gameover98

There is also the advantage of gaining status on airlines. My aunt flies Qatar consistently 2-3 times a year to London, and she's able to move up to Silver/Gold. She gets preferred seats on Qatar, access to the business class lounges and benefits on other OneWorld airlines too. You and your family may not earn enough miles to get free flights, but you may find the journey a bit less stressful. Combine this with a decent cashback card to stack some additional benefits.

Amy, the first thing to do is to calculate whether you'll be collecting enough miles to make it worthwhile. All prices are in AUD A round trip Sydney London ticket is roughly $1,300 on sale, earning around 10,000-15,000 redeemable miles per ticket A similar round trip when flying using miles will cost 90,000-120,000 miles not including the airline fees/taxes. Assuming you use a mileage program that allows family pooling like Avios (possibly Qantas, have to check), you'll need maybe 8 paid trips to earn 1 "free" trip. "Free" here is misleading as Avios charges about $800-900 in fees for a round trip, you're basically saving around $300-400 only Many frequent flyer programs don't have family pooling and their fees aren't significantly cheaper for flights from Australia to the UK The point already made about OneWorld/Star Alliance is definitely valid So what's the alternative? If you're not flying enough and don't want to bother with miles expiring/devaluing etc, I suggest going with a good cashback card. Do some research on the airline fees, login to your BA Exec club account and plug in some dates. Also, a few airlines, particularly British Airways have incredibly high fees, Qantas and Cathay Pacific are less. Some frequent flyer programs eg. AAdvantage seems to have lower fees than others too. You could fly on BA or Qantas and still park your flown miles under AAdvantage as part of OneWorld but without family pooling it may get pretty frustrating

Let me add another data point to Tom's original discussion. I submitted my RRV on March 5th 2018, first RRV submission after my original grant expired in mid 2017. I've been in and out of Australia multiple times, but did not fulfill anywhere close to the 2-year residency requirement due to family issues outside of Australia. I applied for my RRV offshore, and was granted a 155 on Aug 21 2018, 169 days or 24 weeks after my initial submission. I too, like Tom, had bad thoughts and words for the immigration folks. Still, thanks DIBP for the extension but you sure took your time ? It's almost as if someone was finally hired in August and everything started moving again.... ?

I know one other person in this situation as well (not including myself), last contact with DIBP was March and no updates on the immi website status since then. I've emailed and tried to fill up their online form, no response. Their help page states specifically that calling won't help. ? Is there any way to get some response from DIBP? A reasonable timeline would be nice.

I have an aussie mobile number, it's been on roaming for the past 1 year. That's the only number I put in my CV and cover letter sent out via seek or LinkedIn. No email responses back, no ping back on LinkedIn saying that someone actually looked at my profile based on the job description. The only call I actually got back was from someone asking if I wanted to buy a pair of puppies ? I'm still curious though why headhunters would post that they're looking for people to fill positions on LinkedIn but not even look at a LinkedIn profile when I ping them. Good to hear that you've gotten an interview though! Best of luck!

One of the more interesting articles I read on HBR recently pointed to networking via shared experiences. I think the yoga class is a step in the right direction in more ways than you think. Best of luck. I'm in the same boat, similar background although focusing a lot more on IT infrastructure solutions. I'm still looking and have received a handful of interviews a month ago primarily through people I know, but no offers as of yet. RRV is still stuck as well and I'm outside Australia. Urgh.

Very similar responses I had as well, aside from one shining example. I did my job search both in Australia and New Zealand, the best response I had was from Georgia Hynes of Talent International in Wellington. She pinged my LinkedIn profile within minutes of my email and replied back within half an hour and called me a few days later. I flew out to meet the team a few weeks later, had a few rounds of interviews with a few companies but did not get much, I'm in IT doing mostly architecture/design type of work while they were looking for hands on technical people. That was about a month ago, still jobless (and waiting for my RRV) for the time being

I've been on premium economy on Cathay Pacific Hong Kong to New York. Economy was expensive at the time of the flight so I paid maybe 30-40% extra. I had a whole row of 4 seats to myself but in premium economy the armrests are fixed so I couldn't stretch out and sleep like I would have done in economy. Otherwise the seats were noticeably wider and the recline made it a lot more comfy. It all boils down to price for me and for the most part premium economy is sometimes double or triple the price of a regular economy seat and I really can't justify paying that. Have not been on BA or Qantas in recent years, but the seats on Qatar/Etihad economy can be painfully narrow.

Thanks for the response Paul, particularly the point where my PR is no longer in effect and cannot be "cancelled" with an ETA. I'm asking about the ETA primarily because of the interviews, but also because I've read elsewhere that it would be faster to obtain an RRV in person at a DIBP onshore in Australia. Have been in touch with the companies interviewing me so far, everything is on hold with them until the RRV is approved, but obviously my RRV will be a lot stronger if I had that job offer already. I'm stuck in a chicken and egg situation so I had this idea of getting an ETA, fly out to Sydney to present my case with the DIBP and do the final round of interviews at the same time. I'll probably wait a few more weeks to see how far it my RRV progresses with the DIBP.

Thanks, I will. I actually did have a Skype interview from a company CEO in Perth some time back although I actually turned down that job. I'm looking for more senior level jobs which requires a fair amount of networking though. Will just wait it out, a few more weeks won't make much of a difference.

Yes I did explain circumstances, my daughter has a learning disability and we needed a lot more support/stability in those first years. We spent cumulatively several months over the past 5 years in Australia although nowhere close to 2 years. The thing is there's no update to the case on the immi website, it still says "Received". No I have not consulted an agent on this (yet). I figured I could do the first round on my own first.

That settles it then, I'll just have to wait for DIBP to process my RRV before flying over. It's been about 4 weeks with no indication what's happening on the immi website though. Thanks all for responding.

Technically you can move to Australia on the last day of your 5th year, establish yourself (job, house, school etc) and use that as evidence of your intention to stay permanently to receive your RRV. This would fall under substantial personal/business ties to Australia if you need the RRV before you fulfil your 2-year residence requirement.

I received my 175 visa back in 2012 but didn't make a move primarily due to my daughter who needed special care back then. The 175 expired in mid/late 2017. I lodged my RRV application a few weeks ago, but it looks like I'm not getting much traction after 4 weeks. The status on the Immi site is still "Received". I am getting offers for interviews in Sydney and Melbourne, would it be possible for me to travel to Australia under a tourist visa for the interviews without affecting my 175 and RRV application? I recall reading somewhere that my 175 would automatically be cancelled if I entered Australia under a tourist visa although I can't seem to find that reference anymore.