Ben and I became the permanent resident (PR) in Australia 10 months after we submitted the PR application. It was a very stressful process for us. So, I wanted to share our experience and the 6 things that we were glad we did along the process.

Before we got the PR, we applied for the work visa first so Ben could start work in Australia early as the work visa usually takes less than half a year, while the PR usually takes a year to be granted. After getting our work visas approved, we submitted the PR visa application in early May 2018 and got it approved in late March 2019.

At the time of writing, it takes about 13 months for the Australian Immigration to process 90% of the visa of our class. When we submitted the PR application, all the documents that we gathered were up-to-date (within a year old). But since the whole approval process took so long, some documents expired before the PR got approved. As a result, the immigration officer asked us to reapply the police certificate. Luckily, once we provided this document our visa got approved quite quickly.

The PR application is not only time-consuming; it is also very expensive, AUD$5000++ for both of us. But considering it is a one-off fee it is not too bad. Here are the 6 things that we were glad that we did during this long PR journey, as they saved us money, time and effort:

 

1. Get only one full health check for both PR and work visa

We had to prove that we were in good health so the Australian government won’t need to spend too much money looking after our health. In the past, the work visa applicants did not have to do much for this but this has changed. Even when we were only applying for the work visa, we had to go through quite a comprehensive health check that costs about AUD$400 per person.

At that time, we were planning to get the health check done twice, one for the work visa and one for the PR, because (1) the health check requirements for the work visa is different from the PR visa, (2) the health check result will expire after a year, and there is a high probability that the result will be expired before the PR is granted.

BUT, thanks to the advice of the doctor in Wellington, we decided to do the full health check only once – that fulfil both the requirements for work and PR visa – and it was one of the best decisions that we had made as it saved us money and time.

Here’s the reason: the only difference in the requirement between a work visa and PR is the HIV test that costs about AU$15 per person. If the medicals expire before the visa is approved, we will only lose $30 for taking the additional blood test.

 

2. Aware that we were covered by Medicare while waiting for the PR approval

Many people still do not know about this but we are actually covered by Medicare while waiting for the PR to be approved. Some of our friends bought private insurance without knowing this and then had to pay off the debt to the government. I wrote a separate post about this because it saved us almost a thousand dollars.

By the way, I got my Medicare card before our PR visa got approved – it was a blue Medicare card and I then received the green one after the PR got approved.

 

3. Regarding the IELTS English Test

I was only the secondary applicant while Ben being the primary applicant, yet, both of us still need to prove that our English level is good enough to live in Australia. Ben had no choice but to complete the IELTS English test though English is his mother tongue (he always felt a little bit insulted for having to do this)…

I wanted to avoid the English test so badly though Ben was confident that I could pass the test, I just did not want us to spend AU$300-$400 to sit for the test. Furthermore, it is a time-consuming process because we need to arrange and queue for the IELTS exam.

In order to avoid sitting for the English test, I sent emails to my university to get their confirmation letter that my degree was completed in English. Luckily, they were quite responsive although I had graduated from my university almost 10 years ago. I attached the proof when we submitted the PR application. In the end, I did not have to sit for the English test but Ben wasn’t that lucky. He had stricter requirements than me being the first applicant and also because of his job nature.

 

4. Keeping a record of our travel history

One of the hardest questions in the PR application form is to list down all the countries that we have been in the last 10 years. We had to spend many hours to reflect where we have been so far because we didn’t keep a proper record of our travel history. Luckily, we took a lot of photos for almost all trips (that helped us remembering them) and kept relevant emails or it could have been worse.

Note: in the PR application, we did not have to list the countries other than Australia. However, in the work visa application, we need to list down all the trips to Australia. Ben travelled to Australia extensively in the last 10 years so it was difficult for him. In the hindsight, we could have requested travel records to Australia from the Department of Home Affairs.

Since then, I save my travel details in a folder… who knows I might appreciate this info again one day?

 

5. To appreciate that not all PRs have the same conditions

Our PR visa was granted at the same time. However, Ben had a special condition on his PR, i.e. he needs to enter Australia by a certain date. It seemed a bit strange for us because Ben moved to Australia earlier than me but my visa didn’t have this condition. After some research, we found out that the reason is that Ben was not physically in Australia at the moment when Immigration granted our PR.

Since we had been travelling extensively in the past few months, this condition has become crucial because we might not meet the conditions. Ben was very lucky because he arranged his trip back to Australia just before the required ‘entry date’ (which surprisingly only has a very short timeframe from the time the visa was granted).

I was also lucky because I just came back to Australia one day before our visa was granted, otherwise, I may need to fulfil this condition too (phew!). The lesson is: it is very important to pay attention to the special condition of the visa although we apply for the same type of visa!

We understand that the Canadian PR holder needs to leave and re-enter Canada when their PR was granted, in order to ‘activate’ their PRs. We might need to do the same if we did not meet the conditions, but we are glad that we don’t have to find out with the Immigration department.

 

6. Do not apply for any other Australian visa after the PR is granted

The Australian PR will be revoked if any other visas in Australia are granted, including tourist visa.

But why would one apply for other Australian visas once they get their Australian PR? Well, there could be many reasons. As a PR, we don’t automatically have the right to return to Australia from overseas – every 5 years we will have to apply for the Resident Return Visa in order to stay in Australia. We heard that some people apply for the tourist visa in order to get back to Australia from overseas (as a temporary solution), and then have their PR revoked… they just simply are not aware of this. It is good that we are aware of it now, because we might accidentally do the same.

 

Finally…

We were really happy that we got this done, as I believe having the PR will be helpful in my job searching process. We are excited to live in this amazing country!