nomadiccarpenter

On 30/01/2023 at 22:47, Marisawright said:

The rental market is a good indicator of what you'll be facing as an ordinary person in Sydney.  Sydney is becoming unaffordable for ordinary folk.    I guess it might be nice to spend a month in Sydney being a tourist, but I wonder why you'd want to burn through so much money when you're going to need it later?

I think I'd be hopping straight on the train (not bus) to Newcastle when you arrive and use that as your base.  Buy a second-hand car and then you're well-placed to cruise up and down the coast, checking out the different places you might want to live.  If you want to be a tourist for a month, Newcastle is a good place to be:  on the doorstep of the Hunter Valley wineries, explore the sand dunes at Anna Bay, go dolphin-watching or surfing at Port Stephens or take a houseboat at Tea Gardens, sail on Lake Macquarie, just for a start.

Thanks Marisa. I forgot to come back to this thread, but you and I were on the same wave-length. I'm going to stay a night in Sydney to rest, then take a bus the next day to Newcastle for a two week Airbnb to get my bearings. Plus, the wages for carpenters seems comparable. Also wanting to learn other skills so it looks like a somewhat affordable place to do it. Could end up being home, who knows!

Hey everybody, thanks for all your tips. It's still kind of up in the air on where I'll end up, but I was thinking I may just start off a month in Sydney to get settled. However, the rental market doesn't seem geared toward new arrivals. Very luxury-oriented it seems. There's hostels of course, but I have too much stuff to look after. Worse, flatmatefinders has been a sketchy experience so far, but I know there's still potential for some finds there. I know Sydney is a tough market and for that reason, maybe I'll just hop a bus to Newcastle the day after arriving in Sydney to get my bearings. Any thoughts on the best way to just catch my breath the first month arriving so I can get my act together? Thank you!
Edit: I arrive the 14th of February.

On 11/11/2022 at 02:45, Ausvisitor said:

Congratulations

Whats your move timeline and where in NSW are you headed?

Thanks! I'm heading to Sydney in February. I may settle in Newcastle, but also see a lot of opportunity in Syndey.

Thought I'd revive this thread with some good news. 32 months after applying, my 190 NSW was granted! Carpenter, offshore. Got my first CO contact 24 of October. After submitting medicals the 5th of November, grant came just five days later. Made so many friends here and if you all have any questions, I'll be there for ya!

4 minutes ago, Rallyman said:

As said you will have to go through RPL 

I had my apprenticeship indentured papers , city and guilds, craft and advanced craft ( cert IV equivalent) Hnc , still had to do course with master builders and tafe  , I had more years on site than actual age of tafe teacher , his words what the **** are you doing here

 

 

Sounds about right! Thank you, Rallyman.

10 hours ago, Rallyman said:

Getting a contractor license is pain 

They won’t accept any overseas qualifications at service nsw who issue them  , you have to get these recognised either through Regagnition of prior learning or a fast track course through master builders and TAFE 

its all money  

I suppose my Vetassess Certificate III would count, at least I'm led to believe. Unless that was just to prove my skill to get the visa. I'm making a list of questions for my agent. I've waited so long for the visa that all these questions are popping up left and right after becoming numb to the possibility of moving there actually happening!

31 minutes ago, Rallyman said:

You need a licence to be working and running a business ( Australia likes it’s red tape) 

Most preferably want you as a pty ltd company to abolish any risk of paying super or tax for you  

you will still be required to have income protection working as a sole trader  

many companies are putting people on wages now. 
also construction is quite different in Australia to uk  might be worth reading AS 1684 timber framing codes  to help get you up to speed 

you will also need your white card ( safety course) simple 1 day course. 
there is plenty of work about 

good luck 

 

Thanks for the tips. Good to know. I'm from the US, but I imagine it's pretty different in Australia. I like the idea of running my own business but perfectly fine putting in grunt work the first year or two so I can learn how things are done the Australian way. Then move into my own jobs. I'll get things set up posthaste regardless. When you say companies "putting people on wages now," do you mean counting them as employees rather than contractors?

14 hours ago, paulhand said:

If you have an agent I can’t give you immigration advice … but you should check the ABN is actually still active as they do automatically cancel them after a couple of years of inactivity. 

Understand, thanks Paul. 

28 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

As a carpenter, I can almost guarantee you'll have to set up your own business, because most employers will want to hire you as a contractor, not a direct employee. It's very easy, you just set yourself up as a Sole Trader, apply for a ABN number and off you go.  You will then invoice the businesses you work for rather than being on their payroll. 

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/set-sole-trader

https://www.traderisk.com.au/starting-a-carpentry-business

https://www.flyingsolo.com.au/

There's still the big question of whether the location of your clients will matter for the visa conditions.  The only way you'll get a definitive answer, I think, will be to pay a migration agent for a one-off consultation, unless someone like @paulhand or @wrussell is willing to comment here.

Good point. Forgot I still have an ABN from my working holiday last time. I do have a migration agent so will go over the final details soon. I won't turn down any thoughts from @paulhand and @wrussell on the fine print of the 190 visa in regards to where my work comes from.

22 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Find the right part of Newcastle and you can get a reasonable big-city vibe, though of course it's not quite the same as inner Sydney.   Mind you, if you don't have the income to live in inner-city Sydney, the outer suburbs are far more dreary than Newcastle!

  Central Coast would be too quiet for you I suspect, and if you're thinking of that kind of area, then I'd be more inclined to go North of Newcastle, not south of it.  

Tweed Heads is definitely worth looking at.  It's very, very common for people to live in Tweed Heads and commute to the Gold Coast for work and vice versa.  By Australian standards the distance is trivial.

Take a look at the suburb reviews on Homely to get an idea what places are like https://www.homely.com.au/find-region

 

I love the vibe of Tweed Heads from what I've learned so far. It's closer to Brisbane where I want to be eventually. I suppose the only issue is the jobs listed on Seek seem to be all in Queensland which might be a problem from my visa conditions (190). Unless like you've mentioned, the employer is NSW based, or I have my own business.

7 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Your instincts are right.  If you met an Aussie moving to the US, and they said, "Oh, I'm moving to New York because none of the other cities are worth bothering with", what would you say?....

There used to be a lot of film industry work on the Gold Coast, so there could be some advantage in basing yourself in the North of NSW near the Queensland border.   I know the rules say you must live and work in NSW, but if you set yourself up in your own business in a NSW town, then I don't think it would be an issue if you have some clients who are in other states. Worth checking what the rules say. 

Thank you, Marisa. I do plan to end up in Queensland eventually so I'm with you on the Gold Coast or Brisbane area again. In regards to Sydney, I am starting to see it in the same realm of New York and Los Angeles. It's a city that is better to be "invited" to with a job offer, rather than going there with no job. Yet here in the US, NYers will encourage you to be there, it's never been a wise strategy in my experience. Leaning toward being in Newcastle or Central Coast and if an opportunity in Sydney presents itself, preferably a hefty wage, then I could live in Sydney. I do like Sydney and the energy of big cities but trying to be measured after past mistakes.

Any recommendations on towns close to the Queensland border? I like the idea of owning land around a smaller town like Nimbin or Lismore eventually. Just now learning about Tweed Heads. 

After a long two and half years having applied for a NSW 190 visa from offshore, I was asked to do medicals for the first time. Now, the idea of moving to Australia doesn't seem so mythological and have to seriously plan now in case my grant is coming soon.

I'm a carpenter - I have two years experience building residential homes. Six years building sets for film and television productions. Everyone seems to want to move to Sydney which leaves me to wonder if I could be overlooking other locations. Are there any other cities I should look into? Newcastle? Wollongong? How about further up the state toward Queensland?

I'm not picky with what kind of work I will undertake. If it falls under carpentry, I'm romantic about about helping build Australia's infrastructure such as rail projects, bridges or even stick to building homes. I imagine the film industry would take quite some time to network my way in, which seems to be Sydney based.

I want to stick to my two year commitment of living in NSW. Planning on duel citizenship eventually, so wouldn't want to cast any negative light by living elsewhere when it comes time to apply. I also admit I'm a bit of an idealist and want to do the "patriotic" thing by staying within the state, but I understand how some struggle to find work in certain states. I lived in Brisbane a year back in 2016 and have visited Sydney twice and worked in Moree, NSW a few weeks.

Thanks for all your support and advice.

 

18 hours ago, wrussell said:

Even worse were the thousands of perfectly valid applications that were capped and ceased by the Honourable, the Minister, Michaelia Cash in 2015. Some were from my clients who had waited many years for a visa decision. I arranged refunds of the visa application charges, but they lost the money they had  paid for skills assessments, English language tests, my professional fee and ancillary costs. Some of them had reached the age where they could not apply to Australia or anywhere else. 

I was very worried this would happen had Morrison's cabinet been re-elected. That shouldn't even be an option for a government.

Make a plan for years to come - learn new skills, a language, do projects you won't be able to if the visa grant changes life circumstance. Read buddhism books to curb insanity! Save, save and save. Though it seems like they process new cases over old ones so you may not have to wait long at all. We just never know!

1 hour ago, mrcactus said:

The main reason I really wouldn't want to come back to the UK is I've lived here all my life, never been on holiday and want a fresh start... New place, new people, new everything. 

I'm just so fed up right now I can't even put it into words

Very relatable. Yet many don't understand.

On 12/06/2022 at 01:09, Phil1712 said:

Some positive news 

https://gazettengr.com/australia-to-fast-track-visa-applications-of-skilled-immigrants/

It is! Although, there are a lot of challenges as described very well in this article:

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/absolute-gridlock-five-challenges-in-australias-migration-program-facing-the-albanese-government/6z1gj92nc

12 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

It won't be nor shouldn't be a matter of not letting more migrants in, just hopefully putting the breaks on turbo immigration. The reason being the country can not simply manage. Infrastructure from housing to Hospitals to roads simply won't cope.  

Going on a third year of little net migration, I don't think there's danger of that. Especially since the new allocations aren't even the highest they've been.

On 22/05/2022 at 01:45, Phil1712 said:

I wonder what the new government will bring to the table? Will the wait for our outstanding visa grants finally be over. 

There are many job vacancies which Australians alone can't fill. In the name of growing the economy and population again, there are brighter days ahead for migrants. I believe we can all look forward to serving and rebuilding Australia. The backlog is really the only issue now.

13 hours ago, skyeman said:

Has anyone seen any Non-PMSOL off-shore grants? It's gone very quiet, perhaps while they look to fill up their quotas before the end of the immigration year?  A few states have now reached their quota, so hopefully, the CO's will move on to start clearing the backlog of visa applicants? 

A handful. I don't quite understand the continued use of PMSOL list at this point. Shortages across the board and wouldn't this list cause more shortages in other occupations excluded from this list? I guess someone just needs to give the order not to follow it anymore, or at least greatly expand it. Just my uneducated opinion.

Let's brace ourselves for a slow month of May and June as we approach the elections and the remaining quota is filled. If we don't see 'back-to-normal' movement between July '22 and July '23, something's wrong, right? I've been reading Buddhism books to cope and staying as busy as possible. 

18 minutes ago, Elaine N said:

When you say the ‘visa process’ do you mean after you have submitted all your forms, medicals etc it’s taking 6-9months to hear if you have been successful or not? I know this must seem like a daft question but different ppl use different terms when explain stuff and I can barley keep up as it is with all the forms

thanks

The processing times reflect the age of the applications they process that month. The elephant in the room is that there is a backlog of 70K+ migrants and many of them across different visas have waited over 30 months. 189s have seem some movement recently, some non-critical occupations. Despite things getting back to normal Covid-wise, just mentally prepare yourself for a long wait. I'm almost to my two year anniversary of applying for my 190. Been a lot happier lately living in the moment but it's been very stressful.

10 hours ago, parvinder said:

Dear All 

I have applied 491 visa in june 2019, which is 19 months ago

Assume you mean 2020, which is still a long time to wait. To answer more politely than others, yes there isn't much you can do to complain as we've all been getting the same generic responses by contacting Home Affairs or political leaders. The good news is, this problem is coming to light more in the news, especially as borders re-open. Seems every week there's good news so I truly believe we're on the other side of this, even if that means we all still may have long wait with the backlog.

4 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Worth noting Pooja is in the medical field so on the Priority Occupation List.  So if your role isn't on the Priority list, it's not relevant.

Seen a lot of movement for offshore, non-PMSOL 190s recently as well. This looks to be the year things get back to normal.

19 hours ago, Marisawright said:

To be fair, when they took the money, they had no idea they'd be closing the country.  

Touche.

17 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

Well around me a lot of people have simply left the 'traditional 'work force, all ages I'm talking here . I guess low paid service industry work would not  be off interest to those that may have once sought such employment. 

Seems to be a trend in every developed country. I wonder how many of the applicants who have been waiting years will still work in their profession when the grant finally arrives.

10 hours ago, Marisawright said:

"The government is closely monitoring migration and visa settings to ensure they are consistent with public health measures, are flexible and do not displace job opportunities for Australians so that Australia can deal with the immediate and post-recovery impacts of COVID-19." 

We get the same paranoid thinking from leaders in America too but the consequences are far greater for Australia. Truth is, if the job could be filled it would. Australia has already tried not having immigration and it isn't working. It's frustrating to see them take money from people only to have them wait close to three years.