|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 9 January 2005 |
 |
|
 |
News |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
How to obtain permanent residency in Australia by Janaka Wickramanayake There are number of ways to obtain Australian Permanent Residence Visa. Some of the main categories of Permanent Residence Visas are: . Skilled Migration . Business Migration . Partner Migration . Last Remaining Relative Migration . Parent Migration . Employer Sponsored Migration and many other categories
Skilled Migration: Recently the Government of Australia increased the required number of points one has to obtain to be eligible to apply for the Australian Permanent Residence Visa from 115 to 120. However this applies only to the persons who apply for the Permanent Residence Visa on their own without a sponsor. A sponsor has to be a close relative of the visa applicant. Further, if the person, who desires to apply for the Permanent Residence Visa has a sponsor, he is entitled to obtain 15 points for the sponsorship. If the sponsor resides in a "designated area" such as Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and parts of Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales the applicant does not have to satisfy the points test. But still he has to satisfy the basic requirements of age, english language proficiency, skills qualification and recent work experience criteria. Under the new visa scheme introduced with effect from 1st July 2004, an applicant who obtains 110 points is eligible to apply for a Skilled Independent Regional Visa on the condition that he would reside outside the main Australian cities, namely Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. There is another category of Permanent Residence Visa in which the State sponsors the applicant, provided that the applicant possesses a skill which is in an accepted category such as engineering, motor mechanism, the fields of automotive electrician, electronic technicians etc. However some States require a Positive Skills Assessment before proceeding with the State sponsorship procedure. Business Migration: The Australian Government encourages businessmen who wish to apply for Business Migration. There are several sub categories in the Business Migration. One has to have a successful business career to apply for this category. Business Owner category requires the applicant to have at least 10 per cent of ownership interest, net business assets of AUD $200,000 and several other requirements. However, the State/Territory Sponsored Business Owner category requirements are much less stringent but the applicant is required to obtain State/Territory sponsorship. Another business Migration category is the Investor category. In this the applicant should be able to legally transfer funds amounting to AUD $ 2,250,000 minimum. As for the State/Territory Sponsored category the minimum amount is only AUD $1,125,000. Apart from this main requirement there are a few other criteria which one has to satisfy. All the above category visas are temporary visas given only up to 4 years initially. But these visas can be extended. They become eligible for Permanent Residence Visa, once they establish their business or investment and with fulfilment of other requisites. Apart from the above-mentioned categories there are many other categories under which an applicant can apply to obtain the Australian Visas. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
