rebecca1986

Hey experts

I have spent many months lurking and reading through all the Wiki leaks and am feeling brave enough to post for some insight.

Myself and my husband are hoping to move to Australia on a permanent basis with our children.
I am a UK trained Registered Nurse and he is a UK trained Electrician.

We became permanent residents of Canada 6 years ago and have been living in the pricey city of Vancouver ever since. We have given it lots of time here, but Vancouver, and Canada in general, is just not for us. We originally only moved here as it was a place my parents could also join us, but they returned back to the UK 3 years ago.

I have a diploma in paediatric nursing and also underwent a years education for international RN's when I first moved to Canada. I have been working as an RN in total for 8 years and would be the primary applicant.

From what I can gather from the many months of research, we would be applying for a subclass 189 visa.
It's hard to tell where would be our "ideal" place to settle having not been able to visit everywhere in Australia, but at the present moment we are looking at potentially the Brisbane area and suburbs, Perth and Melbourne. Now, I am not completely set on any of these places and would absolutely invite discussion on the above.

I guess my main questions are these:

1. How in the heck do we even start this process? It seems a lot more complicated than when I filed my application for Canadian PR!
I understand I have to submit an EoI, but what do I need to submit prior to even being able to do this?

2. Are there any other visa's that we are eligible for? With having 2 young kids, I definitely prefer the stability of PR but am open to anything that will help me get out of Vancouver quicker

3. The places I mentioned above....
One of the main reasons for us wanting to get out of Vancouver and the suburbs here is the crazy cost of living. We both earn pretty decent wages, but houses are unattainable to first time working class buyers, they are upwards of $1 million+, the cost of childcare takes up the majority of my wages and we are constantly living hand to mouth. Just looking for somewhere where we may actually be able to afford to buy our own house to raise our children and have some extra money after paying bills to have fun family days out.

Sorry for all the questions, I am just confused by the Australian process. I will be really greatful for any advice or insight people who have done this can give me

old.sparkles

Hi there

Is the Diploma the highest level nursing qualification you have? AHPRA only register degree qualified nurses I believe but you could check in the nursing section - Nurses, Doctors, and other Medical/Healthcare occupations - British Expats

You will need a valid skills assessment to start the process, so this needs to be high on the list - as well as checking you of you can reach the required points total.

For your OH, if he is UK qualified / UK passport holder, he will need to have a skills assessment with either Vetassess, Future Skills or Victoria University. Even if he is not the principal applicant, he will need this assessment to get provisional licensing in Australia and start gap training. He should be able to find more info here - Electricians - British Expats

For a 189 visa, the occupation needs to be on the SOL. 190 is a state sponsored PR visa, and needs an occupation on the SOL.

489 is regional sponsored temporary visa, but with a definitive path to PR. This comes with 10 points towards the required total of 60 (as opposed to state sponsored which has 5).

Perth is expensive, Melbourne is expensive for housing and couldn't say on Brisbane but you can check out prices on realestate.com.

Japonica

I was going to suggest looking at Melbourne, but if home ownership is a high priority for you, then you'll probably want to look elsewhere. I think Melbourne is analogous to Vancouver in terms of housing affordability.

https://www.reiv.com.au/property-data/median-prices

I live in outer Melbourne and old 3 bedroom weatherboard houses on my street have sold for 1.2 million, 1.4 million. It's land value of course as the house gets knocked down and the site developed into units.

The housing market in Perth is softer right now because of the downturn in the economy, but then unemployment is higher.

I can't speak to Queensland, maybe someone will have some insight.

Good luck. It is a long process and daunting. We applied for PR whoa, ten years ago, and at that time it took about a year and multiple hoops to jump through. If you're really not content in Vancouver and have no ties to the place, then it's worthwhile looking at your options.

evets

Firstly good luck with your decision and move.

BUT Australia also is seeing the same issues why you are wanting to move from Vancouver.
Vancouver would be somewhat equivalent to Sydney in terms of the housing market, Melbourne similar to Toronto. Maybe look to other cities in Australia, if as you have found Vancouver is too expensive.

As someone who has recently made the move from Melbourne to Mississauga(Toronto GTA). I am finding myself wondering similar questions. The rental and housing market is so freaking expensive here, I thought Melbourne was expensive. But I look at the rentals properties, in a very quiet market in Mississauga, and I would think more expensive on the whole compared to salaries. I still think you could find something within your budget at least with in an hours commute from Melbourne CBD, looking at a 2/3 bed detached unit. The good thing, and cannot compare to Vancouver on Mississauaga on a train line or at least close.

I am finding overall cost of living, I hope, generally cheaper. Not been here long enough to confirm that. The variations in the supermarkets far surpass what you would/will find in Australia. Dominated by 2 major chains, all though the introduction of Aldi has changed things now.

I think generally grocery shopping is cheaper, electronic items, household goods and clothes to early to tell. Some things have worked out cheaper. Depending on how much TV you watch, Australia is blessed with free OTA and no high cable subscription.
Internet I think is overall higher cost, for a smaller bandwidth subscription in Australia. Cable internet I cannot say I seen that offer, ADSL only really provided. And with the NBN(FTTH), a bit of a disaster and going to be over priced.

Your hubby will find his trade and qualifications are not recognised him and will have to undergo some further training and certs. And his first year (or two) here he will be looking at something similar to his apprenticeship to build up the hours to qualify him to work here as a sparky.

Not sure if on this forum or another expat forum, but I read a post from a guy who made the move from the UK to Canada and ended up in Australia. I contacted him about my decision to relocated to Canada. Oddly enough he was relocating back to Canada as the cost of living in Sydney had got to much to bear.

Since you both have careers not dependent on living in Sydney or Melbourne, look at your options as your money will certainly go further if you avoid these 2 cities.

Sorry if this has not been the most positive post, but just my own recently experience.

Pollyana

Your main stumbling block is that you are diploma trained, not degree. I believe there are some courses now to help bridge the gap, so it might be worth contacting AHPRA, but they won't register you as things stand.

Dorothy

I am not 100% sure, but I think the OP can register as an EN.

Pollyana

OK, so they are now accepting just diplomas? That could be huge news for a lot of people currently unable to register.

Grayling

Not sure if that is the case or not.....but I do not think an EN would be eligible for a visa in their own right.

Dorothy

As I said , I don't know for sure. It's worth the OP looking into though.
You're correct. However her husband is an electrician so he could be the main applicant.