2nd Year Visa Work in WA

[Natalie Bentley]

Hi

 

I hope someone can help.

 

I'll be arriving in Australia in December meeting up with a guy from Perth and living with him.

 

I'll be looking to start my 2nd year visa week straight after Christmas to get it over and done with.

 

I'll be spending pretty much all of my time in Perth apart from trips to Sydney, the east coast and Melbourne that me and my Aussie friend have planned.

 

Until this week I thought it would be easy to find 2nd year visa work but I've started looking for jobs on Gumtree etc just to see what the job market is like and there isn't many adverts for WA at all and the one's I have seen you need to hold a driving license for (which I don't) or they prefer couples. This has scared me a little bit so I was wondering if anyone has completed their 2nd year visa work in WA and if they have any contacts etc of someone who can provide accommodation and food and are reliable. I'd like to spend weekends with my friend in Perth and he'll pick me up Friday night/Saturday morning and drop me back Sunday night.

 

If there really isn't anything at all then I will be willing to move to another state but it would be as a last resort.

 

Anybody's help/advise is much appreciated

 

Thanks

Natalie

[Lynsey Nicolson]

Hi

 

I definitely recommend doing your regional work asap and getting it out the way. I ended up doing 3 jobs to get mine covered. I have to say when I started looking for mine, there was loads and I was very lucky to find all of mine on Gumtree. However in the past few months, friends of mine that are still out there have noticed a huge decrease in people looking for work. Maybe it's the time of year or maybe there are just so many backpackers, jobs dont stay available for long.

 

In WA, seeding for harvest starts in April. It's long hours, dirty work but well paid and majority of them have great pay and provide food and accommodation. I would look at 'the job shop' in perth, they are always advertising roles for regional work. There are another few I have on fb that I can add once I find them. As far doing weekdays and having weekends back in the city, I cant say I've ever met someone who has that luxury. The majority of visa work is regional and full time because they are limited in the time they have to crop, seed, pick, pack etc.

There is also shearing and crutching work at this time of year. Again, its long hours, very dirty, well paid but actually great fun! I did it with my boyfriend and I was collecting the wool and pushing up the sheep and it was great!

 

When I started looking I put an advert on Gumtree like many others do and said when I was available and pretty much willing to do anything. Please please please check the postcode of the place you will end up and make sure it qualifies, also, get the ABN of the people you are working for and phone immigration and make sure it is valid for visa work. There are so many people that do work for their visa and get scammed by people for cheap labour and never get their visa approved because it didn't qualify.

 

Remember that for your visa it has to be regional which means a certain distance out from the city, it might not be feasible to drive back and forth every weekend if you get work. I never realised until I moved there just how vast it is and how far it can be from the city. Sometimes it's not worth driving back to the city for the sake of one night after driving a few hundred kms.

 

Good luck in finding work. Some of the work does suck and won't be enjoyable but what you get, another year in oz, is so worth it!

[Natalie Bentley]

Thanks for all your advice Lynsey that's really helpful. My friend is looking into some things for me. He's found a farm that hire overseas workers and sign off visas only 20 mins from where he lives so fingers crossed this works out.

[Lynsey Nicolson]

Fruit picking jobs - look this one up on Facebook if you need it. Forgot to add it in earlier