Why Australia Permanent Residency?
In January 2019, David and I stepped foot on Australian soil for the very first time.
After one season in the South Australia Premier League (now NBL1 Central), we decided we really loved it here and were encouraged by a few people to start a permanent residency application asap, because “they can take years”…
Not only did we think permanent residency was necessary due to falling in love with Australia, but we also discovered the difference it could make for my basketball career. You see, when it comes to overseas basketball, your passport/visa matters a lot.
Different leagues allow different amounts of “imports”. An import is any player that does not have the status of being a local within the league.
Some leagues allow three imports, some five; while others allow three imports, but only two are allowed to be on the court at the same time.
Here in Australia, the WNBL and NBL1 allow two imports and clubs use these two spots very carefully to add the exact type of star player they think they need. Being that I am American, I would take up one of those two import spots in the WNBL and NBL1. Permanent residency, however, would take away my import status and make me a local.
The Permanent Residency Skilled Occupations List
So, we found a highly-recommended migration agent who informed us that the Global Talent Visa (common to athletes trying to get permanent residency) was not an option for me. And David needed at least another year of coaching overseas to ensure a successful visa application via his coaching credentials. Visa applications are a lot of money, so of course we went along with whatever our agent advised. And one more year of waiting didn’t really matter because at that moment in time “coaching” was not on the “skilled occupations list”. And this was still our best option.
The “skilled occupation list” is literally that; a list of occupations that the Australian government declares as crucial areas of expertise; and from which they desire to add residents of whom occupy said expertise. So, if your occupation is not on the list, and you are going this route, you have no choice but to wait.
Then we were all forced to wait because COVID hit and, as we all know, 2020 put a pause on a lot of people’s plans. Thanks be to God though, South Australia was the best place- literally in the world- to get stuck during this time.
Fast forward to 2021 “coaching” actually turns up on the “list” after the annual list update in July, but…
David suddenly has an incredible job opportunity that takes us across the country to Western Australia… and of course we find out, “coaching” is on the list in South Australia, but not in Western Australia. (Yeah, talk about a bummer!)
Know Your Options
So 2022 rolls around and we have no other choice (at least from our knowledge) but to wait… and wait… and wait…
Thankfully, I meet another American with an Australian permanent residency, Amber Ubah (previously known as Amber Land), who shares an interesting theory that we may not need to wait for coaching to be on the list at all, but that David’s teaching credentials could be all that we need…
Yes, my genius of a husband not only has qualifications to coach basketball, but also a master’s degree in teaching special education!
We take this theory to our migration agent who confirms, yes, this is a possibility. (Yeah, if we’re being completely honest, we were definitely disappointed that the agency didn’t present this as an option at the very start, especially being that they had David’s resume the entire time).
And, after a little more encouragement from Amber, that is when we decided to take on the application ourselves (with God’s help of course!) and only utilizing a consultation with the agent if necessary.
But First - ‘Merica!
Haha, actually though- I hadn’t been back to America for three years because of COVID and it was right around this time that I left to surprise my parents! (Ya’ll remember that surprise? Great times!)
It was there in the States that I decided when I got back to Australia, I was going to focus on nothing else but the permanent residency application (and my Pro Ball Buddy business, because, well, I couldn’t help myself, but also because you gotta do something with all the waiting time…)
Step 1: Update All Your Official Documents
And that’s exactly what I did… after updating my passport – lol! (Anyone relate to procrastinating name changes on official documents? Oops!)
But I figured this was necessary in order to avoid any potential mess related to different names within the application process.
And, I must say, I am very grateful I thought to do that first. And I’m also grateful the American Embassy in Perth made it such a simple process!
Believe me, I know, many things can come across as complicated, overwhelming, impossible even, but when you read and I mean really read and create checklists for yourself, it’s actually not as bad as it seems!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still exhausting – absolutely! But I really believe with God, all things are possible! God continually told me, “keep breaking it down – one step at a time”.
The passport update was merely a bight-size sample of what the permanent residency application would be for me and funnily enough, I’d often look back at the what I accomplished with the passport as encouragement that I was doing the right thing with the visa application!
I remember the day of my passport paperwork submission, all the staff and security guards within the Embassy commended me on how quickly I was in and out of the main office – “Well that’s rare”; “You must’ve read all the instructions”, “Nice work!”, they told me as I left -feeling very reassured!
Be Prepared for Multiple Steps
The thing with the permanent residency application is that, if you’re not going through an agent, you don’t have any security guards or government officials checking your work and commending you when you click submit.
You just get a message saying it’s been received and that’s it.
Seriously, that’s it.
But I suppose the set up to get you to the final stage of applying for the visa is good in that sense – they take you through one requirement before you can move on to the next requirement.
It’s just a very long (and frustrating) process because you can’t see what the next requirement is while you’re waiting to see if you’ve passed the current requirement. And when you finally do, you can’t help but think, “Man I could’ve saved a lot of time doing this earlier if I had been told earlier that I’d need to get it done.”
My only guess as to why they do that is because almost every step costs money and they wouldn’t want you spending money and complaining about it if you didn’t end up meeting each individual requirement. But that’s just a very optimistic guess – who knows really!
The Australia Permanent Residency Process
If you’re interested, and maybe want to cut off some of that unnecessary waiting time I experienced, these are the steps I can remember for the 189 Skilled Independent Visa:
- Create an ImmiAccount to access the Australian Department of Home Affairs’ online services.
- English Test (Pearson PTE)
- This is necessary for racking up as many points as possible for the Skills Assessment and only David had to take it being the main applicant for our visa.
- What to expect: a full on academic test similar to that often found in college English classes; all online, automatic; speaking and listening with a headset to a computer while sitting in business cubicles. However, in one section you have to listen to full sentences and repeat it back, but 20 people are in the room also repeating their sentences back. So it’s chaos while you are trying to listen and remember your sentence.
- No, David did not study (as much as I tried to force him to lol.), but he did pass with the highest overall score possible of 90.
- AITSL Skills Assessment
- requires the English Test and lots of qualification documents (be prepared to have certified colored documents. Officeworks and the local Justice of the Peace (JP) were my best friends at this stage of the process; JPs are pretty accessible at libraries or local police stations – you just have to do your research on their availability and make sure you have all your supporting documents and necessary ID)
- Takes 4-6 weeks, but if they come back to you and ask for additional documents (which they did for us) it is indefinite and if you try to contact them and ask where you are in the processing line this will apparently only further delay the process
- EOI (Expression of Interest)
- requires a suitable AITSL Skills Assessment, an entire list of your addresses within the past 10 years (Expat Pro Tip: create a document with a list of all the addresses you’ve ever lived, including the dates of address occupation – if you’ve lived in as many places as we have, you can thank me later!), all the supporting ID and qualification documents, plus a Police Check from any country you’ve lived more than 12 months in. For us this was obviously Australia and America and being an American requires the FBI Check, which requires official fingerprints (If you’re in Perth, I highly recommend utilizing Authorized Fingerprinting Services of Australia on Brewer Street; Martin was super helpful, professional and reassuring! And I was able to go straight to the nearby Pack and Send to send the document safely off immediately after getting the fingerprints done!)
- Application
- requires all the above simply submitted as an official application and yet another surprise…
- After Submitting Application
- a $400 medical exam that has a very long waiting list to book in for is required; unfortunately you can’t book this in without an identification number which is given to you after you submit your visa application (Expat Pro Tip: cancellations are happening by the day, so if you’re not happy with your booking, you can always try catching an earlier availability if you time it right!)
The Final Step: Waiting for the Visa Granted Email
Throughout this entire permanent residency process, there were questions that popped up along the way of which we utilised a consultation from the agent or a chat with Amber, but once it was submitted, like I said, there was no reassurance we had done everything correctly.
And then you just wait… and wait… and wait…
For a simple email, as Amber described to me, that changes your life! There’s no confetti, no marching band – just an email with your visa granted attached to it!
And that’s exactly it, but since we applied through David, the visas would go to his email inbox and I was left dreaming of the day he’d call me telling me we got permanent residency!
And at this point in time, I told anyone who asked that “it could come tomorrow, or December”.
When Tomorrow Comes
Unfortunately, “tomorrow” wasn’t during the 2023/2024 Lynx season where they had taken me on as a Development Player with the hopes of it coming through during the season to make me a non-restricted, local player.
But tomorrow did finally come and David made my dream come true by calling me after work one day to tell me the email arrived – can you guess where I was working out of? None other than Amber’s Land Performance Centre! And my reaction was caught on the security footage!
That, to me, was an absolute God-wink… because if it weren’t for Amber, we very well could still be waiting!
So thank you, Amber! You are an actual God-send!
And to anyone out there praying, hoping, waiting on a dream God’s put on your heart – keep trusting; one step at a time! 🙂
With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible! – Matthew 19:26