Good internship news for international students in Sydney/NSW

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In my app, it says:
"a) I must work and reside in Queensland for a period of at least two years."

It may not be enforceable, but it's pretty clear about both working and living in Qld.

is that your visa application or state sponsorship application? really doesnt matter cuz as i said, as long as your intention was to live and work in Qld when you submitted your application and while it was being processed, it doesnt matter.i did as much research as i could about this requirement before i actually applied for sponsorship.

in fact i know nsw doesnt give a **** about me. when i agreed to sponsorship i agreed to partake in regular surveys that would ask me where i lived. they told me i didnt have to worry about stating i was interstate fearing for my visa; they want people to be honest so they can accurately assess how the state sponsorship program is working. if people are having to move interstate to find work they reassess the criteria for sponsoring that occupation or drop sponsorship for that occupation all togethor. e.g. the criteria for biochemist for nsw sponsorship changed after my visa was granted. now you must have either 3 years industry experience have worked towards a PhD. VETASSESS, the organization that assess foreign degrees (at least for biochemists), has also since changed how they assess degrees. when i had my degree assessed your degree only had to be at the level required for the occupation. biochemist required a 3 year aussie degree and i have a 4 yr US degree so no problems. but now they require a degree in a related field. my degree is in psychology so i now wouldnt even have a positive degree assessment. i'm rambling: as soon as i got to NSW i contacted the state dept so they knew i was here so i could get this 2 year clock ticking immediately and to get these surveys rolling into me. they told me they dont actually send anyone surveys. they just ask people to voluntarily update them by email. i think its mostly for people who are finding it difficult finding work so they can know which sponsored occupations arent working out well. i've never heard from them since and i've been here 8 months. in fact i was having difficulty finding work so was started looking into moving interstate. i know nsw doesnt give a **** about me. why would they go through the bs of tracking me down and try to take away my visa. are you aware of the insane work load those people have? there are like 5 people in the whole office. they dont have time to worry about me.



That's messed up. I know docs who applied last year and this year and got it in under 2 months. Totally unpredictable then! Maybe because they were docs(?) How long after you got a case manager?

processing times changed dramatically around dec 2008. as a state sponsored applicant i was top priority after the initial changes in processsing priorities. you can find the actual statistics on how long it takes visas to get processed. the benchmark goals for the 176 are 50% processed in 9 months and 75% processed in 12 months. the actual statistics for 2008 are very close to these numbers and actually slightly lower (the 50% and 75%iles are slightly less than 9 and 12 months respectively).

i'd guess your friends were either on a different visa or had occupations on the CSL, which has since trumphed the state sponsored priority. i'm also quite sure employer sponsored is the quickest, but i dont think that path to visa is in the skilled migration program (not sure). i considered the employer sponsored route for a while. the prof i worked for at harvard had plenty of colleagues in Aus and i asked him if he'd contact some about getting me a job and he agreed. but i then found you have to work for the sponsoring employer 2 years and if you don't they CAN revoke your visa. cause i've always been looking to do medicine i didnt want to lock myself into working 2 years (though i will essentially have done it anyway now).

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i'd guess your friends were either on a different visa or had occupations on the CSL, which has since trumphed the state sponsored priority.

They did the 176, which both Adelaide immigration and the state have confirmed is the highest priority, and the state reported to me typical times of a couple months (apparently they get confirmation once the 176 is approved), in line with what my friends experienced.

So I don't know what happened, since I know of one who got his 176 just before you, and a couple after you. Like I said, the only diff I can think of was that they were docs, unless it was random goodness.
 
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I applied last year and it took me the better part of a year (prior to the introduction of the CSL). I applied as a 175. A friend of mine applied in December after the introduction of the CSL and got his case officer in March (also 175). His co-worker applied at the same time (175), and she got her PR in April and she's from a "high risk country". So I think the fact that docs are on the CSL definiately improved the waiting time for a 175.

*Edit*
As jake said above you can go the employer sponsored route and for that it can be processed very quickly particularly if your hopsital has contacts at the immi department. However I didn't want to be locked into the two year contract and now I'm glad I went the 175 as there are absolutely no restrictions.


Here are the new priorities:

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/priority-processing.pdf
 
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Of course, CSL stands for Critical Skills List, which docs are on. I didn't put 2&2 together there. That would explain the diff in processing time for jake.

On the other hand, the immigration website notice that new 176 applications have been temporarily suspended may imply delays for ongoing apps (like mine). That would really suck if Rudd's screwup with boat people + Christmas Island has resulted in the pulling of resources from other visas to fix the mess. We shall see...
 
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