OffToOz

Sorry if I was not clear, it was an MA that said that not someone from vetassess

Hi again all, I talked to an agent for some advice on my failed Vetassess and he explained why he thought it failed. Which is annoying as the reasons are not stipulated on the vetassess website but I understood where he was coming from. So I have written a review letter and paid for the decision to be reviewed. Hopefully they will change their minds but it is still a 50/50, or maybe 70/30 for a rejection as he said the role is very hard to get a positive assessment. Anyway why I am posting, I mentioned you guys and the wait to him and he said the number of SA applications is huge and they have pretty much used up the allocation for this year so until the new year (July) everything will slow right down. Nothing saying he is right just thought I would share.

From what I have read and talking to someone who use to live in Semaphore. The general view is avoid anything north of Adelaide. Coast areas - Semaphore, Henley, Glenelg, brighton etc all meant to be nice. South of the city, Unley, Goodwood, Norwood area, and the foothill to the east are all meant to be nice. Suppose just depends how close to the sea you want to be, or you could get somewhere in land with a pool for a similar price to a house near the beach. Getting a month long air bnb is prob the safest bet then find get a feel for the areas before trying to find a rental, I think most are 12 month rentals so you need to be sure where you want to be. I have 2 kids so need to plan well and register them in a school near where we move. Don't to move to another area and have to uproot them after a year

I believe you can only get the grants on a 189 or 190, 489 don’t get the grants

Form my research, and I am just starting this. This is the process: Find a relevant job of the skills list, then also check the job is on your desired areas list. Each area has a different list, SA, NSW etc. Also note 489 visa are limited to where you can live, ie NSW you can not be in Sydney etc Depending on the role you may need to apply for certain visa, some specify only 489 Work out your points. State sponsorship can add 10 points on a 489 Extra points can be gained for getting a top score at ILETS or PTE 20 points If you have enough points, 65 min, 80 for a high point entry then apply to the correct skill assessment body to get your skills assessed. If you receive a positive skills result, apply for a EOI, and state nomination. Once that comes back apply for the full Visa within a month. When asked by CO get medicals and police checks done, or front load but that is risky in case the visa does not get granted for awhile as you have to enter 1 year from your medicals and police report I found the hardest part relating my role to a job on the skills list of an area I ideally want to be in, NSW. But doing more research we are going to apply for a 489 to SA. You can contact many migration agents who can assist, they normally do not charge to look at your situation and help decide on a path and if it is even possible to apply.

Also forgot to add, first time buyers get a relief in duties but this does not apply to 489 holders

Thanks for the insight Marisa, I did not realise stamp duty was so high! Also to buy on a 489 you need FIRB approval which costs $5000 and you can only have 1 house that is for your personal use only, you can not rent it out etc. So if you did buy then moved for whatever reason you could not even keep it and rent it if you moved away. I know I am a long way off getting a grant, but I still look at rentals and the market does not seem great, we are looking at the Henley area and its quite expensive. My wife has family in Sydney and they got a 2 bed flat in manly about 2 years ago for around 800K and they think the value as already dropped for under 750k, which is quite a loss in 2 years especially when you factor in duties and legal costs.

My journey is finally about to start! Submitting my skills assessment in a few days, just waiting for a few more documents to come back from previous employers. Most of the forms and information is already uploaded. Will send it on a priority so it does not take 3 months to come back. Booked pearsons academic English test for the 28th of this month. Hopefully they accept my previous role as my "training time" so my "skills" date is my start date of my current job and that will give me exactly 80 points, otherwise will have to wait till September if they take a year off my current role for training. If it all goes well should be able to submit my EOI around the start / Mid April, worst case September. Still a little nervous about the skills assessment, my role is really larger than the role applied for just hope they accept what I will send them. I hope you guys start to get grants, I don't really understand it. the website is showing no time due to low applications yet some of you have been waiting 100+ days. Are you guys planning on buying a house over there? just read you need to pay an extra fee to buy a house on a 489 visa. Its just the thought of paying rent for 3-4 years seems a large waste of money rather than paying off a mortgage.

Yeah I know, appreciate any help you guys give. Just looked in the website and it’s showing no time for 489 visa for low applications. That should mean they will get granted quickly! Might be able to meet Christmas time! Well if I get a positive assessment in relation to time at work

Thanks guys, I was not going to lie about anything. I will give hr the Vetassess guidelines and ask them to use it to base the reference. She knows they could ring her which is fine, talking to the directors tho may not be a good thing!

One more question, I talked to HR who knows my basic job role but not the specifics which relate to the skills assessment. She is happy for me to write the reference and she will check and sign if she is happy with what I have wrote. My fear is with a basic reference that she would do they may not feel it is related enough. Would there be any issue with copying the key parts off my CV and uses that in the reference? Or should I just write them to be different? I have added more to my CV to be more role specific to the key criteria from Vetassess. Thanks

The ones I have looked at quote about £2k to help with the process, but that seems a lot to check over some paperwork. But like you say one simple mistake and could get the application rejected! If you could pm who you used I will keep thinking about it.

Out of interest how may of you used agents? really stuck to see if its worth the extra cost. Just getting all my documents together for the skills assessment and have to hope they take my old job as the qualifying year for work otherwise will have to wait another 5 months until I can lodge the EOI due to needing the points for 5 years experience. Hopefully can see some of you on the beach in under a year!

congrats

thank you for your reply, I did think that but wanted to check before going any further. Back to plan 1!