Thalia’s Pathway to Aus

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.

Upon graduating, PTA assisted Thalia to apply for the Temporary Graduate Work Visa (Subclass 485). This is an open work visa that allowed her to remain in Australia and live and work for 18 months with full work rights.

As her course was accredited with Engineers Australia, Thalia received a full skill assessment for the occupation of Civil Engineering Draftsperson. This allowed her to look at applying 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. Thalia did not have sufficient points to apply for the Skilled Independent. However, as the occupation of Civil Engineering Draftsperson was considered a critical occupation in QLD, Thalia was invited to apply for QLD State Nomination.

Consequently, a PTA Migration agent lodged an Expression of Interest requesting QLD State Nomination. Thalia 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.

In the future, she hopes to remain living and working on the Gold Coast, complete a bachelor of Civil Engineering and become an Australian citizen.

If you are interested in studying in Aus or would like to know what migration pathways you may have in different courses and cities all over Australia, feel free to contact Pathway to Aus