’ve got a shortage of people who can work on some of the nearby farms and we want to be able to ensure that those skills gaps can be met so that those businesses can continue to grow.” “In North Queensland, they’ve got a thriving tourism industry and they’ve got requirements for things like Chinese-speaking scuba diving instructors,” Mr Tudge told SBS News. What exactly is a boutique visa?   Boutique visas are arrangements that are granted at the government’s discretion when there are vacancies for certain positions that cannot be filled locally or by Australian citizens and the job isn’t within the Skills Shortage List of more than 600 occupations eligible for skilled visa categories. It is necessary for companies to demonstrate that they are unable to acquire local workers for the positions by publicizing nationally first. In the majority of the cases, visa holders are given a pathway to permanent residency. “The good thing about the arrangements of the boutique visas is that it allows to have a personalised arrangement with each company but helps keep the structure same as we are prioritising Australians first as the company needs to show that there is no Australian available to fill the position and it still needs to satisfy the criteria set out in the agreement,” said Mr Tudge. The visa deals are expected to be in place by the end of this year. One of the centres out of the dozen that have been granted visas, is the Melbourne aged care centre Fronditha Care to boost staff numbers. 22 Greek aged care workers have been employed by the centre so far and the centre has also been granted an extra 60 visas known as the TSS (Temporary Skill Shortage) visa – to hire more bilingual staff. According to the centre’s CEO George Lekakis, “They’re able to relate to our residents. They also help with the transfer of information to other colleagues who don’t speak Greek.” According to Mr Tudge there is going to be a significant demand for Greek-speaking personal carers because there are about 27,000 people in Australia of Greek heritage who do not speak English and they are typically all above the age of 60. Dozens of elderly Greek migrants call Fronditha care centre their home. These residents have reverted to their first language as they have aged and so having staff that speaks the language helps in the communication. “The Greek language builds trust with the residents.” “If someone is irritated, agitated or in extreme cases, aggressive, the language can calm them down,” Greek care worker Dimitra Xexaki said. Contact Us if you wish to find out more   Guest blog by Mckkrs
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