Australia

Q:Why is PR ( Permanent Residence) the best option?
Ans: We strongly advise our candidates to apply for permanent residence, in order to be in the best personal and professional position when they come to Australia.

If that option is available to you it is the best choice for the following reasons:

It leads to full Citizenship after 2 years of living in Australia
It enables you to be in the best personal position as you don’t have to worry anymore about going in and out of the country as a tourist or other visas ( business or employment sponsorship).
If you are on an employment sponsorship visa - employers take advantage of your situation and pay you less and they know that you depend on them - as you have to leave the country in a month if something goes wrong with the employer.
You are in a far better marketable position if you apply for jobs as a PR otherwise you will find that employers don’t even want to consider you because the employment sponsorship is a very complicated procedure for them to go through.
Even if you just decide to be a student (or your partner wishes to study in Australia) - it’s still the best choice as studies in Australia are very expensive for overseas students and once you become a PR you immediately enjoy the benefits of a local student, and pay from half to a third of the price for your studies and you are eligible for various government grants. Students that came from overseas found out that they would have been in a far better position if they had applied for the PR from overseas and came into Australia already as PR’s.
You get immediately free Medicare that is the basic governmental insurance package. As to social benefits you will get them only after 2 years of living in Australia as a PR.

Q:Do I need to be represented professionally in the procedure
Ans: It’s important to make it clear that you can apply by yourself and go through the migration process without the professional representation of migration agents.

However, there are so many reasons why it is far better to be represented professionally that it’s very hard to list all the reasons and we will make an attempt to mention some of the main ones. Sometimes the migration procedures might seem simple but they are very intricate and misleading.

There are daily changes in the migration laws and different internal policies of the assessing and government bodies, so that only professionals in the field can keep up to date with that and be sure that all the right factors have been taken into account. We continuously get applications from individuals who wasted a lot of time and money on their efforts to apply by themselves and have used the wrong procedure or made other mistakes and they try to correct the damage that has already been done, we can still help at that stage but it’s much harder than to get it right the first time.

It’s important to get it right the first time as the process is lengthy and our experience has shown that those who have chosen to do it by themselves apart from the fact that many of them fail - it is also nerve wracking for them as they are “ alone in the process”, don’t have any sources to get advise from and the tension and pressure accumulates as they continue further down the track.

Q:What is the length of the process?
Ans: If you start immediately then it can take anything between 7 months to 10 months ( on the skilled migration category ) and even more than that.

It all depends on the procedure / category of visa / government policy at the time of lodging the application / how fast you supply all the documents and also sometimes on your skills (in particular cases processing times can be made shorter)

Q:What is the procedure for migrating to Australia (skilled immigration)?
Ans: The skilled immigration process to Australia is essentially of 3 steps.

Q:What would it cost to migrate to Australia?
Ans: The fees of the skills assessment body, Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) and others are given below:

Skills Assessment: From Aus$ 300 onwards (depends on your occupation)
DIMIA Visa Application Fee: Aus$1795
English Language (IELTS) Test: Aus$ 200 approximately
Health (Medical/X-ray) Examinations: Aus$ 100 onwards (depending on the panel doctor)
Character Check(s) [Police Clearance]: Aus$ 10 onwards (depending on the country)

Please contact us for details of our fees. If you submit your details for a Free Evaluation, you will receive details of our fees along with the evaluation report.

Q:How much money should I take to Australia (or show in my bank account, during visa processing)?
Ans: There is no minimum set amount prescribed by DIMIA that you should show in your bank account, during the processing of your visa. However the changes brought about in 1999, require newly arrived migrants to wait for a period of 2 years, before they would become eligible for any social security payments such as unemployment benefit. So you should be able to take sufficient amount of funds with you in order to be able to survive during the initial period in Australia, till the time you find employment.

Q:Can you provide a list of services of offered by Safir Global?
Ans: We provide the following services and more than this list, a friendly, transparent and quick service that would make the move as painless as possible:

Q:What sort of assistance we get from you to settle in the new country?
Ans: We offer settlement advice for all our clients. This includes information about the job market in Australia, finding accommodation, getting a tax file number, applying for driver's license, preparation of resumes, etc. The whole aim is to make your initial period of settlement in the new country as comfortable as possible.

Q:Can you guarantee that my migration application will be approved?
Ans: We will not accept your instructions to proceed with your application unless we are convinced that your application has a good chance of being approved. We will endeavour to ensure that your application is presented in the best way along with a legal submission covering all aspects of the migration regulations and the procedures advice manual PAM3, that the visa officers use. However as much as we would like to provide you a guarantee that your application will be approved, the Migration Agents Code of Conduct strictly prohibits us from providing you that guarantee. If we do provide you a guarantee that your application will be approved, we will be in breach of the Code of Conduct and we would be subject to disciplinary action by the Migration Agents Registration Authority.

Q:Can I get a refund of the fees paid if my migration application is refused?
Ans: In the unfortunate event of a skill assessment or migration applications being rejected or refused, we would not charge our client any further fee quoted at the time of signing an agreement. So you would not incur any further loss. We charge our fee in instalments and only when our client clears a stage an invoice is raised for the next stage of the application process. We would not advise you to apply, if your chance of succeeding is not good, so it is all the more reason to get in touch with a registered migration agent.
Any fee paid to the skills assessment bodies or the Department of Immigration would not be refunded to you.

Q:When can I apply to be a citizen of Australia?
Ans: The Australian Government encourages all permanent residents to apply for citizenship as soon as they are eligible to apply. You may apply to become a citizen when you have accumulated a total of 2 years of residence in Australia, out of the last 5 years immediately before you submit your citizenship application.

Q:What is the best time to apply?
Ans: The best time to apply is 'NOW'. Because as you get older you get fewer points and if you are over 45, you would not be eligible to apply to migrate to Australia. Also, with each change to the migration act and regulations, it becomes increasingly more difficult to migrate.

Q:Why should I use a Registered Migration Agent?
Ans: A registered migration agent (RMA) is certified by an Australian Government Body called MARA (Migration Agents Registration Authority) after the agent has a thorough knowledge of all aspects of the immigration act and regulations of Australia. There are exams conducted by MARA before the registration takes place. Also the agent needs to have a post graduate qualification with law components in it and needs to be an Australian Citizen, so that if there are any malpractices by the agent, he/she can be punished under Australian law. The costs of maintaining the registration are also very high.

RMAs are also required to keep their knowledge up-to-date by attending CPD (Continuing Professional Development) courses periodically in Australia. RMAs are also required to maintain a library of all migration acts, regulations and related information. RMAs are also given access to the Procedure Advice Manual (PAM), which the visa officers use in deciding an application.

Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) recognises only MARA registered agents to file immigration applications on behalf of applicants.

In the last few years more than 50% of all applications ended up being rejected by DIMIA. An application assisted by a registered migration agent can enhance the prospects for acceptance by DIMIA. To enhance the prospects of your application to be accepted, we present a legal submission with your application. In this, we address every single aspect of the law, regulations and DIMIA immigration procedures manual with respect to your case and this could sometimes run up to over 30 pages. We can communicate with the DIMIA office to follow up on your application, which may not be possible if you do the application directly or by an unrecognised agent.

In addition to your immigration application, we give expert guidance on preparing the skills assessment applications. The skills assessment is essential and without a successful skills assessment, your immigration application cannot proceed. There are a number of skills assessment bodies in Australia and you need to satisfy the criteria established by the assessment body. A careful preparation of your application is also essential to get a successful outcome. With our experience in handling a number of applications, we can successfully guide you through.

Q:Can everything be done while I am overseas?
Ans: Yes, you can actually go through the whole procedure while you are overseas and in fact it’s even much better to do it in that way. To come to Australia on a tourist visa and wait for your application to be processed is not a good idea as time of processing varies and you can’t work in the meantime.
We actually specialise in working with overseas clients and can provide the whole service online mostly via the internet in the most efficient and professional way.

Q:What happens after I get the Permanent Residence (PR)?
Ans: Many of our clients are concerned that they will have to come to Australia immediately once they are granted the PR. The answer to that is that you are given by the Australian authorities a period of time in which you can come to Australia and activate the PR - so you can just come in for a few days activate it and then go and live wherever you like. The PR is granted for 5 years - during those years you can come in and out of Australia as much as you like - you have all the rights and duties as a Citizen apart from the social security benefits (that you get even as a PR after 2 years of living here) and the right to elect.

Q:When and how do I become a formal Citizen in Australia and get the exclusive Australian Passport?
Ans: When you accumulate 2 years as a PR (1 year has to be in the 2 years immediately prior to application) you can apply for the Australian Citizenship and that is almost automatically granted to you in a ceremony - in fact the Australian Government encourages permanent residents to become Citizens.

You can live forever as a PR in Australia - there are about 1 million people that do that for various reasons so the status is equivalent to Citizenship.

Be right the first time. Save time and money by getting your application handled by Safir Global.