How to live, work and study in Australia for 4-5 years? ? It is possible, and opens the
on the way to the residence!

Thinking of embarking on a study experience in Australia, but don’t want it to end at the end of your studies? Are you thinking about how to generate a medium-long term roadmap in Australia and how is the investment to be taken into account? Here we are going to share with you which path you can take for this Personal Plan!

Within the study options offered by the different academic institutions in Australia, we can find 3 different types of study levels, which offer different durations for any type of experience, and Personal Plan. They can be:

• from courses lasting only a few weeks, such as an ELICOS Qualification;
• These may be courses lasting 6 months, 1 year, or up to 2 years of study, which are called vocational studies (VET-TAFE Qualifications);

or even university studies, better known as Bachelor Degree, Master Degree, Master Degree by Research, o PhD which usually last from one and a half to four years.

Now, in case you are looking to have a more extensive experience than one year, or two years, What strategy can be applied to achieve the objective of your Personal Plan? The Department of Home AffairsOnce you have finished your studies, it gives you the possibility of applying for a Temporary Graduate Visa. This strategy is ideal for those students who, although they are looking for a study experience, their main objective is to be able to later extend their experience in Australia and be able to practice professionally in the land of the kangaroos!

Let’s get down to details. The Temporary Graduate Visa (Subclass 485) is a visa that allows international students who have completed at least two years of study in Australia and meet the Australian Study Requirement to work full time. Australian Study Requirement . Depending on the type of visa, it can last between 18 months and 4 years. Benefits of this visa include the ability to work without time restrictions, gain professional experience in Australia and include members of your family unit, such as a partner. This visa is commonly referred to as “Post-Study Visa”, but this gives rise to some confusion as the Post-Study visa is one of the two types of this 485 visa. In the following link you can find on the official website of the Department of Home Affairs of Australia all the relevant information for this visa. You can also learn more about this Visa on our website, at this link. link! As it has been previously shared, in order to apply for this type of Visa once you have finished your studies, you must have studied a minimum of two yearsalways complying with the Australian Study Requirement of 92 weeks of study. However, it cannot be just any type of study. Below you will be able to see in more detail the two types of visas that are derived from the aforementioned visa:

Temporary Graduate 485 Graduate Work stream – Link

This type of visa is aimed at international graduate students with qualifications and skills in demand. skills in demand by the Australian government for their migration plan and aligned with the demand of the labor market. Trade Certificates, Diplomas, Advanced Diplomas and undergraduate studies are considered for this type of visa. The duration of this visa is usually 18 months.

As of July, a new flexibilization has been applied for those students who manage to complete the 92 weeks of study before June 30, 2023. What is the benefit? It is not necessary that the skill they have studied be on the skill occupation list. You can access the following link for more information.

Temporary Graduate 485 Post-Study Work stream – Link

This type of visa is for those studying in Australia for a Bachelor Degree, Masters Degree, Masters by Research, or PhD. It is not a requirement that what is studied is closely related to a skill in demand in Australia. The duration of the visa will also depend on what has been studied. For Bachelor Degree and Masters by Coursework, a 2-year Graduate Visa is granted. For Masters by research, it is 3 years and, for a PhD, it is 4 years. In the last days of September 2022 the Minister of Education of Australia, Jason Clarehas published that it will be joined by two years Graduate Visa to those students who complete their studies in professions that are within the scope of the skill occupation list, i.e. those occupations required by the Australian Federal Government. Although it is not yet official news, it is important to keep this in mind because it may soon be!

Regional Zones

Have you ever heard of Regional Zones in Australia and the importance of these when planning an experience? In November 2019, the Australian Federal Government published a NEW MEASURE measure that benefits anyone undertaking an experience in regional areas in Australia. This had the objective of not only strengthening Australia’s economy through immigration, but also with the aim of boosting the Regional Zones .

Now, what are Regional Zones? These are areas that the Australian Government is interested in promoting, known as “Regional Cities & Areas”. These are areas that do not have a large population of inhabitants and that the Australian government promotes due to the high demand for professionals, i.e., many professional vacancies to fill. This results in people moving to some part of the Regional Area in Australia. For this reason, when deciding in which city to carry out the study experience, it is advisable to take into account whether it is included within the “Regional Cities & Areas”. because of the attractive immigration benefits that can be obtained, which is extremely important in the event that one wants to migrate to Australia on a long-term or permanent basis. By studying in a “Regional City/Area” one obtains 2 benefits:

• (1) 1 or 2 extra years for the Graduate Visa once you finish your studies, depending on the Regional Area Category – in case you want to know more information about the categories continue below. It would be, to give a reference: 2 years of Master + 3 years of Graduate Visa full-time working conditions. As it is well shared in the previous point, for Bachelor Degrees and Master Degrees 2 years of Graduate Visa are granted, for Masters by research, there are 3 and for a PhD there are 4, we would simply add one more year to each one of them; and
• (2) Studying in regional cities also adds points for the Skill & Profile Test for permanent migration visas. If you plan to study in a Regional Area in Australia, you must take into account that a diploma you obtain in the 2-year course of your choice will add 5 extra points. In addition to this, for choosing an academic institution located in these areas, you receive 5 more points. It would be 10 extra points that would be added to the path to permanent residency . Let’s remember that the minimum number of points to be obtained is 65. between different personal and professional attributes. Once these 65 points have been met, you enter the pool of candidates who have access to the Australian Government’s ‘Annual Occupational Quotas’. These are called ‘Expression of Interest’ and are limited. Those candidates with more points are more likely to be professionally invited to apply for visas.

As we have shared above, if the student has studied and lived in a Regional Area, 1 to 2 extra years are granted depending on the category of the city. We will now establish the difference between the different Regional Zones:

• Category 1: Major cities. There is no extra benefit to the standard Graduate Visa time – Major cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
• Category 2: Cities and major regional centers – Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Canberra, Newcastle/Lake Macquarie, Wollongong/Illawarra, Geelong and Hobart, have access to the following regional incentives:
  • Priority processing of regional visas
  • Access to the Regional Occupations List: more jobs are available compared to non-regional listings.
  • International students with a Bachelor’s degree or higher qualification who have graduated from a regional campus of a registered institution will be eligible for the benefit of an additional year in Australia when applying for a post-study work visa.
• Category 3: Regional Centers and other regional areas – Warrnambool, Townsville, Cairns, Mount Helen, Toowoomba, Launceston, among others, will also have access to the 11,200 regional locations earmarked for this, priority visa processing, and access to the Regional Occupation List. In addition, they will have access to the following additional incentives:
  • International students with a Bachelor’s degree or higher qualification who have graduated from a regional campus of a registered institution will be eligible to access the benefit of being able to add two more years in Australia when applying for a post-study work visa.
  • Priority in the negotiation of Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMAs) specific to each region. A DAMA (Designated Area Migration Agreement) is a particular agreement between the Australian government and the authorities of a state or regional area of Australia that allows more flexible conditions for accessing work visas. The objective of this type of agreement is to provide workers to areas in need.

Model medium-long term roadmap in Australia.

What is the type of experience we are talking about? In the following I will detail an experience model so that you can also already analyze a financial planning for this type of medium-long term route plans in Australia. As an example we will use the Master of Business Administration (Advanced) at Torrens University Australia, one of ACE Australia’s Partner Universities.

To begin with, the student will complete 2 years of the Master of Business Administration (Advanced) at Torrens University Australia, Gold Coast campus. This type of Qualification currently (2022) has a total Tuition Fee of 56960 AUDNot to mention the possibility for international students to apply for different types of scholarships (between 10% and 40%) depending on the academic area, nationality, academic merit, among other criteria that may be taken into consideration. When undertaking a Master’s Degree study experience, the Department of Home Affairs establishes under the Condition 8104 that all international students may work up to 40 hours per fortnight. However, on Departmen of Home Affairs January 19 established that until June 2023, international students can work without any time limitation, and without the need for them to begin their studies. In addition, in case the student travels with his/her partner as a Seccondary Applicant, he/she will have the possibility to work without any time limitation at all times. This is due to the fact that the Department of Home Affairs does not establish any time limitation for the partners of those students who enroll for Master Degrees or PhDs.

After the two years of studies at Torrens University Australia, at the Gold Coast campus, the student has the possibility to apply for the Temporary Graduate Post-Study Work Stream Visa. The duration of this new Visa will be 2 years, since the student has already completed a Master’s Degree, and an additional year is added for having studied in a Category 2 Regional Area. That is to say, with an investment of approximately 50,000 AUD during the first two years of the Master Degree, you can undertake a 5-year experience in Australia, having the possibility of working full-time developing in your professional field. In addition, the fact of having studied a Master’s Degree in a Regional Area, gives you the possibility of adding points for the path to Permanent Residence.

Depending on the experience you are looking for, each city or region of Australia could give you different benefits! If you wish to know more information about the different immigration opportunities and benefits that you could obtain depending on the path you take, contact us and we will gladly advise you on this particular matter. Australia is waiting for you, get ready to #LiveTheExperience.