Hi John, I’m 25 years old, I have been in Australia since 2008 and on a 457 temporary sponsored visa for 18 months as a carpenter and joiner. I’ve got two years left on the temporary visa but I really want to get Permanent Residence (PR). I don’t have any qualifications in my trade as [...]

Hi John, I need advice on permanent residency. I am a New Zealand citizen but have been living and working in Australia since May 2005 and a seafarer by trade. Patrick C. Dear Patrick, Although New Zealand citizens have unlimited work rights in Australia, if you arrived in Australia on, or after, February 27, 2001 [...]

Hi John, I’m 30. I arrived in November on my first working holiday visa. I’m working as an excavator driver and plan to go to Adelaide to work for three months so I can apply for a second WH visa before I turn 31 in May. Is it OK to apply for a second visa [...]

Hi John, I am here on a working holiday visa and I would really like to extend my stay. I have a Masters in urban and regional planning. Can I get a skilled visa or any visa based on my qualification to stay on? Joanne. Dear Joanne, Urban and regional planners are on the Australian [...]

Hi John, I’m off to New Zealand for a year having been in Oz on working holiday visas for two years. I worked here for a year as a nurse assistant/care orderly, similar to my work in Ireland. I asked my work agency about sponsorship. They said my job wasn’t on the skilled list so [...]

Ireland is once again being forced to confront another sickening chapter in its recent history. A report by a specially appointed commission into the Catholic Diocese of Dublin details widespread abuse of children by paedophile priests. The crimes were, in may cases, then covered up by the Catholic hierarchy and routinely ignored by the police. [...]

Irish-Australian sporting clashes in recent years have been undermined by acrimony. The International Rules series has been white-anted by fundamentalists on both sides, by Australian ambivalence on the one hand and by Irish hysteria on the other. The affection with which the Wallabies were once welcomed to Ireland – so evident during the 1991 Rugby [...]

The opinion polls are telling us that the Rudd government is vulnerable on the issue of asylum seekers. The Prime Minister’s mantra of “tough on people smugglers, humane on asylum seekers” does not appear to be cutting through with voters. Newspoll, published in the conservative, Murdoch-owned daily The Australian, asked voters whether the government’s approach [...]

I’m married to an Irish citizen. Can I become one? Up until 2005, spouses of Irish citizens living abroad could apply for what was called Post-Nuptial Citizenship Provision. That meant that you could apply for Irish citizenship through your marriage without having to live in Ireland. But that’s all changed now. Then Minister for Justice [...]

by Billy Cantwell Many Aussies have Irish ancestors but can they then claim Irish citizenship? The answer is, well, maybe. Ireland has generous citizenship laws for people of Irish background and less generous rules for spouses of Irish citizens. If your grandfather or grandmother was Irish-born you can claim Irish citizenship without having to move to [...]