retrenched on 457 visa

[justinstanbridge]

Has anyone had to leave Aus to go back to SA due to being retrenched on 457 visa? What rights do we have other than trying to find another sponsor to take over our visa within a 28 day period? and how do you pack up an entire household, sell cars etc? in such a short space of time?

[Lynnie]

I don't know of anyone this has happened to, but surely one could try your best to find other employment within 28 days... otherwise I suppose you have to go back

[sianvz]

That would be horrible! Are you actually in this situation or just wondering?

Unfortunately, as far as I know, the conditions of that visa are that the visa is only valid as long as you are employed by the person who is sponsoring you as that's your reason for being in Australia. So you'll need to find another employer I guess. 28 days is so little though, I mean the application by a new employer to be a sponsor (if they aren't already registered) takes a few weeks to be approved in itself, unless they extend the 28 days if you can show you're working on a new employer sponsorship. If you can somehow apply for another type of visa within those 28 days then you can get a bridging visa....? Although that would be hard to pull off because 28 days is not even enough to get a skills assessment.

Maybe a visitors visa just to give you more time to stick around and find a new employer to sponsor you? Either way, this situation definitely calls for an agent!

[Bams]

I don't have advise, but if you are currently in this position, please let us know so we can pray for you guys.

[Sunnyskies]

Maybe a visitors visa just to give you more time to stick around and find a new employer to sponsor you? Either way, this situation definitely calls for an agent!

You won't qualify for a visitor's visa in those circumstances. Friends of mine have been retrenched on a 457. Fortunately they found another sponsor. If retrenched try and get your employer to keep you on the payroll for the duration of severance pay as this will cause the 28 days to only start running when you stop being paid.

[Nev]

If you find someone willing and able to take over your 457 and you let the immigration guys know they will allow you to stay and wait for the outcome, you don't need to have the result within the 28 days just a new sponsor

But yes, if you loose your sponsor and cant find a new one within 28 days you have to get on a plane home

[rozellem]

Please check this with one of the immigration experts on here (Stephen Dickson, Ajay, etc). I heard, that if you contact DIAC and inform them of a change of contact method, from email contact to post, then you get a extra 7 days on your 28. Might help a bit. Hope its not a urban legend.

[CherylC]

Justinstanbridge: your landing date shows that you've landed in December 2008. Are you asking this question for yourself or on behalf of someone else?

[jonathanb]

There seems to be a lot of confusion over the 28 days to leave after you have been retrenched. I do stand to be corrected but from looking at the Immi site, as long as your visa is valid you can stay and your visa is valid until DIAC cancel it. You dont automatically have to leave.

Your employer has 10 days from the date they retrench/dismiss you to inform DIAC of your retrenchement/dismissal. DIAC should then prepare a letter informing you that they intend to cancel the visa and they should give you 28 days to find another job. You can then discuss this with DIAC and if you have interviews etc lined up they are quite likely to extend that time period for you.

[TeeTMI]

Please check this with one of the immigration experts on here (Stephen Dickson, Ajay, etc). I heard, that if you contact DIAC and inform them of a change of contact method, from email contact to post, then you get a extra 7 days on your 28. Might help a bit. Hope its not a urban legend.

Not an urban legend - DIAC allow 7 days for onshore postage re notification of cancellation for 457. But DIAC must consider you to have been notified by post - not email/fax/hand. This is a very serous stage to be at and it is important that you do not get the date wrong and become unlawful.

I would really recommend anyone in this situation to take advice.

Edited March 17, 2013 by TeeTMI

[carlinjoburg]

Yip........ Check out my story on" Not so "Newbie" in perth. Any help or advise welcome.

[FEB]

Surely you should have got your PR by now, if you landed in Aus in 2008... I thought 457 visa's were valid for a max of 4 years!! Anyway if you had your PR, you wouldn't need the employee sponsorship and you could get a new job without the 28 day deadline!!

We have been here 18 months and we're starting now to get all our ducks in a row for our PR, which we hope to submit in April

[AndreaL]

A 457 (long stay business visa) can be for a period of between 3 months and 4 years, depending on the sponsorship nomination the person might be on a second or third 457 visa. There may be reasons they have not applied for p.r. such as skills, financial.

Some employers may agree to sponsor ENS p.r. after you have worked for them for 2 years and then not be able to for some reason......................there are many reasons, not everyone travels a direct road.

[ace]

Is it 28 days. I taught this period was increased to 90 days.

[AndreaL]

Yes it is 90 days, this is an old post from when the time frame was still 28 days.

[FEB]

I didn't realise you could get a 2nd or 3rd 457 visa, I thought your only option was PR and if you couldn't do it financially, you would just have leave... "live & learn" as you say AndreaL ... and 90 days, well that is much more realistic!

[AndreaL]

Remember that there are people over here on a 457 ( some Asian nationalities for example) who have no intention of staying in Australia, they are setting themselves up for a wealthy life in their home country and quite possibly supporting an extended family 'back home' with what they earn in Australia.

There is no limit to the amount of 457 visas you can have, at one stage a few years ago there was talk of limiting it to three in a life-time, I believe that this was to encourage people to make use of the employer nominate p.r. program.

We had three different 457 visas, the first one was our initial one with the company we came over with.............let's just say that was an awful time and we stuck for 15 months before finding another sponsor. We got a new 457 ( at that stage you had to lodge a new application, now you can keep the same 457 but transfer sponsor) and were about to lodge our ENS p.r. with them when an opportunity for Queensland came up and a chance to be closer to family.

That was a very difficult decision to make, but we took a chance and came over to QLD on our third 457 visa in 2008..............we also had an agreement about ENS p.r. but then the GFC hit and the company could not be seen to be hiring foreign workers whilst retrenching Australians.

We looked at independent p.r. options and cost was a factor in both, if we lodged an independent p.r. visa onshore, it could take about 18 months to two years and you would have to go off shore to validate it...............we also looked at state sponsorship, but then QLD introduced a proof of funds component, I can't remember how much...............maybe around $20 000 which we didn't have.

Fortunately things picked up quite quickly then and as hubby had done his skills assessment a while back we were able to do ENS p.r. through the company and have now been here for 5 years and got citizenship about two years ago.

The thing that people forget is that visas and migration change a lot from year to year, so even the way we did things back then has changed somewhat.

So yes, live and learn is very apt

[SurferMan]

Not sure if I'm too late to this thread, but you can ask DIAC to grant you a bridging visa to look for work, I have seen some 457 people doing this, esp. After being here a long time.

[OubaasDik]

A 457 (long stay business visa) can be for a period of between 3 months and 4 years, depending on the sponsorship nomination the person might be on a second or third 457 visa. There may be reasons they have not applied for p.r. such as skills, financial.

Some employers may agree to sponsor ENS p.r. after you have worked for them for 2 years and then not be able to for some reason......................there are many reasons, not everyone travels a direct road.

Andrea is right - she's tiresome that way.

We had two 457s before we got an employer nominated PR.

And a comment on resurrecting threads - and like this thread, I, too have been resurrected.

... and, yes it happened to a "friend" who came out to Oz just before me in 2002, was fired / retrenched with me in 2004 .... I had a few resources. He tried to blackmail the agent into giving him money - they cancelled his 457 ... I'm still here.

I sometimes wonder where old Fred is.

Edited January 11, 2014 by OubaasDik

[Lynnie]

Andrea is right - she's tiresome that way.

We had two 457s before we got an employer nominated PR.

And a comment on resurrecting threads - and like this thread, I, too have been resurrected.

... and, yes it happened to a "friend" who came out to Oz just before me in 2002, was fired / retrenched with me in 2004 .... I had a few resources. He tried to blackmail the agent into giving him money - they cancelled his 457 ... I'm still here.

I sometimes wonder where old Fred is.

Welcome back OBD!!! I missed you

[AndreaL]

I'm not tiresome...................just a tad pedantic, actually previously there was a short stay 457 for between 1 day and 3 months and a long stay for between 3 months and 4 years, I believe there is just the one now for any period nominated between 1 day and 4 years.......................

Surferman, when you apply for another substantive visa whilst on a 457...............let's say a 186 visa, a bridging visa is automatically generated to keep you legal, there are different classes of bridging visa with different conditions attached ............. Bridging visas A through E