Where do we start?
 

We are looking to come to oz to live and work. My hubby is a Shift Maintenance Electrical Technician and we have struggled to find what he would come under under the skilled migrant category. I have now been told he would come under Electrican trade person. I have also recently been told that TRA no longer assess General Electricians for the trade certification and we have to go through VETASSESS. What a nightmare! Can anyone help us to get started on this mission. Any help at all would be appreciated.

Jeanette:confused:

Re: Where do we start?
 

welcome to the world of paperwork, hasssling, nagging and stressing!

there are loads on here who will help you, and i am just finishing all the paperwork for the OH assessment, so give me a shout if you need help with anything.

first thing would be is to get 4 copies of passport bio page, certificates, any licences, membership of anything to do with his job, insurances, references (will help you with the layout of that if you want), and get 2 copies of each certified.

that should keep you busy for a few days.

Wendy and Steve'o are the best people to ask, as for the actual assessment there is a green sticky at the top of this forum. that tells you whats in the tests.

good luck

Hayley

Re: Where do we start?
 

hi there, first thing we did was to log onto the vetassess web site and download the application form...as sheff sparky says you'll need a hell of a lot of paperwork so start sooner rather than later!:)
the forms are all self explanatory but any help you need is all on this fab forum :thumbsup:
good luck with it all, shout if you need help, lou x

Re: Where do we start?
 

Hi thanks for that, still mind boggling, what is passport bio page? and do you mean his certificates from college etc, references from where and certified by who? :D

Re: Where do we start?
 

passport bio pages is the page with his photo on.

All certificate to do with his job, ones he got through colllege, on site, health and safety, NICEIC (if he has it)etc . everything to do with work, photocopy it 4 times.

certification:

after making 4 copies of everything you need to certify 2 copies of each.

this is done by sending them to:

(let me find my bit a paper)

police officer
solicitor
chartered accountant
Doctor
Judge
Justice of the peace
Public Notary

the words "certified true copy of the original"
original signature of certifying officer
name and address and registration number(if applicable)

references by his employer and previous employers (over the past 7 years)

if he was self employed at anytimes he will need to do a statuary delclaration detaling (and i mean DETAIL) his job, how he does it, what he wroks from, with, method he uses, materials, tools, refernces to guidelines and regs. EVERYTHING. copies of tax return forms will be needed if he was self employed too.

Re: Where do we start?
 

Thanks again for your valued info. My OH is not an electrician as in domestic he is a plant maintenance Electrical Technician working on robots, plc ect on fast moving consumer goods machinery so does not have any licences other than his qualifications and 16th edition and do we need to include further training done through work to do with his industry. So just to recap I need to photocopy 4 passport, 4 copies of all certificates gained at college and through work and to get 2 sets (complete) certified ?

Thanks

Jeanette:D

Re: Where do we start?
 

yep. anypaperwork to so with work get it copied.

Re: Where do we start?
 

hi there and welcome to BE

Other things you might like to include on your paper based assesment are

P60's
P45's
Contracts of Employment
Sylabus of Qualifications
Any job cards/work experience documents

If i can help any more feel free to contact me

Doc

Re: Where do we start?
 

Dont forget to base your evidence on the specific competence clusters, even if he's only done the task once make sure he documents it....

Re: Where do we start?
 

Hi Guys and welcome to the minefield.

Reading OP's notes does anyone else think they should apply for ;

Electrician Special Class - dealing with robots, plc ie intricate parts - if so then TRA is assessing body.

Anyone any thoughts.

Wendy and Steve'o are the experts they maybe on later

Becky

Re: Where do we start?
 

I second and third all that everyone else says, my suggestion as someone else has mentioned would be to have a look at the application on the Vetassess website and see if he can associate his experience with the requirements, that will tell you whether to go through as general electrician or o try TRA for special class electrician.

Good luck, it's a hard slog!!

Mel:)

Re: Where do we start?
 

I am certain he would qualify for Electrician Special Class

But do check with vetassess/TRA at their websites.

Would be interesting to know what you find out, let us know too :thumbsup::thumbsup:

doc

Re: Where do we start?
 

I would get an assessment from a migration agent (or two) to be honest, see whay they say would be the best route. It's a lot of money to spend on the Vetassess application for them to turn around at one point and turn you down. Most do a free initial consultation, so you may as well take advantage of it.

If I had more confidence in the Vetassess route then I would suggest that with it issuing a provisional licence but after talking to someone here in SA that is currently doing the wiring rules course, it seems that nobody here even knows about Vetassess and there doesn't seem to be any provisions in place for anyone coming out here with a 'provisional licence' from them as yet :blink: so God knows what is going to happen next? :unsure:

Re: Where do we start?
 

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh !!! we are going to the leeds expo on sunday so hopefully we should be able to speak to someone there who could point us in the right direction. Is your Oh a Maintenance Electrician and what route did u take to get out there and obtain this queensland licence:D

Re: Where do we start?
 

He has done both domestic and manufacturing - we went as general electrician. When we started the process Electrician was only on the skills list for South Australia so we were looking at sponsorship from them. It wasn't until after the TRA assessment that it was put on the national shortage list. We still opted for SA, which is where we are. The licence was pretty easy to get here compared to the other states, took my OH 5 months but he didn't book himself on the course until 3 months after we got here :sneaky:. He was working within a day of getting it though

Re: Where do we start?
 

Ah a little spec of light at the end of a very dark tunnel. I have just spoken to a lovely guy from TRA Australia who has said that for industry purposes he would more than likely come under electrical special class, and for licensing purposes he woul be electrical mechanic or fitter. We now have to fill out an ARTC application and send off to be assessed by an australian assessor for a nice fee of 300.00 dollars and we would here back within approx 20 days from them receiving our application. So hubby will not be impressed with form i have just printed off 10 pages, he also needs to send all cetrificates, employment statement and passport evidence and 2 photos. So they don't ask for much do they. Well will let you know how we get on.

Thanks

Jeanette:rofl:

Re: Where do we start?
 

Hi Jeanette, you would need the pre-migration assessment to be able to apply for a Visa - the ARTC is totally different although the forms look the same. You can't apply for an ARTC until you have a visa and an Australian address, and the ARTC isn't any use for applying for a visa.

Here are the seperate forms:

TRA Pre-Migration Assessment: http://www.workplace.gov.au/NR/rdonl...k4Sept2007.pdf

TRA pre-migration assessment info: http://www.workplace.gov.au/workplac...oAustralia.htm

ARTC Form: http://www.workplace.gov.au/NR/rdonl...ck9Oct2007.pdf

ARTC assessment info: http://www.workplace.gov.au/workplac...nresidents.htm

Because they are nearly the same form it is advisable for you to get at least 3 copies of everything, that is one for the pre-migration assessment, one for the Visa application and one for the ARTC application.

To pass the ARTC you really need some evidence of connecting and disconnecting from the mains so make sure that there is some of that in there. My OH couldn't get a job even as a maintenance electrician without a full licence - and he doesn't even do any electrical work as it's mostly PLC programming, but they need a fully licensed sparky for the legal side of things. :blink:

Ask the same agent or someone at the TRA, do they forsee any problems in getting an ARTC Mechanic classification if you apply as a special class electrician just to be on the safe side - otherwise it may be worth going the Vetassess route to be sure you can apply for the ARTC as Mechanic.

Re: Where do we start?
 

Hi Wendy,

We have been told by the TRA that once his skills have been assessed by an assesor and been recognised we would receive a letter from them stating that and also saying that we are eligible for migration so the letter can be put in with our visa application. The certificate will then be posted out to us as soon as we are residing in Australia. My OH has done installation work in previous maintenance jobs but not so much in his current job that he has been in for 11 years. So we will be applying for Electrical Mechanic rather than just fitter so that he will be covered. We have done the are you eligible to work in australia under skilled migrant via emmigrate to australia on the net and have scored enough points to go and we just need to complete step 3 which is applying for visa. What are your thoughts on the above?:huh:

Re: Where do we start?
 

Unless they have changed it then the guy you spoke to at the TRA is wrong (they don't always have a clue :D), you need to apply for a pre migration assessment for the visa - then the ARTC when you have the visa. The ARTC application is free providing you have a sucessful pre migration assessment though, it's just that you need to send all the stuff again with a certified copy of your visa. Read the whole TRA site for info on this: http://www.workplace.gov.au/workplac...l/Migrant/TRA/

The pre migration assessment will only classify you as Electrician Special Class, it won't give you an electrical fitter or mechanic classification - that is what the ARTC does.

Also, when you apply for the ARTC, even if you put down that you want electrical mechanic they can classify you as electrical fitter if they think your experience matches that more closely - so beware of that and put lots of stuff in about disconnecting from and connecting to the mains.

Re: Where do we start?
 

Hello Wendy,
I'm doing the vetassess Monday but what i gather your saying is that it's not worth the paper it's written on. Do you think it might not be recognised in Oz?

Re: Where do we start?
 

Who knows? :unsure: I think it will almost definitely throw a few problems up for a while. Try to find out as much as you can from Vetassess about what happens when you get to Australia. I'm trying to get info from this end but I'm not getting very far at the minute - will let everyone know if/when I do.

Re: Where do we start?
 

Hi Wendy,

Just arrived back from the Expo Leeds, It was very informative and have come away with things alot clearer. We spoke to the Western Australian Government and they said that before we can even think about getting visas my OH needs to get his skills assessed. Once that has been done and can take upto 8 weeks to complete we can then apply for our Visa. Whilst we where there my OH has been given an interview with Norfolk who are a consultancy for Engineering so you never know could get him employment. We went to look and speak to the Southern Australia Government , Adelaide and I think this is the place that we would most like to settle in. They also said that his skills are on the shortae list and could be eligible for Sponsored Skilled migration by the SA Government, which would give us a permanent visa straight away, but we would need to live in SA for a minimum of years and would need to work for the employer for 12 months. If we are considering settling in SA this may be a good option to choose what do you think? The Vetassess is only there to assess qualifications for General Electrician the special class electrican you have to be assessed by the TRA.

Jeanette:p

Re: Where do we start?
 

All I can tell you is that I absolutely adore South Australia - so for me I would take that option every time (but then we chose to live here anyway :D). All the rest of the info is spot on. :)