# Graduate 485 visa - Australian two year study requirement



## Nai (Feb 23, 2011)

Hello everyone!

I'm currently studying a 1.5 year Master of Regional Development in the University of Queensland, and would like to stay working in Australia for one or two years, and don't want to have the '6 month max. per employer' restriction that the Work and Holiday visa has (I'm a US citizen).

So my best option seems to be the Graduate 485 visa. My masters is equivalent to 78 weeks study time, so I'm 14 weeks behind the required 92 weeks. I looked at all the alternatives to fulfill this goal.

The Immigration website says that if I'm falling behind the 92 weeks I could:

1) Take some extra courses such as electives leading to my degree._ I made the math with my program and can say that on average, every 2 unit course is around 6.5 weeks of study time, so I need at least 3 extra courses to fullfil the 92 weeks (78 weeks + 19.5 weeks = 97.5 week!). BUT at UQ, 6 units would cost me $10,400._ 

or

2) Complete a second closely related degree. One one hand, they specify, that this has to be "either a degree (a bachelor or any higher degree), a diploma, an advanced diploma, or a trade qualification", but then I also read in one part, when giving an example of how to combine degrees, that "a diploma in Business and Certificate IV in Carpentry would be consistent with nominating Carpenter as your occupation".

I found a "Certificate IV in Project Management" for only $3k that takes 17 study weeks! I am stating Urban Planner as my occupation, so I think Project Management would be closely related. This is so far the best option, but I'm not sure they would accept it or not  Does anyone know if a Certificate IV would be accepted as a second qualification?


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

You can find that the time of study or study duration is not always the same as the rated study time and I think you'll also find that any course needs to be CRICOS approved so two aspects to be looked at yourself there and then as for the additional course being accepted as related, that is really a decision for Immi and other than doing a related approved course all you can do is see if you can get advice from Immi re irs relation acceptance.
The other aspect of the 485 is that your qualifications are acceptable for a SOL listed occupation.


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## benemi (Jun 6, 2011)

hey Nai

I am very much in the same situation with you. I am doing Master of Planning at UNSW and wanna stay and work for a while too.

I am actually graduating this term, by July. just wondering which option did you choose finaly? and did it work out?

do you mind to give me ur email address?
this is mine [email protected] (add com, I can't post url so far)


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## Nai (Feb 23, 2011)

benemi said:


> hey Nai
> 
> I am very much in the same situation with you. I am doing Master of Planning at UNSW and wanna stay and work for a while too.
> 
> ...


Hi Benemi,

I have not decided yet! I'm graduating in November so I've got a couple of months to decided, but so far I have thought of contacting VETASSESS to see first if a Certificate would count towards the 2 year requirement in the field (in my case I'm not doing Planning but I have a lot of Planning content in my degree). In your case you could contact them and ask what courses do they recommend you to take to complete the 2 year requirement, maybe they would suggest options that are less expensive than taking 4 more courses at your University.

I'd love to stay for one or two more years working but paying $14,000 for 4 extra courses (that I don't need for my degree) to satisfy a "two year requirement" seems difficult to me. So if that's what they want I might abandon the Graduate Skill visa idea and just get a Work and Holiday visa.

Will send you my email on a message if I can be of any help!


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## benemi (Jun 6, 2011)

Nai said:


> Hi Benemi,
> 
> I have not decided yet! I'm graduating in November so I've got a couple of months to decided, but so far I have thought of contacting VETASSESS to see first if a Certificate would count towards the 2 year requirement in the field (in my case I'm not doing Planning but I have a lot of Planning content in my degree). In your case you could contact them and ask what courses do they recommend you to take to complete the 2 year requirement, maybe they would suggest options that are less expensive than taking 4 more courses at your University.
> 
> ...


I think VETASSESS will only assess your occupation upon the degree. They don't have a requirement of "2 years study" for skill assessment, the "2 years" is required by the visa.

Another thing is, have u mentioned that "2 years study" can only content either a degree, diploma or trade qulification. R u sure the certificate u choosed is include in the group of "trade qualification"

I am considering to take an advanced diploma of management for half year which is only 2800 too, and no physical attendence required. As the example shown in the 485 eligible - 2 years study in Australia. It seems that every occupation can be considered as related to business or management.

What i am worry about is the regulation that qualifications should match the level of the occupation nominated. According to the explaination from ABS (which is used by DIAC), planner is "have a level of skill commensurate with a bachelor degree or higher"

I download some legal document from immigration agent gateway. I can send a copy to you if u like. I am actually working for immigration agent, but still cannot solve the problem of myself.


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## Nai (Feb 23, 2011)

Hi, yes, I meant a Diploma not Certification! In my case I'm more concerned with VETASSESS since my degree is not really in Urban Planning.

I don't think you will have a problem with the Masters since VETASSESS says "Qualification/s assessed at Australian Bachelor degree or Australian higher degree level", I understand that if you have a higher degree in planning you qualify even if you're bachelor was not in urban planning. I think that the rules of VETASSESS are more important than the ABS since they are the ones who approve your qualifications.

I definitely think that an advanced degree in management is related to planning, however, you'll probably need to demonstrate how this diploma relates to your career (for example, a statement saying that you need it for your specific career goal, like working with business or investment planning or the financial aspect of planning).

I'm interested in any info you may have, I'll send you an email since I can't send you a message here...


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## lildevil872 (Dec 24, 2010)

Hi there,

I am somewhat in the same situation. I have not seek advice from any immigration agent or lawyer. I am from Malaysia and in 2009 I continued my bachelor of commerce in marketing at Curtin uni in Sydney. I graduated after a year and obtained a bachelor of commerce in marketing which is in the old SOL list which I can still use. after my bachelor i con't studying a master of Journalism at University of Technology Sydney. and i will be graduating this coming July and my student visa will expire in August. I want to apply for 485 but i am unsure if i qualify? been studing here 2.5 yers in total.


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## Nai (Feb 23, 2011)

Hey lildevil, 

I'm sure you would qualify for the 2 year study requirement, since it's about the number of weeks (92) and you can combine qualifications: for example, your Master is probably 78 weeks (if it's 1.5 years full time) and the year that you did on your bachelor contained more than the 14 weeks that you need. What's important is to have completed a degree for those courses, and you have.


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## lildevil872 (Dec 24, 2010)

Nai said:


> Hey lildevil,
> 
> I'm sure you would qualify for the 2 year study requirement, since it's about the number of weeks (92) and you can combine qualifications: for example, your Master is probably 78 weeks (if it's 1.5 years full time) and the year that you did on your bachelor contained more than the 14 weeks that you need. What's important is to have completed a degree for those courses, and you have.


Hei thanks for the respond.. so have you decided if you were gonna study something else to make up for the 92 weeks? good luck to u !!


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## Nai (Feb 23, 2011)

Hey lildevil,

I don't think the 485 is an option for me, considering all the costs and the risk. For now I'm considering the Work and Holiday visa. Best of luck!


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## lildevil872 (Dec 24, 2010)

Hi again,

Just a quick question.. my semester is ending soon and i am currently in d process of gathering d documents necessary for my 485 application. In regards to my situation, I did a 1 year study in my bachelor of commerce in marketing which is in the old SOl which i qualify and after that i did a masters of journalism for an extra 1.5 years which is also in the SOL. my question is does that make up for the 2 years? considering journalism isn't closely related to marketing though i may argue it is.

Thanks.

Melissa


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