pashton86

ACT for me, as far from the sea as it gets! Not even in a marine related job anymore. Working for a UK company and living here just got too hard and there lack of work here didn’t help!

Amen to that, I had the same thing in my AMSA orals, and I answered with MAYDAY only to be told, "I'd go PAN PAN as you can always escalate later", I of course just nodded and smiled but it's contrary to everything I've ever been taught on ship's of any type.

Also Google is your friend https://app.box.com/s/gqtc08b3x2qtx6yqxlmh

Not forgetting the lovely 1.08% surcharge for paying by card as well.

Good to see that we made the cut for the 2015/16 SOL, oh and that the Immi website has a snazzy new design. Nice to know the visa fees are for a good purpose....

Yep, times are tough. My dog's having to live in a cardboard box!

No worries I'll get hold of it for you, won't be until August though. Oh and mums the word about emigrating!

Ha ha small world, I am indeed off to the Mary, then the trip after joining the QE in Fremantle conveniently!

I will be as of next trip, been P&O up till now.

Yeah I got them done earlier this month as I'll be back at sea by the time a CO gets allocated so it saves much heartache getting them done later. I figure that finding the time in New York would be too hard, and there's no one in Southampton to do them.

Visa application successfully submitted today. That was painful on the wallet! Takes quite some time to upload all those documents as well doesn't it. Annoyingly my Medical's didn't link through automatically, though I may just be impatient, and as completionist it bugs me that i have nothing to add into the "recommended" Australian work and qualification tabs. Ah well. Now we play the waiting game!

cheers! I'm glad that most of the hoops are jumped through. I'll have the application in before the end of today methinks, better safe than sorry I imagine. It's all rather volatile isn't it!

As an aside, I see a lot of people around the forum worried about their professions being removed from the SOL. Given the state of the industry out here I wonder if they'll be chopping us. We're not on the flagged occupation list though. Thoughts anyone?

Looks like they're still issuing the invitations, I got mine today at 0013 AEST, so that's nice.

Thanks for the advice once more! Had a read through that thread, so thanks for that. So the basic problem with over claiming is that if DIBP don't agree then they'll remove the points you can't prove? But if you still make the 60 point cut when they remove those points then you don't get your application cancelled?

Hmmmm, sage advice as always CaptainC, might be a safer bet to sit back on 60 points and just go from there. Jolly confusing as to why AMSA would say 3 years though. Not to worry though. Just been looking ahead at the required paperwork for the application, is it true that you have to have all the documents you send certified by a notary or similar? That's potentially very annoying!

Ah just when I thought it was all simple from here on out, thanks for the heads up though. I'd still have 60 points anyway without that so its not a big deal, but I figure I've put that down in good faith based on what AMSA have said so I can't really be penalised too badly for it. We shall just have to see I guess.

Hi all, Well I have my assessment from AMSA now, and my EOI has been submitted with a total of 65 points. So now we play the waiting game. Especially with the seemingly random allocation of invitations and grants going on at the moment. Time will tell I guess. Oddly they gave me 3 years for work experience, give that I didn't get my Merchant Ticket until 2013, they've either allowed some of the cadet time, or they've given me some credit for being at sea in my previous career. Very strange, but I'm not complaining as it bumps up the score! Thanks to all here for the assistance along the way. I'll keep you posted!

I think that's the key point, living here doesn't necessarily mean working here. The issues arise when the money you're earning overseas doesn't match up to your expected standard of living in Australia, a couple of years ago when the Aussie dollar was much stronger I'd have been better off working at McDonald's than being in a non-Australian sea job. Now it's much less of an issue though obviously having to pay tax is a pain, and there's the superannuation angle to consider as well. As I've said a couple of times in passing, I was moving here regardless for personal reasons and working here would have been a bonus, hence this Visa. From speaking to friends back in the UK it seems that the offshore industry as a whole is going through a tough time with oil being as low as it is, but these things are cyclical and I'm sure that when oil goes back up as it inevitably will that things will improve on that front. In terms of the ceiling for Maritime professionals, CaptainC is quite right, it's not just based on the job market. Having a pool of trained marine professionals living in your country is a strategic resource for a government, I'm sure if the world took a massive turn for the worse that the planning involves people driving ships! Probably not relevant to my situation but I'd be interested to hear what that employer had to say to you CaptainC, but perhaps I'm just being nosy!

I'll certainly second that, I initially went down this route in the belief that a) it would be more straight forward than a spouse visa and b) that I'd be wanting to get an Aussie CoR anyway to work out here. As I've done the research and gone through the process I've very much come to the conclusion I'd be better off staying in the job I'm in for a while longer yet! The costs involved are not trivial in any way, shape or form and the waiting periods can be ludicrous. Thankfully the end is in sight for me now, I'll be submitting my EOI as soon as the final assessment from AMSA arrives, which will be just in time for me to head back to sea for 3 months! The only non DP work I've seen advertised is either Government related (and therefore citizenship is a requirement) or inshore, which requires me to have NCVS inshore tickets, something I'm considering doing during leave just to broaden the CV a bit but it's certainly no cakewalk. I know a lot of people on here are Masters, but there has been a few posts from people like me with the lower tickets and I'd advise them to think very hard as to whether it's the right move.

Yeah that sounds pretty similar to what occurred. I supsect that it being a Deck Watchkeeper CoR also had an impact as from an operational rather than management point of view things aren't hugely different

Well orals passed today, I'll put together an orals report for the Dropbox but to be honest it probably won't be very helpful. He pretty much just checked I'd heard of Aussie Legislation and then told me to stay in my job because there's no work! Not even any RoR questions!

Even if they are in date your initial letter inviting you to sit the orals will still have it on there, it's just a form letter they send out it seems. Mine had it on there anyway.

Thankfully the wife teaches at the Nav school so we had a copy in the house already!

Well as discussed it took the MCA over a month to confirm my tickets which didn't help, and then AMSA claimed to have a backlog, which seems very odd considering how few people apply for this category according to the DIBP list. Not to worry though I have it now and I'm up to my elbows in Marine Orders and AHP 20. Should cover the Australian factor methinks. There shouldn't be anything too wacky coming up as it's only OOW level anyway.