Ciara has kindly shared her experience so far with gaining a skilled visa/permanent residency in Perth/WA.

I have submitted my application for the 189 PR visa and am awaiting an outcome.

I had to submit an expression of interest (EOI) for the 189 to begin with which required a minimum of 65 points.

I sat the PTE English test to obtain additional points so ended up with 80 when submitting my EOI. I’ve heard this test is easier than the IELTS one and I didn’t find it too difficult thankfully!

Once I submitted my EOI I think it only took about 2-3 weeks and I received an invitation to apply for the 189 visa.

I submitted my application about 3 months ago now so on my Immiaccount its status has been ‘Received’ and actually just received correspondence today to say is been updated to ‘Initial assessment’. They have asked me to attach a more recent Ireland and UK police clearance certificate to my application as the ones I attached were over a year old. So the plan is to get those checks sorted asap, upload them to my account and fingers crossed it is approved soon after that, but I have been told it can take up to 6 months.

Also when I submitted my application for the visa following invitation (so not when I submitted my EOI), I was automatically granted a bridging visa A to enable me to stay until I receive the 189 visa. I believe I can apply for a bridging visa B if I plan to travel outside of the country in this time too.

Hopefully it can help guide other OT’s/PT’s coming over 🙂

Thanks so much for sharing Ciara!