1. The Timeline
Know Your Completion Date
485 visa only allow applicants to apply after the official completion date of your degree. Neither the day you finish your exam, nor your graduation day. Each semester has the official date for completion. Check your uni calendar or ask student service. Once you know the date, get your completion letter from your uni student service, which usually takes within 30 minutes to be ready and free of charge.
Know Your Student Visa Expiry Date
485 visa only let applicants apply within 6 months after completing your program. With the requirement of a valid visa, you should submit your application before your student visa expired. I would recommend submitting about 1 week prior to your student visa expired, to elongate your stay in Australia. For example, my visa expired on 15th March. I submitted on the 9th March.
Book Your IELTS Test
If you want to save time or you have time between exam finished to your graduation, do your IELTS test. IELTS Tests are quite high demand and it only happens on Saturdays. It is often full within a short period of time. Check the available IELTS Test centre and book in advance.
2. The Process
After knowing all the important dates, it's still pretty confusing how the application actually works. For me, I got really confused about the visa application because I never do it by myself before and I also don't want to spend extra money on agents.
Create ImmiAccount & Health Declaration
Personally, I think the Home Affair website is so complicated to read but their online application guided me through the application step by step. Once you create your account (make sure you write down the log-in details), the first thing you should do is make a health declaration. Answer all the questions and the system will determine what kind of health examination you are required. Then an e-Medical referral letter will be sent to you, with your HAP ID and exam you needed to take.
Book Your Health Check
After you received the referral letter, you now can make an appointment with any registered health check clinic that recognised by Australia Government. It's totally fine to do the exam before submitting the application, because the clinic will automatically submit your report to Immigration and they will record the result with your HAP ID. For me, I found out doing the exams are cheaper in Hong Kong (Bupa Aus is over AUD350, while Quality Health Care is HKD1350), so I decided to book mine in Hong Kong when I was back for visiting.
Do A Health Insurance Research
There are so many insurance companies that provide OVHC. Compare a few policies: the price, health cover, reputation etc. There's website that compares different insurance companies, so do have a look before choosing. The one I chose is CBHS (link), their application is quite user-friendly and they are the cheapest (AUD63.35 per month). Once your policy begins, the insurance company will send you a letter to attach in the application.
Apply Your Police Check
To get your character check, log in to the online system (link). You are required to provide at least 2 identity-prove documents (i.e. passport, student card, credit card). After filling the forms, print out and sign the consent form. Upload it back and make your payment. I do mine in the post office since I can't do it online, so prepare for a post office run.
Scan, Attach & Submit
Now, you should have all the required documents and you can finally fill up all the details and questions provided by the system. Make sure you're in Australia when you do the application because the system does not allow submission outside Australia (can't continue the next step after certain pages). Scan or take photos of all the documents. There's an attachment session at the end, thus double check the attachments' numbers you enter along the application are correct.
Pay, Wait & Got it!
Once everything submitted and payment made, the Bridging Visa A will automatically be given to you and active when your student visa is expired. If you want to leave Australia during bridging, you will need to apply a Bridging Visa B, which allow you to travel out Australia while waiting the actual visa approved. The approving time really depends on the demand. If you apply earlier, it only takes 1 month or less. However, submission during the peak period might extend the waiting time. For me, I didn't get my visa until May (applied in March), because of an incorrect document. But once I got my document right, the approval only takes 1 week.
3. The Hacks
Agent is not neccessary.
Personally, I think using an agent is just a lazy option. The whole process is easy and smooth if you're willing to spend time doing research and ask around. Some agents offer a free consultation, so if you really have questions, just give them a call or visit. Save that money.
Look for IELTS discount.
I believe most uni offer 50% off or other discounts for graduates to take IELTS Test. I got 50% off from taking the IELTS in my uni exam centre. Save that money.
Make sure you apply the correct police check.
As mentioned, I got an incorrect document which is my police check. I applied for "overseas employment purpose" instead of "immigration purpose". It leads me applied the Queensland Police Check, instead of National Police Check.
Download a scanning app.
Using a phone scanning app will make your life so much easier. CamScanner helps me to "scan" all my documents just by taking photos from my phone and add a scanning filter. It also allows multiple pages, naming the documents and easy sharing to a computer. Save your time figuring how to use a scanner.
This visa only allowed to apply once in a person's lifetime. 2 years is long, yet not very long. Is it worth to apply? Depends. Same as all other decisions in your life, take a deep consideration and ask for advice! *DISCLAIMER: I'm not an education or migration agent, all option stated is base on my personal experience.
Some useful link:
ImmiAccount https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/Trav/Visa/Immi
Online AFP Application https://afpnationalpolicechecks.converga.com.au/
485 Visa https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/visa-1/485-
cherry xoxo
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