A permanent residence visa is something that is issued by the Australian government to a citizen of some other country who has landed in Australia but is not an Australian citizen. A permanent residence visa gives exactly the same rights to its holder which are given to an Australian citizen except for Voting and doing a job in Defence.

Different streams for applying for the Permanent Residency –

A) Federal Visa Subclass 189 (Skilled Independent Visa) – It is a Federal Permanent Resident visa. Here there is a certain list of occupations and applicants only with those occupations can apply under this stream. There is also an eligibility criterion where the applicants have rewarded points on the basis of age, education, work experience,
language, and blood relatives. The applicants are given invitations on the basis of various factors which are considered by the federal government.

B) Provincial Visa Subclass 190 (Skilled Nominated Visa)- Here also there is a certain list of occupations and applicants only with those occupations can apply under this stream. There is also an eligibility criterion where the applicants have rewarded points on the basis of age, education, work experience, language, and blood relatives. The applicants are given invitations on the basis of various factors which are considered by the federal government. The PR visa given here is valid for only the province which has nominated the applicant for the first 2 years out of the 5 years of duration of pr visa. After 2 years applicants are free to move to other provinces for settlement.