Australia Skilled Sponsored Visa - Family Sponsorship

The Australian Sponsored visa operates on a points-based system that focuses predominantly on the skills, qualifications and work experience of the Australian skilled migration applicant.

The total points requirement is open to change and is dependent on decisions made by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA).

The current pass mark for a Skilled-Australian Sponsored visa for immigration to Australia is 100 points, This application is supported by a sponsor to ensure that the applicant meets the necessary points requirement.

Duration

These type of Australia visas entitle people emigrating to Australia to gain permanent residency status. After a two-year period, providing relevant criteria have been met, the visa holder may apply for Australian citizenship.

Eligibility Criteria

Age

An Australian visa application for Skilled Sponsored Migration must be lodged before the applicant reaches the age of 45 years.

Skills & Qualifications

The main applicant:

    * Must meet the qualifications and/or work experience requirements of the appropriate skills assessing body for their profession and must have been assessed as suitable by the relevant body for the nominated occupation;
    * Must nominate a skilled occupation that appears on the most recent version of the Skilled Occupations List;
    * The candidate must have been in recent paid employment of at least 20 hours per week in any of the occupations on the Skilled Occupations List for 12 of the last 24 months.

Sponsorship

The visa applicant must:

    * Be related to a sponsor as a non-dependant child, a parent, a brother or sister, or a niece or nephew;
    * They should also be 18 years of age or over;
    * The nominated sponsor must be an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, or in certain cases New Zealand citizens may also act as the sponsor.

Assurance of Support

To migrate to Australia under this category, the applicant must have an assurer. The assurer must also meet several requirements, including having a certain income level.

 Health & Character

There are strict health and character requirements that must be met before any permanent Australian visa of more than 12 months will be granted. Those people attempting to migrate will be required to:

    * Undergo a medical examination and chest x-ray undertaken by one of a panel of doctors selected by the Australian authorities, and;
    * Obtain police certificates for all countries in which they have lived for more than 1year in the 10 years leading up to the application.

Processing Times

The current processing time for the Skilled Sponsored migration visa is about 1 year 03 months from the start of the process.