After speaking to Pogsy today I feel this thread was in order.
Wake up call for all of you applying for a visa to Oz and that are involved in any way with the construction industry. What you are not told by agencies or third parties is to be employed or to earn jobs over $1000 dollars (£380) at a time, you will need a 'license'. With you're license you can earn up to $12,000 (approx. £4650) per invoice, over this you will have to have a special 'Home warranty' Insurance. Once you reach $50,000 (£19,000) you will then have to pay GST 10%.You may get you're qualifications recrecognizedfore you enter Oz by the relevant body but you will have to have them recrecognizedain by a sepseparatedy in Oz and then you apply for a license before you can work. You can only apply for a license when in Oz. The time period to get the 'license' as yet is not definitive, weeks ? months?. Someone from the MBA suggested it may take up to 7months. More info. http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/bu...tificates.html
The law states:
People tell you there is loads and loads of work for the trades, they don't tell you the mine field and hoops you have to climb through, 'City and Guilds' or not it doesn't matter. There is no way around it, if you want to buy and renovate- You will need a permit " Owner-builder license" which you can only have one every five years... The catagoies are set out below:-
Contractor Licence authorises that holder to contract and advertise to carry out the work described on their licence card.
Qualified Supervisor Certificate allows the holder to carry out the work as described on their licence. A ‘Q’ on their licence card indicates this.
Nominated Supervisor is an individual who holds a qualified contractor licence or a supervisor certificate, and who is registered against a contractor licence as the person supervising the residential building work or specialist work. All companies, partnership and unqualified individuals holding a contractor licence must nominate a supervisor.
More info can be had at:- http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/bu...despeople.html
The categories of residential building work are:

Bricklaying
Building
Carpentry
Decorating
Demolishing
Dry plastering
Erection of prefabricated metal-framed home additions and structures
Excavating
Fencing
Flooring
General concreting
Glazing
Joinery
Kitchen, bathroom and laundry renovation
Mechanical services Metal fabrication
Minor maintenance/cleaning
Minor tradework
Painting
Roof plumbing
Roof slating
Roof tiling
Stonemasonry
Structural landscaping
Swimming pool building
Swimming pool repairs and servicing
Underpinning / piering
Wall and floor tiling
Waterproofing
Wet plastering
Hope this helps anyone in advance, as I now have to begin at the frontline through the all this red tape. Eamon

i thought it was going to be a right pain in the bottom, but it turned out to be quite easy
im a painter and decorator, i just took my city and guilds down to fair trading in sydney and 6 weeks later i had my license, they did say i may be tested on my trade, but she was sure that the city and guilds in painting is far better than the ozzie certs and thought you didnt have to do that no more.
which i never
before it came i just did a bit of cash in hand lol

Yep, my hubby is a sparkie and getting his licence was quite painless. Took us 4 months all told, but that was with 2 months of him doing nothing

Yes, we know exactly what all this means. Passed TRA and now we are here they don't want to know

9 months on still waiting for licences, after paying out loads more money to get them.

I'll have to get two licences, think i may have to get a bar job for a bit!!

Thay need to address this problem thay have, seems most i speak to have had prob's!

So does this mean I can't have a job waiting for me when I go out there? I'm an electrician

I may live to regret this but im actually looking forward to training for my carpentry license

come into the sparkies forum mate
we will guide you through the red tape etc just ask


http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=97


regards steve

Hi

We are just going through all this now, when did you apply for your license? The OFT told us changes came in November 2006 and all overseas qualifications have to be transferred to Australian qualifications, without this they will not accept your application.

Now my husband, qualified in his field since 1990, has to either go back and study for 12 months (the cheap option), or have an asesssor look after his application so that it can be fast-tracked for the tidy price of $2500!

Catch 22, for now he has to stay on a lower paid salary working for someone else until we can apply for his license - the frustrating thing is that he has been asked to do some jobs already, but he cannot touch them as yet!

Good luck everyone.

Nikki

was that a restricted or unrestricted licence.

Unrestricted.

Hi, im a painter/decorator just waiting for my visa to come through. We are going to Perth, is it the same rules there? Do I need to wait til I get there before I can apply for a licence? Its going to be ages after I get there that I can actually work then??????

this does not apply if you are in direct employment for a company,only if you wish to be self employed

Thanks very much. I'm hoping to find work within a company to start with, til we find our feet then maybe go self employed after that. Is there alot more money to be made being self employed?

I would imagine you would earn a lot more working for yourself just as here in the uk,where books in maybe get £7.00 an hour cis will get £12 if you follow,cant see it being any different in oz i just need an employer to sponsor me cause i turned 45 in november thats why i can only look to work direct for a period of time before going self employed Best of luck billy