OddsandSods

randk - that could be alittle short sighted. If you want to get over there why not join the army of air force (assuming they have the openings for your trade) and then transfer to the RAN when they change their rules? Once in the ADF, it is fairly straightforward, I know a couple of people who did it albeit in different branches.

Point being, you're not over here sitting on your hands...........just a suggestion.

russandkaren

Odds & Sods, my point was that I would not be comfortable in the land environment.....21 years in the Navy and happy doing what I do.

Josie1100

Stu68

Hi all,

This is my first post but have been reading this thread for a while - interesting reading!

I've just joined B.E to keep this thread alive as I have just sent my CV and RN details by email (postal strikes ) to Canberra for assessment and hope for an offer of a position in the RAN.

It would be good to hear from anyone else who has recently made the move or is about to.

I am 20 years in the RN and start my final year in Jan 08. Then - who knows?

Stu

Josie1100

Hi Stu68

We are about to make the move. We fly the 5th November and everything is hitting us fast right now. Just wanted to say hi and any questions you have we will try and answer.

Stu68

Hi Josie1100

Thanks for the reply and good luck with the move - less than 3 wks eh!

Obviously I am in the very early stages but I've got a question - did you get any choice in the matter of location in Aus, or did you just have to take what was offered?

Please keep us up to date on how things are going.

Cheers

Stu

Josie1100

Hiya

My Husband is joining the Australian Navy Band. With this job there are only 2 bands, Melbourne and Sydney. They requested that he go to Sydney. By the time we fly the process will have taken us 15 months. The shippers arrive on Monday morning and time is flying past!!!!

Tammy

Hukna

I started the process 12 months ago and received my Labour Agreement at the end of the Summer which I have just this week sent off with the Visa application form. Medicals next month and hopefully should get good news about the Visa in the New Year.

I am an Engineer and was offered either west coast or east. We chose Perth and hope to be moving over in Jul 08 when our son has finished hid GCSEs.

Once Visa is approved anyone know who then makes contact wrt move dates and process ie shipping furniture etc? Does shipment go before or does it follow you out there?

Josie1100

Hiya

Once you have the Labour agreement, we were given details to be in contact with the senior clerk at Australian high Commision, London. They deal with all your travel details, shipping etc. Most people ship there furniture out etc about 2 weeks before flying. You get air freight allowance that arrives 21 days after you and the shipping takes about 8-10 weeks later.

All of our contact with australia has come to a halt at the moment. they seem to have closed down and our in the middle of putting a new process in place. Anybody can shed any more light on this?

Hoped this has helped a bit. Any more questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Tammy

janet66

Hopefully our container arrives monday , then in two weeks we have our stuff cant wait , and adam has his bike .
Our container left on the friday and we flew on the monday , air frieght was here as we arrived got that a week later .
Hope that helps .
Janet

GreyDog

Hi,

Can anyone shed some light on what you do regarding getting into Australia once you have visa approval? Do you get another piece of paper or is it all controlled electronically? When you arrive at Sydney/Perth/Brisbane do you just show them your UK passport and off you go?

Confused!

Look forward to your not too sarcastic replies!

seaangel

Once your visa is granted you can send your passport off to the High Commission in London and they will put your visa stamp in. Then when you arrive in Australia, they just check your passport with their systems and thats it.

remetech

Hi to all,
I spent 20 years in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) as an electronics technician, and left last year on the new pension scheme. I would like to join the RAN and am writing this to ask if anybody knows anyone who has transferred from (or left) the British army, and joined the RAN?

I have checked the job specification of the RAN electronics technician and it is very similar to mine. How specific are the RAN on matching the jobs?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

(The simple answer would be for me to join the Australian REME, but I just don't fancy all the exercises and deployments under canvas any more- a ship seems much more appealing!).

Cheers.

GaryKristensen

Hi REME tech.

I too am a REME Tech, albeit aircraft (not avionics). I am about to move to Oz with RAEME (13th November flight!) after completing 22 adult years and 1 and a bit apprentice years at Princess Marina College, intake 84C. Yourself?

First question - have you ever served on board ships?

I spent many years with 3 Commando Brigade Air Squadron Royal Marines (now 847 Naval Air Squadron) and did loads of ship time.

Trust me when I say it is not easier than being on a land based exercise or deployment. Ships also deploy and do exercises. Ships have drills and lots of practices at them too. It is not an easy life and one which most Naval guys and girls will probably agree - it is definitely not suitable for everyone! generally you have more than one job, emergency fire crews and anti attack stuff to name a couple I can vaguely remember.

If you think working out of the back of a sealed truck body is tough, try it on board in a force 8 with loads of pitching and rolling of the ship. Pukesville if you are affected in that way (luckily I wasn't!)

You've probably done your research, but if not, hopefully my few comments above will prompt you to speak to Naval techs about their lifestyle and how it matches your perceptions.

To answer your question about matching quals, they do it to quite some detail. A friend of mine wanted to join the ADF (Army) as an aviation engineering officer after being a WO1 avionics in our REME, however they would not let him into aviation, even though he had 22 years experience at trade, because his degree was in computing, so he got a general officers job instead of into aviation engineering!!!

A big waste of talent you may think, but they have to get the whole Labour agreement issue past the DIMA people, and they (DIMA) lay down strict criteria for certain positions.

Saying that, and depending on your British Army rank, so long as you can display the academic, equipment and military qualifications to back up your application, you should be in with a good shout. The biggest problem will be where do you start in a service that you are totally unfamiliar with? What rate do you go in at, as the Naval ranks are not equivalent to your British Army one, so what do they do? Laterally transferring, as it is called, usually means you drop a rank in the process, so WO2's become Sgt's (there are few or no SSgt's in their Army anymore), WO1 to WO2, etc, but I do know one REME non aviation tech who was a degree qualified WO1 and he was only offered a Sgt's position (which he took as he really wanted to go, so maybe they sensed that and offered accordingly?).

There would also be loads of basic training for you to do, unless you can prove you have ship time and gone through all the basic courses like dunker drills, ship's firefighting and whatever else you have to do nowadays to be "current" on board ship?

Whatever you decide, good luck to you. I hope it all works out.

remetech

Thanks for the post.
Yes, I too served with 3 Commando Brigade, for a number of years, and got a lot of ship time in. I thoroughly enjoyed it which is why I am enquiring about joining the RAN.