Hi All
A colleague of mine is about to apply for a Talent (Accredited Employer) Resident Visa next month and I have a few questions. I applied for (and was granted) my own last year and my understanding is the landscape has changed quite a lot since!
1) I've read elsewhere that applications for the Talent (Accredited Employer) Resident Visa are now put in the same backlog pool as the Skilled Migrant Category visa. Is this correct?
2) If so, I imagine my colleague is unlikely to get approved within 6 months of application, at the end of which his Talent (Accredited Employer) Work Visa will expire. I assume if the resident visa is not yet approved, my colleague can then apply for another Talent (Accredited Employer) Work Visa. Is this correct?
3) If he applies for this work visa and it doesn’t get approved before his current work visa expires, what happens then? Is there an interim visa granted that allows him to stay in the country? If so, can he work for his current employer doing his current role under this interim visa?
4) Coming back to the Talent (Accredited Employer) Resident Visa, is it true that earning over $106k gets the application potentially fast-tracked?
5) Regardless of when the Talent (Accredited Employer) Resident Visa eventually gets approved, my colleague has had this current Talent (Accredited Employer) Work Visa since before Oct 2019 (when the ability to be granted permanent residence if earning over $90k was retracted). Since his work visa dates from before these changes, can he still be granted permanent residence if he earns over $90k?
Thanks!