Hi all, we are in the process of being sponsored by a company in Sydney. However they have had to apply for sponsorship status - they have sponsored people before but their sponsorship status has now expired and therefore they have had to apply again. The problem is that this is taking forever as there is a big backlog. Husband spoke to the case officer this morning and she said that it would be another 2 weeks before the sponsorship application would be finalised and that she would not look at the 457 visa application (lodged by us on 7th April) until then. We fly out on 14th June!!! We booked the flights on the advice of the company (they are paying for the flights effectively via relocation allowance), have rented the house out from 15th June and have arranged for shippers to come and pack up on 9th June. So basically we have to fly on 14th June as we have burnt our bridges here - which is OK because we wanted to leave liverpool anyway. The case officer said that we could get an ETA - husband forgot to ask whether we would need return flights with an ETA visa. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did you need return tickets, or proof of funds etc. I will e mail immigration as well just to be sure but just wanted to know if anyone else had been through anything similar. Case officer was quite chilled and said that we could get a bridging visa if 457 didn't come through in time. I presume that we wouldn't be able to start work on a bridging visa though?? Thanks everyone.
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