Of late, many, many South Africans have been trying their luck at gaining entry to Australia.

Check out Carte Blanche’s video on the “great migration”, where people choosing to leave describe living in South Africa as “having a luxury suite on the Titanic”.

Ouch.

As a result, the number of South Africans enquiring about Australian visas has more than doubled in the past two years.

Here’s BusinessTech with some insight from Sable International’s Australian immigration expert, Sam Hopwood:

“There are a plethora of Australian visa options, but the application criteria are highly selective and rigorous, and applicants should have their eligibility assessed to understand what their options are more fully, before they embark on the application process, said Hopwood.

Hopwood explains that the five most sought after visas in Australia cover a person who wants to study, an entrepreneur who wants to establish or buy a business, a skilled person who aims to be employed, a spouse, or a parent of an Australian resident.

They are as follows…

Business Innovation Visas

If you’re a business owner in South Africa and under the age of 55, then this visa could be for you.

You’ll need to demonstrate that your business in South Africa has a turnover of at least AUD 500 000 and that you or you and your partner combined have net assets of at least AUD 800 000.

“This will eventually give you a visa which will allow you to come to Australia to either establish a new business or buy into a business.

A heads up that AU$800 000 is more than R8 million.

Hopwood said that the business innovation visa allows you to walk into Australia and shop around, and it allows you to buy an established business.

Skilled Visas

This is the most common visa for those wanting to emigrate to Australia.

This is when you work in an occupation and you’re skilled in a particular occupation which is on our medium to long term skilled lists. Those types of occupations are, for example, accountants, secondary school teachers, IT specialists, trades, engineers.

“Civil engineers and construction project managers are really hot occupations at the moment in Australia. There are a lot of civil works happening in Australia, a lot of construction projects, we’re building a lot of roads and rails, so engineers are in really high demand,” said Hopwood.

If you’re under the age of 45 and working a job that’s in high demand, then go for this visa.

Spousal Visas

This one is for South Africans in relationships with Australians.

For South Africans aiming to emigrate to Australia with their spouses, they can apply for spousal visas via a number of routes: The Partner (Provisional) visa (Subclass 309 or Partner (Migrant) visa (subclass 100) which must be applied for outside Australia.

Alternatively, there are partner visas (subclasses 820 and 801) which can be applied for in Australia. If you are engaged you have to apply for a Prospective Marriage Visa (Subclass 300).

There are a few options, so you’ll want to do some research.

Parental Visas

These visas enable immigrant children to bring their parents over to live in the country permanently.

There are a number of criteria that have to be met, but according to Hopwood: “The most important criteria of the parent category visa is the ‘balance of family test’ – this states that the parent, who is still living in South Africa, must have at least 50% of his/her offspring living in Australia and they must be permanent residents or citizens of Australia.”

If you have two kids, one of them has to be a permanent resident in Australia for you to qualify.

Student visas

There are not that many options for young South Africans wanting to work in Australia.

Australia has reciprocal Working Holiday Visas agreements with a number of different countries – but South Africa does not make the list.

Student Visas are available but the upfront costs for international students are prohibitive, starting at $20 000 (over R200,000) per year.

That’s a lot of cash for a student to put down.

There you have it.

If you’re looking to jump ship, those are your main options. Otherwise, suck it up.

[source:businesstech]