stu_69

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Sorry if this has been asked a million times before but I am hoping you good people on here can help me out.

Myself and my wife spent 2001 in Australia (we met out there and got married in Vegas this year ƒº ) and we would love to go back there to live. Unfortunately I have enough points but as I work in IT I will have to go through the Australian Computer Society (http://www.acs.org.au/) and I don¡¦t think I will pass as I have never been to college. I have worked in IT for 6 years but unfortunately 2 of the companies I worked for have gone (one was Gateway computers who have pulled out of Ireland and another company which went bust last year so there is no contacts for them). My wife is a journalist but she is 5 points short.

I want to know what other options do I have? I have been thinking about trying to find a job from this side of the world (London) and getting sponsorship through an agency but this is extremely hard to do as I am finding out. So can you lovely people on here give me some advice on what I can do to get myself and my wife to the great land down under?

Thanks for any help
Stu

lynnj

Not sure about the ACS stuff as mu husband dealt with all that, but if you are 5 points short you can pay a bond of $100k which will get you an extra 5 points, you get the money back after a year plus about 4 percent interest.

Hope this helps
Lynn

stu_69

cheers for that but we dont have $100k at the moment and I dont think we can save it anytime soon.

stu

hevs

Do you know anyone in Oz, who could sponsor you?

lynnj

There are other ways of getting your extra 5 points but i'm a thicko and dont really know what they are, why dont you talk to an agent and ask them about your IT experience and what options you have, they are the people who are supposed to know and not just guess like most of us.

Lynn

stu_69

I am trying to find ways other than applying for imigration. And I dont know anyone over there who will sponsor me.

Stu

stu_69

anyone else got any advise?

Stu

JaneandJim

I know someone in IT who got through by joining the ACS itself. He had to write a 6000 word thesis or something. The ACS is just the equivalent of the BCS here. Check their website to see how you can join.

Jane

lynnj

Stu

I remember our agent telling my husband that if toy are a member of the bcs then it can automatically be transferred to be a member of the acs and that satisfys the skills part of things, but in our case it would have taken longer to go down that route than have his skills assessed.

Things change frequently and i would still advise you to contact an agent who could advise you on whether he thinks your skills are sufficient or if he could recommend some other way to go about it, we used concept australia and all i did initially was to call them up and explain our situation they then advised us on our best option.

Lynn

stu_69

Thanks for the advise Lynn I will give them a shout.

This has become something of a life mission for myself and my wife to get into Oz. I will do anything at this stage.

Another question has anyone ever managed to get a job in Australia from the UK and not through your company? If so how did you do it?

Stu

Badge

After you write your "thesis" and gain a pass, which is the RPL( Recognition of Prior Learning) which you do instead of having a BSC in IT etc you can apply for your skill assessment.

What you do in your thesis is up to you, it is fairly substantial - mine ran to 50 pages (!) but most do it in far less.

I found the process rewarding as it actually taught me alot about my profession as I had to research arcane subjects to make sure I covered the "core" syllabus.

When I applied before 1 Oct last year you needed 4 years experience as well. Now I believe it is 6 so you could do it, other things being equal.

badge