talesofatwinmum

Just to add one more thing - we were so lucky he had an employer that he could talk to about our plans. I know not everyone can ask their employer for a written reference as they don't want to tell them they're going to be leaving. Getting a very detailed reference from his manager about the projects he'd worked on and lots of paperwork from HR and other teams was integral to our TRA application. Gather as much evidence as you can to back up your skills!

Hi David, I've just replied to your pm but for anyone else that might stumble across this thread, my husband was assessed as an electrical engineering technician using his job description, stat dec, references, job offer letters, and plenty of proof that backed up what his job involved back in Oct 2013. His qualifications were all in the electrical and electronic fields (not specifically avionics) and we were able to make a clear case that his skills and qualifications met the criteria for the occupation. (Essentially he could have come under either the avionics category or the electrical category, had both still been available.) We got our skills assessment through without any problems and are now living in sunny Brisbane - we love it here! He works as a mechanic (which over here is more general maintenance) for an international airline so he rarely does much electrical work now, but he loves it. It's definitely worth looking for solutions - if you feel you meet the minimum criteria for an occupation then work with an agent and give it a try. It will either be accepted or rejected but if you don't try you will never know. I'm so pleased we stayed positive and found a great agent! Good luck!

Enjoy your move to Bribie. We moved over to Brisbane from Portsmouth last Sept. We hoped to move close to a surf beach on either Bribie or the Sunny or Gold Coast but in the end the reality of the commute proved too far for us (my husband works at the airport with 6am starts and it would just take too long five days a week). We ended up moving to Scarborough on the Redcliffe Peninsula. Not a surf beach but at least we have a beach here and a great community atmosphere. Good luck!

Thanks a lot, Insure Your Move have just called me back and were really helpful. I definitely won't be using our shipping company insurance. x

Hi, I'm trying to decide whether to use my shipping company for insurance or go with an independent company. I've been quote around £900 to insure a 20ft container with my shippers as they say they base the quote on a standard per square foot price. They've told me the only other option is to come up with a total value of goods and itemise every item you need covering which sounds like a nightmare and they advised against it. I've checked a few companies online and got much cheaper quotes but I can't figure out if with them I'd need to list every single item to be covered or not. Can anyone shed any light on the issue? Are my shippers trying to scare me into paying for their expensive insurance (I assume so, but also don't want to be let down if something breaks and it's not covered)? I'm trying to speak to a couple of the insurance companies today but am waiting for calls back. Thanks.

I agree with Adam that you absolutely shouldn't lie, make anything up or deliberately mislead in your application. You can only take the alternate route if you genuinely meet the criteria set for it. My husband meets all of the criteria for both occupations - all of his main qualifications are in electrical and electronic engineering (not avionics), and his skills and work experience relate to the electrical role in general meaning he could work on aircraft, trains, cars, boats etc. It just so happens that at the moment he works in the aircraft industry. Obviously not everybody working in avionics is in this position, so this won't work for everyone. My understanding (based on lots of conversations with various agents) is that so long as he meets the minimum qualifications and experience set for the electrical role then they should accept him as that regardless of whether he also suits the criteria of another occupation, as each application is judged only on the occupation you ask to be considered for (i.e. they won’t compare your skills to another occupation and reject you because you fit another occupation better). A senior manager completed a reference for us (to compliment the full job description provided by HR) that contained all of the true details of his role (it did make reference to aircraft in it as it wouldn't be fair to omit it completely), and it also made an effort to highlight all of the electrical projects he's been involved in that weren't avionic specific which are a big part of his job. I don't think that's a bad thing - you want to make sure every part of your application provides honest, written proof that helps you to prove you meet the criteria they’ve set. Our agent asked us to collect most of our paperwork together before deciding which occupation route to take because only then could she get an overview of which occupation would be the best fit. For us she felt that although to avionics role was the most natural fit, either occupation worked for us so we went with the one which suited our needs the best. An agent is the best place to start as they will assist you putting the application together and they will honestly advise you which occupation is your best fit to save you time and money. This route won’t be right for everyone because at the end of the day you need to have the skills, qualifications and experience for the occupation you’re applying for. But in my opinion it's worth looking into if you feel your situation is similar to ours. Good luck!

Hi, I'm not the original poster, but thought I'd reply with an update anyway. We've submitted our application to the TRA for my husband in an electrical occupation instead of the Avionics role and should hear back in late Dec. We were very lucky as his boss agreed to put together a reference with us which made lots of references to him as an electrical technician (rather than an avionics technician) so our agents are very hopeful that we meet the criteria for this occupation which is on the SOL. It's definitely worth speaking to an agent to find out if your husband's skills straddle more than one occupation as getting in with an occuaption on the SOL obviously opens up the rest of the country to you and means you can move where the work is/where you want to live rather than being restricted by the CSOL locations. Good luck!

Thanks - I thought there would be a way to make it work. Will look online at the visa options and see how my husband gets on making the call this week to see if they might be interested in interviewing him for it. Cheers.

Brilliant, thanks - I'll check them out. I can handle wind, because at least it won't be freezing like it is over here in the UK! x

Thanks a lot - I'll get reseaching them! x

Hi, My husband is in the process of applying for a skilled independent visa and we're just waiting for his skills assessment to be processed. We've just heard today that an international company based near us in the UK (that he has some links with) is desperate to recruit staff to move over to Australia for an urgent contract. He has the skills they need and they want people asap. A skilled independent visa is likely to take months to process but we would want to be on a visa that made us permanent residents straight away rather than a temp visa. Is it possible to move over on some sort of temp visa to start work while continuing your skilled indepenent application from over there? It would be ideal for us because they would pay relocation costs but obviously we don't know if they'd consider somebody not actually working for their company already so it could be a long shot. Any advice would be appreciated before we contact them tomorrow! Cheers.

Haha I bet you do - I get confused enough and I haven't moved over there yet let alone moved there and back again! x

$500 is absolutely fine (you'd said £500K before which had scared me a lot!!) so perhaps it is still an option to live at Perth in a reasonable commute to the airport within our budget after all. I know our outgoings there will be higher and there will be less work opportunities though so I guess we just start looking for jobs in a few places the new year and see what happens. Thanks for your help. Sounds like moving was a good experience for you and at least it stopped you from always wondering. x

Thanks very much everyone. And thanks Fish.01 - that's the sort of prices we were looking to spend so good to know it's affordable for us within a reasonable commute. We know Brisbane will be the easiest place for us to find work due to our contacts there. £500k is way above our limit. I've seen houses further out of Perth in our price range, but we'd have to deal with a longer commute. I know we need to find a job first, but it would be useful to have an idea of places we would like to live so we can search on job websites for those partcular cities. Thanks for your ideas. x

Hi, We're moving over next yr and are considering where to live. My husband is going to look for work at an international airline so we need to live within 45 mins of an airport. We thought Brisbane was going to be most suitable as we have a good work contact there but finding somewhere to live within walking distance of a nice beach is proving unlikely from the research I've been doing (I've just put a post in the Queensland section in case anybody has any bright ideas that we've missed). We are unmovable on living near to the beach - at the moment we live a 10 min drive away in the UK but never get around to going and I'd like to be able to take the kids after school regularly. We loved Sydney but don't think we can afford to live close to the beach there as house prices are too high (unless there are suburbs further out that are accessible to the airport where house prices are more reasonable?) Although we liked Cairns when we visited, we don't like the fact you can't swim in the water. Perth is an option as we loved it there too, but feel he would have a long commute to the airport in order for us to be able to find an affordable beach suburb. Can anyone suggest where might be a good fit for us? We haven't visited Melbourne, Adelaide and lots of other potential cities. We have three kids so need good schools and are looking for a place that has a community feel. Any suggestions of places we could research would be appreciated! x

Hi, We're hoping to be moving over to Brisbane next year and are just starting to research places to live. My husband hopes to find a job at Brisbane airport as he has a work contact there. We want to live within walking distance of a beach ideally, and he would like to be able to get to work within about 45 mins. Can anyone please suggest anywhere we could consider. We have three young kids so will be needing a family friendly community with good schools. Our friends over there have suggested Bribie Island and it sounds great but I just wondered where else we could research too. Are there any coastal places on the train route to the airport which could allow us to live a little further away from the city? He will have a car so a train route isn't essential, but I wondered if this could open up more options for us. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks.

Brilliant - thanks so much for that, it's a massive help. I think our stuff would probably fit in a large cube now that you've explained how much you can fit into it (on paper the sizes don't sound that big!) Cheers. x

Can I ask how exactly they quote - do you need to get all of the items together in a room for them to see? Or do you just buy a certain amount of space in a container and hope your things fit into that space? Maybe we'll just start boxing up everything we want to keep in our own boxes for now then at least we can start to get organised. We've got plenty of time but I know it'll fly by. Thanks.

Hi, We're aiming to move over to Brisbane next year and I want to be as organised as possible because we've got a lot of stuff to sort through in our house, some of which we intend to sell and some we want to take. I'd like to begin clearing our loft first and sorting piles out for car boot sales/eBay etc. My questions is, does each shipping company have their own specific boxes you need to pack your things into and if so do you buy them direct from the shipping company or are they standard packagin boxes you can buy online? I'm thinking that if there are things we won't be needing before we go I could get started putting stuff to keep in boxes so it won't get mixed up with the sale stuff. This will also give us a better idea of how much stuff we want to take to get a quote for shipping. Any advice you could give about where to begin with shipping would be really appreciated as at the moment it looks like a really daunting task! Thanks.

This link has loads of info on what to put in your stat dec so you should be able to base it around this. My template is very similar to everything in here anyway http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/195183-help-wanted-statotory-declaration.html

Hi, My hubsband is looking at going in as an electrical technician. He's started revising for the IELTS and from the research he's done it sounds tough. Our migration consultant has advised doing as many practise papers as possible and if you're concerned invest in a tutor for a few sessions before it as that works out cheaper than loads of retests. Good luck! xx

If you send me a private message with your email address I'll send over the basic template we used.

Hi, I'm not sure if this helps or not but we've got a migration agent and she wants us to collect some additional proof of my husband's skills for our TRA application. We've written a statutory declaration that explains what his job involves and that will be siged by my husband. Because his work don't really offer detailed references either, our agent also suggested we ask somebody who works with him to provide a personal reference. This will be a letter that outlines the work he does but it will be on plain paper rather than headed paper. That person then needs to provide evidence that they work at his work (copy of correspondence, payslips etc) and it can be sent in with our stat dec. We're going to draft the reference letter to ensure it covers all the bases we need it to, and then give this to his colleague to make any amends to before he signs it. Our agent said ideally the person writing the reference will be a more senior member of staff as this will carry more weight. I hope that is useful. Good luck!

My husband is an aircraft technician (avionics) and we were just about to start the process when it got removed from the SOL. The occupation has been bumped onto the CSOL which is a secondary list. States can use this list to create their own State Migration Plans so if you find a state with it listed on their plans you can apply for state sponsorship. The lists do change in line with job demands, but when we checked last month it was listed on the NT and ACT state migration lists as a job in demand. That would mean you'd have to move to one of those states and stay there for a couple of years but after that could go wherever you wanted. We've since decided to try to go in as an electrical technician instead as his qualifications and experience also meet the criteria for that occupation too. An agent is helping us through the process but it's still not 100% certain if they will accept him under that occupation so we're keeping our fingers crossed. Good luck!

Thanks a lot - it's good to know they will only assess him against the occupation that we nominate as if they could nominate the most suitable occupation they would definitely chose the avionics role instead. At least we can to an extent put forward paperwork that is very supportive of his electrical background and anything we have to write for it we can make sure we emphasise the electrical side of his background. I think it's probably worth the cost/time risk of giving it a try but will see what our agent thinks when she's seen all of our paperwork. I take it from your reply that your nominated occupation was rejected? Iguess you just resubmit and go through the process again if they reject it under the first occupation? Thanks.