Nadz128 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Hello everyone, my names Nadim and I have just joined!! :-) would just like to talk about my situation so people know where I stand and then any advice would be highly appreciated!!!!... im 26 years old, with also a wife who's 26, 2 boys who are 5 and 2.... All born and raised in the uk!!...I'm a motor mechanic, so I know I have a trade and done some research saying that it's on the 'skilled register'... i have aves been employed by the same company for the last 8 years and 2months and am very hard working with a lot of experience and qualifications papers... my wife who obviously stays at home with the young lad who's 2 and the eldest 5 is at school, my wife used to work before we had kids.... i have no convictions, or medical issues...nor does the rest of the family.... i have £20,000 or $40,000ish Australian dollars in the bank.... right.....that's just the basic profile of myself, now the situation!!!!... my my sister who lives in cairns Queensland Australia has given me and my family the opportunity to go Australia, she's been saying it's the best thing she ever did, her and her husband have a 5 bedroom house in Au, and have basically said to me, come out here, accommodation won't cost you a penny, as you can all live with us for however long!!!!.....I have my trade behind me etc!!!!.... I don't have to go down the 'skilled sponsor migration' route, and have done some research into paying the money, and going for the 'skilled independent migration' route!!!!!....has anyone done this??? If so how hard was it to do this?? How complicated with a wife and kids?? I'm abit lost as such as I'm just looking into it, but 100% committed to making this big change for me and my family!!!....how much total roughly if I do it through a agent?? I'm thinking in a way paying the extra money so it's done correctly, and possibly more promptly??? Any light shed on this post or subject would be fully grateful and appreciated of your time to reply!!!... thank you Nadim.... :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellyv Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Hi Nadim. Look on DIBP website for info but I would definately recommend going via the independant skilled route esp with a family. Speak to a MARA agent, they will advise u best and if you have the money its definately worth using one for the specialist advice and peace of mind. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellyv Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Ps...for a 189 independant visa using an agent you're looking at approx £10k for a family of 4 inc agent fees. (thats just to get the visa in your hand and it takes approx a year - dependant on certain factors) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shellyk666 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Hi Nadim, I would also recommend speaking to an agent, even if it's just for the free initial advice to gain a better understanding of your options and to make sure you haven't missed anything. Many decide to do it themselves (including me) but you have to be confident you understand what you need to do. Firstly with a skilled independent visa have a look at the DIBP website and ensure you meet the points test. You will also need to have your skills assessed, where you get this done and how much it costs depends upon your occupation. You'd also possibly need to do an English test (IELTS), for example although we have a UK passport we needed to undertake this test to gain additional points and some people may need to do it for their skill assessment or state nomination (if you go down that route). It certainly helps that you've been employed by the same company for the entire period as gaining employment references and evidence can be a pain if there are lots of different places involved and this is often what takes the time. Have a look at my time line in my signature for an idea of how long it can take. I don't know whether a motor mechanic would need to undertake a practical exam/technical interview as part of the skill assessment so this part may not reflect your situation. And I have to say that I have been pretty organised throughout. If any further questions come to mind feel free to ask Good luck x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadz128 Posted September 7, 2014 Author Share Posted September 7, 2014 Hi Nadim, I would also recommend speaking to an agent, even if it's just for the free initial advice to gain a better understanding of your options and to make sure you haven't missed anything. Many decide to do it themselves (including me) but you have to be confident you understand what you need to do. Firstly with a skilled independent visa have a look at the DIBP website and ensure you meet the points test. You will also need to have your skills assessed, where you get this done and how much it costs depends upon your occupation. You'd also possibly need to do an English test (IELTS), for example although we have a UK passport we needed to undertake this test to gain additional points and some people may need to do it for their skill assessment or state nomination (if you go down that route). It certainly helps that you've been employed by the same company for the entire period as gaining employment references and evidence can be a pain if there are lots of different places involved and this is often what takes the time. Have a look at my time line in my signature for an idea of how long it can take. I don't know whether a motor mechanic would need to undertake a practical exam/technical interview as part of the skill assessment so this part may not reflect your situation. And I have to say that I have been pretty organised throughout. If any further questions come to mind feel free to ask Good luck x Thank you all of you for replying, really grateful for it, I have just looked at your signature shellyk666, so your applying for the same one I'm interested in. Just out of curiosity if you don't mind. How many family members are you taking???? How much has it cost you, with out an agent???....so, so far your have been 6months into your whole visa appeal??? Have you had many complications??? And also 6months in, and at the medical stage. How long left do you think you have??? Thank you.... :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shellyk666 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Thank you all of you for replying, really grateful for it, I have just looked at your signature shellyk666, so your applying for the same one I'm interested in. Just out of curiosity if you don't mind. How many family members are you taking???? How much has it cost you, with out an agent???....so, so far your have been 6months into your whole visa appeal??? Have you had many complications??? And also 6months in, and at the medical stage. How long left do you think you have??? Thank you.... :-) It's no problem at all. There are 2 adults and 2 children (4 and 7 years) in our family, we are in the UK and have been since birth. We also have no medical complications so are pretty straight forward. We haven't come across any complications whatsoever (so far!) but I did A LOT of reading and research into each part of the process to ensure I understood. We are now at the point where we're expecting to hear the result of our application literally any day and hopefully by the end of this next week (fingers crossed!). Although I understand that some people need the help or simply don't want to do it themselves I found I couldn't justify the cost of an agent for something I felt I could do myself with a bit of time and effort. Costs - The skill assessment for a Joiner was not far off £1000 (for the Employment Check, the Technical Interview and the £50 DHL cost to send the documents to Melbourne). - The IELTS costs £145 per test and it took us 3 attempts to get the scores needed. - The visa itself cost £4000 for 2 adults and 2 children. - PCCs were £45 for each adult - Medicals were just over £800 for the entire family (at the time my daughter was 3 rather than 4, but not sure if this makes any difference). We went to Handsworth Wood Medical Centre in Birmingham because they had appointments on Saturdays. In addition to this you have to plan in costs for - flights for the family (we've booked with Singapore Air from Manchester to Perth one way and it's costing £2200). - taxi's to/from the airports and any hotel expenses - a container if you plan to take the content of your house. We're using a large Move Cube with Severn Seas which is costing £1500 but a 20ft container is double this. - if you plan to take your car you need to factor costs to ship it over. We're not doing this hough so can't help with this one. Can't think of anything else right now! Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadz128 Posted September 7, 2014 Author Share Posted September 7, 2014 It's no problem at all. There are 2 adults and 2 children (4 and 7 years) in our family, we are in the UK and have been since birth. We also have no medical complications so are pretty straight forward. We haven't come across any complications whatsoever (so far!) but I did A LOT of reading and research into each part of the process to ensure I understood. We are now at the point where we're expecting to hear the result of our application literally any day and hopefully by the end of this next week (fingers crossed!). Although I understand that some people need the help or simply don't want to do it themselves I found I couldn't justify the cost of an agent for something I felt I could do myself with a bit of time and effort. Costs - The skill assessment for a Joiner was not far off £1000 (for the Employment Check, the Technical Interview and the £50 DHL cost to send the documents to Melbourne). - The IELTS costs £145 per test and it took us 3 attempts to get the scores needed. - The visa itself cost £4000 for 2 adults and 2 children. - PCCs were £45 for each adult - Medicals were just over £800 for the entire family (at the time my daughter was 3 rather than 4, but not sure if this makes any difference). We went to Handsworth Wood Medical Centre in Birmingham because they had appointments on Saturdays. In addition to this you have to plan in costs for - flights for the family (we've booked with Singapore Air from Manchester to Perth one way and it's costing £2200). - taxi's to/from the airports and any hotel expenses - a container if you plan to take the content of your house. We're using a large Move Cube with Severn Seas which is costing £1500 but a 20ft container is double this. - if you plan to take your car you need to factor costs to ship it over. We're not doing this hough so can't help with this one. Can't think of anything else right now! Hope that helps Thats brilliant. Yes that put prices into perspective slightly, I know you haven't gone through the agents route, but would you recommend me do anything before going through agents???? I.e. - family medicals. Skills assessment, IELTS test, or do you think the assessments will be included in an agents fee, they just become a middle man as such?????..... would it be easier to get these things done ASAP, so there done and it ticks something off the list???... thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadz128 Posted September 7, 2014 Author Share Posted September 7, 2014 Also, fingers crossed the next couple of days!!!! :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shellyk666 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 I would certainly advise making a start with investigating the different parts to the process before going to agents. Even if you do decide to use an agent it's worth understanding imo. Agents can give you different prices dependant upon which parts of the process you require their assistance with. Give Go Matilda a call for a free initial assessment, I did that and they were really good. They can confirm which path is most appropriate, whether you meet the requirements and what you need to do. They can give you prices and then you'll be better informed and better able to decide whether or not to use their services. I would also advise you start gathering relevant evidence for your Skill Assessment. I would find out who undertakes the Skill Assessment for your occupation and scour their website for info. Ours was through Vetassess (who carry it out on behalf of TRA) and on their website they have lots of occupation specific information and checklists etc as well as costs and time scales. They also had an email address for queries and were really good at answering any questions I had. I would also search this forum for other relevant posts, you may be able to find out about any problems people had. Medicals and police checks need to wait until you have submitted your visa application. Once you're granted your visa you will be given 1 year from the earliest of either the Police Checks or Medicals in which to enter Australia and validate your visa. If you got this done first and then you were held up or another part of the process didn't go to plan you could have wasted a lot of money unnecessarily. Also, these don't take long to arrange and can be done and dusted within a week or two. Before I began all of this I wrote a schedule for myself based on the approximate processing times of each part of the process and it was really useful so I didn't let time slip by unnoticed. I began with IELTS whilst gathering evidence for the skill assessment. It can be quite a lengthy process if you let it! All the best x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blossom Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Just check which list your job is on. The sol or the csol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadz128 Posted September 8, 2014 Author Share Posted September 8, 2014 Just check which list your job is on. The sol or the csol. Motor or mechanic is in the Sol list...on the immi website it's 312211 under the TRA!!!... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadz128 Posted September 8, 2014 Author Share Posted September 8, 2014 Just check which list your job is on. The sol or the csol. Hi motor mechanic is on the SOL list, been on the immi website, and it's TRA 311211... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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