Hello Hoo
Welcome to Poms in Oz.
The Agent may well be right that Hubby would be 5 points short for a skilled subclass 175 visa.
Skilled – Independent (Migrant) visa (subclass 175)
Skilled – Independent (Migrant) visa (subclass 175)
Australian General Skilled Migration Booklet
The second link above takes you to the Points test for the 175 visa. Do it yourselves, I suggest, and see whether you agree with your Agent about it. The information about Panel Beaters, the skills assessment for it etc can be accessed via this link:
A-Z Occupations List - Australian Skills Recognition Information
I can't suggest which State in Oz or area within a State that you should choose.
Did your Agent discuss the possibility of s State Nominated subclass 176 visa with you instead? If not, basically you apply to the State that you want to move to and they nominate you if your occupation is on the State list of skills in demand. You only need 100 points for this visa instead of 120, and the State Nomination is worth 10 points, plus costs nothing to obtain:
Skilled – Sponsored (Migrant) visa (subclass 176)
Skilled – Sponsored (Migrant) visa (subclass 176)
Skilled – Sponsored (Migrant) visa (subclass 176)
Victoria would sponsor you for a 176 as a panel beater:
http://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au...ity%20List.pdf
It is on Page 6 of the document.
QLD would sponsor you too:
Skilled Sponsored Eligible Skills List
Ditto South Australia and West Australia:
http://www.immigration.sa.gov.au/pdf..._Permanent.pdf
http://www.migration.wa.gov.au/media...kills-list.pdf
The WA list is incomprehensible without the map, and you have to know where to look in their website to find the map!
State Migration Centre Living in the Regions
For instance, a town called Mandurah is the main town in the Peel region of WA. It is about an hours drive South of the Perth CBD outside of the rush hours, and about 45 minutes on the new rail link from Mandurah to Perth. Properties are a bit cheaper than closer to Perth CBD, and I think Mandurah is lovely myself.
So what you could do if you wish is to "insure the risk" with the 175 and 176. When you apply for one, you automatically apply for the other as well. It is sometimes worth getting a State Nomination in a situation like yours so that if you can't get the job offer and/or OH fails to attain a score of 7.0 or above in the IELTS, no worries because you will have the State Nomination anyway, so DIAC can grant you the 176 visa if you can't quite get enough points for the 175. If you can score 120 then DIAC will grant a 175 visa instead.
Did your Agent give you any information about the IELTS? A lot don't because they have not done it themselves and have little idea of what s involved with it:
IELTS: International English Language Testing System
Search Results
News - Australia Migration Associates Ltd
Scroll down the page a bit with the last link above because Shirley & Sheila, who run AMA, have both done the IELTS and have described the experience of one of them.
Best wishes
Gill
