Hi there
I'm an aussie on a WHV in the UK - I've been working for just under 7 months here. I was hoping to switch to an HSMP visa after 12 months, until they went and changed the bloody rules
Ideally, I'd like to be able to switch in country, which means applying sometime before the HSMP becomes tier 1 (march? is there a confirmed date yet?). Unfortunately, based purely on my UK earnings, I'll only have enough points at the end of April to qualify.
Is it possible to combine my Australian earnings and UK earnings? If I did this I'd qualify.
I've also read that they pro-rata your income based on the country you've spent the most time in. This would mean that I could provide evidence of 5 months of Australian income, 7 months of UK income and they'd pro-rata the UK income (ie divide by 7 and multiply by 12) to determine how many points I'd earn. I'd qualify this way too.
Then I also read that you can't switch to an HSMP from a WHV until you've been on the WHV for 12 months. By that time, tier 1 will have come in which specifically disallows an in country switch.
If we assume that all of the above won't work, this leaves me with applying under the new tier 1 system, which I believe would involve returning to Australia to apply. I've read in a few places it takes 4-6 weeks to get an initial approval letter and then entry clearance sorted out - would I need to return to Australia for the entire time, or just for the entry clearance? Furthermore, is an out of country switch even possible too? The statement of intent wasn't particularly clear to me.
Apologies for the length of this. I wonder if I'm asking questions that can't be answered yet.
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