How to Immigrate to Australia | Step-by-Step Guide 2020: As one of the most popular immigration countries, Australia attracts hundreds of thousands of new immigrants every single year. Of course, migrating to Australia is now becoming more challenging. but believe it or not, I managed to get Australia PR within one year after I made the decision. so in this article, I am going to explain you the step by step process on how to immigrate to Australia with a skilled migration visa form my own experience. So, here is the road map for the PR application.
The first step is eligibility check and the next step is to complete your skills assessment with responsible authorities. The third step is to take your English test followed by submitting your expression of interest online. Once you receive the invitation you can submit your visa application to the Australian Government. Finally, your visa is granted.
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Step 1: Eligibility Check
So, now let’s take a look at the first step of check your eligibility.
Choose the visa type you want to apply
The first thing to do is to choose the visa type you want to apply. For skilled migration, there are several options including the skill independent visa, the state nominative visa, and skilled regional visa. Different visas will have different criteria for assessment. So, it is important to choose the visa type that best suits your condition. And, I will share with you which I applied at the end of the article.
Check if your work experience is listed on skilled occupation list
The next thing to do is to check if your work experience is listed on the skilled occupation list based on the type of visa you choose. There are different lists of applications that you can refer to and they can all be found on the Australian Government’s website.
Calculate your Points Based on the Latest Points Table
Once you confirm that your job is on the list you can start calculating your points based on the latest point table provided by the Australian government. the factors to be considered including age, English language skills, education qualification, skilled work experience. In 2020, there is a new criterion to put your partner’s English level and skills as a mandatory factor to consider. in order to be eligible for PR application the minimum total point you should get is 65.
Age | English Language Skills |
Educational Qualifications | Skilled Work Experience |
Partner Skills and English Level | Other Qualifications |
Step 2: Complete Skills Assessment
Find the List of Required Documents
Firstly, find the list of required documents from the website of skills assessment authorities based on the operation list mentioned earlier. You will be able to find which Authority is responsible to assess your work experience.
Prepare Your Documents and Get Them Certified if Needed
Prepare your documents according to the requirements you found on the authority’s website, Such as the employer letter and your educational degree certification. Please note that many of these documents may require additional certification from a lawyer or legal institution.
Submit Your Application
Once all the documents are prepared, you can proceed to submit your application with the documents on the skill assessment authorities website. The authority will need time to review all the documents before coming up with the results. Therefore, the whole assessment process after application might take as long as several months to complete
Step 3: Take Your English Test
There are several types of English test result accepted by the Australian Government which includes
- TOEFL
- OTE
- PTE
- CAE
You only need to take one of these tests to prove your English level and your English level will be based on your English test result. The higher the English level you get the more points you can claim in your PR application. A small tip from my experience is that since the skill assessment may take as long as a few months, you can make use of this waiting time to improve your English test result. Because you can take this test as many times as you like and use the best results for your application for PR.
Step 4: Submit Your Expression of Interest and Get Invited
Once you get an English test result as well as your skill assessment result you can submit your expression of interest by filling in the online form on skill select website. Please make sure that you have already received your skills assessment without an English test result at the point you submit this EOI.
Any results that are received after the submission of EOI will be considered invalid and should not be used for pure application based on this particular EOI. Your points will be calculated by the system based on the information included in your EOI, such as your personal details, your English level, and your skilled work experience. The invitation will be sent based on the total point you get as well as the demand for your occupation which is changing all the time.
Therefore there’sno timeline guaranteed on when you can receive the invitation. It could be only a few days after the submission of your EOI. in some cases, it could also be as long as several months or even more than a year. However, the higher the total points you claim your EOI the more likely you are receiving invitation faster.
Lastly, no fee is required for EOI submission, but you need to ensure that all the information you put in your EOI are accurate because you will be required to provide evidence once you get invited.
Step 5: Apply for PR Visa

After receiving invitation congratulations, you are now officially eligible to apply for your PR visa. Simply create an account on ImmiAccount website and submit your PR application with your account. documents to be attached new application must include your identification documents such as your passport, your national ID, your birth certificate. You also need to provide the police clearance certification from police stations located in all the places you live in the past.
Most importantly, you must submit all the proof documents for points you claim in your EOI such as the English test and skill assessment results. In addition, you also need to take a medical examination at the clinic appointed by the Australian Government. this doesn’t mean that you have to go to a clinic in Australia. Just simply go to the Australian government’s website and check which clinic in your country is appointed as an eligible place to do the test.
Once the test is finished the clinic will directly submit your medical examination result to the Australian Government. therefore you don’t have to obtain any result yourself. in fact you might only know about the results once your PR application is approved.
Australian PR Visa Application Cost
- AUD 4,045 (for main applicant)
- AUD 2,020 (for additional applicant over 18)
- AUD 1,015 (for additional applicant under 18)
Finally here’s an overview of the application cost. The application fee for primary applicants which is yourself is 4045 Australian dollars as of 2020. The cost of each of the additional applicants over 18 such as your spouse is a little over 2,000 Australian dollars.
And, the cost for each additional applicant below 18 years old such as your children is slightly over $1,000 each. Please note that these costs do not include the cost of your medical examination which should be another few hundreds of Australian dollars
Step 6: Receiving Visa Grant Notification
After submitting of PR visa application all you need to do is just wait for the government to review and verify all the documents and information. The estimated application processing time for each visa type can be found on the Australian government’s website. but in general, please expect at least a few months for the process to complete.
Once all your information is verified your visa will be approved and you will received a visa grant notification letter from the government. The letter will include the very days of your PR status as well as the date before which you’ll have to make your first entry to Australia.
That’s it the next thing is to book your flight, pack your things, and make the big move to your dream country
Time Taken for Entire PR/Visa Process
Okay after talking so much about the steps to take how much time in total would it take for the entire process? there is no fixed answer for that because it’s really depending on your personal situation. however, I can share with you the timeline.
Steps | Time Taken |
---|---|
Eligibility Check (NSW 190) | 10 mins |
Skills Assessment (ACS) | 2 months |
English Test (Superior | 3 months |
EOI Submitted – Invitation Received | 2 months |
Visa Application – PR Granted | 5 months |
I took to get my PR the eligibility check was rather a quick process which only took me five to ten minutes to found out that I was eligible for 190 states nominated visa. My skill assessment was done by ACS and it took two months for me to get assessment results.
For the English test, I took different types of tests several times and it took me three months in total to get a superior level of English. and I received my invitation two months after my EOI submission.
Finally, the visa application processing time took the longest which was five months in total before I eventually received my PR grant letter.
So, by adding all this time together the total amount of time I took was 12 months which means that I managed to get my Pierre within a year and I believe that many people could do much better than this.
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