What is the 457 Visa?
The 457 is a temporary work visa granted to people that have a sponsorship from an eligible Australian employer. It is a very common pathway for the achievement of permanent residence when it is coupled with the Employer Nomination Subclass 186.
It it possible to gain employment through the 457 skill select system by submitting an expression of interest to the skill select system. This makes your application available to employers to look at and can result in an offer of a job and an employer nomination for your visa.
Applying for a 457
To apply for this type of visa, you must be nominated to work in an approved occupation on the Skilled Occupation Lists and meet the skill requirements for the nominated occupation as well as the registration and licensing obligations. You need to have a nomination from an approved business and prove that you can speak vocational English as proven by an IELTS result above 5. To show that you have the relevant skills, you may need to submit a skills assessment or evidence of your professional licensing in conjunction with employer references. People with passports from from Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States of America are exempt from the English language requirement.
You will also need to pass health examinations which are valid for 12 months from the time that they are done. A person on a 457 Visa is responsible for all their own medical expenses while they are in Australia because they are not eligible for Medicare unless their country has a reciprocal health care agreement with Australia. Usually, there is a need to have health insurance to cover the gap where there is not any Medicare cover available which is the most common scenario. You also need to make sure that you have met the character requirements for the visa.
Permanent Migration through the Subclass 186
Once you have been in Australia for longer than 2 years, it is possible to make an application with the Employer Nomination Subclass 186 Visa which is the most common way that people on 457s become permanent residents. Because most people on a 457 visa do not change their employers, the employer is happy to arrange sponsorship for the Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Visa after a worker has been with the business on a 457 visa. It can aid the business because the person has a proven record of working with the business and if they gain the security of having permanent residency, this aids the business with retention of valuable staff.
If you would like more information about using the 457 Visa as a pathway to permanent residency, we have a number of lawyers that are experts in this field who can assist with the process.
