making the big move to oz

hi i am 20 and a qualified hairdresser but have not worked for nearly 2 years as i went on meternity leave to have my daughter. my partner is 25 and although he works as a tree surgeon/ landscape gardner he has no qualifications. we really want to make the move to oz for a betterlifestyle for us and our daughter. we currently live in a rented property so dont have a house to sell. we could probably scrape togethor £20-30k including selling both our cars. where would be the best place to start as i have read so much info and i am even more confussed now.

any ifo would be a great help

hi i am 20 and a qualified hairdresser but have not worked for nearly 2 years as i went on meternity leave to have my daughter. my partner is 25 and although he works as a tree surgeon/ landscape gardner he has no qualifications. we really want to make the move to oz for a betterlifestyle for us and our daughter. we currently live in a rented property so dont have a house to sell. we could probably scrape togethor £20-30k including selling both our cars. where would be the best place to start as i have read so much info and i am even more confussed now.

 

any ifo would be a great help

Hi,

The best thing I can suggest is perhaps contacting a visa agent for some advice on the matter, I currently use 'Visa Bureau'. You could even try 'Gollywobbler' (Gill) who is also a member on Poms in Oz, I am sure either route could help you in your queries.

Possible worst case scenario is you might have to obtain qualifications to prove yours and your partners skills as a tree Surgeon and hairdresser. You are both young so dont panic too much.

Hope ths helps

Matt

H Shayla

I think the first thing you should do is to go back over all of your earlier posts and threads on here. The easy way to do this is to click on your own user name to the left of your post on this thread. Then please choose Public Profile. In that, please choose Statistics and the rest should be straightforward after that.

Then please read this current thread and the links in it carefully so that you are clear about what questions you want to ask an agent.

Then phone at least 3 or 4 different agents because the good ones do not charge for some free time on the phone. They will all try to rope you into signing on the dotted line as soon as possible but take no notice of that.

A year ago, your skills as a Hairdresser would have got you into Australia with no hassle as long as you had the right qualifications and apprenticeship to get you through Trades Recognition Australia (TRA.) However the last 12 months has been very turbulent for migration to Oz because there are too many applicants chasing too few visas and the current Aussie Minister for Immi has decided on a major crackdown. The effect of this is that far fewer people will be eligible to migrate to Oz in future years than has been the case up till now.

One of the most recent changes happened on 1st January 2010 so it is very recent indeed, affects you and OH and DIAC's Booklets may not have been updated as yet - I am not sure. As of 1st Jan it is now necessary for the applicant to prove that s/he has recent skills in the occupation which is to be nominated for visa purposes. "Recent work experience" means not less than 20 paid hours per week in the nominated occupation for a period of at least 12 months out of the last 24. You no longer have this recent work experience as a Hairdresser because you have been out of that for a couple of years, having your baby and looking after her.

So, one way to proceed is for you to go back to Hairdressing for at least year provided that you have at least the NVQ3 and you can prove that you meet one of Pathways A or B in TRA's new Uniform Assessment Criteria and all the other TRA requirements, which are here:

Offshore Assessment - Overview

http://www.deewr.gov.au/Skills/Programs/TRA/residenceVisa/Documents/UniformCriteria.pdf

Could your OH be the main applicant instead? I think that depends on what he actually does for most of his time and has done in the past. You and your OH have said variously that he is a Landscape Gardener, a Tree Surgeon, a Bricklayer and a Driver. Driver won't get him into Oz as the main applicant so we can forget about that. The other 3 will but OH must choose one of them only and he must prove the recent work experience requirement above for one of them only. It could be that his real occupation is "General Handyman" or similar and that will not get him into Oz. His occupation must come from the list below and it must only be in one thing:

A-Z Occupations List - Australian Skills Recognition Information

I've heard about a Registered Migration Agent coming unstuck with this angle so you must be careful with it. I don't know what the applicant's skills assessment was as but apparently the RMA's un-qualified girls later told DIAC that his job was part Bricklayer, part Welder and part something else. DIAC decided that the man was a General Handyman, which is not on the ASRI/SOL described above and the guy's visa was refused. There is no excuse for an RMA - who supposely knows about migration to Australia - to make a balls up like that so you must be very careful with it.

The easy way to check is to look at the three SOL occupations which you have mentioned and then check the full ASCO Code for these occupations. The ASCO Code is below and the 6-digit numbers are the same as in the ASRI/SOL above:

1220.0 - Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO) Second Edition, 1997

Does OH do ALL of the tasks listed for each one? How does he do all 3 for not less than 20 hours a week each unless he spends at least 60 hours a week working? With a bit of common sense and ordinary elimination the truth should become clear. DIAC's staff will ferret the truth out, never fear, and if they decide that OH is really a "General Handyman" then that is what they will say he is. Right now they are looking for ways to refuse visas in order to cut the backlog of applications so there is no room for carelessness about any of this.

Let us say that OH is either a Landscape Gardener or he is a Tree Surgeon. If either of those two is chosen, OH will need to obtain formal qualifications for one or the other. Australian Trade Assessments can do the assessment for either of these in the UK but it costs about £1,500 and they would push you into using a Registered Migration Agent of their choosing because they all do this. Allow at least another £2,000 plus VAT for the RMA's fees as well.

A proper look at all of this in the next few days might persuade you that it will be easier, safer and cheaper for you to return to Hairdressing for a year and be done with it. The RMAs will tell you that this is not safe either because the Minister may well have more unwelcome changes up his sleeve and if so they could scupper your chances completely. As they might. However remember as well that the RMA wants his/her own fees today, so they will all try to find ways of squeezing OH into being the main applicant somehow. It has become a complete balancing act for a client like you and this must be borne in your minds.

ATA's website is below and Landscape Gardener is treated as part of the construction trade so please look under that for this occupation:

Australian Skill Assessments - Building a Pathway to Australia

The other main one who can do AQF III assessments in the UK is Trade Train. The icons on their website are not comprehensive, so phone them in the UK and ask about whichever occupation you decide on (if any.)

ACTS UK | Welcome to Trade Train

*********************************************************

The next thing to choose is which visa? Basically you have a choice. If you opt for employer sponsorship the actual visa will be super-fast once you find the employer but willing employers are thin on the ground in Australia as well. You would have to look all over Oz and the days of migrants deciding whereabouts to settle and then heading to that part of Oz are well and truly over for good. One way or another, Australia will decide where new migrants go to from now on, not the other way round. The Minister for Immi LOVES employer sponsored PR (permanent residence) visas because they send the migrant to exactly where s/he needs to go within Australia.

The big quarrels (and the cracks) have emerged about the General Skilled Migration visas. These do not depend on an employer. They depend on the Points Test instead. The Points Test is much easier than finding the elusive employer. As a result, only 60,000 or so GSM visas are available each year and there are 145,000 or so applications for them in hand. The effect of this backlog is now felt in the timeframe. Please see below:

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/faq-priority-processing.pdf

If you choose a GSM visa then you would begin by applying for a subclass 175 visa. This is just to get the ball rolling and to keep all your options open. You would want to end up with a State sponsored subclass 176 visa in the end, though, and the State Governments will decide which State you should end up in. Please see below:

State & Territory Migration Sites - australia.gov.au

A State sponsored sc 176 visa would put you into Category 5 in the FAQ of 23rd September 2009. You want to be as far up the pecking order in that FAQ as you can be, plainly.

WA will sponsor Landscape Gardeners but I am not sure about Tree Surgeons. QLD will not sponsor any trade skills applicants so if you went there in October 2009 as planned, you should have visited Perth instead is what it comes down to. The Aussie Govt is the one being harsh with you about this, not me.

There is no charge from DIAC for swapping from a s 175 to a sc 176 and there is hardly any paperwork involved from DIAC's end. However you do have to apply to the relevant State first and I believe that WA are now taking about 6 months at present, regardless of the claims on their website. Most RMAs charge extra for applying to the State chosen. Some States now make a charge as well.

The visas are here:

Employer sponsored:

Employer Sponsored Workers - Workers - Visas & Immigration

Employer Sponsored Migration Booklet - Australian Immigration

GSM visas:

Professionals and other Skilled Migrants - Workers - Visas & Immigration

Australian General Skilled Migration Booklet

Cheers

Gill

Gill,

This is very thorough. I can just point to anyone to here and read. Instead of reading the rest of the post for starting. It will be good if this can be easily accessible as and when a new member comes in. So that you don't have to retype all the info. A lot of efforts have put in.

Shayla,

all the best in your application journey.

Violet