By Stephen Howes
The ballot for Australia’s new permanent residency visa for the Pacific and Timor-Leste, the Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV), opens on Monday. If you are interested in applying, here is what you need to know.
The PEV Ballot
- If you want a PEV visa, you must first enter the ballot.
- The ballot is open from 3 June to 1 August 2024.
- Family members (partner and legally-dependent children) can be included in the application.
- Primary applicants must be aged 18 to 45, must be a citizen of one of the participating PEV countries (Fiji, FSM, Nauru, Palau, PNG, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) and have been born in or had a parent born in one of these countries, or Australia, Kiribati, NZ, RMI or Samoa.
- Primary applicant needs a passport; other family members don’t.
- Applications are made online via the Australian Department of Home Affairs' ImmiAccount and can be made from anywhere in the world.
- Applications cost A$25 (whether or not family are included) with the fee to be paid online (e.g. by credit card).
After the ballot
Those applicants selected by ballot will be sent a "Notification of Selection" letter by the Australian Department of Home Affairs which will list an application expiry date, giving you 120 days (4 months) to:
- Get a job offer in Australia (the Australian government’s free PEV Support Service will help you with job matching).
- Do a health check.
- Do a police check.
- Take an English language test. You will be exempt from this requirement if you: completed secondary school in your country; worked in or studied at secondary level in Australia for a year; lived for a year in the US, UK, Canada or New Zealand; undertake to improve your English in Australia via study.
- Ensure all family members on the application have a passport.
- Show that you can support yourself for the first 12 months in Australia. Whether this requires more than a job offer remains to be seen.
- Apply for a visa (A$325 per primary applicant, and A$80 per family member).
The Australian Department of Home Affairs website contains full details on both the PEV visa and the PEV ballot.
Go to this page from 3 June 2024 to get the link for your ballot application:
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/pacific-engagement/ballot-registration/ballot-country-status
This article is from the Development Policy Centre at The Australian National University.
Stephen Howes is Director of the Development Policy Centre and Professor of Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University.
