Ausvisitor

Maybe it needs to be updated to Ausresident now

I need to add some more colour to my answer above as I've had a few PMs asking about it. The key part to the CISSP is the fact you need 5 years relevant experience to even take it, this is far more valuable than the actual qualification. I know many people (I have them working for people who work for me) who started the exam learning and took the exam in under 6 weeks from start to finish, and the average time for anyone we put through the certification if we need qualified people is 10 weeks. When you look at those numbers, why would we hire someone we don't know just because they have a piece of paper when we could instead spend less time and hassle just allowing one of our already trusted team to get certified (answer is simple - we wouldn't). I'm not saying there isn't value in the CISSP qualification, there undoubtedly is, but it isn't the silver bullet to unlocking employment that it is touted as. Simply put, it's nice if you've got it, but whether you have it or not would not influence a hiring decision. So you need to be good at everything else and not have the "attitude of entitlement" that seems to be attached to CISSP holders (for the avoidance of doubt, I too have this certification it has not changed what I do day to day one bit, I just needed it once for a client pre-requisite). Its certainly good to be able to prove you have these skills, but the market is awash with people that either have the cert or comparable experience and as a result the demand to hire those people is weak at the moment and that's if you can get through the visa process in the first place.

Look at PTE as well, I know lots of degree educated Brits that mess up IELTS (including me) but PTE I got full marks in every section

That's what I thought would be the case, however will they only start to consider at the end of the period, or would they look now with the view to only lending once the period was over (I suppose I could always ask a bank)

I can second that, they are shocking. Much higher than the UK. Sydney and Melbourne rental prices right now make London seem cheap

Hi So as a newbie to AUS my job comes with a probation period (as I suspect most do). Anyone know what sort of issues this might pose in raising a mortgage? Looking to borrow about $850k, all the bank calculators are happy with this based on salary levels and deposit to loan values but will the probation bit be the fly in the ointment? Cheers

Yes it's gotten so bureaucratic nowadays I fully expect the next iteration of the rules to involve having to video tape your "encounters together" and attach it to the immi portal for the case officer to verify you are actually in a full relationship

The relationship option is there, but it's been made harder by the burden of proof (over 12 months of proof you are in a defacto married relationship - i.e. doing "adult things" not just good friends)

The problem you have is that Australia treats these roles as part of the IT grouping that has quotas (on top of the general visa quotas) so you need really high points totals to get a visa. You don't say what you think you would have in terms of visa points, but anything below 85 (higher if looking for a 189 visa) is unlikely to be successful. On another note, I've interviewed nearly 50 people in the last 6 weeks, almost all of them had those certifications, and we only made 2 job offers (despite having many open roles) and one of those didn't even have those quals. If you have a good job where you are (which you should with those certs) don't necessarily think it will be better here, I don't think Australia is as desperate for those skills as people think

I gave them all, 3 degrees, 4 A levels, 3 AS levels and 11 GCSE. I don't remember the form not "working" easily. Yes it is a pain, but the choice is yours you can fill it in and maybe get offered a visa or roll the dice, ignore the question and maybe get knocked back for not giving them information that is in the public domain anyway

Your tax documents p60 etc. will provide that information if you can't get from your employers

Yes, whilst you would save some UK tax, when you then declare it in AUS, you are taxed as having received the whole 18k, you then offset the tax you paid in the UK (on the 14k) and pay the difference to the AUS taxman. So assuming a similar tax rate between the two countries (which isn't exactly the case but it's not massively different) you would end up paying tax in the whole 18k, 75% of the tax amount to the UK, and the other 25% to the AUS tax service

Can totally agree with the above poster, northern Marrickville is really nice, a little noisy due to the planes, but that's a problem in most if the Sydney area

Your mum can't attend the appointment for you, it has to be the applicant

I'm interested to find out what you are going to be doing in Geelong. I go there a bit to visit clients, Geelong seems to have two industries. Vineyards and Gov departments displaced from Melbourne to share employment out into the shires. Its a lovely place, second biggest town in Victoria (but 18 times smaller than Melbourne), only an hour on the train to the big city though, and just 1.5 hours on a plane to a proper world class city in Sydney from Avalon airport. I really liked Geelong, but it's too small for us, we are London/Toronto/Sydney CBD dwellers