The step-by-step easy guide to the 457

[Biltongboer]

In order to help out our English speaking friends, I posted this in the official language of Namibia: Namlish.

This small article has been prepared to help some of those skilled people seeking to enter Australia legally. There are numerous ways of entering the country, and as they say: there are many ways to skin a cat. There is a huge variety of options available. I am not going to explain them here. Just going through that list of Visa options could keep you busy for a day.

The way I am hopefully going to enter Australia, is by making use of the so-called “Temporary Business (Long Stay) - Standard Business Sponsorship (Subclass 457)â€. Most of us refer to the 457 visa in short. You can see why. Loooong name. The reason why it is called temporary is because it is temporary, as opposed to permanent.

This is a visa that you can apply for if you have a job offer from a company in Australia. This company must be willing to sponsor you. That’s where the “sponsor†part comes in.

Hold on, stay with me, this will get clear later on. If a company is willing to sponsor you, this means they want your skills, and they are applying for a work-permit for you to work in Oz. Got it? It is valid for a 4 year period, and that’s why it’s not permanent. If you want to stay there permanently, you have to apply for permanent residence (PR), and later apply for citizenship. Going over there on a 457 does not disqualify you for a PR application.

Still awake? I am trying very hard to simplify this.

OK, let’s say you happened to receive an offer from a generous company in Australia that wants to sponsor you. They email you the contract, you print it out, sign it, scan it in and email it back, or fax it if you still know what a fax machine is. If you do not know how to scan documents, then you’d better find out quickly. What are you doing here? This is not a computer course! Anyway, if you really don’t know, ask and someone should be able to show you how it works. Get a good printer/scanner/copier combination and plug into your USB port and presto. Scan everything you have, all your passports, birth certificates, etc. You will need it repeatedly.

By the way, if you haven’t applied for your unabridged birth certificates for you and your whole family, as well as your unabridged marriage certificate and your English version of your Afrikaans degree, then forget about this whole process. Go do that first, and then come back here. You’re wasting my time.

We’re losing track here, and it’s all your fault. I told you this is not a computer course. Get with it, man. Focus. Eye on the ball.

Right, we’ve sent the signed offer. If the company pays for a migration agent, this guy will contact you. He will send you Form 1066 and Form 956. Form 956 is the form that says that you want him to act on your behalf. It has Parts A, B, C, all the way to K. I am not lying, I can send you the form if you want to check that out.

You need to fill in A,B, and D. Part E has the agent’s details, and part F – whatever. It goes up to part K where you sign, and this is the important part. Sign it. I’m not filling in all the blank spaces here.

Now you get to Form 1066. This is lovely. Are you still there? No worries, mate! This form has parts A up to H. H is where you sign. The rest in between is where you fill in how many times a day you have to wee, and what sort of toothpaste you use. Everything. Your family details, your favorite rugby team, the whole thing goes in there. All your dependants and whatever. Why do you hate your mother? Did you wet your bed when you were 12? All those questions.

Honesty is the key here. Don’t lie, they will know. They know everything. They just ask you these questions to see if you’re a liar.

Once you’ve signed this form in all honesty, make sure you also filled in part B for the whole family. Don’t forget any of your children, they will be sitting at the airport and waving you goodbye because you messed up on your application. Make sure their passports are still valid for at least a year, and check whether your son is still your son. His gender could be indicated as an F, and that messes things up. Badly.

If, at this point, you realize that you do not yet have any passports for you or your family, please kick yourself and don’t read any further. Go and get those passports and get back to this informative manual when you have them. I can’t spoon-feed everybody. That’s the first step of the process, even before you apply for jobs – get a passport, dummy.

Forms 1066 and 956 filled in? Scan them in, email them away, and send the hardcopies via courier to the land of Oz.

Then wait. If they are happy with your progress so far, they’ll send you more forms. That’s the way these guys work: if you fill in your forms correctly, you will be rewarded with more forms. Thicker ones. Remember to buy enough printer cartridges and paper. You need to print a lot of forms. (I don’t need to tell you what to do if you don’t even have a printer yet? Come on, please, get with the program!)

You will be pleased to receive Form 160EH for you and the missus, and Form 26EH for the kids. Here it gets tricky – you may not fill in everything on these forms. That is a big no-no. And don’t peek, you will be severely disqualified. On Form 160EH, you fill in part A, go the X-ray guy, he fills in part B with you, and the rest is a big secret, and beware – don’t peek. Here’s the official process if you are still confused:

1. Print the form 160EH (3 pages).

2. Contact your nearest Panel Doctor to tell you which Radiologist to see.

3. Make an appointment with the Radiologist.

4. Personally complete part A of form 160EH.

5. Attend your appointment with the Radiologist, who will take an X-ray. Be sure to take form 160EH with you to this appointment.

6. Complete part B of form 160EH in the presence of the Radiologist.

Do not accept the X-ray or form 160EH back from the Radiologist as this may invalidate your application.

Got it? Don’t lose focus now, get with it, be strong!

The other Form is 26EH, that’s the one for the kiddies.

On this form you also fill in part A, then the doctor does the rest, sort of, I think.

1. Print the form 26EH (8 pages).

2. Contact your nearest Panel Doctor for an appointment.

3. Make an appointment with the Panel Doctor.

4. Personally complete part A of form 26EH.

5. Attend your appointment with the Panel Doctor, who will complete a physical examination and form 26EH. Be sure to take form 26EH with you to this appointment.

6. Complete part B of form 26EH in the presence of the Panel Doctor.

The Panel Doctor will then forward the X-Ray and completed form 26EH to the Health Operations Centre, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Level 3, 26 Lee Street, Sydney NSW 2000 by registered mail or courier.

Do not accept the X-ray or form 26EH back from the Panel Doctor as this may invalidate your application.

This is how far I have come with this process. Or at least, I have the forms. Haven’t been to the doctor yet. Got them today, you see.

As you can see, this is all very easy and straightforward, there is nothing complicated to this whole matter. Anybody can do it.

I’ll add more info once I get more forms to fill in - I can’t wait!

[Martinp]

Excellent BiltongBoer!! You are def going to help people with this manual

[Mara]

BiltongBoer, if I was a teacher, and this was an exam, you would have made world history, 150% out of 100%, in other words excessive full marks! Well done!

[Ungerers (Tanja U)]

Baie goed verduidelilk ou maat. Very well explained mate

Cheers

T

[Jordy]

Yislaaik. This is the first time I have thought I would encourage someone to use an agent, rather than do it themselves. Oh wait, THIS IS USING AN AGENT!

[Nilo]

BB, sometimes if you are REALLY lucky, you might get to fill in the first few forms on your computer, it would however still be handy if you know how to scan a document and attatch it to the afformentioned completed form. (thought I might mention this "technicality")

I am however extremely sad to have to inform you that forms 160EH and 26EH will still have to be done "manually"!!

Really enjoyed your take on things!!!

[AndreaL]

Hello BiltongBoer

You have given me a really good giggle on a cold wintry Albany morning!

We did our children's medicals last week for our new 457 and I am still not over the trauma.

Now you have to bear in mind that we also lived in Namibia before arrival in Australia, at that stage I didn't know about this wonderful forum and did it the hard way, by trial and error, so I thought I would share the following.

The year is 2005, we have accepted a job offer in Perth and have started the mountain of paperwork, we too are using an agent because the company use them, we have to.

We pay them lots of money and they send us the forms and the whole scanning, printing emailing process starts.

If your internet service provider is IWAY be prepared for lots of interruptions to your dial up.

We do everything just as you described and now have to do the medicals, we can either drive 900km to Windhoek or 850km to Cape Town to the panel Doctor, so we choose Cape Town as we have to sort out other documentation at Home Affairs like good South African citizens.

The medicals go really well, we pay a kings ransom to courier them to Australia and we drive home to Namibia with our 6 year old daughter and 4 month old son.

We get to the border and spend 2 hours waiting there behind a bus load of German tourists, then hand our passports to be stamped and are off on our merry way home to Rosh Pinah, the baby is getting tired and cranky.

The road is dangerous, it winds round the riverbank, so we go slowly, we have been travelling for around 9 hours and are 50km from home on the "River road" when suddenly, no more road!

There has been flash flooding in Namibia and the sand road is gone, in front of us is a raging torrent maybe 20 metres wide of orange water and submerged trees.

There is no way the "Kalahari Ferrari", ( our ford laser tracer!) can make it, so we turn around and head back to the border post and kindly thank the smiling gentlemen who again stamp our passports for telling us about the floods.

Now the baby is cranky.

We drive to Port Nolloth and go to the border post between Port Nolloth and Oranjemund, the border post is closed and we also have to apply for a Namdeb clearance to drive through the Diamond area of Oranjemund, so we book overnight accommodation and tell ourselves that this is fine, tomorrow we will get home, our 457 application is finished, now we just wait for approval.

We arrive in Rosh Pinah the next afternoon, the baby is still cranky, but life is still good, we wait.

3 weeks later I go to the post box and there is a letter from Australian Immigration... could it be........ I tear it open...... aargh, the Doctor forgot to sign my baby's passport picture!

Panic, the letter says that we have "3 weeks from issue of this letter to provide the correct information otherwise our application will proceed"...........I can't remember the rest of the letter because I am having a mental breakdown.

Now post takes a long time in Namibia, even if you courier a document, it often has to go to South Africa first and then on from there, we don't have time, what if there is another mistake?

I phone the Doctor in Cape Town to explain the situation, he informs me that he can't sign a passport photo unless the person in the photo is in front of him..... I have time for another breakdown before we all climb back in the car and start the 850km drive back to Cape Town.

To end on a happy note, we did get our visa, Namibia stayed dry for the rest of the year and in December 2005 we arrived in Australia, we look back and laugh at those special times in Namibia...... the Prozac helps enormously..

Fast forward almost 3 years to last week, we have decided not to take up employer sponsored permanent residence in Albany, why?, because we are mad and now wish to fill all those lovely forms in again so we can go to Queensland.

I've done this twice before, it will be easy, I tell myself.

And so it is until the medical last Thursday... Our chest x-rays are done and I am sitting in the Dr's room with my daughter now aged 9 and the cranky baby, now aged 3, still cranky.

I meet the Dr and quickly realise that she must have been trained by the Gestapo, I hand her the completed 160 forms and she tells me she does not need them, I tell her that they must go together to HSA with the children's medicals or they could become lost and our application could be delayed, we debate and finally she agrees to take the blessed x-ray forms.

My daughters medical goes well, now it is cranky boys turn.

I have to take him to the loo to pee in a cup, my cranky boy likes being a baby and has no wish to pee into anything unless it has "Huggies" written on it, we spend 30 minutes in the loo,I beg, plead and blackmail him for a tiny trickle but nothing comes until finally the Doctors nurse knocks to tell me she has read the medical form and it says they don't need a urine sample from children under 5...... prozac time.

Now he has to do his eye test, the wall chart is situated at adult height, he is small and has to tilt his head very far back to see the chart, it is a special chart, instead of rows of letters progressively getting smaller it has shapes.

A square, a star, a circle and a " plus " sign, I say to the nurse that I don't think he has the vocabulary and understanding for the eye test but they go ahead.

It isn't going well, cranky boy, who by the way calls a triangle a "shark" is bored and messing around, when the nurse points to a shape and asks him its name he says" same as before" he is right, this is now his 3rd crack at the eye test..... I wait for the ground to open up and swallow us all, it doesn't.

We are nearly at the end now, we have been in the Doctors room for 2 hours, I am informed that cranky boy can see fine with both eyes, but didn't do well when asked to cover one up and look at the shapes......

Gestapo Doctor asks me to take his T shirt off and he says " No Mummy it is too cold", I convince him that it is fine as the Dr just wants to tickle him, she looks at her watch...pointedly.

Next it is up onto the bed with him, " Lie down" asks the Dr, " No please, I'm not tired" says cranky." Pretend it is a game and put your head on the pillow" I ask, he complies...... phew... all done.

I ask the Dr if she needs to put my husbands passport number at the top of the kids medical forms as I am so scared they get lost, " that has never happened" she informs me as I bite my lip thinking of several South African friends whose medicals have been lost or haven't joined up with the primary applicants details.

I decide to keep quiet and hope for the best and leave the surgery with cranky boy and his quiet sister.

Anyway BiltongBoer, my Namibian friend, it seems that we are both almost at the end of this particular treadmill, everyday I will check the on-line progress of our application and wait for the words to change from " being processed" to " granted".

I hope your journey is smooth, ours has been " entertaining".

Just remember you will have to close your Namlish dictionary and buy an Auslish one on arrival.

I look forward to the next instalment of your step-by-step guide to the 457 or as I like to call it " 457 for Dummies"

Please note the term " Dummy" is in no way intended to offend any person, animal etc etc.

Andrea L

p.s. I have just run spell check and it wishes to replace BiltongBoer with Longbow... go figure.

[Biltongboer]

I have travelled that road to Rosh Pinah as well - beautiful, some very nice patches next to the Orange river. I used to go to Rosh Pinah a lot at one stage, before the mine was commisioned. I drove to Cape town, dropped my family off, and returned all the way to RP for a week's work, then drove back to Cape Town and picked up the family again.

The road from Aus has now been tarred - not the 160km gravel road that took hours to drive.

I had a friend on the other side of the river at Sendelingsdrif. worked for Transhex. There was no border post crossing those days. I took the rubber duck one evening and decided to visit my buddie on the other side. Slept over, he had a nice house on the banks of the Orange river. Came back the following morning and continued working on the site. Later-on heard from the local guys that the Police don't like this, and if they find out I'll get into heaps of trouble.

I have a friend who is still working at Skorpion.

[AndreaL]

I miss the beauty, I would walk for hours in the mountains and we spent nearly every weekend at the river, when it was very low you could walk to the other side, the kids thought it was great fun to be in Namibia on one side and S.A. on the other!

Quite a few people have done the swim across when needed- naughty.

Every other week there was a story of someone or another who had decided that a paddle down the river would be a great way to pinch a diamond from Oranjemund, they never came right, the big helicopter always got them!

Before we left there were plans for a pont across the river and setting up guard houses and a border post.....

What is your friends name, perhaps I know them?

Andrea L

[Nilo]

Andrea, very entertaining indeed!! Loved the way you described the "events". I was in the Dr's rooms with you. Give little cranky a cuddle!! And big sister a lolly for being an angel.

[SHIRLS]

Well done Andrea,it is stories like yours that make this forum so special.

[SHIRLS]

BB if I ever need to apply for a 457 I will definitely make full use of your post,thank god I have mastered the use of a scanner,it was morse code in my day lol !

[Leigh MC]

BB - brilliant post!

Glad to see you have kept your sense of humour through it all

You too AndreaL - great post - and good luck with the med results!

L

[lyall]

good post bb..thanks..