Faye-Mark

Hi,
I am a new member and would appreciate some advice on how to start the process of moving to Oz. Has anyone any advice on whether it is easier for my husband to get a job before we leave, or does it open the door for a wider variety of jobs if we apply for a visa ourselves???We have checked and he has enough 'points' to be able to apply-is it as ismple as this??? It just seems to be a complete minefield of visas, checks, this and thats so any advice would be great!!

Also, what is the average sort of time from deciding to move to the 'actual move' does it take??

Many Thanks for any advice

Faye

Sherlock Holmes

Hi Faye and Mark and welcome to B.E.

It's my pleasure to welcome you to the forum and give you a point of contact should you need any help with the site in general. You can contact me here.

A list of all the moderators and helpers with their relevant countries including Australia can be found here.

Any problems, dont hesitate to PM me.

I presume that you've looked at www.immi.gov.au - maybe this was the minefield to which you refer....

I also guess that by "get a job first" you mean sponsored employment?

There are many routes into Australia, IF you qualify and it can be a big IF but lots of people have done it. Things keep changing too. Timescales vary so much I'd not even hazard a guess.

I'll be back with some more info in a few mins.

Alistair.

Sherlock Holmes

I'm sure people with more and better experience than me will join in this thread but if you really don't know where to start it may be as well to have an initial consultation with an immigration agent. This NEED NOT be expensive.

Most agents will do a free initial appraisal of your situation.

An agent can help to ensure that you are applying for the right visa in the first place. However they cannot get you a visa if you don't meet the criteria, nor - contrary to popular opinion - can they speed up the process!

Most agents will also do a partial service, they will check an application before submission, or just help with a skills assessment, much cheaper than the full price, if you are just unsure on a few things.

You must ensure that whoever you use is registered with MARA, and if you search the forum for MARA agents you will find several of them post on here - including (in a totally random order!)

Alan Collett, George Lombard, and Stephen Dickson.

There are also many others though, Ian Harrop is a company often recommended, and Peter Bollard is acknowledged as a specialist in medical issues.

I hope this helps,

Alistair.

Kelli28

Hiya Faye and Mark welcome to BE


I see you have found the Australia forum. There are some lovely people who post in the Australia forums, I’m sure you will enjoy getting to know them. You may also like to post an introduction in the Welcome Inn forum, to allow everyone to get to know you a little better.

In addition to what Alistair has provided our Immigration and visa forum is really helpful for any queries you may have about visas, you can find it here.

If there is anything else I can help you with feel free to give me a shout, you can find my contact details here.

armandra

Hi Faye,

Welcome to B.E.

Normally in most cases, yes, it is easier to get a job if you already have a visa and are in Australia. Not that it's impossible to get a visa once you find a job, applicable particularly to Employer-sponsored visas e.g., subclass 457, a long-term temporary visa valid for 4 years which can then be converted into permanent residency as and when you become eligible.

Well, it IS actually that simple. You are eligible to apply for a visa, provided you can get the pass mark in the points test. Having said that, there are a lot of steps in the process, like, getting a skills assessment, taking IELTS, police checks, medicals, etc.

Phew!! It actually IS a minefield out there

The time could be anywhere between 6 months to 2 years (again depending on various factors such as the type of visa you looking at, the country you hail from, application being complete, job(s) verification, medicals being clear, the workload of Case Officer (CO) allotted, etc etc)

No intention of making you get scared. Just putting across what each letter in the S-I-M-P-L-E immigration process stands for

Keep the spirits up and all the best for your future move to Kangaroo Land

armandra!

Bermudashorts

Hi Faye and welcome

It is difficult to comment tooo much on your situation without knowing the crucial detail of what occupations are you in. You don't say, in which case I can only comment that for most people it is extremely difficult to find a job and a willing employer sponsor from the UK. There might be lists of occupations in demand, the reality is that most positions can be filled locally.

Of course your husband could be an exception depending on what he does and some people strike it lucky. My personal choice, as I qualified for a skilled migrant visa, was to go for that rather than waste my energy looking for an employer sponsor.

If you can tell is what occupation the main applicant is in, what schedule of SOL the occupation is on, we could comment more on what needs to be done next.

Faye-Mark

Thanks for all the information.

To give you a little more information. My husband is a Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer registered with the Engineering Council UK and member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. He has BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering and currently is employed as a Senior Project Engineer in the oil and Gas Industry. He has over 20 years experience in Engineering roles and is 39years old.

As for which SOL list his occupation is on then we have only looked at the schedule 3 on the www.immi.gov.au as we believed this was the only one relevant for us. The role of Mechanical Engineer appears on this list.

I hope from this you could give us more information.

Really Confused on how we progress

Bermudashorts

OK so hubby is well qualified and highly experienced it might be worth him making contact with a few companies in australia and see if anyone would be willing to sponsor him. That is one option.

The other option is the skilled migrant route which is probably more common on BE. First thing hubby should do is take a points test, (google, there are several online tests he can take), I have a feeling he might not reach 120 points as it is quite hard for people over 35.

Not reaching 120 points would mean that he would need to apply for state sponsorship before he can lodge a visa application. However there is a new points test coming into play from 1st July next year and he possibly would pass that test. If that is the case then the options are to apply for a state sponsorship and visa now, or wait until the new poitns test comes in.

After you have looked at the points test and feel generally comfortable about meeting requirements, then the next practical step is getting skills assessed. Engineers are assessed by the body called Engineers Australia. below is a link to some information on it, I am not an engineer and do not have personal experience of that process.

http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au...a/msa_home.cfm

It could be handy to complete this process even if you do this and then purse employer sponsorship. Most employers opt for temporary visa sponsorship as it is quicker and doesn't need a skills assessment, however if you already have a skills assessment then you might be able to persuade an employer to sponsor you for a permanent visa from the outset.

Finally have a good read of www.immi.gov.au, in particular take a look at the 175 /176 visas.

Good luck.

robbyarg

The process is quite complicated and keeps changing with requirements. Go to www.immi.gov.au to see which visa you are applicable for 176, 175 etc. Find out if your occupation is on the SOL (the current list), calculate your points, meet the work experience requirement, and get benefits of having immediate family in Australia. Its easy to calculate points. You will need to get a skills assessment from the relevant authority. Find out which one.

You also need an IELTS English test to get points and prove your English which is required. Do your best and score the max points in bands. Go for 7+.

If you don't have family, you need 3 or so years of work experience immediately in the last 4 years from date of application. Check the requirement for exact info. It's very complicated.

If you get 120 points and meet work requirements, go independent. If you get 100+, some sponsorship may help from family in Aussie (citizen, PR). If not, apply for state sponsorship (which should be free).

If you need more accurate and exact advice, talk to an agent. Talk to someone like Fiona Carre, Peter Moss. Make sure you check if these AGENTS (or anyone you choose) are registered agents. Generally, I feel agents are quite useless and you can do a better job of research yourself.

Well, it's a start. Australia is an AMAZING nation even if it's not Europe. So its worth a try.