At breaking point after just a month on the 475 Visa in WA :(

[Guest yogeshsv]

..... and one more question. When I land, is it okay to stay in Perth for some days and look for rentals in regional areas? My visa allows me to live, work and study only in regional areas of WA. Is it violation of visa condition?

[Guest yogeshsv]

Thanks for your reply. Do you have any idea whether it is mandatory for the person on 475 to work in the profession he/she mentioned in the visa application or is it okay to work in any profession? If it is full time employment, will the work in other profession count towards PR requirement of 1 year employment? Thanks.

[Guest Ptp113]

I don't dispute what you say for one moment but the credentialism treadmill is not limited to Australia.

My DH is in mental health and has been for some 15 years. 5 years ago he had to completely retrain because he was rapidly becoming unemployable with his then-qualificaitons and constantly moving goalposts. 5 years of study, a BSc and a post-grad qualification later he is now on the same wage he was before he began training. He probably wouldn't have a job had he not done the retraining.

 

It's part of the reason we want to leave. The time and money investment of constant retraining just to keep your job is becoming ridiculous here. Of course, credentialism is just another variation of protectionism.

 

I'm a pom and I haven'h had to do any retraining or credentialism as you call it. Why do you?

[flag of convenience]

I know what you went through mate. We came in 92, I'm in IT, was 39 years old when we came, had a wife and 2 year old and didn't get a job for 5 months. It was dire here, just like it was in the UK at the time. Only difference was we both gave up jobs to come here, with nothing to come to here, just came blind, hadn't been before, didn't know anyone, hadn't even been to Australia before. Didn't have a clue what to expect really. No internet in those days, just books in the embassy and people to chat to. We were advised to go to Melbourne or Sydney by agencies as they told us there "was no work in Perth". Only problem was we had our hearts set on Perth as we thought it had everything we were looking for. We were right as it turned out.

 

We didn't expect things to be easy but we were determined to give it our best shot. Luckily my wife is a nurse so she got work after a couple of weeks. It was testing though as she had to do shiftwork again after extra quals in the UK had got her into health visiting. We didn't even consider going back though, we loved Perth, the weather, the lifestyle, houses, beaches, feeling of space, lack of crowds wherever we wanted to go, just about everything that Jinn didn't like. We always wanted to live near the coast in a nice climate and if we had been able to speak Portuguese would have moved there in a flash. Luckily we ended up here which is even better than Portugal.

 

I honestly don't know what he did with his time, he could have done a complete apprenticeship from beginning to end in the time he said he "wasted". I guess some people are not cut out for Aus and he was one of them. He didn't seem to like one thing about it, hope he's settled back in the UK.

 

The difference being of course in 92 rentals were dirt cheap. House purchases were cheap and easy.Work wasn't and this was often the case in WA. I stayed here a year in 95 only getting part time casual work...so moved to Cairns....So while the work was hard to get the cost of living made it easy enough to get by as long as one had a few bob in the bank of course.

[flag of convenience]

I'm a pom and I haven'h had to do any retraining or credentialism as you call it. Why do you?

 

It could be ongoing training. We had forever trainings to fulfill requirements in the social/health area. There is a whole industry around it.

[andyglendenning]

Thanks for your reply. Do you have any idea whether it is mandatory for the person on 475 to work in the profession he/she mentioned in the visa application or is it okay to work in any profession? If it is full time employment, will the work in other profession count towards PR requirement of 1 year employment? Thanks.

 

Yogeshsv, did you find out the anser to your question regarding working in a profession which is different to what you state on your visa application?

[Paul1Perth]

The difference being of course in 92 rentals were dirt cheap. House purchases were cheap and easy.Work wasn't and this was often the case in WA. I stayed here a year in 95 only getting part time casual work...so moved to Cairns....So while the work was hard to get the cost of living made it easy enough to get by as long as one had a few bob in the bank of course.

 

House purchases weren't "cheap and easy", they weren't a lot different than they are now if you take into account how salaries have increased. I remember getting the house and thinking I hope we can afford it. The rental wasn't dirt cheap either, we got rental assistance though and help with the youngsters child care which helped no end.

 

As long as people have a "few bob" in the bank when they emigrate nothing has changed really, only that jobs are a lot easier to come by.

[flag of convenience]

House purchases weren't "cheap and easy", they weren't a lot different than they are now if you take into account how salaries have increased. I remember getting the house and thinking I hope we can afford it. The rental wasn't dirt cheap either, we got rental assistance though and help with the youngsters child care which helped no end.

 

As long as people have a "few bob" in the bank when they emigrate nothing has changed really, only that jobs are a lot easier to come by.

 

I'm afraid I don't agree. Salaries have not increased anywhere near the inflation over the time. Skilled Labourers may have seem massive increases in what they can charge but besides professions that usually do ok the rest haven't seen their salaries increase 270% as the price of a house we purchased in 2000 did.

Not just me saying it professional folk over here on holidays from Europe find the eating and drinking costs very expensive. I doubt jobs are much easier to find now either. Although this may well have been the case previously. There are plenty of under $70,000 jobs being advertised. Some considerably less.

As has been noted by some with mine experience,there are fewer jobs going in the resource industry and wages are not that high in many areas.

You no doubt came over when interest rates were high. House prices low but the rates got to around 17% I believe.

[flag of convenience]

I wouldn't disagree with the post - but the criticisms on this thread are not so much about the difference in the countries, but about being misled about employment prospects and qualification needs in Australia.

 

Isn't it just. Folk being encouraged to move over from whereever in the world with skills not really in demand. Everyone expects another place to exhibit certain differences. That is not the issue. Giving PR to folk who are led to believe work will be found with ease in their area must indeed be a pee off.