When should you be applying for your 485 Temporary Graduate (aka TR) visa? Other than when your student visa expires, there are actually several other factors to consider.
Here is a quick and easy checklist to help you ensure you apply at the right time.
✔ After you've completed your course and received your results
✔ At least 4 days before your visa expiry date
We have found from our experience that when you lodge your application too close to your visa expiry, your bridging visa may no longer get generated automatically. Instead, it is typically assigned to a case officer who needs to manually approve it, meaning that you may have several days where you are without a bridging visa but your student visa has expired. To avoid becoming unlawful, we recommend that you leave at least 4 days for the lodgment of your application.
Another consideration, unlike credit card payments, BPay payments may take up to 2 business days to process, so your application isn't valid until the payment has cleared.
✔ Before the expiry of your English tests (the results must be from within the last 3 years, calculated from the date your application is lodged)
Don't forget that the English requirements you must meet for the TR visa is IELTS 6.0 overall, 5.0 each band, or equivalent
✔ If applicable, before any of the police certificates or health exams you've done recently expire (the results must be from within the last 12 months, calculated from the date of lodgement). This might save you the money and effort of doing them again unnecessarily.
Additional Tip:
It is recommended that you start thinking about your TR visa NOW. For some, the process can be as quick as 1 week, for some it could be many months (especially if you need to get finances ready, prepare for English tests etc.)
Thinking of travelling? Before you book your tickets, you should read this blog post!
If you have any questions about the process, please feel free to contact us. Rest assured that you're in good hands with us here at Skylark Migration. Our migration experts have 100% success with every 485 TR visa application that they've ever lodged.