Permanent residency options for working holiday makers

Skilled visas – commonwealth or state government sponsorship

These are the ‘points-tested’ visas sponsored by a Commonwealth or state Government. If you have a skills assessment in a listed occupation, competent English, and work experience you could be invited to apply for a permanent visa (if you have expressed your interest).

Whether you will be invited depends on how competitive the pool of potential applicants with your occupation is, and whether the Commonwealth or state is looking for people with your skillset.

The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has allocated 30,375 places for Skilled Independent visas so many skilled people will be left without an invitation. There is no issue with making an expression of interest in your occupation while also working toward other permanent options. Obtaining a skills assessment in your occupation is the first step and if you don’t end up using this pathway, your skills assessment will be useful (and maybe necessary depending on your occupation) for employer sponsored visas. Note that is can take months to obtain a skills assessment, so you have to start the process of applying for your skills assessment long before you need it.

Employer sponsored visas – temporary to permanent work sponsored visas

All individuals holding Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) subclass 482 visas are now eligible to be nominated for Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) 186 visas sponsored by their employers.

This is a positive development as previously only certain occupations were able to apply for permanent residency through their employers.   

Sponsored subclass 482 visa holders can apply for the 186 ENS Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) after just two years (previously three years) of employer sponsorship on a 482 TSS visa.

Applicants must still fulfill all other nomination and visa criteria for the 186 TRT stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme visa.

You can’t take any chances with this complex area of law because any mistakes, even innocent mistakes, in the nomination can lead to refusal of the nomination and the visa. The consequence of a visa refusal onshore is a restriction on your ability to apply for subsequent visas onshore, and a big financial cost (and stress) to try to fix errors in the Tribunal. We win cases on the courts and Tribunals every week where people have misunderstood the legal criteria and not shown they met the criteria leading to refusal. Getting it right the first tome will save you money and stress.