Jenki75

I completely agree there is a huge shortage currently for nurses and midwives. All states are completing for new hires. Currently Queensland health is offering an incentive package of up to $20,000 for any international or interstate midwife. I received this information below on the 24^th of May

Queensland Health is made up on 16 Hospital and Health Services, 10 in regional, rural and remote locations. With hundreds of health jobs available in regional, rural and remote Queensland, we are recruiting. To register your interest in these opportunities, submit your application via the ‘Apply Now’ section on the Healthy Careers - Queensland Health site.

For information regarding the attraction incentive scheme which takes effect from 1 July 2023, please visit Attraction incentives | Healthy Careers - Queensland Health.

I am currently in SA and there is also a shortage here. The shortage is a global shortage at the moment.

7 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

That surprises me. Where in Australia are you?  In Melbourne and Sydney, nearly all rental viewings are on Saturdays.

That was Adelaide and area. We rented 2 homes while we were waiting on our new home being built. Both times showing in Adelaide and Adelaide hills were mostly weekdays and over 30 people lined up to see the property in 2019 and 2020.

Hi Onward,

We moved from Canada in October 2019. I'm sure you've figured it how to send your items by now, but as a last resort leave them with someone and have them mail them to you when you have a place to stay.

We did mail forwarding with Canada post, set it up before we left and managed it online.

We shipped our furniture over and because it takes months to arrive you just update your address once it arrives onshore in Australia. Our items were picked up in Calgary mid September and arrived beginning of January.  Tippet-Richardson handles international moves and you can add your boxes to help fill another persons container. Initially,  just use your airbnb address and update before delivery.

We brought our Canadian Cell phones and just went into Aldi (the grocery store) bought a family plan on day 1 and swapped out the SIM card - this was the best decision ever. (We still have a Canadian cell phone provider Rogers and can check messages here and there). Aldi family plan is awesome $80 for 4 people with 88GB shared data and data rollover. I know Canadian cell phone are supposed to be unlocked but check this before you leave! One of ours wasn't but caught it before we left Canada. 

Getting a rental can be a nightmare, make sure you have people in Canada that will provide references via email and ask your employer when you arrive. We found getting a rental easier out of the city (this suited us fine) but even that has become difficult. You cant rent anything until you arrive but take a look at the websites and create a applicant account and start uploading details before you arrive.  The majority of rental showings are Monday to Friday 9-5 so try and do most of the viewings before you start work. We had jobs before we arrived so had a tight timeline.

Best of luck with the move, if you have further questions don't hesitate to ask

17 hours ago, Lavers said:

Hi Jenki yeah it should be fine as they are only letting SA residents in.

Just have to fill a form in online before we cross over.

That's Awesome, take care on your drive over the boarder! Your almost here.

32 minutes ago, Lavers said:

So far we should be fine I just hope that they dont start closing everything down.

Will they let you into South Australia now that the boarder is closing midnight on Wednesday?

We booked some short term accommodation in Unley for when we arrived.  Within the week we viewed a lot of rentals, in areas we thought could work for our daily commute and they were in our budget. It basically came down to the first rental that approved us would be where we would live. We were in a bit of a time crunch due to starting work. I have to say it worked out well for us, we ended up in Mount Barker and love it here.  Littlehampton, Nairn and Handorf are all close to us and I like all the country towns. Please be mindful with regards to bushfires and areas hard to get in and out.

On 21/01/2020 at 22:42, Martina said:

Hi Hun, 

Yes it's true they turn a huge number of people down in the pre-invitation process. I got rejected too because I previously lived in NSW and they didn't like that. Had to fight my way through and ended up writing a 10 page commitment letter to the Victorian government that finally got me the official invite. 

If I remember this correctly, they rejected me in two weeks and then reopened my case in one week and I got through in another two weeks. 

Good luck xx

Congrats on your Visa!! We arrived in Adelaide Oct 8th 2019, been great so far.

On 05/01/2020 at 00:44, Emma_M said:

Yes it’s been really frustrating, the hold up was form 1229 permission for my eldest to emigrate, although his father had filled in all the forms they wanted to call him to check details and were unsuccessful so this dragged things on and on, back and forth.

We eventually got asked for either the form again or a statutory declaration signed by a solicitor so went with the stat declaration this time, by then our medicals and police checks had both expired so are redoing them, all again full price over £1500 for us all, and my ex had a cheek to moan about the price of the stat declaration £120 , would’ve cost him nothing if he’d just answered the phone!!

anyway rant over!

hopefully it won’t be too long now, we’re hoping to make our activation trip next winter.

Glad your still progressing and should get over here eventually!

@CAN_UK I just used the ETA visitor visa for the bank account.

On 10/10/2019 at 08:01, CAN_UK said:

Hi Jenki75! 

 

I was wondering if you opened your Australian bank account with just an ETA (visitor visa), or if you already had your working visa? 

 

Thanks! 

 

-Daniel 

I have a: 

2009 Ford F250 pick up truck

 XL Super Duty, Super cab

4X4

5.4L V8 engine

Long box with Hard top cover

100,000km

Petrol

Automatic

Air conditioning

Front bench seating

Left hand drive

Would it be worth converting to Australian standards and bringing?

I flew to Australia to present in person and flew home again. 

1 hour ago, Djwbru said:

Sorry to jump in but I am in the same position as the OP. What bank account did you open and did you need to get a statement or correspondence sent to your friends oz address? I have an uncle in Oz whos address I can use but the trouble is he is travelling up in QL for a few months so wont be able to forward any post to me as he wont be at home.

I opened a bank account online with Commonwealth bank, I walked into the branch and showed my ID, verbally gave them the Australian address and then they made sure all bank statements would just be online and not physically mailed. The branch printed off the bank statement and I took it to AHPRA. AHPRA also took the Australian address but I could have a 2nd address for mail. My AHPRA mail comes to my home address in Canada.

Congratulations Leigh and family!

18 minutes ago, SteveandKirsty said:

Sometimes too it is worthwhile looking a bit beyond as it is a bit cheaper, more space.

We have ended up living in Seaford (well, Seaford Meadows to be precise) right in the far south of Adelaide.  But, we live a 3 minute walk from the train station (which can get us into the CBD within 35 minutes, depending on the train but tops is 50) We have a good size shopping centre here and also a smaller one. Both have a Woolworths and the larger one has a Drakes.  There is also a new-ish Aldi.  A few kms up the road, 5 mins by train or 10 by car is the Collonades Shopping Mall which has a lot, including three supermarkets and the usual chain stores and the Nourlunga Centre itself has everything from a cinema, theatre, Centrelink, Hospital and so on.

And that's before getting to the glorious beaches...

Interesting note from rammygirl above about aircraft noise, we do get that down here, some days more than others - but, we lived right on the Gatwick flight path and stacking route (something which doesn't exist here!) in the UK and so are used to it.  It really is not an issue, even if it appears to be a relatively new thing going by some comments on the local Facebook community forum.

Nice to know! We were looking at Happy Valley/Aberfoyle Park online, but now we are thinking about Seaford Rise area. We are happy to hear you are enjoying Seaford Meadows and the train is an easy commute. We are looking at arriving in October.

I read your post and it was almost an eerie coincidence. Your post was almost my life 10.5 yrs ago. The problem is not the location that you live in. You will have the same problems in the UK or Australia. You need to look at the relationship and what each of you want, as both your priorities appear to be very different from what I have read.

6 hours ago, Thukten2018 said:

Thanks, Jen and Congratulations on your Visa. Is it the living cost that is making you emigrate out of Canada? or Weather?

It's a little of both but mostly weather. House prices are the same in both countries but you get a bigger house in Calgary for the money, this helps as your in doors most of the year.  Car insurance is mandatory and  fully comprehensive is $1300 for me will an excellent driving record. House insurance on my own home is $4000 per year and property tax is $3500 per year, then you have to pay for garbage, water and recycling which is another $250 per month. Then you have Gas and electricity.

You can get minimum wage jobs but it will be very difficult to support yourself on this wage. Once you could make minimum wage and afford to rent a town house but almost impossible with rent prices today.

My oldest child has worked minimum wage in retail and her wage was about $15 per hour in Alberta. She is at university because you cant live on minimum wage. To rent house in the Calgary area you are looking at $1700 per month. 

Australia isn't cheap either but less expensive in the way of some of the Bill's I mentioned above. 

Weather is my biggest draw to Australia though.

Currently living in Calgary, Alberta Canada. I moved here from the UK in 1993. The winter in Northern BC, all of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are brutally long. The snow starts around the end of October and will continue until the first week of May. Sometimes the snow melts for a week or so in winter but then it's back. In these prairie provinces it gets cold down to -25 plus wind chill in winter, so it could be as cold as -35.  Summer can be nice but the last 3-5 years in BC and Alberta we have had really really bad forest fires, so you cant go out side much on these days either. Just last week we had the highest poor air quality rating ever in Alberta, it was worse than Delhi and Beijing put together. 

My daughter lives in Ontario and the weather is much nicer and they get proper seasons, and higher humidity. The Jobs are in the major cities however the cost to live there is more expensive. Calgary, Alberta is in a major recession since the economy relies on oil and gas, the problem is the last provincial government made it too expensive for the large oil and gas companies here and they left and went to other places such as Texas.

Domestic flights are expensive to fly from Calgary to Toronto one way will be $500 or more, it can be cheaper to go to Mexico.  Calgary to Edmonton flights run around $ 200  this is a short 3 hour drive and you never get them much cheaper.

Your Gas and electric will be a large expense as you will be keeping your house warm in winter, car insurance is not cheap either and don't get me started on property tax.  But I moved here and made a good life, now I want a different life more outdoor living so we are moving to Australia.

1 minute ago, Emma_M said:

Thanks, me too, we are starting to lose all if I’m honest. Think our medical and police checks expire this week too

 I started paying university deposits for my girls and was coming to the conclusion that the visa wasn't  going to happen.  So don't give up yet!

1 minute ago, Emma_M said:

Congratulations! All the best for the future x

Thanks Emma, fingers crossed yours gets sorted out soon.

Just a quick update our 190 Visa Grant came today June 4th ( Australia time). 200 days of waiting and one case officer contact at the 145 day mark. 

Congratulations!!!!!! So happy for you!

I presented in person and AHPRA assured me I would be on the online register. I went for 10 days and I was on the register within that time. I have just renewed my registration in May as It's easier to keep it once you have it. Like someone else mentioned changing your address for your correspondence is easy and straight forward. 

Good Luck with it all.

There was a thread called nursing in Australia posted in Jan this year and this is what I posted:

This is a copy of the new AHPRA registration standards for March 1st 2019.

If you are applying for initial registration you must demonstrate your English language competency in one of the following ways:

1.    English is your primary language and:

a.     you have attended and satisfactorily completed at least six years of primary and secondary education taught and assessed solely in English in a recognised country, including at least two years between years 7 and 12, and

b.     your tertiary qualification in the relevant professional discipline, which you are relying on to support your eligibility for registration under the National Law was taught and assessed solely in English in a recognised country and:

              i.        in the case of a registered nurse and/ or midwife, you must provide evidence of having successfully completed at least a two (2) years full-time equivalent pre-registration program of study approved by the recognised nursing and/or midwifery regulatory body in a recognised country.

             ii.        in the case of an enrolled nurse, you must provide evidence of having successfully completed at least a one year full-time equivalent pre-registration program of study approved by the recognised nursing and/or midwifery regulatory body in a recognised country.

2.   Registered nurses and midwives

If you are applying for registration as a registered nurse and/or midwife, you must provide evidence that you have successfully completed at least five (5) years (full-time equivalent) continuous education taught and assessed solely in English, in a recognised country, which includes tertiary qualifications in the relevant professional discipline which you are relying on to support your eligibility for registration under the National Law

The Board will only accept the successful completion of five (5) years (full-time equivalent) continuous education that is a combination of:

a)        tertiary and secondary education taught and assessed in English; or

b)        tertiary and vocational education taught and assessed in English; or

c)        combined tertiary, secondary and vocational education taught and assessed in English; or

d)       tertiary education taught and assessed in English

The last period of education must have been completed no more than five years prior to applying for registration.

Because all your education was taught and assessed in the UK. I think you do not need the IELTS for AHPRA. I looked it up for someone on here a while back and I believe it tells you right on the application.

I did not need the English test for AHPRA and my education was from Australia and Canada.

Registration does take a while to obtain, but it's less of a wait than anything else in this process. I am surprised they even consider applicants for a visa who don't have AHPRA registration.  Approving visa's to people without AHPRA registration is taking a big risk. Not all nursing education is equal.

Canadian immigration is notorious for giving visa's to highly qualified foreigners, their education is not considered equivalent once they arrive in Canada. They have 2 choices, go back to university or work a minimum wage job. Many Taxi drivers here are very very smart people. I met a nuclear physicist driving a Taxi.