itegoa

I used Jetpets a few weeks back. My dog arrived safe and sound. Flown from Melbourne quarantine to Brisbane.

20 points is achievable, you just need to practice. Why not just do the IELTS and your skills assessment right now? You don't need an agent for that. You don't even need an agent anyway, IMO. But do IELTS + SA now, and you can decide that if/when you've pass IELTS + SA.

I signed up to NAB before we arrived in Oz. I thought they were a bit backward due to cards having to be sent to the branch and then having to travel to pick them up. Also, whenever I spend on EPTPOS or Debit card random amounts appear on online banking (e.g. $0.00, $0.01, $1.00) with no description, and it takes days for it to be updated, making it hard to keep track of what i've spent. I moved to Commonwealth - they send cards in the post (21st century style) and online banking is a nice experience. No random amounts on my statements - any debits appear correctly immediately (in a "pending" state). They have a $4 or $6 per month fee depending on which transaction account you have, although this fee is waived if at least $2,000 comes into your account each money.

How about this for an idea? http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31700049

On the subject of super, when negotiating salary, be sure to quote "$xxx,000 PLUS super". The last thing you want to do is agree on a figure, and then realise afterwards that figure included super.

You've been told a billion times before... stop over-exaggerating :cry:

Mazda RX-8 (2004). I've been trying to sell it in the UK. It started at about £1500, but since then i've gradually dropped the price to £600 and still can't find a buyer. Looking on carsales.com.au a similar aged car is selling between $10K to $13K in Australia. Engine has been rebuilt so it has value to me. What sort of price would I be looking at shipping it from the UK (South Wales) to Brisbane?

Did you not read the last line of wrussell's message?

I went with Internode. Cheaper than Telstra, 1 month rolling contract (with something like $200 setup fee), and ability to enable Annex M (faster uploads, so better video quality received on Skype calls from my contacts in the UK). This is just ADSL2, not Fibre. I suggest you try another ISP.

If there's no change in number of points gained, your effective date will remain the same. I have tried this first hand. If you had changed details that will change points (e.g. added or removed an employment that increased/decreased your skilled employment points), the effective date would update

See: https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/155-

Thanks all! I think I understand now!

I'm a bit confused by rego. I want to buy a car (in QLD) and some ads say e.g. "rego paid until July 2016". Isn't that worthless, seeing as i'd have to register it in my name anyway?

Cheers, sioban. That's good to here.

Does anyone have kids that go to Newmarket primary school in QLD? Is it a good school? All being well, our boy (9 y/o, which makes him year 4 I believe) will start in Jan/Feb.

We had been looking at Nundah, funnily enough. Will explore the area in person soon. Managed to get a 6 month rental in Alderley for the time being, the school in catchment area is Newmarket SS, so our lad will be going to there in the new year (he's 9 y/o in a couple of weeks).

Cheers all! I think i'm just feeling a bit lonely right now here by myself. My first week at work has got better as the week gone by, that had a major impact too. Office beers are tomorrow night. At least it gets me out for a bit! I know it's daft missing UK pubs, maybe i'll forget them as time goes by. Or maybe not! I've been used to working in different parts of the UK over the past 6 years and have gotten used to seeing new places, I kinda like exploring new places. I think the biggest thing that scares me at the moment is that i'll be trapped in Brisbane/QLD forever! LOL. It is a nice place with plenty to do, by the looks of things. I think i'm always going to have to keep it in my mind that we can move back (or somewhere else) if we ever want to. The kids will move on with their own lives when they're old enough, regardless of whether we're living in the UK, Australia or somewhere else. We should enjoy life right now, spending lots of time with the kids before they find their own way.

Serious question... what do people think about growing old in Australia? I've just moved out here to Brisbane, wife and kids to follow shortly. I've not quite turned 40 yet, by the way! So a long way off until old age. From what i've seen, the suburbs seem to be very quiet places, with no pub in the center (think British pub). As a big pub fan in the UK, I saw my retirement (a long way off) visiting the local pub meeting up with friends. It doesn't seem to be like that over here. Maybe I haven't give it enough time yet, i've only been here 1 week! LOL. Random thoughts I know, but i'm just feeling very strange at the moment. Like, have I made the right choice? Will life turn out OK here? Will I start to miss things back in the UK? (already missing British pubs in less than 1 week). What happens if I want to go back to the UK in say, 5 or 10 years time when my kids might have settled in Australia and they don't want to go back.

ftfy

How else can OP get more points?

Ok. Those 2 years work experience after your degree cannot be used in the visa points test. Do you have any work experience prior to the degree? So of those 2 yrs + 3 mths experience you have, the first 2 years will go towards gaining a positive skills assessment, and the remaining 3 months you can use to get points on the visa application (i.e. 0 points). You will not get +5 points until another 2 years and 9 mths. If you look on other places on the internet/other forums, you will see people referring to this as "ACS deducting experience". As it stands (without knowing all the info), do your points look like this? Age, 25 y/o (30 points) Superior English (20 points) - you must still take the IELTS test and get 8+ points across the board Qualifications, bachelor degree (15 points) -- ACS must assess your degree as "At least a bachelor degree from an Australian educational institution or other degree of a recognised standard" TOTAL = 65 points. I believe occupation codes 2613xx currently have to have 65+ points (from what i've read on these forums lately)

Can I just ask what your degree is in? Which one of ACS' requirements match? Here: https://www.acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/7324/Summary-of-Criteria-2014.pdf

First off, if you're on 65 points without "regional relatives +10pts", don't bother with a 489 (it will take a long time anyway). Go for the 189 visa. How long have you been in your current job, and how deep is your work history? I ask this, because it may be possible to get your skills assessed by ACS without that employment. Re: refs from colleagues/managers. In my case, for a very old employment (16 years ago!), ACS accepted a statutory declaration from a work colleague (he was at the same level as me, doing the same duties), and I also submitted a letter showing that I got fired from there, proving I worked there. It was accepted by ACS. IIRC, if paperwork is rejected by ACS they will give you the chance to re-submit it corrected. In this case, you could submit a stat. dec. from your colleague, and a few payslips. If that was rejected by ACS, then it would be time to speak to your manager. All free advice, IANAMA

Good luck. Doing the RPL can be very gruelling. Don't put it off, just get on with it. It will take up a lot of your free time.

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/489-