owen2k

I also remember reading that by law they have to offer the job to someone with suitable qualifications & experience with citizenship or a visa in place before offering it to someone requiring a 457 or who does not yet have a visa in place even if you are better qualified/experienced, I think only if it has been advertised for so long without suitable candidates can they offer it to someone requiring a visa. I'm sure once you've got your Visa you'll find a Job in no time, good luck, 2015 the year of new beginings ?

Claire,, we had a few offers from different parts of Australia but. decided on Perth. we applied through the agencies or direct to the employers where they had advertised their contact details on seek, as they were looking to fill a vacancy they all offered us a 457, but we decided to go the PR visa route as we have a young daughter and would like the added security, also in WA they are starting to charge school fees for those on a 457 visa so a PR visa works out cheaper in the long run, just got to hope everything goes well with the Visa

Jules RT wow that was quick, maybe you got a case officer but he looked through it all and approved it straight away did you do your health checks prior to applying? And upload all the documents they require onto the Immi account?? We did our health checks before applying and have sent off for police checks, on our application it says for us to wait for them to contact us but we can upload all the documents if we want to, I think maybe when the police check comes back I will just upload it all then they have it if they need it then, maybe it will speed things up

That's great news JulesRT that you got your 189 Visa. how long did it take from when you applied to getting your case officer to getting your Visa? I've heard it can take around 3 months. We applied end of December so anticipating a bit. of a wait now. Yesterday my wife took a job in Perth so we are very excited as as long as everything goes well with the Visa we can go shortly after it gets accepted(fingers crossed) we will need to arrange the shipping and sell our house. thinking about putting the house on the market before the Visa decision comes back to give it a bit more time on the market before we leave but not sure yet what to do for the best. With regards to Jobs we found seek was the best place to start as most of the agencies also seem to advertise there, with regards to Jobs I guess it ebbs and flows, we found that there are more jobs when looking at a specific area of radiography like mammography or especially MRI, over just general but that is just what we noticed when searching and I suppose could change but I suppose specialising in an area will like that would always improve chances. Thanks for info on that Facebook group, strange but been on Facebook for years but never thought of looking there for such a group I guess cause of all the non FB groups that exist ?

Good news, we got our positive skills assessment from AIR, and was invited for a 189 visa for which we recently applied. Does anyone have any experience with registration with MRPBA, is this something we can do before we leave the UK. We don't want to leave it until the last minute as we have a job lined up and I heard it can take a few months sometimes to complete.

That's Great Thank-you

Based in south Essex, near Basildon

That's great Wen66 thanks for the advice, with regards to tax (we are applying on a 189 visa) as I understand it, we can fill in a non resident landlords form which excempts us from paying tax up to the personal limit. As the house is in mine and my wife's name do we both have to declare it or can it all be declared on one of our self assesment forms, if we both declare it. Must it be done on a 50/50 basis, ie we deduct mortgage interest and maintenance then declare a percentage of the profit on each form. Also in Oz must it be declared for both people on the mortgage or is it sufficient to declare it all on one of the owners tax return as long as it's been declared... The tax thing sounds very confusing lol

Hi Can anyone who has ever rented out their UK house and emigrated recommend a good agent nationally, is there any estate agents that offer a package for expat landlords that takes most of the worry away? We really want to sell and will put the house up for sale when our visa is granted but will only have about 3 months or so after our visa is granted to sell the house as there is a job lined up on that side and we can't let them wait forever. And not confident our house will sell that quick so will need some extra income to pay the mortgage. I'm guessing it's mostly down to the individual agent how well they look after things but if anyone has any recommendations, would be great to know as we have no family locally that can look after the house...

On a related question, I guess if we went on a permanent visa, we would be subject to capital gains tax if we sold it after we arrived in Oz, as I understand it, this is the difference between the amount it was worth when we leave the UK and the amount it was sold for, if that's corrrect, are there steps we should follow before leaving like getting it valued? Would an estate agents valuation be sufficient proof? Would we also need proof of the exchange rate at the time or would the tax department decide on what the rate was on the day we arrived in Oz, also would the capital gains tax be owed if we made a visa validation trip (holiday) then came home and sold our house say 8 months later then moved permanently to Oz assuming the value of the property had risen between the validation trip and the day we sold the house ?

Thanks for advice, I thought they'd be some catch to it, I can imagine now trying to get the remainder from them from the other side of the world, and having ones life put on hold in the meantime

When we come to Oz our plan is to try and come on a PR Visa and sell our house in the UK and invest in a property out there after say 6 months of renting.. My question is has anyone ever used one of those house buying companies? That buy your house then sell it on for a profit? As I understand they will offer less for the property but if it's 5 or 6k less than selling it to a new buyer then for the convenience of being able to time the sale of it as close to the departure date and not having to find a short term rent somewhere in between selling and moving out would make it worthwhile. I would normally not look at one of these sort of things with a bargepole but thought best to ask as the convenience of it sounds great for this type of situation

My wife has been offered a good position in Cairns but while we are fully committed to. coming to Oz next year our original plan was to go to Perth for the following reasons. Not such a humid climate, she comes from cape town and Me from the UK, I always wanted to live in Spain when I was younger before realising the dire state of the economy there, with the drier heat (find it much more pleasent than say a hot day in the UK for example even if it's mid to high 30s (like in Madrid or Seville) for example. She also thinks the climate in Perth will be more similar to what she had back home. In the fact it's dry hot in the summer but also has seasons. Perth seems to have a bigger ex-pat community, both from UK and South Africa, while we hope to make ausssie friends, the expat community are all in the same boat as not having been there for long so we guess it will be easier to make friends there as we guess most aussies our age (late 30s) would already have their circle of friends.. Less time difference between uk/sa and Perth aswell as more direct flight options More to see and do... The problem is we've never been to Australia, so either place will be different (it just seems that Perth a little closer/more like home) but Cairns seems such an amazing place (like Paradise) and every post I read from people that are there or have been there seem to absolutely love it there so really torn as once the skills assessment comes back to take the offer in Cairns or wait for something to come up in Perth, only experience I've had with humidity was Orlando Fl many many years ago in June, I remember not minding it so much but was so long ago and also guessing Cairns is more humid than Florida.. Really torn as also real estate seems a lot more expensive in Perth and guessing we would need an extra 20k per year in Perth to have the same quality of life with regards to income that would in in Cairns or am I over/underestimating the difference..

That's the problem we have, age lol, we need all 8s so we can get enough points to apply for a PR 189 visa, failing that we could look into a regional sponsored PR 190 Visa, Currently looking towards Queensland or western Australia but still need to find an extra 5 points from somewhere to get state sponsored if we only get 7s on the IELTS, that's why I was hoping we might get 15 points rather than 10 for the qualifications. I think we will contact AIR, you're right they are very approachable, we contacted them a few times before submitting our assessment, but I'll guess we should give them a few weeks as assessment only just got there, so I'm thinking once they've had more time to start looking at it all it they'll be in a better position to let us know. Good luck with your EOI Jules, let us know when you hear something, we are still at the very early stages yet. Glenn

I'm guessing the points for a qualified radiographer would then be 15, no? It's all very confusing lol