Question for Doctors who completed skilled migration - of someone else who knows about migration for docs!

[excitedbutterrified]

Me and the wife have been waiting for an invitation for 189 visa for the past 6 months via skillselect. So far, only I have a positive skills assessment as an engineer, but our points tally is a little light at 85, and it doesn't look positive for us just now.

My wife is a consultant paediatrician, and we have avoided getting her skills assessed as it seems to be a very expensive process, and difficult to do without a job offer from an aussie hospital. We want to get a visa in the bag with a view to migrating in a few years, and as we are both just entering our 40's so time is ticking away. We are looking to move in 3/4 years and if we leave the visa process until then, we won't have the points to make it happen.

As I understand it, a positive skills assessment for a Doctor is to hold evidence of full general medical registration with without conditions at the time of invitation. She did have this some 3 years ago, as we were living in Melbourne and she was working as a doctor then. However her registration lapsed shortly after we left Australia.

This week, as a response to the COVID-19 situation, my wife received an email saying she had been automatically re-registered so she can return to work to help in the virus response. We have just checked on her AHPRA account and they have issued the registration certificate attached.

There is an annexe on the next sheet saying she is registered on the "pandemic response sub-register"  -  this is the part that worries me.

This may be a long shot, but does anyone know if this certificate would be sufficient for positive evidence of a skills assessment? Or is there some other documentation which would be required? Particularly interested in hearing from doctors who have previously made the move on what evidence they had to provide.

Thanks,

Pete

 

[DXW059]

Can your wife get her general medical registration re-instated (but on the usual register rather than the pandemic response one)? I would have thought this would be possible seeing as she has been registered in Australia before and assuming she has continued working outside of Australia since leaving. Not sure whether they would accept the above or not, although it does confirm she has general registration without conditions so it may work - perhaps worth getting advice from an immigration consultant with experience dealing with medical practitioners? 

Alternatively could you apply for a state-sponsored 190 visa?

 

[Marisawright]

With 85 points, you've got no chance of a 189 visa, so you don't have much choice I don't think.

[Lavers]

Can you not go down the 190 route?

[excitedbutterrified]

Honestly, it doesn't look great for us with 189! We are paying the price for not doing this earlier when the points needed for an invite were much lower, looking back at previous invitation rounds we would have been invited pretty quickly had we put in our EOI in at any time in the last 5 years, I'm kicking myself.

We would be looking to live in either victoria (we lived there for a few years previously, and have a good work / social network) or in Western Australia, and Unfortunately, looking at all the state lists for 190 neither of our occupations are on their lists for eligibility. 

I guess we could apply for another state - ACT still sponsor for my profession, but there is no way we would live there, so we haven't considered that - I don't think it would be a good idea to be dishonest.

We are going to leave our 189 EOI in and see what happens. In the meantime, we will look for job opportunities where an employer could sponsor us. I think this is marginally more likely as we both have masses of experience in our respective careers which are very specialist (particularly in my case).

It all feels like the opportunity is drifting away, which is gutting as emigrating to OZ has been a long term goal of mine for some 20 years.

[Lavers]

If it is that much of a dream then you do whatever is necessary to get it done.

If it means a 190 for ACT then I'd go down than route.

Do your 2 yes then move on (if you still want to)

[excitedbutterrified]

Cheers,  Totally agree with the sentiment mate, and if it was just me on my own I would be doing just that. 

But having a family with young kids complicates matters! Not sure that a multi stage move will make it past the wife approval stage!

[Lavers]

I know what you mean about a second move ive got 2 young girls 4 & 9.

How old are your kids? 

Kids can be pretty good at adapting quickly to change.

[ali]

On 15/04/2020 at 23:26, excitedbutterrified said:

Me and the wife have been waiting for an invitation for 189 visa for the past 6 months via skillselect. So far, only I have a positive skills assessment as an engineer, but our points tally is a little light at 85, and it doesn't look positive for us just now.

My wife is a consultant paediatrician, and we have avoided getting her skills assessed as it seems to be a very expensive process, and difficult to do without a job offer from an aussie hospital. We want to get a visa in the bag with a view to migrating in a few years, and as we are both just entering our 40's so time is ticking away. We are looking to move in 3/4 years and if we leave the visa process until then, we won't have the points to make it happen.

As I understand it, a positive skills assessment for a Doctor is to hold evidence of full general medical registration with without conditions at the time of invitation. She did have this some 3 years ago, as we were living in Melbourne and she was working as a doctor then. However her registration lapsed shortly after we left Australia.

This week, as a response to the COVID-19 situation, my wife received an email saying she had been automatically re-registered so she can return to work to help in the virus response. We have just checked on her AHPRA account and they have issued the registration certificate attached.

There is an annexe on the next sheet saying she is registered on the "pandemic response sub-register"  -  this is the part that worries me.

This may be a long shot, but does anyone know if this certificate would be sufficient for positive evidence of a skills assessment? Or is there some other documentation which would be required? Particularly interested in hearing from doctors who have previously made the move on what evidence they had to provide.

Thanks,

Pete

 

If it's anything like nursing (and it may not be) the registration and skills assessment are two different things.  If you are already registered in Aus (for nursing) you can apply for a modified skills assessment. 

[Marisawright]

13 hours ago, excitedbutterrified said:

It all feels like the opportunity is drifting away, which is gutting as emigrating to OZ has been a long term goal of mine for some 20 years.

You say it's been a goal of yours.  What about the wife?   You've been in Australia before on temp visas but didn't take the opportunity to get PR - that rings an alarm bell or two for me, making me wonder if your wife is as keen as you on life in Australia?

[Quoll]

What's wrong with ACT? You could do much worse and there is always work for paediatricians. 

[starlight7]

I think ACT would be alright, too- especially if you are choosing between WA and Vic which are very different from each other. I would say ACT is more like Vic than WA. I would have thought they would be welcoming GPs with open arms- especially as they would be getting someone they haven't had to spend money on re training. I would be pushing hard to get here and now might be just the right time.

[Aabb]

On ‎20‎/‎04‎/‎2020 at 10:20, excitedbutterrified said:

Honestly, it doesn't look great for us with 189! We are paying the price for not doing this earlier when the points needed for an invite were much lower, looking back at previous invitation rounds we would have been invited pretty quickly had we put in our EOI in at any time in the last 5 years, I'm kicking myself.

In the meantime, we will look for job opportunities where an employer could sponsor us. I think this is marginally more likely as we both have masses of experience in our respective careers which are very specialist (particularly in my case).

It all feels like the opportunity is drifting away, which is gutting as emigrating to OZ has been a long term goal of mine for some 20 years.

Hi there !

I could have written your post myself....so frustrating. 

I am a Dr but a PhD one. I went to Australia on a temp visa 10 years ago and was so silly that I didn't try the PR while I was there. Since then, my only dream is to go back... I do not have enough point for a 189 visa so I did not even lodge it. My job category has been recently added to the MSTOL but only for few states and only for a limited number. So I have lodged a 190 visa with 80 points (+5 with state sponsorship). Clock is ticking as well as I will turn 40 soon and I will be losing points... The only way to increase my points is the English test. I missed Superior English by only 1 points out of 90 on 2 out of the 4 test category... I am still kicking myself. I was decided to to it again and then the COVID-19 invited himself to the party.... lockdown, borders closed (had to go in another country for the English test). So frustrating. 

ACT is one of the state sponsoring my job category but we decided not to do it simply because there is only little chance that my husband can find a job with the job he has. And mine as well actually. I am a biotechnologst but working in pharma companies and I could'nt find my kind of job in ACT.  It was very hard and still is as I have mixed feeling about trying everything I can but creating a situation where only one of us can have a job he is passionated about is hard... 

Contrary to you, I am absolutely certain that with my job category it is not easy to be sponsored by an employer, no matter the years of experience that I have.

I have seen jobs available and reached out to the HR department of the company and it was everytime the same answer: no, we do not sponsor (costly and timely not advantageous)...

Good luck for your application.

 

[DXW059]

On 20/04/2020 at 09:20, excitedbutterrified said:

Honestly, it doesn't look great for us with 189! We are paying the price for not doing this earlier when the points needed for an invite were much lower, looking back at previous invitation rounds we would have been invited pretty quickly had we put in our EOI in at any time in the last 5 years, I'm kicking myself.

We would be looking to live in either victoria (we lived there for a few years previously, and have a good work / social network) or in Western Australia, and Unfortunately, looking at all the state lists for 190 neither of our occupations are on their lists for eligibility. 

I guess we could apply for another state - ACT still sponsor for my profession, but there is no way we would live there, so we haven't considered that - I don't think it would be a good idea to be dishonest.

We are going to leave our 189 EOI in and see what happens. In the meantime, we will look for job opportunities where an employer could sponsor us. I think this is marginally more likely as we both have masses of experience in our respective careers which are very specialist (particularly in my case).

It all feels like the opportunity is drifting away, which is gutting as emigrating to OZ has been a long term goal of mine for some 20 years.

Your occupations may not be on the 190 lists but as you are very keen to be in VIC or WA how about trying the VIC 491 visa? This requires a full time job offer in any occupation on the Commonwealth's skilled occupation lists, which must be located in regional Victoria. Regional areas include places like Geelong, Mornington, Ballarat, Bendigo etc.

I guess the downside of this in your case would be that with a job offer you would probably need to move sooner than you would ideally like to.  

https://liveinmelbourne.vic.gov.au/migrate/skilled-migration-visas/491