juljas

hi, my husband and i are currently thinking of moving over to Australia, the visa that we were coming on is a 457, can anyone help me and give me some information on the best states to try and get an employer to sponsor us, my husbands trade is a floor finisher, we currently have out own business in the uk, fitting Karndean and other vinyls, any help greatly appreciated, thanks julie

Bermudashorts

I am sure that there are floors that need finishing all over Australia, so you probably don't need to be too constrained by work when it comes to where to live. So where do you want to live, because the next six people could all recommend a different state and none of them would be right or wrong and none of them would know what suits you best.

So you have identified the 457 visa, this requires an employer sponsor. Have you started looking for jobs? Have you had much luck so far? It is not that common for people to sponsor trades from overseas so finding an employer who is willing could dictate where you end up. That will be pot luck, you will just have to send out your CV all over the place and hope you get lucky.

All in all, this is rather an optimistic plan, have you looked into skilled migration? There is a bit more certainty with that route, in that you either qualify or do not.

juljas

Hi Bermudashorts, thanks for your reply, when we sent off our details to the emigration they replied the 457 would be the best visa for us, we have not really started looking for jobs as yet just wanted to get some information on what the work situation is like in my husbands trade at the moment, the states we were considering were adelaide or brisbane, don't mind really where ever the work is really x

MattandCaz

hi juljas i am a floorlayer in Melbourne so can only really speak for Victoria, I used to fit Karndean pretty much full time in the uk for myself. in Australia Karndean and Amtico are nowhere near as popular and i havent installed one Karndean in 15 months!

Does your partner do commercial or domestic or both? i went about getting to Australia a different way, i came over on a working holiday visa and went self employed with an ABN almost straight away as not many flooring firms employ 'tradies' here, i got in with a company and pretty much sub contracted to them full time for 6 months, in a way proving myself, after this they asked me if i wanted to stay in Australia it didnt take long for me to say yes!

So they sponsored me on a 457 which was pretty painless and was sorted within a couple of months they had to become sponsors first as they had never sponsored before.

One thing is for sure is there is a much bigger gap here to being on wages and sub contracting, personally i have taken a 40% hit on earnings to be on wages but there is a bigger picture for me.

I went 'home' to Birmingham for 8 weeks over christmas with the intention of doing a couple of weeks work to help the christmas fund so i wasnt spending my saved $ i ended up doing 4 days out of 8 weeks, not sure what part of uk your in but talking to various people i know in the trade in the uk its pretty dire

in Australia there is also seperate trades for everything, so carpet fitters, vinyl layers, timber layers, if your husband can do everything thats an advantage, i learnt all of these as an apprentice and found it strange at first that all 3 were classed as seperate trades!

anyway feel free to ask me anything i will certainly help as best i can with Melbourne, im pretty sure there will be plenty of flooring work in the other cities aswell.

Bermudashorts

Well probably you gave them more information than you have posted here but floor finisher is on schedule 2 of the SOL and currently South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory are sponsoring this occupation, so skilled migration is a possibility.

Queensland and Victoria are not sponsoring floor finishers, I didn't bother checking NSW as it is usually a limited list and I didn't have the energy to check Tasmania or ACT.

So as the agent didn't mention state sponsored skilled migration, I assume that your OH would not meet other requirements such as age? How old is he? How many years work experience (in this occupation) would he have?

MattandCaz

Also i would think it will be difficult to get a company to employ without first seeing your husbands work seeing what speed he works at etc etc!

Maybe see if you can have a informal skype chat with some companies first?

all i did was a search for flooring companies in the various cities in Australia and then sent an email asking various questions and if they would be willing to take any floorlayers on, i settled on Melbourne because i had a cousin who was here at the time so i had somwhere to stay short term.

im glad i chose Melbourne its an awesome city some people will disagree but like bermudashorts said its up to you, what may work for you wont for someone else.

juljas

Hi MattandCaz,
thanks for your reply, we are from dudley so not far from your hometown, my hubby does domestic and commercial work, he fits most of the vinyls, he can do carpets and he is going to do the safety flooring course soon as well, he is currently fitting the floor for Lee Longlands in birmingham but the work has gone so quiet out here, i don't think a holiday visa would be any good for us as we are coming as a family with 2 children, we don't mind what state we go to as long as the work is there we can always move around later if we want to, my hubby is self employed over here and sub contracts to different companies,
thanks again for your help any advice is greatly received.

Dorothy

I don't think you understand the 457. A 457 is a temporary, employer sponsored visa. It does not lead to PR and you cannot move around on it. You are tied to the sponsoring employer for the duration of the visa.

It's also really unlikely that you're going to find flooring companies willing to sponsor flooring layers. Most here are subcontractors, and self employed. If your husband qualifies for a skilled visa you are much much better to apply for that.

juljas

Hi Bermudashorts, the reason the agent said the 457 was because he thought my husband would not get on the skilled 176 because he has not got enough written qualifications for his skill, he has his certificate to say he passed the karndean fitting course but because it is not an nvq or city and guilds the agent does not think that would be enough where as we thought that qualification with the aqf111 would be ok for the 176....my husband is 43 and he has done this trade for 7 years now.

juljas

Hi Dorothy, thanks for your reply, i understand the 457 is only temporary and i know you have to stay with that employer for the duration of the visa but i understand you can apply for PR while you are on that visa, then after the time has run out on that visa and if we were granted PR then we could move to another state if we wanted to, but i agree i think the skilled visa is the better option.

Grayling

You can only apply for PR if you are eligible and qualified to do so.....if that is the case then you would be better applying for PR in the first place.

Bear in mind that PR is much more difficult over the age of 45

juljas

Hi Grayling, thanks for your response, we are going to speak to a few agents and see what they recommend, we would prefer PR visa to start with as my husband has just turned 43