mext60

Thank you so much Karl for sharing this information. I have recently enrolled in Cert IV Work Health & Safety and came to know about all these changes. Are you a H&S professional Karl, in Australia? as then I might have a few questions to ask you

Well rigman...forgot to touch upon this subject. If you compare the summer with GCC, it was almost a joke except for Perth where it was comparable to a mild summer in Dubai. The temperatures reached up to 38 degrees when I was in Perth. The evenings were still fine and even in afternoon times we were able to walk outside. In Sydney, it was like winters in Dubai, we had to wear light jackets some of the times. However my brother who lives in Sydney told me that it does get hotter some of the days but is still less than what we are used to in GCC. In Auckland, it was really cold and the natives told us that this is the most that they get in summer, so you can imagine the winters in Auckland So, to summarize, I think Perth can get sweltering few days in summer and the rest of the cities are surely bearable in summer.

Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Manly Beach, Skyline, Three Sisters etc.

Including that of a bush fire that we saw while going to mandurah on train.

Hi everybody, I would like to share my and wife’s experience from the recent short validation trip from 21st Jan onwards to Perth and Sydney (plus Auckland for holidays). My itinerary was as follows: (a prior warning of a long post :) Perth: 3 nights Sydney: 4 nights Auckland: 4 nights Perth: Stayed at Holiday Inn Perth City Centre, which was located centrally near to Perth Underground station and conveniently on Hays street. I am impressed by the public transport system of Perth. Free CAT (central area transit) buses are wonderful to go to any place in CBD. Took a cruise in swan river, which provide good views of Perth skyline. One day took a family rider pass from Perth Underground and went to fremantle (lovely place and beach), also went to mandurah. Felt Perth to be a nice and quite place overall. Sydney: Stayed at Sebel Surry Hills, which is just next to the central station. Myself and wife loved Sydney. Had my younger brother (who is student there in University) with us in Sydney. Places visited include Darling Harbour, Sydney Harbour, Sydney Tower Observation deck, Manly Beach, Bondi Beach, the Rocks, Blue Mountains. To visit all these places we bought a mymulti3 pass in Sydney for transport and it was wonderful and worth the price (AUD 63 per head), included transport on trains, ferries and buses. Got to see fireworks on Australia Day, which was a bonus as we did not know about it while booking our trip. Auckland: Stayed at Rendezvous Grand Central, very nice hotel but so-so location. We found Auckland, as a city, to be very boring. However, outside the city, New Zealand is very beautiful and a great place for some quite vacations. Took day tours of Hobbitton and Paihia/Bay of Islands, which was very scenic. We were unimpressed with the public transport system of Auckland CBD as compared to Perth and Sydney. Food/ Groceries: I was shocked at the price difference of various items at convenience stores and super markets like Woolsworth/ Coles. To give an example, a mineral water bottle (1.5L) cost $3.5 or more at convenience stores and the same was $1.2 at Woolsworth/Coles. During our holidays, we stuck to cheap eats most of the times rather then in-room or fine dining, and on average it cost us around $20-25 (for myself and wife) per meal. Being muslims, halal food was a concern, however it is abundantly available in all cities that we visited i.e. Perth, Sydney and Auckland. Several kebab shops (Turkish/ Lebanese) are there in all these three cities and mostly at walking distance within CBD. Jobs: Though due to the short duration of the trip, I had no intention of applying or doing anything related to job search, however in Perth (since we were there in working days) just to test the market, I saw jobs in my field (occupational health & safety) in a local newspaper and seek.com and called several phone numbers, had interesting discussions with some of the recruiters and HR people. One of the recruiter from a recruitment agency told me that companies expect from recruitment agencies to find them people with local experience, so as a new migrant you should apply to jobs advertised directly by employers. Also had a detailed discussion with a kind lady in HR of a large Korean conglomerate from Oil & Gas sector, she was herself a migrant and advised me to look for jobs in regional areas, smaller companies/ contractors working in Oil & gas, Northern Territory (as they had a few Oil & gas/ mining projects starting soon). She also told me that compared to Perth/ WA (which is in middle of a down-turn), NSW and Queensland have some projects starting up in 2014, which will result in more jobs in Oil&Gas/ Mining related professions in these states later this year. Flights & Hotel Bookings: Booked all our flights through Emirates website, and it cost us around AUD 4800 (for both return tickets) for the complete trip. First flight’s timing (from Dubai to Perth) was perfect as it took off in the evening , where after on-board dinner we slept and when we woke up the flight was about to land. Perth to Sydney was Qantas, which was fine. Sydney to Auckland was Emirates in A380, where we felt that perhaps the economy seats are a wee-bit better/ wider. Auckland to Dubai was again Emirates (A380) with a 1.5hrs stop in Melbourne, and then 14hours flight to Dubai from Melbourne, which was very tiring and we thought afterwards that perhaps 10-11 hour should be maximum for continuous flight and preferably we should book longer flights with a stop in between. For hotel bookings, I realized that travel agents are usually much cheaper than famous booking websites. Customs: We had researched a lot on the subject and found Australian Customs to be quite strict, however we declared all items (eatables) on our incoming passenger card, were asked a couple of questions on some of the items and they let us go without opening our luggage. We had a full list of items prepared (just in case) if they asked. The customs officer appreciated the detailed list and the fact that we had declared items in detail. Airport Transfers: All the airports i.e. Perth, Sydney & Auckland have shared shuttle services available at reasonable rates which can be booked on arrival and they drop you at your hotel. Taxis cost a lot, we did not consider the shuttle service in Perth and ended up paying $50 to the taxi. Phone/SIM: From Perth Airport we bought a $10 Vodafone SIM, which had 500MB of data and $20 of calls credit, which was more than enough for a week or so that we were staying in Australia. Spiders: OK, so having a spider phobia myself, the thought of finding a huntsman in a hotel room was my worst nightmare, but I think all the discussion and research that you do on the subject frightens you more. Did not see a single spider when in Australia though since I was aware I did see a lot of spider-webs everywhere, saw a very small spider in New Zealand. In the seven/ eight days I was in Australia, I kept on looking under the tables/ chairs/ benches and did not find anything. So much relaxed after that. Also my brother who is in Sydney for the last 7-8 months told me that he has yet to see a huntsman or even a red-back, though a couple of times he has seen large palm sized spiders at his place during summer (but the house he lives in has ill-maintained and over-grown grass around it, so that might be a reason). All in all, we loved Australia and are looking forward to shift there. We found it to be very natural as compared to the un-natural environment we usually find in Dubai (where we live currently).

Thanks Nikko

Hi All, I have a specific query that I was wondering someone can help me with, i.e. I have got 176 visa granted under WA sponsorship in Sep 2013 and I need to validate it before March 2014. Now the query is that to validate it do I necessarily have to arrive in perth or my landing in Sydney can validate the visa without even going to Perth atm. I am planning a short trip for validation (say a week or less only). Regards,

Thanks a lot. Then who should I get in touch with for further details? i.e. the issue of different states?

Dear All, I will be glad if somebody with a similar situation or an expert can share his opinion/ experience on the following: (Remember this is still a hypothetical situation) I applied for SS 176 in April 2012 and got my CO in May 2012. Since I am a citizen of HR country my security checks are still going on and it might take june/july 2013 or further to get a medical/ PCC call. In the meanwhile, I have been contacted today by my ex-supervisor who wants to hire me for a role in Tasmania and told me that his company will provide 475 visa. Now my questions are as follows: Can they apply for 475, when I already have an application in for 176? If yes to above question, what effect it will have on my 176 PR application? If no effect in response to question no. 2, then does this mean that while having 475, my 176 PR application will still be processed and I will get PR in foreseeable time as expected (in 2013)? Or a 475 application can delay the processing of PR 176 visa? I believe if I am in Australia and they have approved my PR 176 application, then I will have to exit Australia and re-enter to activitate my PR 176 visa. Is this right? Anything else that might be of concern in the above situation? Thanks in advance for your help. Regards,

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/x-ray-during-pregnancy/AN02058 Mayo Clinic advice on the subject.

Applied for what type of visa? Is your CO assigned? I think "acknowledgment letter means CO assignment? Please elaborate further.

Wonderful Post!

Hi everybody, any updates? Any CO allocation?

It has to be a degree related to your sector of experience. For example if you have a degree in Construction Management and OHS experience in construction industry, it can be assessed as positive. Similarly, since I had a degree in Mechanical Engineering and my OHS experience was in Engineering, Oil&Gas and Manufacturing industry, so I was assessed as positive.

Dear All, Though I did not get any email for CO allocation, however when I logged in today, I found that on document checklist all requirements are met except Medical & PCCs (I have not submitted them as yet, I am HR country applicant). Regards,

Dear All, I haven't got a CO assigned as yet, is there anything to be concerned. I lodged 176 on 8th April.

Dear Jojojo, One needs a Bachelor's degree to succedd with VETASSESS on OHS.

Hi All, just to inform all the OHS professionals that I did get positive skills assessment from VETASSESS.

Hi April Colleagues, I had my application lodged on 7th April, however still not uploaded all documents. Also I am surprised at the amount of documents u people are discussing about i.e. 60 or more. I am me and my wife (no kids) and I have listed down around 25 documents in total to be uploaded, this is after combining all my employment documents for each employment in one or maximum two pdf file. I hope I am not missing anything. Also a question i.e. I had four employments in my career and two of them were more relevant to my nomination occupation from SOL, so do I need to submit documents of the other two as well that are not relevant and I did not get them assessed from VETASSESS. Also both of these employments were less than a year long.

One more, sorry for being annoying....do we need to provide certified copies of all documents or just color scanned copies? Specially for example IELTS TRF?

Thanks alot for this information, do I need to add my spouse name on this page where it asks for migrating dependents, considering the fact that I have added it already in previous pages?

Another quick question, once I have paid the fees through credit card, will I still be able to access the previous pages and edit if required?