josie0801

Hi,

My boyfriend and I are aiming to move over to Australia in 6 months time and was wondering if anyone had any tips about visa's, rent, jobs, living expenses etc

As background I currently work for IBM UK and have tried to get a transfer and sponsored visa to IBM Australia but have had very little luck to get through all the processes involved.
If this does not materialize I think I am going to have to go for a working holiday visa. This is ok but not ideal as we can only stay with an employer for 6 months and if we don’t do any agriculture work we would not be able to extend to 2 years.
Does anyone know if it is common for companies to hire someone from outside the UK and to sponsor a visa application?
Or if we were to be temporary staff is it likely that an employer would sponsor us to stay longer and become more permanent ?

We are both 25 and have good degrees in business and computing. We both have 4 years experience. He is very technical currently working as a consultant and has a large amount of knowledge about databases and in particular DB2. I however have just started to specialise in business process modelling (modelling processes to make them more efficient) and previous to that have a very rounded range of experiences from HR to Procurement to BPO. However I am thinking to get a job in Australia experience is going to be one if the biggest factors - does anyone agree?

Ideally, Sydney would be where we would like to live. However the decision to living in the city or near a beach is still undecided - is there anywhere which has the best of both?

If anyone could help that would be very much appreciated :-)

dwalker

Hi there,

Just read your post and thought it sounded rather familiar to my situation... I'm a software engineer for a large oil and gas firm and currently based in Scotland but am looking to move to Oz. The company I work for has offices in Sydney, which is ideal, but annoyingly there are no job vacancies at the minute (and nothing suitable has come up in the last 3-4months).

I am thinking that the best way to proceed would be to try and get an internal transfer to Oz (sponsored) if possible, but am not sure how long I should wait before I try and go it alone and get a job with a new firm out in Oz... any thoughts?

Do IBM have any positions open at the minute for you? or would it be a speculative application? Is the process for a transfer quite complex at IBM?

I agree, I think experience will be important when it comes to getting a job (I'm 25 too, also with 4 years experience), but I think you'll probably have enough to get started with!

That probably doesn't answer many of your questions, but it's nice to know that there are others in a similar position!

David

spottydog

With your age & experience it may be worth looking at a PR visa (check www.immi.gov.au and try the points calculator to see whether you meet all the criteria, then check the certifying authority for your jobs to see if you qualify for their assessment criteria), once you have the application in you could then get a WHV and come over here with the usual WHV conditions.

Depending on your skills you may get the visa within your 2 years on a WHV or otherwise may need a bit of further travelling before grant.

josie0801

Hi David,

That is very good to know someone else is in a similar situation.
On our internal job website nothing is suitable at the moment and even if something came up and I applied I would have to prove that I would be worth bringing over from the UK which would be tough as I am sure there would be suitable Australians that would also be good for the job but hey ho it would always be worth a try.
I think my plan is to find out if there is any opportunity for me to be transferred (unlikely as I have not heard back from any of the execs) then apply internally and if no luck from that start looking externally. What are your thoughts around visa's? would you go for a working holiday?

Spottydog - thanks for your comments. I have looked into that visa and I think my job would come under Business and Information Professional which gets me 50 points but on the other questions I can only answer some of them and unfortunately I come 10 points short of the 120 pass mark. There is also the slight issue of the Skilled Migration Visa costing £3500 and as much as I want to have this experience £3500 is a lot of money. However, the idea to come over on a WHV and then see how it goes and apply for the PR visa later is a very good one!! its always good to have lots of options :-)

Thanks !!

NickyC

Be very careful with WHVs if you're hoping to apply for a PR visa soon after. One of the pre-requisites for a PR visa is that you've worked in your chosen occupation for at least 12 months in the last 24 months. This becomes very tricky if you've had a year or more travelling around and working in casual, WHV-ish type jobs.

In theory you might get a job in your usual occupation on your WHV - but the six-month work limitation is a bit off-putting for a lot of employers, and it might be harder than you think.

bcworld

Hi Josie,

One thing you should check is that coming first on a WHV does not jeopardise your chances of getting a skilled PR visa.

It was a route I once looked at myself but at that time at least I thought that at the time of PR application I needed to have worked in my skill area for at least 12 of the 18 months before applying - if you aren't able to get suitable work when on the WHV then this would be a problem.

From the sounds if it your boyfriend would be eligible to
apply for PR now - depending on the history of your relationship you may be eligible to be a secondary applicant on his application?

May be worth seeking professional advice.

B

dwalker

Yeh i'm not really sure about the whole visa situation, that's why I think I would prefer to try and get a position through the company I am with now, that way they would help me out with the visa process

For more information I plan on attending an Expo on emigrating to Oz in Leeds in May: http://www.emigrationgroup.co.uk/pdf...0_leeds_w1.pdf

I'm not sure how useful it will be but you never know!

josie0801

ooh thank you I had no idea that would cause issues! :-)

visa's are so tricky, if we decide to pursue the PR route I definiitely agree it would be worth giving the experts a call - i have just googled this and lots of companies have come up - does anyone have any recommendations?

Nicky I also think that the 6 months work limitation would put employers off and this does worry me. As much as I would be willing to do casual work I am 3 years in to my career so ideally would want to find something relevant to the experience I have built up. I have been looking at temping/contracting work as an option - do you think this would work?


thanks again for all the help :-)

DoubleCabbage

Including IELTS?

josie0801

David - thanks for the link. we cant make that weekend but i'll have a look to see if there are anymore and also closer to London.

I have never heard of IELTS before? as I am fluent in Englaish and a UK citizen would taking this test help? is it part of the points skills assessment?