I am pleased to advise that Anna…. has been granted a Temporary Business Entry (Class UC) Business (Long Stay) (Subclass 457) visa. This visa allows you to travel to, enter and remain in Australia and is valid until the date specified above.

I received an email from my case officer on Saturday night at 9.42 pm (isn’t that a weird time to receive an email by the way) informing me that my visa was approved. So now, finally I’m legal to work. My visa was granted for three years but I think Simon and I’ll be applying for our own visa, independent of work before then.But for now it’s all good and I’m relieved that it was sorted so quickly. I actually had my decision in about a week after handing in the missing application. I was called up by my case officer on Wednesday asking me to send in a proof of my health insurance (being Swedish I’m not covered by Medicare) so I did on Thursday and then on Saturday I had my decision. Today I applied for my Tax File Number too so as soon as I receive that I can finally open a bank account.

I came to a realization last week - I’m in the country on the wrong visa!! I only discovered this as I was trying to apply for a Tax File Number (TFN) online. If I don’t have one I can’t own a bank account and I’ll be charged more tax. My online application for the TFN was cancelled and I was told I wasn’t eligible to apply on my visa. I thought it was weird since the 457 work sponsored visa (that I believed I was on) gives you the right to apply for a TFN. I called up immigration and was told I was on the 651 visa, a normal tourist visa. Something clearly went wrong there! I thought immigration had made a mistake but as it turns out it was I who did.

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I am pleased to advise that the nomination has been approved.

Ended up being a pretty good national day after all. Had an email in my inbox this morning letting me know my VISA was approved yesterday. I’m now legal to enter and work in Australia!!

It’s the Temporary Business (Long Stay), Subclass 457 visa I’ve been approved.  It’s the the most commonly used program for employers to sponsor overseas workers to work in Australia on a temporary basis. It was super easy since most of it was done by the company, I didn’t have to have a medical exam or anything like that and it was quick (took less than two months).

As Simon and I discuss moving back to Australia (not right now but later on) I’ve started to look into the application process for the Partner Visa, I want to be prepared. I know that several of our readers have been through this process so any useful information that you can share would be helpful.

I found a (what I think might be) a useful booklet at the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s homepage – a booklet called Partner Migration Booklet (pdf). The booklet can be downloaded from the homepage and I think my investigation starts by reading the booklet.

The plan is for Simon to move to Sweden for a while and we’ve applied for a residence permit. Simon could apply for a Working Holiday Visa since he’s under 30 but we’ve chosen to try to get a residence permit first and if that doesn’t work out he’ll apply for the Visa instead.

I though I would provide information about the process and what’s going on since I thought it would have been helpful to read about it from someone who has experienced it. All the information will end up in the category Move to Sweden and the posts will have the new Sweden banner that you can see in this post. Read more