Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

Hi All, (sorry, this is a little long - thought I would include as much detail as possible so that it would be easier to reply to :)

My boyfriend and I (both 29, almost 30) are planning on moving from Vancouver, BC, Canada to Australia by the middle of 2012, for a few years (not exactly sure for how long). We are going to be applying for the skilled temporary business visa (I think it's the 457...he has all the info in a binder somewhere) as he is a heavy duty mechanic with his Red Seal certification, so he would qualify for the skilled visa one. We have been together and co-habitating for almost 5 years so I understand that he can add me to his visa as his de-facto partner, etc. Anyways, all this we have a pretty good understanding of and not too worried with getting the visa or him finding a good job as he happens to have quite a few connections over there for work :thumbsup:


THANK YOU!!!
(also, if anyone is wondering about life in Vancouver, Canada, feel free to ask questions!)

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

Does either of you have an employer willing to sponsor you for the 457? If not, you're not coming on that.

Whether he qualifies for the skilled visa and whether you actually have one are two very different things. If you're applying for a skilled visa you won't be moving here in mid 2012. First your partner is going to need a skills assessment (a couple of months) then you're going to need to apply for the visa and wait for it to be decided (another 6 months or so) before you can move.

I would also check to see whether a "Red Seal" certification is valid in Australia. I've never heard of it here, although admittedly I am not a heavy duty mechanic.

Start at www.immi.gov.au to see whether you actually do in fact qualify for a visa and what you need to do to get one.

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

Hi Dorothy,

Thanks for replying! He has spoken to a friend of the family (who is originally from Canada but now with a company in Oz) who is in the 'heavy duty mechanic' field and he has told my boyfriend that with his trade, skills and education, he will personally sponsor and hire him but that he would also have many offers from other companies that he knows of. Also, we know of someone who has the same qualifications and was going through the same process, and he was in Oz within 2 months (start to finish, no lie). Anyways, I could be getting the name of the visa wrong, I don't have the file with me know.

Any info on cities/areas in Australia which you think we may enjoy?

Thank you!

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

Seriously, how can people that do not know you on an internet forum suggest places that you would enjoy. :confused: I am sure there are people in similar situation to you (i.e. age kids / no kids) living happily in all of Australia's cities. And check a map, you will find that most are located not too far from the coast. Stay away from Alice Springs though. ;)

If you really, really have no clue at all then maybe you should take some time to have a look round, although of course that will be in holiday mode not living mode but hopefully you will get a feel for where you want to be.

Regarding the visa, I was a bit confused as you mention the 457 visa and skilled migration in the same sentence? Which path are you thinking of? If you are just thinking of the 457, then the location of a willing employer might be the determining factor anyway.

As your question is not really about the visa however and more the lifestyle choices, I woudl suggest you ask a mod to move your thread to the main Australia forum. This area is for visa and citizenship queries and many people stop reading in here once they get thier visa and make the move over.

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

You need to sort out the visa first. Make sure the sponsorship is going to happen because even in Perth where fitters are in demand there arent actually many companies will to sponsor.

As for city, you are of course going to have to live where the job is. Thats the nature of the visa. However, i would have thought Perth is the most likely. He MUST however first check out that his qualifacations are recognised here.

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

you can just apply for a working holiday visa
http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/working-holiday/417/

(no need for skills assessment and other long annoying processes)

then hop from place to place while holding some cool temp jobs, and discover the island for yourself..that's what I'd do if I were you and had all these endless possibilities :)

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

I've split your post and moved the Lifestyle questions to that forum where you are more likely to get answers -
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=737576 :)

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

Thanks Sidney87! We have the visa thing sorted out and I guess we'll just land where we land and make the best of it, I'm sure it'll be fantastic :)

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

Good plan, thanks VeryStormy! We'll just have to flip a coin and choose between the 2 places that are offering sponsorship and make the best of it!

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

All righty then - I wasn't asking anyone to tell me *exactly* where to move to, just some suggestions would be helpful. If someone had given me as much detail as I had given in my post and were thinking of moving to Canada, I would be able to give them a few options to either ignore or look into further, depending on their personal tastes and lifestyles.

And obviously, my question isn't that ridiculous because my thread has been viewed over 270+ times, as of now, so obviously more than a few people are wondering the exact same thing. I don't know if you meant to sound snarky, but it kinda came off that way :(

And I did mix the 2 visas together, I apologize. It is the 457 but it's called the Business Long Stay visa, not the Skilled visa. And he does have 2 people willing to sponsor him (one in Perth and the other in North Queensland) which is why I was asking questions regarding the different areas in Oz. Even though we have offers for these 2 regions, we're not limiting ourselves to these places and therefor information regarding other places (from people who actually live there) would have been appreciated. These are important questions as we enjoy a high standard of living and quality of life where we currently are and it's very scary possibly sacrificing all that for a huge disappointment (although, I highly doubt that).

Anywhoo, thanks to all who responded in kind, I don't know if it's just me but BE seems to be quite negative and snarky (sometimes just plain rude) at times so I have found a different site/forum group and people there seem to be a wee bit more encouraging and positive so I will be going there for future advice. Happy travels!

Re: Moving from Canada to Australia - ANY advice/info, please?
 

If you browse the main forum there are literally thousands of threads on the merits of Qld vs Perth, and as we have a lot of Canadian members many of those views are from people who have moved here from Canada.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...nada+australia

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...nada+australia

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...nada+australia

and

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...g+to+Australia

which isn't bad for a site that started life aimed at British Expats not Canadian ones.

If you want to go somewhere else, please remember when it comes to visas its better to have realistic and honest advice than positive but maybe less than accurate advice.