Can I apply for a permanent resident through a student visa in australia?

Question

I am an Iranian citizen and have done my bachelor degree in the UK and would like to study my master degree in the Astralia, I just wonder if it is possible to apply for permanent residency after I finish my master in australia or basically is there any other way to live and work there permanently without being a student?

Answer 1

Hi,

I'm a UK citizen. I did an MA and PG Dip in Oz and in total I studied for nearly 2 years which is the minimum time required to apply for PR. It's tough going. Australian law constantly changes (about every 3 months when I was there) and there are condtions such as where someone can live and what job vacancies are required to be filled at the time of procesing your PR application. You need to be able to prove that you can support yourself financially throughout your study period. Student working hours are limited to 20 hours per week. I also found that nationality plays a part in whether your application is successful. That's to say, at one given time they'll favour a Chinese person and the next week another nationality. It's a very fickle and biased system in my experience.

There are other ways to go about it such as Skilled Sponsored Migration Visa. The most important advice I can give to you is make sure your Masters' degree is useful and can be used to find work Australia. Don't just study anything in order to try and get PR because it won't work. You MUST have some thing to offer Australia if you want Australia to accept you.

A few years have passed since I was there so maybe some things have changed. Check with DIMIA. Hope this helps.

Col