Hi everyone,

Just wondering if any one can give us any advice. John is a lift mechanic who is trying in vain to get an ARTC to enable him to get his electrical licence he applied for it last year and was unsuccessful as they said he is not an electrican he is a lift mech but needs one to work on the lifts as they run by electricity. He asked in lift companys in oz what other people that work there do and got told that a lot of them that come over from the uk are time served electricans that have then got into lifts. John has asked at lots of colleges Tafe, peer and al they say is there is courses you can do (wiring regs) but still wont get you an artc and some said you cant go on any courses without your ARTC.
He got in touch with the TRA and they told him to reaply paying $300 and put in all his electrical experience and all his qualifcations as they could see what he was saying about the electricity being involved in fault finding on the lifts and there is different catergorys that he could fall into.
He reapplied and sent it all off again about 90 pages in Dec and got a letter from almost the same as the first one stating he has been unsuccessful as all his qualifications are for a lift mech which is not a trade assessed by the TRA for the purposes of issusing an ARTC. His apprenticeship is as a lift engineer and has a HNC in electrical and electronric engineering and an IEEE 16th edition regs. He has 20 years work experience and has worked his way up to be technician. His work is based mostly on the electric side of things and has been told he work as a lift mech on the installation side of things but nothing to do with electric which he does not really want to just do that forever and prefers more technical work like fault finding.
I would just love someone with any advice tell us what we are doing wrong as spent so much time, money and effort getting this far really dont want to just give up on it all now. If there are any lift mechanics out there please please help !!!!!!!
I am posting on here for him as he is just p..... off with the lot of it now.
Thanks from Laine.

Have you asked an Immigration Agent for their advice...? George Lombard would be my first port of call...

Hey there,
my husband is also a senior lift engineer sounds like they have the same skills, we were going to use his skill to get us out to oz, don't suppose you know if thats possible? what a nightmare!!!! you must be really frustrated,i now however feel a little panicked! we have just booked our flights for the edinbourgh expo for the end of this month so i'll see what they have to say,just don't want to be fobbed off by anyone and it take us longer to get out there! are you going to the expo? have you done visa's already???
can't understand the red tape considering your husbands experience and my hubby's. every job site i look at they are really short on lift engineers/technitions!
sorry i'm not any help to you but if i find anything out at the end of the month at the expo i shall pass it on!

hopefully speak soon,
sam and family xx

Hi Sam,
Thanks for your reply. Yes we have got our visa already. We had to apply to the TRA to have his skills assessed first which he past. So you should get through that part then we applied for the visa in 2006 which we got then we found all this out about the licence when we went over to validate. Never went to no expo things but they will just tell you yes you will get in and be able to work there as lift mech are on the skills in demand list now i know why if they make it so hard for you once you get there. Will let you know if i find anything out as you will need it a lot further down the line.
What we are trying to do is gain an ARTC which is from the same place where you have your skills assessed in the first place. So they have already assessed him and said he is qualified enough to come to oz but not qualified to work there. ARTC is australian recognised Trade cert which you then take to college to go on a course to convert your uk quals to oz ones then you take your artc and your new college certs to the licenceing board to get your licence to enable you to work. Hope this makes a bit of sense to you just email anything you dont understand from Laine.

Hey,
thanks for getting back to me Seems like a nightmare! are you out in oz already? we haven't got as far as putting in for the visa's yet because i wasn't sure what we were supposed to be doing to be honest! i find all of it quite confusing because there is so much to take on board! Would you recommend using an agent to help us out or are they going to be a waste of money because their not really needed at the begining?
sorry for all the questions!!

Any info you can give me would be great thanks!
sam xx

If anything an agent is more useful at the beginning, especially if you are going through the TRA which is by far the hardest bit

Two really good ones are George Lombard and Alan Collett

http://britishexpats.com/forum/member.php?u=8124
http://britishexpats.com/forum/member.php?u=2105

Hey,
thanks will stick those in my favorites with all my other stuff for australia i need to open a file just on sites for getting out there!! lol
Are you there already? if so where abouts and how long did the process take you?
I'm really looking forward to going to the expo end of the month and starting things off!
thanks for being so helpfull!
sam xx

Yes, we're in Adelaide and have been here for 19 months.

It took us 18 months to get our visa's in our passports, but it took longer then with the TRA (16 weeks for an assessment - now it's only 20 days! ).

I am completley JEALOUS that you are there already!! I just don't like it that everything takes time! once i decide to do something i want to be doing it now and not in a year!
We'll get there i know and i guess it gives my mum extra time with my two little minx's!

sam xx

Yeah, I'm very impatient too so know what you mean.

I fell like we have completley hijacked this thread! all good though!

At least it's staying at the top of the board