Originally Posted by richard-elly

YES!!!!

Gather as much info about who you are, what you do, qualifications, references etc.. Get people to give detailed descriptions of your work....the details are really important....the stronger your case the better. I'm not sure about being fast tracked....will let you know when we get assessed in April. Because we had to gather all our info again, people in England were not interested in us any more. All the companies who sang Richards praises when we were leaving...one company begging him not to go....now can't be bothered to do a 1 page reference...let alone a detailed one describing the jobs he's done. Out of sight...out of mind. It took over 6 weeks to gather it all again and then it was not as good as the first time!

Originally Posted by karenvirginia

surely only one first home owners grant in australia (whatever state)
i'll move over the border if theres another on offer!
please let me know
karen

Originally Posted by WendyC

You get a grant for your first home from every state I think. If I can find the website I'll post it for you

Originally Posted by richard-elly

Richard has just told me this. In January he too thought that you only basically had to put in your name and address, because they have all the other information already from immigration purposes. We were told on 3 accounts this is not the case. You have to fill out the whole form. Richard rang TRA who told him the website was out of date and it may have been true 3 years ago, but today you have to fill the whole form. Our local MP who looked into it....his secretary told us the same...that the website was out of date and we had to fill the whole form. Our accountant looked into for us as well....guess what!....You got it...we have to fill out the whole form because the website is out of date. So we did funny enough

Originally Posted by richard-elly

So here we are 4 months down the line. And what an experience it has all been. It feels like we are the only english family who didn't emigrate to Brisbane, Perth or the Mornington Penninsula! I'm sure that is not true but it sure feels like it. We moved to Anglesea on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. It was for a total life change. English life was full of indoor activities for the kids and Richard working a 14 hour day, 6 days a week.

Having never been to Australia before we picked Anglesea out of pure luck and have never regretted it. Our home for the first 3 weeks was on the Big 4 caravan park. They were amazing people who made us feel so welcome. We had those 3 weeks to find rented accomodation which was not easy as it was the start of the tourist season and all places had been let out. But luckily again we found one. It's a complete mess but nothing that a bit of elbow grease and paint couldn't fix. Those first 3 weeks were spent buying cars, getting tax numbers, getting driving licences, opening bank accounts! Basically getting a life again!

Richard is an electrician by trade and applying for his "licence to trade" is where all the trouble started! Boy were we unprepared for the saga that follows! In England we had all his qualifications transferred over to australian recognised qualifications. Then on arrival, we did nothing about his work for the first month, just concentrated on the above stuff. Then we inquired about how we get his licence. Richard was self employed, running his own successful business in England, but here that means nothing! Here he has to prove he is an electrician by the following process. First he needs to get a TRA certificate. We foolishly thought that the one we got in England whilst going through the emigration fiasco was the one they need. It's not! This TRA certificate we were told is for emigration purposes only and can not be used again! So we needed to apply for another one exactly the same, with exactly the same information, ie references etc. We thought this was stupid as we had already done it all so we got onto our local MP, who was just brilliant and got his secretary to look into it for us. Unfortunately, though he thought it was stupid himself, he said there was nothing he could do about it. So it took us another 6 weeks writing to people in England begging them to send us new references. It took this long because basically people are not interested and can't be bothered. Also we stupidly left all Richards Tax books from his business at his mums house thinking we would not need them. Eventually his mum posted them to us, as we needed to prove that he had been self employed. So we filled out the forms and sent it all off. The man we spoke to at the TRA office told us not to hold our breath as the committee only meet up once a month to view all applications for TRA certificates.....and we had just missed a meeting!!!! So this is the stage we are at. We are still waiting now for that meeting.

Once we get the TRA certificate we can then apply for a Class E licence. Which means Richard can work as a qualified electrician for another company. To be self employed, in other words to get his Class A licence, we have been told we would then need to do a 4 month college course with exam. AAagh!!
Just as well we had savings otherwise we would be stuffed. Luckily, in the mean time, Richard has been working as a "labourer" for an electrician on labourers wages, which is at least something. Every building site he has been onto people have said that they are desperate for electricians and that he should have no trouble finding work....once he gets his licence!!

All in all, we know that by the end of this year it will all be sorted. We came out here expecting the first 12 months to be difficult and because of that attitude none of this has been stressful. Richards working day is Mon - Fri 7:30 to 4pm, then he goes surfing! Not bad eh! It all comes out in the wash, eventually.
What have I learned from all of this? That there are things you have no control over or didn't anticipate. So instead of stressing about it or beating myself up for not having done better research, I just adopted the attitude of, "Oh well, we'll get there." Would I go back to england? No way! Life here is brilliant. I walk the dog on the beach every night, I body surf with the kids, we do outdoor activities.....The biggest thing we are learning is to be as laid back as the Aussies. No more English tight, stressed, stiff upper lip for me. We just go with the flow. Perfect.

Originally Posted by steve`o

got the visa 4th Feb
currently in the process of selling business ( NIC registered contractor )
and property ( our house goes on sale this week )
that and what seems like a million other things
sorting out pensions etc ( nightmare )

in regards to ARTC is it because you had your original TRA assessment in 03 that the following doesn't apply

Taken from ARTC application guide

Previous Applications
If you have been previously assessed by TRA, either for migration purposes of by another TRA office it is important that you complete these boxes as appropriate. If you have been previously assessed by TRA it may fast track the processing of your case. If have been previously assessed by TRA for migration purposes you should tick YES in question 'A' and complete sections 2, 3, 4 and 12 only (if you have had additional employment since lodging your TRA application prior to migrating, you MUST include these employment details in Section 9). If you tick NO you must complete all remaining sections of the form, where applicable.

an insight to this would be helpful as i assumed that having been assessed once that i would be fast tracked as per above

??? please advise


regards Steve

Originally Posted by WendyC

Here you go. Just pick the state you are going to http://www.smh.com.au/business/money...rty/grant.html

Originally Posted by richard-elly

Lesley
Richard has just said that he was told that Victoria was the only state that electricians needed to get themselves registered to be self employed after they get their Class A certificate? Is this different in Brisbane?

Originally Posted by leannefr

Hi there,ive been thru all that crap when i came to brissie over 18months ago.
it seems so long ago now!!!i 1st had to work as a trades assistant till i got my license(exam and practical).I ended up running 3 jobs at once because they said i took my time and did a neat and tidy job and was organised(still as a trades assistant).
Most electricians ive come across are `ruff`and cut a lot of corners, but they are big up on safety(rubber mat, gloves , face sheild etc) when working in a live switchboard.
They have never heard of a file, when they cut the tray with an angle grinder and put it `upside down`with razor sharp unfiled edges!!!!
There is so much work out there that i am now half way thru my contractors license so i can set up on my own!!
Some of the stuff is different but you get used to it., and its hard to imagine going back and working in england.
Good luck everybody, you`ll all get there!!
Darren

Originally Posted by richard-elly

So here we are 4 months down the line. And what an experience it has all been. It feels like we are the only english family who didn't emigrate to Brisbane, Perth or the Mornington Penninsula! I'm sure that is not true but it sure feels like it. We moved to Anglesea on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. It was for a total life change. English life was full of indoor activities for the kids and Richard working a 14 hour day, 6 days a week.

Having never been to Australia before we picked Anglesea out of pure luck and have never regretted it. Our home for the first 3 weeks was on the Big 4 caravan park. They were amazing people who made us feel so welcome. We had those 3 weeks to find rented accomodation which was not easy as it was the start of the tourist season and all places had been let out. But luckily again we found one. It's a complete mess but nothing that a bit of elbow grease and paint couldn't fix. Those first 3 weeks were spent buying cars, getting tax numbers, getting driving licences, opening bank accounts! Basically getting a life again!

Richard is an electrician by trade and applying for his "licence to trade" is where all the trouble started! Boy were we unprepared for the saga that follows! In England we had all his qualifications transferred over to australian recognised qualifications. Then on arrival, we did nothing about his work for the first month, just concentrated on the above stuff. Then we inquired about how we get his licence. Richard was self employed, running his own successful business in England, but here that means nothing! Here he has to prove he is an electrician by the following process. First he needs to get a TRA certificate. We foolishly thought that the one we got in England whilst going through the emigration fiasco was the one they need. It's not! This TRA certificate we were told is for emigration purposes only and can not be used again! So we needed to apply for another one exactly the same, with exactly the same information, ie references etc. We thought this was stupid as we had already done it all so we got onto our local MP, who was just brilliant and got his secretary to look into it for us. Unfortunately, though he thought it was stupid himself, he said there was nothing he could do about it. So it took us another 6 weeks writing to people in England begging them to send us new references. It took this long because basically people are not interested and can't be bothered. Also we stupidly left all Richards Tax books from his business at his mums house thinking we would not need them. Eventually his mum posted them to us, as we needed to prove that he had been self employed. So we filled out the forms and sent it all off. The man we spoke to at the TRA office told us not to hold our breath as the committee only meet up once a month to view all applications for TRA certificates.....and we had just missed a meeting!!!! So this is the stage we are at. We are still waiting now for that meeting.

Once we get the TRA certificate we can then apply for a Class E licence. Which means Richard can work as a qualified electrician for another company. To be self employed, in other words to get his Class A licence, we have been told we would then need to do a 4 month college course with exam. AAagh!!
Just as well we had savings otherwise we would be stuffed. Luckily, in the mean time, Richard has been working as a "labourer" for an electrician on labourers wages, which is at least something. Every building site he has been onto people have said that they are desperate for electricians and that he should have no trouble finding work....once he gets his licence!!

All in all, we know that by the end of this year it will all be sorted. We came out here expecting the first 12 months to be difficult and because of that attitude none of this has been stressful. Richards working day is Mon - Fri 7:30 to 4pm, then he goes surfing! Not bad eh! It all comes out in the wash, eventually.
What have I learned from all of this? That there are things you have no control over or didn't anticipate. So instead of stressing about it or beating myself up for not having done better research, I just adopted the attitude of, "Oh well, we'll get there." Would I go back to england? No way! Life here is brilliant. I walk the dog on the beach every night, I body surf with the kids, we do outdoor activities.....The biggest thing we are learning is to be as laid back as the Aussies. No more English tight, stressed, stiff upper lip for me. We just go with the flow. Perfect.