The United States has the highest immigration rates in the world. Recently, Australia’s immigration rates are also growing in an unprecedented manner. In fact, according to UN projections, Australia will have the highest rate of net immigration among western countries by 2020.
The growing immigration rate in recent times has made migrating to any of the significant western increasingly difficult. Most governmental policies regarding immigration have changed over the years, making it hard to migrate without strong and valid reasons.
In recent times most governments are partnering with the legal services of travel agencies to pick from an ideal pool of people seeking to immigrate. The goal is to screen out people and pick those that would perfectly fit into the generalized skilled population.
The good news is that you have a higher chance to meet up with the legal policies put in place by any of these two countries if you seek out the legal services of such travel agencies. It even helps more if you fall into the category of skilled professionals or want to study. In this post, we’ll be examining the differences between the United States and Australia’s legal policies for different types of immigration purposes.
Temporary Work Permit
Since the post-war era, countries like Australia and the USA have had an ever-increasing need for skilled labor. Both countries have continued to modify their migration policies to either take in more migrants, in the case of Australia or restrict the rate of immigration in the case of the United States.
Interestingly, both Australia and the USA have similar legal policies guiding temporary work permit immigrations. The legal policies allow immigrants to have a temporary visa to come work in the country.
Major criteria that determine eligibility is having the necessary skills and, of course, the companies’ ability to provide funding for your well-being so that you will not become a burden on the government all through your work permit stay.
Furthermore, depending on the type of work you are doing and the quality of the skill you provide, your work permit can be renewed periodically. You may even end up qualifying for a permanent residency that will make you a citizen of the country. You would need the legal services of a capable Immigration agency to achieve this. You can easily hire legal services online. In fact, online will making software is popular in the USA and these days, you can get any legal services online, including making an online will.
Present data show that even though Australia and the United States have similar policies, the USA has been enjoying a far more influx of generalized skill workers than Australia. This is likely because the USA has far less stringent conditions to qualify for permanent residency while working as a temporary foreign worker than Australia.
Besides, the cost of living in the USA is relatively cheaper than that of Australia, making it easier for skilled foreign workers in the USA to meet up with the financial requirement of the legal policies of the USA than Australia.
International Student Policies
Just in case you don’t meet up with the requirements to be considered for a temporary work permit, the good news is that there is yet another option you can try out. The international student programs in the USA and Australia have facilitated much immigration into the country.
In recent times, both United States and Australia have created legal policies to make them very attractive to international students. This policy involves writing some series of exam and qualifying for a student visa to guarantee your country of preferences and institution of choice.
The other good news is that both Australia and The USA allow international students to have a temporary student work permit that allows you as a student to do part-time work to cater to your financial needs while studying.
You also know that family members of a student with work permits are a top priority for immigration by Australia and the USA. They can easily qualify for a temporary work permit.
Despite the similarities in both migrating to Australia and the USA via the international student program, the USA has a higher number of immigrants coming in through the international student program than Australia. This shows that it is easier to meet up with the legal policies of becoming a student in the USA than in Australia.
Major Differences Between the United States and Australia Immigration Policies
- Australian Immigration policy requires passing a character test or meeting the character requirements to get a visa or Australian citizenship. The character requirement can be found under section 501 of the Migration Act 1958.
- On the other hand, United States policy concentrates more on fulfilling eligibility requirements, e.g. skilled workers, persons of extraordinary abilities, asylum seekers, etc.
- United States immigration policy favors family-based immigration than Australia.
- Australia’s immigration policy favors the immigration of skilled persons over spouse/family immigration.
Conclusion
In general, both the USA and Australia are good places to migrate to, and both have policies to allow for migration and assimilation of foreigners into their economy. However, the USA looks more attractive for immigrants who are yet to find a solid footing because the cost of living in the USA is generally lower than that of Australia.