Expression of Interest/Work Visa

[whyte5864]

Hi Guys,

Me and my girlfriend both have working holiday visas that expire at the end of September.

I’ve been working for the last 6 months as a contractor and my employer has offered to extend this for a further 12 months, skill level 3.

I have submitted an expression of interest for us both and scored 140 points.

I understand that they will select applications on 17th August so we will have our fingers crossed until then.

Does anyone know when we would be likely to receive the invitation to apply or if we can submit an application for a work visa now that we have made the expression of interest?

The work visa states that you must have an invitation to apply or have an application pending (I don’t know if submitting an expression of interest counts as an application pending)

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[JandM]

Having an application pending is after you have submitted the ITA and all your evidence, and it's being processed, so no, you don't count yet. You should get your ITA within about three weeks (sooner usually) after your EOI is selected, and as soon as you have that, you can put in for the work visa without needing to do the labour market check.