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Today in Devonport we have a cloudless blue sky, no wind at all and it's 25C.

My family and I lived in Tasmania for around 8 years before moving back to the UK. We moved a lot during that time and I cannot remember how often we rented or bought the houses we lived in, I only know that we owned (and later sold) a house in Cygnet for a while. We are thinking of moving back to Tassie (possibly mainland but more likely Taz) and I wanted to know a bit about renting houses. My mum's friend in Taz mentioned that finding places to rent has gotten harder as more people are turning their places into Airbnb's and stuff or prices have increased - I can't quite remember. We will most likely be getting some help from our friend in Taz but I would appreciate it if anyone here living/renting in Tassie can give some insight about the renting situation, what areas are best for renting etc. and some tips. (FYI - there will be 3 of us and most likely 1 cat and 1 dog (we have 2 cats and 2 dogs however one of our cats and dogs are quite old and becoming slightly unwell so we are unsure whether or not they will be coming with us). I do believe that this will make finding somewhere to live harder as we will have pets, but we will try our best! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thankyou! PS. If you happen to know anything about Australian education I would appreciate it if you checked out my other topic)

Hi! could you please let me know are there any changes on 190 visa in November 2019? I am planning to lodge EOI and State Sponsorship on July. Then is it affect to November visa changes? Thanks!

Hi all, First time posting, I have lived in Australia for 6 years now and I have PR but always found this page very helpful, when I was going through all the visa stages. What I need help with is..... My younger brother is here on a working holiday visa. He works as a barber (fully trained, certificates, 10+yrs experience). He wishes to apply for the 187 regional sponsorship visa in Tasmania. The processes have changed somewhat since my 457 visa days in Melbourne, where I still live, so I’m not much help! Can he apply for this visa by himself by taking a skills assessment or does he need to have a valid employer who sponsors him? He currently still lives in Victoria, so can he apply for himself before moving to Tasmania? Thanks in advance for any guidance anyone can give.

Hi guys, My sister has a plan to come to Australia and studies bachelor of industrial design at the University of Tasmania. As we could see that the occupation is currently listed on Tas List for 190 and 489 visa so will she have a chance to apply for 190 visa after graduation at all ? Look forward to hearing from experienced aspirants, Many thanks in advance,

Hi everyone, I received the 190 invitation from Tasmania on 15th August 2018 and applied for visa on 10th October 2018. Police checks were done in advance (I had to get police certificates from four different countries) but medical has not been done yet. I want to know that if I get my medical done a couple of months late (closer to 1st CO contact which is presumably somewhere near 3 months mark ) will it effect my application's validity i.e. will it push my application back in the queue or will it remain at the same place. Please Guide Thanks in advance

Hi All I recently received email saying that Case office was assigned to my case for 489 visa Al though my Job code is not in State list but its in consolidated list . What should i expect next ? I have 75 points with State sponsorship Thanks

Hobart is losing grip of its title as Australia’s most affordable city, with the average house price now on par with Adelaide, according to research. The revelation was made by property website realestate.com.au's outlook report for the April quarter. Hobart and the surrounding areas dominate the list of Australia's 10 most sought-after suburbs, with Battery Point, North Hobart, Richmond and inner Hobart all featuring. Hobart's average house price for the April quarter was $470,000, up 19 per cent on the same time last year and by far the biggest increase of any other capital city. Report author and realestate.com chief economist Nerida Conisbee described Tasmania as "booming". "Hobart continues to be red hot," she said. "Tasmania is the hottest market at the moment in Australia, we've certainly never seen this surge in activity,'' she said. "Hobart's so strong at the moment that we are now expecting the median house price for Hobart to overtake the median house price for Adelaide. "We can really see that Melbourne is the number one audience for Hobart property and has a strong interest in it. "When we have a look at the top interstate destinations people from Melbourne are looking at, the number one is Sandy Bay." The average Hobart property received 10,000 hits on realestate.com, five times more than in since 2013 and double the national average view per property. Jobs growth and very little housing development were the two factors pushing up prices, according to the report. "While property investors are likely to be a key factor in the price increases, strong growth in rental demand suggests that the market is being supported by people needing a place to live," it said. The report showed that in the past 12 months, there had been an increase of almost 50 per cent in online views of properties in Launceston and Devonport. "What we are seeing is a pretty strong ripple effect in terms of demand in Hobart extending to other parts of the state." Ms Conisbee said. The report said Launceston had seen the strongest price growth of any local government area in Australia in the past 12 months. And according to the Real Estate Institute of Tasmania (REIT), 2017 was Launceston's best year in the last decade. REIT president Tony Collidge said the report reflected Hobart's market, which is the strongest he has seen in his 26-year real-estate career. "We're certainly getting multiple offers, we're getting upwards of 30 to 40 enquiries per property and its a very, very buoyant marketplace," he said. "It's really hard to try and price property at the moment because of the strong demand that's out there. "You put a property on the market for $500,000 and the next thing you're hearing its sold for $575,000, its sold for $550,000." Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-07/demand-for-real-estate-in-hobart-continues-to-grow/9951424

Hello everyone I applied for Tasmania state sponsorship subclass 190 in June. On July 25th, I received an email from Tasmania state department, saying that they will be sponsoring my subclass 190 application. Moments later, I received another email with the title "Decision on your application". In this email they confirmed that I will receive an invitation form SkillSelect for subclass 190. However, when invitation arrived on the same date from SkillSelect, it was for subclass 489. Now I am confused. Is it a mistake, or the applicants who receive Tasmania state sponsorship only get subclass 489 invites? Shall I contact Tasmania and SkillSelect to get further clarification? Please help.

Hello I am new here and this is my first post. Can anyone tell me what is the current timeline for state nomination for 190 visa, from Tasmania. I applied for state sponsorship on 11 June 2018 under the category Overseas applicant, Job offer (I was able to get a 4 year contract from an employer). I know it says on the official website that the processing time is between 2 to 8 weeks , but I was hoping that they might offer an expedited service for applications with job offer. Please guide. Occupation: Mechanical Engineer EOI Points: 65+5(for state sponsorship) English: Superior (PTE,15/5/2018) EOI lodged: 2/6/2018 (Tasmania) State nomination application launched: 11/6/2018

Hi. Does anyone know when Tassie's occupation list will get refreshed? I know it's not as per an annual schedule like SA's, but I was hoping to see my job code 224712 on the next refresh. Cheers!

HI everyone, I applied for state nomination 190 from Tasmania on June 11 2018. I was able to secure a 4 years contract with an employer in my occupation. I have not received any contact from the state yet. Meanwhile I talked to my employer and asked them if they can sponsor my visa, to which they agreed. My initial thought was that sponsor from an employer will speed up the process, but I am quite surprised and, to some extent horrified to learn that employer sponsor visas actually take longer than skilled migration. Now I am confused about which option i shall adopt. Shall I wait for state nomination or shall I go from ENS 186/187 ? Has anyone got 186/187 visa quicker than skilled migration or they are all taking 24 months now My occupation is mechanical engineering and I am on 65 points currently.

A new report has singled out Tasmania as one of two regions in the country where soaring tourism has led to a "rapid decline" in affordable rental properties. The 2018 Anglicare Rental Affordability Snapshot, released today, singled out Tasmania's tourism boom and expansion of holiday rental provider Airbnb in Hobart as key contributors to a housing shortage. The authors said a record 1.3 million tourists to the state in 2017 created "unprecedented" demand for accommodation, resulting in Airbnb listings jumping from 2,874 to 4,459 in the 12 months to February 2018. Three quarters of those listings are full homes and 61 per cent are in Tasmania's south. Anglicare concluded this growth, alongside rising housing prices, have taken rental affordability "from bad to worse". The snapshot of 1,285 Tasmanian properties is taken from websites and the three major newspapers on one weekend in March. Properties are deemed affordable if the weekly rent is less than 30 per cent of household income. Of those properties, less than half were considered affordable for Tasmanians on a minimum wage. Only 21 per cent of properties were affordable for households on income support payments. Anglicare social action and research manager, Meg Webb, told ABC Radio Hobart there were a combination of factors at play. "Let's talk about it as two things, because one of the things we notice with this snapshot each year over the last five years is that the number of properties advertised is dropping, and the second part is what proportion of that pool is affordable," she said. None of the properties in the sample were affordable for a young person on Newstart, which has been the case in consecutive reports. The authors note Tasmania's wages remain the lowest in the country, potentially inhibiting the ability of people to access housing. "While the state's housing market and cost-of-living pressures surge, Tasmanian wages continue to be the lowest in the nation," the report said. "If wage growth continuously fails to keep up with property prices and living costs, Tasmanians will continue to be locked out of their own housing market." These results come off the back of Commsec's State of the State report, which revealed Tasmania has recorded the strongest population growth in the country. Tasmania ranked fourth overall in economic performance — finishing behind New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT. Commsec senior economist Ryan Felsman told ABC Radio Hobart the economic data supports the idea of a tightening housing market. "Certainly, if you look at house price growth in Hobart at the moment it leads the nation at 13 per cent on an annualised basis, and at the same time, rents are up by 3.7 per cent," he said.

Torn on Tassie We’ve been living in Australia for eight years, firstly in south west WA, then the Kimberley and now Townsville. It’s been an adventure, but now with two young kids (and another on the way) it’s time to settle down in that ‘forever place’. We’ve decided on either regional Victoria – either Geelong or Ballarat – or Tassie because we prefer the cooler climate. We also spent a few weeks picking apples in the Huon Valley years ago as backpackers and loved our time there, but would prefer a bigger community such as Launceston or Hobart in which to raise our family. But there’s just something nagging at me about Tasmania that’s making me hesitate over the decision. I keep reading about how tough it is to find work there, how the health care system is not as good as the mainland in terms of access to specialists etc and how public schools don’t perform as well etc. I realise that life’s what you make of it and if you’re determined you can succeed anywhere, but like I said it’s making me doubt whether a move to Tassie is the right thing for us. My wife comes from an island (albeit a MUCH smaller one than Tassie) and she often speaks about feeling cut off from mainland Britain, people’s insular attitudes and how young people were ultimately forced to leave to pursue work opportunities elsewhere. Does Tasmania suffer from such drawbacks and to what degree would you say? In what ways do you feel disadvantaged – if at all – by living in Tasmania? My heart says Tassie but my head says Geelong/Ballarat. With Melbourne’s growth going gangbusters and showing no signs of slowing down, the positive flow-on effects for regional cities in Victoria within commuting distance looks very encouraging. While I’ve got no interest in commuting to Melbourne for work, it would be good to have all that life and culture on our doorstep when we want it. And if I ever do run into employment issues then having such a large job market down the road does offer more options to keep the wolf from the door if it comes to that. But I still keep coming back to Tassie. The climate, the nature, the history, the mountains, the forests, the beaches….I feel more inspired by the idea of life in Tasmania than I do by regional Victoria. On other hand, they’re close to each other so we could live in Geelong/Ballarat and holiday in Tassie fairly easily. As you can see I really am torn. If you made it this far down my very long post THANK YOU and please share some advice! Happy New Year ?

hey, i am a student from india and i am planning on shifting to tasmania particularly hobart.. for undergraduatation from university of tasmania. it would be great if someone could guide me regarding some good courses and other things like racism and all. the courses that i am looking for are one amongst media, event management, fine arts, interior designing or psychology.

Has anyone recently applied for a gotten a state sponsorship from Tasmania? How long does it take nowadays? The Tassie website states 20 days in one place. However, another place states upto 2 months for the state to reach a decision. Also, how would I know what the current DIBP processing times are? When will I be assigned a CO? Does the process actually take lesser than the stipulated 13 months? Thanks!

Tasmania is affected by Australia's reputation for backpacker exploitation resulting in a shortage of fruit pickers this coming season. http://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/5162215/fruit-pickers-give-tasmania-the-flick/

Hi I received notification of Tasmania sponsoring my 489 visa back in November 2017, I was then invited via Skill select to apply and pay for the visa which I did (13 Nov 2017) I now have an Immi Account where I can upload documents, apply for medical ( applied and passed ) and other things. I have uploaded all Docs apart from UK police check as I need to put down a Case Officer name on the UK police application. I have not yet heard anything from a "Case Officer" would I get an email from somebody i.e "Hi my name is Joe Blogs and I'm your case officer.. I will need documents A, B, C etc etc" ?? Im a bit concerned I haven't had any emails or notifications via Immi Account since 13 Nov 2016.. is this normal ? Many Thanks.

The Property Council says that Tasmania should be aiming to attract a further 34,000 residents by 2022 to ensure the state’s economic renaissance continues. Brian Wightman, the council’s Tasmanian executive director said the target figure should be 552,500 residents — based on an Australian average growth rate of 1.6% and a base of 518,500 — and could done by targeting working-age interstate and international migrants to drive economic and social improvements. Mr Wightman said whichever party forms government after the coming state election needs to establish “an ambitious and intermediate” population target for the next four years. The Liberal Government’s population growth strategy aims to increase the state’s population to 650,000 by 2050, but Mr Wightman said establishing an intermediate target would provide impetus for implementing the existing one. “The incoming state government needs to set a population target for 2022, and enact a range of strategies, including investing in growth,”. “Working-age interstate and international migrants must be our target market with their ability to drive economic and social improvement the key to our future.” When the Liberals announced the target of 650,000 in 2014, both Labor and the Greens both said they would not be putting target figures on the state’s future population. Last year, Tasmania’s population grew at its fastest rate in six years but it still lags behind the national average. Demographer Lisa Denny says significant planning and investment will be needed to turbocharge the growth. “There are two main contributors to population growth in Tasmania — migration and natural increase,” she said. “Both of those are influenced by two things, one is the economic performance of the state and how it compares to the rest of Australia and the other is the size of the reproductive cohort. “To get to where we want to be will actually require significant planning and investment in a range of factors and this won’t be easy to achieve. “Yes you want migrants, but you also want them of the right age profile to contribute to natural increase.” Ms Denny said going after interstate and international migrants would help the state deal with its skill shortages but it needed to be targeted to provide the services that the state needed. Founding member of the Migrant Resource Centre Ike Naqvi — who came to Tasmania in the 1960s to study geology but has gone on to become a business leader — agreed that the state should be targeted in who it tries to attract. “I absolutely agree in bringing in skilled migrants,” he said. “But we need to make sure there are jobs for them, we need to have those structures in place. “We need to look at those areas where the skills are needed, such as IT.”

I have seen two migration lawyers in Sydney and both have given me conflicting information. I feel like I have wasted my money on the consultations and have not been told anything I already didn't know. I am a Primary School Teacher and currently my profession is on the combined list for Tasmania or Northern Territory. I originally enquired about the 190 state sponsorship visa for Tasmania however, I can only proceed with this if I have an employment offer which is very unlikely in my profession. I then came across the Subclass 489 - Skilled Regional (Provisional) Visa (section 3A). Below are the responses from both lawyers. Lawyer A - The 489 is a long wait too and quotas are normally used up before they reach 489 nominees. I saw what you were talking about on the NT website, they do some discretionary 489 and 190 nominations each year if you undertake to live in their state for two years and do everything you can to find a job. I could do this application for you but there are no guarantees, it is a rare and difficult nomination to get. We would need to present a whole picture of your experience and your husbands too. It is possible they will like your British experience. A job offer or offers in the NT would help this sort of application even if the offers will have expired by the time you get a nomination. Lawyer B - The 489 is not a problem we can easily get the visa for you. There is no medicare and you will have to pay all the school fees for both your children. ( He didn't seem too positive !) Can anyone shed some light on the processing times? ( DIBP website states 75% processed in 5 months /90% processed in 8 months) . I qualify for the 489 and have enough points but I would like to use a migration agent can anyone recommend a good agent. Medicare - we qualify for this under the reciprocal healthcare agreement between UK and AUS. Schooling - Some states do not charge fees and some do but I cannot find anything about Tasmania does anyone have any information about this?

This is my first post, although I've read tons of threads on this great forum. So my situation: We've just lodged our State Sponsorship application with Tasmania (through a MARA agent). I have 75 points (80 with the 5 points for state sponsorship). While I provided evidence of at least eight vacancies that I would be able to apply for. I did not have a job offer (I did get a couple replies which stated that they could not consider me as I do not yet have a work visa. I provided these as part of my state sponsorship). We have close friends living in Hobart but no family connection. I've read a few threads of similar situations (but not the same) where 190 hopefuls were offered a 489 visa sponsorship if they didn't have a job offer. We're not keen on the 489 visa as, in our opinion, it carries to much risk (this is a personal opinion and I'm not bashing those who have taken this route). The question is what are our chances? We don't have any of the three key requirements but have high points and a genuine intention of settling and contributing to Tasmania (which I hope I communicated well enough in my statement of intention). Our MARA agent has been pretty vague saying 'they have lodged before without a job offer' (whether those lodged were successful or not is another question). Would be keen on hearing any similar situations or advice.

Hi I got skilled assess in accounting and my wife skilled assess in hairdressing, my skill is in MLTSSL and my wife skill is in STSOL. can we share partner points ?? while we are applying for 190 or 489 strem ? we both have 6 each ielts, both 45 less, and already assess our qualifications. Thanks

Being a Tassie newbie (and since the tasmania section is quite quiet) i thought i'd try and kick start things a little :wubclub: So how about some random chitter chat about our great island, things you've seen, places to go... just general life in tassie stuff?

Good evening. Apologies for the multiple questions, but here goes: What is the amount to be shown for this visa for the primary applicant and a spouse? Do these funds have to be in the form of cash in a bank or can we include assets like a property as well? (The Tasmanian financial declaration form states that we cannot show the value of Jewellery) I would like to sell my property only after getting a state nomination and applying for my visa. Otherwise, I'd rather let my property appreciate in value. (Catch 22 situation here) How long do the funds in the bank have to be present before presenting them?

Heya! In a complicated situation personally so as my partner is already heading to Oz (Tasmania) I am looking at my own options, particularly the 489 state sponsored. I have had interest from potential employers and I plan on visiting in the new year to work on these as I have a rather specialist job (private music tutor). However I am worried about the vetassess and EOI. Here in the UK I have always worked freelance, albeit for the same group's of school's so I am not sure how this would be calculated work experience wise? There doesn't seem to be the same option in Oz of being a peripatetic music teacher but it list's the work on the short term skills list? Having done my points on the online assessment I ended up with 80...I'm just worried that the freelance work won't mean anything? Plus, it's not usually in excess of 20 hours per week as I work another music job at the same time...My qualifications are above the required standard for the work. Would it also be worth doing the IELTS? Going on his visa is not an option at this stage but I was particularly looking to hear from private tutors/musicians/music professionals on how they found the process? I have family in Sydney and so moving to Oz has always been on the cards, however now it seems to be happening hopefully sooner than I expected so any advice is welcomed! Thank you! X