After nearly 8 years in the territory, she celebrates with her head held up high. She started her journey on a student visa and having experienced many challenges, including very low times in her life and having to extend her candidature to complete her degree in Nursing, she persisted. Delays with her assessments with AHPRA and ANMAC meant she had to consider other pathways to extend her stay. Joy completed her initial nursing degree in the Philippines and came to Darwin, Australia to upgrade her qualifications to Australian standards. Thankfully, due to her commitment in getting employment in her field and with the immigration advice and assistance from Margie Dizon and Cecilia Dela Vega of Migration Corporation of Australia, meant that the NT Government recognised and awarded her Expression of Interest (EOI) with an invitation for permanent residency.
According to Joy, preparation and accurate advice from experts is key to her success. We were curious as to what prompted her to seriously seek accurate and advice from experienced Migration Agents, given she has been in the country for close to 8 years and that visa applications were no longer unfamiliar to her. Free information over the web could easily be misinterpreted and acknowledging that her situation is very different from friends, she decided to pursue the help of experienced Migration Agents to clarify her options for permanent migration to Australia.
“My sister told me to go and see the experts at Migration Corporation of Australia because they know many things that I didn’t know. First of all, I did not even know I was eligible to apply for the 190. Why would I waste my time and money on hearsay? I would rather spend it on [myself] to see an expert. At least I am confident that what Migration Corporation experts will tell me is something they study about regularly and through professional development trainings. I needed to focus,” Joy confidently agrees. She claims that had she listened to free advice, she would not have received any assurances that what she would be doing would be correct.
“I made a mistake in working the whole time. Kung work ka nang work dito tapos hindi mo naman naasikaso ang [visa] situation mo dito, paano ka maka-work nang mas mahaba pa?” [“If you keep working and working and you do not appropriately deal with your visa situation, how else can you work longer in Australia?”]. As a former international student who has recently obtained her permanent residency through territory government sponsorship, she advises managing time wisely, especially devoting the appropriate time to study their courses and to plan ahead to do what is necessary to become eligible for government sponsorship (including taking leave from work, if necessary, to seek expert migration assistance). She humbly talks about her mistakes and generously shares her positive learnings throughout her journey.
We are so excited with the rest of Joy’s journey in Australia as a Registered Nurse. We salute you, your commitment and your contribution to our community!!
We are blessed to experience all the joys and celebrations that permanent residency brings families in Australia. Our migration agent success rate is second to none. Need practical immigration advice and assistance? Call us on +618 89481995.