Right.. so we have definitely decided we want to have a change of life and move out to OZ. We think Sydney would be the best place for us due to the high percentage of IT jobs being in Sydney.

I know its the $64000 question, but what do we do first? Can anyone advise us on how, who and what we do to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. My husband is 33 and I am 44 in a couple of weeks so I guess we will have to get our skates on? We will be taking our 20 months old son and 15 year old daughter.

Thanks in anticipation.

Jen & Carl

ACS (Australian Computer Society) website - skills assessment.

www.acs.org.au

Firstly you will need a TRA assesment done then full application. Decide if you want to use an agent or do it yourself. All information can be found on www.immi.gov.au and go from there

and learn the art of waiting

Damn, didn't mean to submit yet...
Meant to say, read the Dimia website (www.immi.gov.au) and check ACS site for work related points.
Save some money for all the fees.

I'm sure better advice will follow...

Thanks for this... can just ask you is that the right link, it doesnt seem to let me on?

Yeah its the right one but I typed it wrong sorry but try again as I have edited it

The quote with the link from lovalots post you just posted said 'www.immi.go.au'

If you used that one, it wouldn't have worked because it should be www.immi.gov.au

Dunno how, but somehow the 'v' got missed off the 'gov' bit of the address....

Hope you have managed to find it, and good luck

Doh! didn't see that reply lol

Thanks got it now ... Off now for a while... looks like lots and lots of info to absorb!

You only need a TRA assessment if you're a tradesman. Not everybody is.

Different occupations have different skill assessing authorities, all with different rules.



Jeremy

My husband is an Analyst Programmer ... not sure yet which route we have to take .. its all very confusing doh!

We feel a stumbling block for us is that my husband never went to Uni, left school at 16 and has around 16 years in the IT industry. Got to coding via operations. He works on Oracle, Unix, C, Cobol, Perl, Delphi and used to be an A/P on AS/400 many moons ago.

Do you think that this will be an issue? I mean will there be a problem proving his skills?

down the road from us (rochdale). brother-in-law lives at tod!!
i think as long as you can get references/letters off your husbands past/present employers to prove his 16 years in the industry, you shouldnt have a problem (but we are not IT people!!). somebody on here will no doubt correct me

I think he'll have to go through the "Recognition of Prior Learning" stream via the ACS http://www.acs.org.au/ , The issue of proving skills is dependent on how much documentation and references he can produce regarding his past achievements. This can be difficult as previous employers can cease trading and people move on.

I'm pretty sure there is someone on this site who has been down this route, and may be able to advise. I think they were actually rejected by the ACS initially, but then chose to appeal, and were then successful on appeal.