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! 

I think it dates back to years gone by when a MOB was a designated as PanPan regardless. The older generation (the Captain opposite me was a cadet with Noah) still have it in their heads and won't deviate from it.

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.

Hi,

 

Is it possible to get a soft copy of the Code of Safe Working Practice for Australian Seafarers online?

Also Google is your friend

https://app.box.com/s/gqtc08b3x2qtx6yqxlmh

I think it was a 2.5% increase this year. It's an awful lot when you're talking thousands to start with!

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....

The Australian market for seafarers and associated shore jobs is limited, where Oil & Gas is a considerable part of that, and yes the industry is in a major downturn worldwide and the market here is tough unless you are very experienced in the specialist areas that they are looking for.

You only have to look at the job boards to see how empty they are. Things will pick up, but at the moment I wouldn't want to be on the ground here feeding a family and trying to search for a job.

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

It is a small world! Have a good trip! Actually....you could do me a favour, I need the Old Mans email address, the QM one not his private one, already got that. When you get on do you think you could PM it to me? I spoke to Chris Wells a few months back for a reference and he told me to email his Cunard account but the system is all different to the QE & QV and can't remember if it's QMDCAPT, QMD1CAPT or whatever!

Also, because you know my real name, keep it quiet that I'm emigrating from people on there, you never know who knows who in this game!!

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

Good man. I was also P&O and Cunard, I was also the first OOW on the QE and did the build in Italy, met the queen etc.

I guess you're going on the Mary then, say hello to Chris Wells for me.

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

Just out of interest, are you a Cunard man?

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

Have you had your immigration Medicals already?

Well done completing the form it's a complete ball ache so deserves some praise!

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!

Congratulations by the way!!

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.

I didn't get anything certified, but only because I saw many other posts by people who also didn't.

Colour scans of original documents seem to be the way to go, but as for me I'm waiting for a grant/case officer so I cant yet give any accurate info on that from personal experience.

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?

@pashton86 see this thread. http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=222451

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!

Be careful with over-claiming points.

It's not up to AMSA to have the final say on your work experience, DIBP will do their own assessment. AMSA's is only an opinion. However, also being a government agency would throw some weight onto the claim.

If you'd have at least 60 points if you got bumped back down again then that should be ok, but if not then don't risk it.

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 don't think that the migration planning actually has anything to do with job availability or even states that there is a demand. Our profession is in no way unique like that.

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!

Thats more then last year I think, the reality is that the process is long, arduous and expensive. Whether its compiling all of the evidence, flying to Australia for an oral which you may fail and need to resit, then the medicals, police clearances, IELTS and money spent on all of that and then the migration process. I think the entire thing including flights and setting up in Australia cost us $20,000, possibly more. Then once you arrive its the process of trying to get work, taking whatever you can, living in temporary accommodation and moving around. If you remain seagoing you have to sacrifice some family life for a period of time. Also to meet the points requirements its a very small window of opportunity where you experience is such that you get enough points and also your age is within the bracket, become too old, or have too little experience you can't make the points. It's a big gamble and with family it really shouldn't be underestimated. Opportunities exist in Australia, but its a small market and isn't so easy to break into. Areas are much more specialist, they want harbour masters, but only those with harbour master experience, they want pilots but only those with 'AUSTRALIAN' pilotage experience, they want DP officers, but only those with Australian ship experience and a DP Unlimited... It takes time and effort to break into it, but once you are in it's all worth it in the end. There are people who come on this forum who are clearly prepared to do the work and are motivated, they ask the right questions and just want a little bit of assistance and these people probably succeed. We also get quite a few who come and ask to be spoon fed the process, the oral information etc etc and I'm sure most of those never actually go through with it.

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.

Congratulations. I'd heard anecdotal evidence of some CoR orals being conducted in this manner prior to doing mine in Fremantle, so of course was somewhat surprised to have a full on examination. I think some examiners take a pragmatic approach based on your experience.

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!

If your Advanced fire fighting and Proficiency in Survival Crafts and Rescue boats withing five years, AMSA will not ask you to do Continued Competence Course

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.

I wish I'd had AHP20 when I did my orals, I only discovered it once I arrived here and was on a ship on the Aussie Coast. Great publication.

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

Any idea what the hold up was?

Best get studying!!! Good luck!

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.