bainser

Hi

I’ve been reading the postings on here with great interest. My wife and I have been discussing emigrating to Australia for a long time and the time has almost come where we can begin seriously planning for it. We have to wait until February next year before I have 4 years work experience that is needed to apply for a General Skilled Visa. I will applying as a Software Designer, I’ve been working as a web developer since I graduated in 2001, thankfully I got a job while still at uni that is considered full-time, I did 25 hours a week.

I was just wondering if there is anything I can do in the meantime that might speed things up? Do you have to wait to hear back from them before applying for medical and police checks?

Am I right in thinking that the first thing to do is get my qualifications/work experience assessed by the ACS?

I’m maybe just trying to jump the gun a little but would appreciate any advice on this.

Thanks
Kevin

Gravyman

Hi Kevin

Welcome to the forum.

Your first thing would be to get your skills assessed.

Once you get it back with a positive assessment then you can apply for the visa.

It's not worth getting the police checks and med done as they only last a year. This means that you would have to get your visa and travel to Oz to have it validated within that 12 months.

It may take longer than that to get your visa and then you would have to get fresh medicals and they are not cheap.

Graham

JAJ

Skills assessment is the first step.

What you can do is start collecting all your personal documentation and making sure everything is up to date (birth certs, passports, marriage cert etc). Also, make yourself very familiar with the ACS guidelines and get all your educational qualifications documented, as well as employment references from *previous* jobs. I assume you don't want to approach your current employer just yet.

Jeremy

elksa

I might be able to offer some advice to help you get your visa a little quicker. I am a computer programmer like you and am in the middle of the visa application (well I've sent everything off just waiting for an answer). When first looking into the visa application our agent suggested that instead of going for skills validation via ACS we should go for skills validation via IEAust (Institute of Engineers Australaia). This way you only require 3 years work experience to get a successfull skills assesement and you can also get the extra 10 points for working in an occupation closely related to your skills on your visa application.

At first I was not sure about this but because all computing university degrees are certified by the British Computer Society you are actually classified as an engineer because the the British Computer Society is registered within the institute of engineers (I might be a little wrong with some of the terms I'm using but what I'm saying is correct). Once you have gained your visa you will not be restricted to working within an engineering field you will be able to continue working with computers as I intend to do.

The skills assesement by IEAust was fairly simple I just needed to provide my university transcript and some other documentation but it got accepted fine.

The agent I'm using is called Mark Webster and he's been very helpfull and knowledgable you might want to checkout there website where you can apply for a preliminary assesement for a small fee or try contacting them directly.

http://www.hwmigration.com

Good luck and keep us informed of what you do. Any other questions just PM me and I'll try and help.

bainser

Thanks very much for the advice.

I'll start hunting down all the relevant paperwork i need, I was going to use a solicitor to certify the copies would this be acceptable? I'll also get some references from previous employers, knowing how useless one of them is this could take a long time!

elksa - I've sent you a message with a couple more questions.

Cheers
Kevin

JAJ

You may be confused about this. An IEAUST skill assessment under the Washington or Sydney Accord does not require any work experience.

DIMIA require work experience for your application. However, if you have an IEAUST assessment combined with work experience in IT, it's not guaranteed you'll get 10 points for work experience. You might be limited to a score of 5 - it's a grey area and may depend on what the case officer thinks.


For Washington/Sydney Accord assessment, your qualification if obtained in the UK needs to be accredited by the Engineering Council.
http://www.engc.org.uk

Jeremy

bainser

Jeremy

Thanks for this, I've had a look at the IEAust website and read through all their guidelines etc. I think I'll just be patient and wait until I have 4 years IT experience and then apply to the ACS to get my skills assessed, gives me a bit more time to save some cash!

Cheers
Kevin