At The Migration Agency, we live by our values every day and it’s heartening to see our team members feel connected to our core focus of enabling our clients to deliver their unique value to the world.
For us, a visa granted means a life changed. It’s not only the life of the excited new visa holder that changes, but also the lives of their immediate and extended families and, much of the time, their community.
It’s part of our ambitious 10-year business plan, which is to change 100,000 lives by 2032, and we will do that by putting our people and our clients at the heart of everything we do.
This sentiment couldn’t ring more true for The Migration Agency’s Senior Immigration Business Partner, Samantha Healey.
In this blog, Samantha shares the journey of one of our clients’ sponsored visa holders and shows how even our most experienced TMA practitioners, who have been working in the industry for many years, can still be touched when they change a life.
A visa granted is a life changed for Clarissa and her family
Clarissa came to Australia from South Africa in 2021 with her young family to work as an occupational therapist. She was sponsored by her employer (a TMA client) on a subclass 482 temporary visa.
Her employer reached out to The Migration Agency to support Clarissa with her permanent residency application. Based on her skills and experience as an occupational therapist and support from her employer, the permanent residency application also included her spouse and their two young children, aged 3 and 4.
We received the client’s instructions to assist with the permanent residency application in mid-December, 2021 with the request for the application to be lodged by the end January, 2022!
This was an extremely tight timeframe and it was also during Christmas and the new year period when many businesses and government departments are closed for the holidays.
How TMA helped an employer keep a valuable staff member and get permanent residency for Clarissa
At The Migration Agency, we stand by our values, which include “getting it sorted” and “people at the heart” and these two values were put to the test in this case.
Our immigration specialists will always do everything they possibly can to get the best outcome for our clients when they are sponsoring global talent.
In this case, Clarissa wanted to move quickly due to two significant reasons:
- Her English language test that she did as part of applying for her temporary visa was about to expire (within four weeks) and she didn’t want to sit it again.
- Both of her children are in daycare, which for temporary visa holders, is very expensive because access to the rebates are only available to permanent residents and Australian citizens.
The application was successfully lodged on January 20, 2022, five weeks after The Migration Agency started working with the sponsoring employer and Clarissa.
Expert help and a knowledgeable team make for a successful outcome
Samantha advised Clarissa and her family that it can take 4-6 months for the application to be processed and approved. Clarissa was anxious about the application and Samantha was always there for her to check on the status.
We know it can be nerve-wrecking for the sponsor company and individual when waiting for an application to be approved. Our team is professional, but we also deeply care about our clients and their outcomes.
So when the approval came through after just four months, Samantha was extremely happy to make the phone call (that’s the TMA way) to give Clarissa the good news.
“It was such a wonderful feeling that I got to experience a significant milestone in this young family’s life,” she says.
“I could hear the relief in Clarissa’s voice and the kids’ voices in the background.”
Sam said she felt good about the outcome and empathised with the added pressures Clarissa and her partner had; both working full time, with no family support network in a new country, raising two young children. Hearing the joy and relief in the client’s voice reminded Samantha of how life-changing our work really is.
How TMA can help you as an employer sponsor global talent
If you want to put people at the heart of your business, get in touch with our caring and experienced immigration team to discuss your needs and how we can help.
