Pathway to Aus Student Reviews

Will’s Story

Will came to Australia and studied carpentry at TAFE QLD. Upon graduating, PTA assisted Will to apply for the Temporary Graduate Work Visa (Subclass 485). This is an open work visa that allowed him to remain in Australia and live and work for 18 months with full work rights.

After approximately 1 year or 1725 hours working as a carpenter, Will was obtained his final skill assessment for migration purposes by TRA. The next step was to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI), through Skill Select and apply for a General Skilled Migration Visa. PTA Migration agent lodged an Expression of Interest requesting QLD State Nomination. Will was fortunate enough to receive the invite and apply for the Skilled Work Regional Visa – Subclass 491. This is an open 5 year work visa that converts to PR if you live and work in a regional area for 3 years and earn above $53,900.

In the future, he hopes to remain living and working on the Gold Coast, and set up his own building company.

Thalia’s Story

In this video we meet Thalia. Thalia came to Australia from South Africa and studied to become a Civil Engineering Draftsperson at TAFE QLD in Brisbane. Thalia went straight into studying the course after graduating from high school.

Whilst undertaking the course, Thalia was also fortunate enough to find paid work experience at a local engineering company. This allowed her to earn to support herself whilst she studied. She was allowed to undertake 40 hours per fortnight of paid work and unlimited hours in school holidays.

Ian’s Story

Ian is a previous PTA student and client who has successfully went from student visa to graduate work visa to lodging his PR application in roughly 3 years.

Throughout his studies Ian was fortunate enough to find paid work experience at the boat builder where he did his vocational placement. On the student visa Ian could work 40 hours per fortnight and unlimited hours during school holidays. This allowed Ian to earn money to partially support himself during his stay.
Because boat building is on the Medium and Long-Term Strategic Skills List, upon graduating, we were able to apply for an 18 month temporary graduate visa for Ian. We then passed a provisional skills assessment and entered into the Job Ready Program run by Trades Recognition Australia. As part of the Job Ready Program Ian undertook a minimum of 1725 hours of full time work as a boat builder. After we lodged Ian’s EOI, we received an nomination to apply for the visa in only 2 days!

Mohit’s Story

Mohit is a client of Pathway to Aus who we have helped successfully transition from Student Visa to Graduate Visa to Employer Sponsored TSS (Subclass 482 Visa). He now works in the international education industry working as education management on The Gold Coast.

The Graduate visa was a very simple process and went through easily. It was when it came to applying for the TSS employer sponsored visa where it became tricky. Generally speaking in order to be employed on the TSS visa as an education manager NEC you would need to have 5 years post qualification work experience. This was requested by immigration after lodgment. However PTA migration agents were able to successfully argue that in specific circumstances these 5 years experience could be waived as the occupation is highly specialised. After a lot of explanatory evidence provided, the case officer decided in our favour and granted Mohit the visa!

Jason’s Story

Jason was originally an Indian national and came to Australia to study commercial cookery in Brisbane. Before coming to Australia, Jason had no professional work experience or education as a chef.

Whilst undertaking the course, Jason was also fortunate enough to find paid work experience at local restaurants. This allowed him to earn to support himself whilst he studied. Upon graduating, PTA assisted him to apply for the Temporary Graduate Work Visa (Subclass 485). This is an open work visa that allowed him to remain in Australia and live and work for 24 months with full work rights.

On his 485 visa, Jason undertook the Job Ready Program where he had to work as a chef for 12 months. This allowed him to gain a full skill assessment which allows him to apply for different General Skilled Migration Visas.

The next step was to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI), through Skill Select and apply for a General Skilled Migration Visa. Jason was fortunate enough to be invited for the Skilled Independent – Subclass 189.

In the future, he wants to continue to work as a chef and become an Australian citizen.