We got our 136 visa as hubby passed tra as a general electrician......but hey! Guess what!
Apparently now we have spent £10k getting here and another god knows how much getting ourselves sorted he is not allowed a licence!!
Was refused his first application, (also by the TRA - who passed him in the uk) so appealed and now has been refused again!
Why let us in then? Now he cannot work in his profession here unless he totally retrains ans we spend another fortune on tafe fees And lost income...
Stupid government then wonder why they have a skills shortage!! According to the guy we spoke to at the TRA it happens all the time with skilled trades!!
Last straw for us, was already homesick, but thought if hubby can set up on his own and make a go of it we'll stick it out for a couple of years.....
AN expensive lesson!
__________________ Visa granted 2/11, got here 1/2/08 GOING HOME 30/6 Dave (electrician) Lisa, Holly 5, Samuel 3
Location: Maudsland, Gold Coast from Oldham, Gtr Manchester
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That's really bad news, so sorry. Read your other post, so this is not what you needed when you're feeling low anyway. Hope you get sorted out, either way.
Good luck, Jo x
Sorry to hear that! From talking to others, you are not Robinson Crusoe here - you would have thought that the TRA people would have had some sort of discussion with the licensing people so that there was consistency with requirements would you not?
Good luck with the move back, if that is what you are doing!
The Australian Goverment and the trade firms are in this together...they say they want skilled tradesmen but want to pay them peanuts and keep their own people on higher wages than the immigrants...no way can I get my licence over here and have to live on 70% what aussies get for the same work.
The Australian Goverment and the trade firms are in this together...they say they want skilled tradesmen but want to pay them peanuts and keep their own people on higher wages than the immigrants...no way can I get my licence over here and have to live on 70% what aussies get for the same work.
It's annoying and unfair, but I guess thats life!
__________________ Visa granted 2/11, got here 1/2/08 GOING HOME 30/6 Dave (electrician) Lisa, Holly 5, Samuel 3
According to your signature, an Agent acted for you in your visa application. Why did the Agent not warn you that re-training would be needed in Oz?
From what I've read on the threads, the necessary local licences to become a self-employed electrician in Oz seem to be amongst the most expensive and most fiddly to obtain.
I'm not a migration agent - I only know this from reading the forums. So surely a proper Agent should be able to point a client in the right directions so that s/he will know exactly what will need to be done post-arrival in Oz?
What does your Agent have to say for himself about this, please?
Plainly anybody nominating General Electrician should be told by their Agent to contact the relevant body in the State concerned (before the Agent takes any dosh off the client in my firm opinion.)
If Hubby is one of the other types of Electrician listed, the wider link is here:
The licencing system here is a double edged sword. Its good that it prevents to some extent poorly trained 'cowboys' from trading but it also acts as a job protection scheme holding some trade rates artificially high - particularly plumbers and sparkies.
This is probably the reason that sparkies and plumbers are coming in big numbers - business doesn't like paying such high rates and so are calling for these skills to flood the market.
Any suggestion that it only affects migrants is wrong - tradesman changing states can find themselves caught up in differing licencing authority rules.
If you jump through the hoops you end up with significantly better than average trade rates.
BTW I heard today on TV that the Gov is planning to reduce the skills threshold (skill and language) to let more lower skilled people in than current (don't know how true it is?). This will probably allow for more migration globally, so the queues could start to get longer. Us poms had it good under the Howard Gov but it seems that may be changing?
BTW I heard today on TV that the Gov is planning to reduce the skills threshold (skill and language) to let more lower skilled people in than current (don't know how true it is?). This will probably allow for more migration globally, so the queues could start to get longer. Us poms had it good under the Howard Gov but it seems that may be changing?
There is a definite plan for a new, temporary visa for "seasonal" workers. The plan to trial it by giving visas to unskilled people from Nauru - no doubt a sop in exchange for closing down the "holding centre" or whatever it was on Nauru - something to do with refugees, I think.
But please see this thread from the Poms in Perth forum:
The idea of hiring cheap construction workers on what would be 457 visas falls apart because of the Minimum Salary Level that they must be paid, I suspect.
Sure, I can understand Aussie contractors wanting to minimise labour costs, but I am quite surprised that anybody bothered to e-mail the lady who started that thread.
Hi Fatpom
There is a definite plan for a new, temporary visa for "seasonal" workers. The plan to trial it by giving visas to unskilled people from Nauru - no doubt a sop in exchange for closing down the "holding centre" or whatever it was on Nauru - something to do with refugees, I think.
But please see this thread from the Poms in Perth forum: Poms in Perth Discussion Board :: View topic - Sponsoring Construction Workers From Uk
The idea of hiring cheap construction workers on what would be 457 visas falls apart because of the Minimum Salary Level that they must be paid, I suspect.
Sure, I can understand Aussie contractors wanting to minimise labour costs, but I am quite surprised that anybody bothered to e-mail the lady who started that thread.
Cheers
Gill
Hi Gill
Interesting perspective from MD.
Always amusing that the business communities who claim to love the free market concept can find fault with the philosophy when it suits?
This problem also exists in some parts of Qld. Employers in some areas just can't find enough locals prepared to work for them at the rates they're prepared to pay. The problem is that you simply can't afford to live in these areas without mining sector type money now. Can't you just picture it... on the golf course, the Estate Agent, the Landlord and the Business owner complaining about the ingratitude of these people.
I'm surprised that they seem to be able to restrict this new visa to one set of nationals (Nauru)?
BTW Nauru was where the last gov held refugees (or 'illegal immigrants' as they've come to be known) to prevent them from access to the Australian legal system. The new Gov has wasted little time in closing it down. Of course the down side is that presumably business resumes for the people smugglers but then its hardly the tidal wave of people that the Gov made it out to be. Almost all (if not all?) of these illegals turned out to be genuine refugees... most of them Afghans & Iraqi's... the irony of that isn't lost on me.
MD says the new Gov hasn't done anything for them. After ten good years it hasn't taken too long to feel neglected. The Rudd's are self made multi-millionaires... hardly enemies of the free market.
You'd have to suspect that this new migrancy initiative may be a concession to employers over the scrapping of Work Choices. Either way it seems to provide the potential for cheap unskilled labour? Not surprising since this is usually the purpose of many countries migrancy policies. The skilled migrancy focus of the last Gov was aimed at flooding the market with skilled trades or filling skills gap depending on how your spin it. Many speculated on why it was only skilled with good english skills which were welcome?
Too be honest notwithstanding suspicions on the previous Govs motives I can't help thinking that allowing unskilled migrants into a country only hurts economically the most vulnerable in society.
According to your signature, an Agent acted for you in your visa application. Why did the Agent not warn you that re-training would be needed in Oz?
From what I've read on the threads, the necessary local licences to become a self-employed electrician in Oz seem to be amongst the most expensive and most fiddly to obtain.
I'm not a migration agent - I only know this from reading the forums. So surely a proper Agent should be able to point a client in the right directions so that s/he will know exactly what will need to be done post-arrival in Oz?
What does your Agent have to say for himself about this, please?
Plainly anybody nominating General Electrician should be told by their Agent to contact the relevant body in the State concerned (before the Agent takes any dosh off the client in my firm opinion.)
If Hubby is one of the other types of Electrician listed, the wider link is here:
Our agent is no longer working for the company, she left in our final stages of application. SHe did mention Dave would need a licence, but did not explain any further than this...guess we were niave for not asking!
Not to worry, nothing we can do about it now...quite excited we are going home actually! And the licence thing is not the only, or the main reason, it was just the last straw!!
Just wanted others to be aware really!
__________________ Visa granted 2/11, got here 1/2/08 GOING HOME 30/6 Dave (electrician) Lisa, Holly 5, Samuel 3