LeeWilliams

Hi Everyone Thanks for the interest; only wished I had more to sell lol. Sat Navs have now been sold. If the moderators wish to delete this thread, please do so as I not quite sure how to. Thanks Lee

Yes it is true you can download other maps but in my opinion they're ridiculously priced; way more than the sat navs are being sold for.

Hi all Due to having to leave Australia suddenly; we have for sale 2 TomTom sat Nav devices. Extremely useful; especially for newcomers to Australia. If interested please email ASAP. If on the gold coast we can deliver. If not we can come to an arrangement of posting them to you and payment made via bank transfer. $40 for the both. But please get in touch soon as we're leaving Australia very soon. Lee

From the oz websites it seems to be the low end of the average wage for my profession. So I guess I can't be too bad. Just wanted to gauge other peoples thoughts on salaries and cost of living here. so far all we've been paying for is groceries. Which, in comparison to the Falklands where we've travelled from, it's a been cheaper. Especially fresh produce. What bills doyou generally have to pay here? Council tax? Gas? Water? Electricity? Any rough idea how much this cost a month or where abouts we can find out this info. We've actually got our eyes on a property in pipama for $390 a week.

Hi everyone sorry for the late response, was busy with family in Brisbane yesterday. came to oz in August on a holiday visa to visit family and on the side see how the job market was. Met an employer through LinkedIn and instantly was interested in sponsoring me in on a 457 visa. I have been told already that we won't be entitled to child benefits, we have one, which is about $7000pa I believe? I was doing contract work in the uk before coming here and was on £34000 which is about $62000. The employer here is actually offering me less to start with because I don't have an Aussie licence yet which is $58885 and once licensed it will go up to $65000. Which like I said will only be about £1000 more than what I was earning. Doing the 2.2x £34000 to $78000. Is this what I should be looking for?

Hi everyone, been offered sponsorship by an employer here in QLD near Brisbane as an aircraft engineer. But the pay he's offering seems a bit low? $58885pa - is this an average pay for Qld? i hold an UK licence for my profession but not licenced here yet. After I get my Aussie licence my pay gets review and bumped up to about $65000 which is still only £1000 more than what I was getting in the UK. My only real concern is my family and If I'll be able to provide for them. What is considered the average pay for Qld on the Gold Coast? Would we realistically be able to survive on $58885/65000? are there any other aircraft engineers out there who would be able give some input? I have almost 7 years in my field with a B1.2 licence. Thanks lee

Been looking though gumtree, do you have any of the web addresses for the garage sale sites?

Will have a look thanks

Looking to buy a car in the Gold Coast area. Have about $5000 to play with. A 5 door would be ideal as we have a little one. thanks

Going to stay for the full 3 months on the tourist visa. The employer has sponsored several employees before so hopefully like you said should be a straight forward process for both of us.

Skilled migration was my first choice when we first started getting all the paperwork together but whilst waiting for the outcome of my skills assessment my occupation was taking off the skilled occupations list (aircraft maintenance engineer - mechanical) tried state sponsorship with NT but I couldn't get any interest from any employers there was very few jobs being advertised at the time so my application was refused on the grounds of insufficient evidence of job prospects. so, that only really leaves temp work visa 457. If we're lucky with this employer it would work out better for us as we have family on the Gold Coast.

Thanks for the link. Had a quick browse and saw this? If your BVA does not let you work in Australia, or has restrictions on working, you can apply for another BVA that lets you work. To be considered for a BVA that will let you work, you will usually have to show that you are in financial hardship. Perhaps there's still a possibility of being able to work waiting for the outcome of the 457 visa

unfortunately, not eligible for a whv as we have a son here with us.

Hi everyone, i'm currently in Australia, Gold Coast on a holiday visa e600 with my family visiting other family. I have also been handing out a few CVs in the hope of maybe staying longer working on a 457 visa. My question is, can I apply for a bridging visa A on a tourist 600e visa? And also, would I be able to work on the bridging visa whilst the 457 is being processed? if someone one could also send me a link to exactly where it says I can or cannot work on a bridging visa A would be helpful. A potentially employer seems to think I can, but Im not convinced, especially bridging from a tourist visa which has strict conditions on not working. Thanks in advance Lee

Www.opodo.co.uk pretty good deals on here. We used them in May to travel to chile and just booked flights today to Brisbane in August. Again, really good, hard to beat prices hope it helps

Oops wrong visa! I meant 187. Apologies; don't seem to be able to edit the thread title. Anyways, my question is for the 187 visa

187 visa not 189 Correct me if I'm wrong, but is it possible to applied for this visa via direct entry even though I don't have an employer to sponsor me? Direct Entry stream You might be able to get this visa under the Direct Entry stream if one of the following applies to you: have been nominated for a position under this stream (or were nominated for a position before 1 July 2012) and that nomination has been approved you have never, or only briefly, worked in Australia you hold a Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) but do not qualify for the Temporary Residence Transition stream you are applying directly from outside Australia. The second and last point apply to me. If so, how do I go about applying for this? thanks

Perhaps I should consider taking up a new trade lol

Hi was just wondering how likely it was for an occupation, that was removed from the SOL last year and placed on the CSOL, to be re listed on the SOL? I'm running short on options to migrating to Australia; tried state sponsorship but the only state offering sponsorship turned me down on the grounds that I don't have any close ties to the state and that I don't have an offer of employment. So waiting for July to see if the SOL gets updated again.

Great! This is really gonna help with my sponsorship application

hopefully another aircraft engineer will pick this up or someone who had a similar situation. i've been reading many posts of peoples occupations coming off the SOL so have opted to go for a similar occupation of the SOL. i'm an AME and had sent off my docs for a skills assessment early last year when my occupation was on the SOL. unfortunately when my assessment returned to me my occupation had been bumped onto the CSOL. i have recently been looking at SS but only the NT are sponsoring AMEs (beggars cant be choosers) but i would prefer to in QLD, near family. As an AME i am technically an aeronautical engineer as i maintain aircraft. but under the skillselect website description it says the occupation has a skill level equivalent to a degree. I never went to uni so of course dont have a degree. i do however have a diploma and 7 years of on the job training/experience. does anyone know if this would suffice? would dread sending another 600 pounds to be unsuccessfully due to qualifications. any AMEs, Aeronautical Engineer or anyone else of knowledge in this area have an input? any and all informattion would be gratefully received! Thanks Lee

Hahaha no competition I'm B1. Don't know if it's a wise decision but I've been holding off submitting my state nomination application as I've been approached by a recruitment agency with the possibility of a 457 employer sponsorship visa in the NT. Or should I go ahead and submit my application anyway as it's technically not a visa application so shouldn't be conflict with gaining a 457 visa but if the 457 visa falls through for whatever reason as least I can still go for the state sponsorship visa. Does anyone know how long, if the NT accepts my application, I have to apply for the visa through skillselect before it expires?

Hi Peregrine Thanks for the information; it's exactly what i was looking for. Originally we had looked into renting close to the CBD but the prices are sky high. I'm an aircraft engineer, so ideally looking for something close to Brisbane International but, from reading many of the posts on here, it doesn't seem to be much of a commute from Palmerston.

Hi Peregrine was just wondering how your research on suburbs were going? Me and my partner are hoping to move out to Darwin later this year with our 2 year old son and were also looking into family friendly suburbs. So far the information we've found on suburbs seem to be a bit outdated. So far been told to avoid the areas in darwin beginning with 'M' and palmerston. And best places seem to be nightcliff, wulagi and leanyer. But again there have been a few that say palmerston is quite good due to the new developments. if anyone else might have an input I'd love to hear it.

i've done almost everything myself already. Trades assessment, EOI, IELTS. Just at the point of applying for SS through NT. I suppose it's just to make sure I sending the right documentation and fulfil the requirement in terms of writing my commitment letter. It would good for an agent to look over these things as I'm sure they deal with this all the time and know exactly what I need to be sending. but if it really is a waste of time I would like to hear anyone's opinions