Subclass 491- Skilled work regional visa

[Elle_Lu]

Hi,

I'm about to start the process of applying for the subclass 491 visa and was hoping someone else on here might have been through/are going through the same process.

Have you got any advice? Did anything come up that you weren't expecting? 

Thanks!

[VERYSTORMY]

The best advice I would give is to use a good registered migration agent

[Marisawright]

It's a brand new visa, so very few people have been through the process yet.  

[PickledRic]

10 hours ago, Elle_Lu said:

Hi,

I'm about to start the process of applying for the subclass 491 visa and was hoping someone else on here might have been through/are going through the same process.

Have you got any advice? Did anything come up that you weren't expecting? 

Thanks!

Hi Elle_Lu, 

I’ve just received a state invitation for the 491 for QLD so still very early on in the process but so far it’s all pretty much what I expected.

I think the most important thing is to be patient, the waiting is torture but in the long run when I think about it I didn’t even wait that long, think it was only about 9 weeks.

Also don’t be afraid to contact people and ask what’s happening and for updates etc. It doesn’t affect your application negatively and it can help sometimes just having contact with someone who knows what they’re doing. 
 

I’m not using an agent and I think it’s something for each individual to decide; we felt we’d rather save the money for when we got there and actually the process hasn’t been *that* difficult, all the info is online nowadays anyway you just have to dedicate a lot of time to piece it together. 
 

[Elle_Lu]

1 hour ago, PickledRic said:

Hi Elle_Lu, 

I’ve just received a state invitation for the 491 for QLD so still very early on in the process but so far it’s all pretty much what I expected.

I think the most important thing is to be patient, the waiting is torture but in the long run when I think about it I didn’t even wait that long, think it was only about 9 weeks.

Also don’t be afraid to contact people and ask what’s happening and for updates etc. It doesn’t affect your application negatively and it can help sometimes just having contact with someone who knows what they’re doing. 
 

I’m not using an agent and I think it’s something for each individual to decide; we felt we’d rather save the money for when we got there and actually the process hasn’t been *that* difficult, all the info is online nowadays anyway you just have to dedicate a lot of time to piece it together. 
 

Hi Ric,

That's really reassuring. I'm the same as you, I don't want to go through an agent as I'd rather save the money for the move.

Is there anything specific you did before submitting your EOI or does everything seem to naturally fall into place during the application process?

One finally question as well...did you get a preference for what state you'd like to be in, or does it wholly depend on which state is willing to sponsor you?

[PickledRic]

2 hours ago, Elle_Lu said:

Hi Ric,

That's really reassuring. I'm the same as you, I don't want to go through an agent as I'd rather save the money for the move.

Is there anything specific you did before submitting your EOI or does everything seem to naturally fall into place during the application process?

One finally question as well...did you get a preference for what state you'd like to be in, or does it wholly depend on which state is willing to sponsor you?

Hi,

Well you need to know whether your skill is on the skills list first of all; each state has different criteria and different skills list for the 491 so you need to decide which state you want to live in and check you’re on their list and meet their criteria. 

Your skill needs to be assessed before you can apply and if you need registration for example teaching registration you ideally need that beforehand. Skills assessment can take a long time so don’t put an EOI in before you have this as it will just get refused when you can’t provide the positive assessment.

When you put your EOI in you need to specify one state, if you choose ‘any’ you’ll likely never be picked but just take a look at each states migration pages and go from there.