If you are aspiring to apply for the Distinguished Talent Visa (858 - onshore or 124 - offshore) leading to Permanent Residency in Australia, I have tried to compile some of the relevant information below, being a recipient of 858 myself as a researcher with a PhD.
For more information about the new talent program, visit the official website.
Unlike the point-tested stream for skilled migration, the aim of this visa is to 'quickly' grant permanent residency visas to those who are doing well in the various technology sectors, with an advantage to those in research or pursuing tertiary education. There is a quota of 5000 grants for this visa to be filled by June 2021.
The application process is divided in two stages:
EOI (Expression of Interest) Stage
You first need to fill the Global Talent Contact form online to express your interest. This does not involve any fee. The primary requirements are:
- Nomination - You will need to find an Australian citizen or permanent resident or an Australian organisation to nominate you for this visa. Your nominator needs to be someone prominent in your area of expertise. For example, for PhD/Masters students, your supervisor can be a nominator.For the EOI stage, no documents are required from the nominator but it might be good to tell them what all you need throughout the process. Check the second stage details for nominator's document requirements.
- High Income - One needs to show that they are capable of earning ~148K in Australia. However, this is not a requirement if you are a recent PhD/Masters graduate from the target sectors.
- CV/Resume
- Degree Details - Attach proof of your qualifications including a degree certificate and transcripts if you already graduated. If you are studying currently, attach an official document from University stating your timeline to finish along with the details of your degree.
- Details of Awards and Achievements - This is at the core of your EOI's success. You will need to list down all the awards and achievements that are relevant to your profile:
- Best paper awards, scholarships, prizes, medals, special projects that you have been part of etc.
- Research Publications and Patents.
- Any first-of-its-kind things you might have developed.
- International conferences you have attended and presented your research work at.
- Links to media articles, videos, or printed articles where you have been featured by name or visually.
- Any High-Profile Collaborations.
- A job offer or a contract of employment.
- If your partner is also in research or is highly skilled like you, add their details as well, indicating that you both would be an asset to Australia.
- Conclusion stating that your achievements well justify the needs of this visa program and are relevant to the target sectors.
Visa Lodgement Stage (COMING SOON!)
Timelines
www.expatforum.com is serving as a great platform for sharing information regarding this visa and getting help for your doubts and queries (see the first entry in Relevant Links below). It has been the major source of information for many initial applicants (and has more than 100 pages of posts as on 24 May 2020). Most of the timelines presented below have been sourced from that forum (with links to the public source), ordered by recency of visa grants:
Legend:
EOI: Expression Of Interest
ITA: Invitation To Apply
RFI: Request for Further Information
GTO: Global Talent Officer
OCF: Online Contact Form
FAQs
- Do you receive any confirmation or acknowledgement after submitting an EOI?No.
- Can a Global Talent Officer be your nominator?No.
- Can you send additional documents after submitting an EOI?Yes, send them to GlobalTalent@homeaffairs.gov.au and the auto-reply will be the only confirmation/acknowledgement that you will receive.
- For how long is the UID and invitation (ITA) valid?There is no validity period defined as such.
- Does your nominator need to provide you employment?No.
- Can you change your nominator?You can change after the EOI stage and before the visa lodgement but not after the visa lodgement.
- Is PhD mandatory for this visa?No. If you have research publications/patents through industrial research and (or can) earn 148K AUD, you are very much eligible for this visa.
- Can your PhD supervisor be your nominator?Definitely.
- Can you lodge the visa applications through ImmiAccount?Yes. While the EOI has to be done either through the online contact form or by contacting a Global Talent Officer (GTO), it is not compulsory to lodge the visa application via the online contact form.
- Is Form 47SV and 80 mandatory when lodging visa via ImmiAccount?No.
Tips
- It is usually possible to get your health assessments done before lodging the visa through Health Declarations service available via ImmiAccount. Currently, it is under the status: 'discontinued' (probably due to COVID-19) but this may change in future.
- If your wait is too long for the medical examination, you have an option to ask the provider (Bupa) about the cancellations and rescheduling of your appointment while you are waiting, although avoiding spamming them.
- To save time, before you lodge your visa, you can start arranging proofs for functional English for all the applicants and also start processing your Australian Federal Police (AFP) clearance and Overseas Police Clearance / Police Clearance Certificate (PCC).
- IMO, lodging your visa application via ImmiAccount is a much smoother and simplified option than the web-based online contact form.
- For your Overseas Police Clearance, if you are from India, keep in mind that it is not mandatory to submit your passport to VFS. You can instead submit an attested copy, for example, in Queensland, Australia, you can search for a JP here to get attestation done, generally free of cost.
Relevant Links
- Expatforum.com: https://www.expatforum.com/expats/australia-expat-forum-expats-living-australia/1490564-global-talent-independent-program-subclass-124-858-query-eligibilty.html?amp=1
- Recent News: https://www.itnews.com.au/news/tech-migrants-shun-australias-new-fast-track-permanent-residency-visa-548177
- Blogpost on Indian PCC Process: https://www.aussian.com/getting-indian-pcc-for-australian-citizenship/
This post is not meant to be an immigration advice. The information is correct to the best of my knowledge and understanding and will be updated as and when necessary. The aim of this blog post is to help the applicants with additional information which might otherwise require hours of online searching. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please comment below, especially if any information seems wrong as things might have changed since the publication of this post.
It would be great if you can share your timeline of the process (even for a successful EOI and definitely for successful grants) in comments, so that others get the latest idea about the waiting periods and can thus reduce their anxiety levels.
It would be great if you can share your timeline of the process (even for a successful EOI and definitely for successful grants) in comments, so that others get the latest idea about the waiting periods and can thus reduce their anxiety levels.
Hope this helps! All the best!
