Getting Aussie Residency - How hard is it?

[nikki1978]

My husband and I would love to move to Australia one day. I spent a year there and loved it and swore I would move there one day. We currently live in Croydon and are hoping that we can move over there before our DD starts secondary school (she is 5 now). Currently my DH runs a small IT company and I do part time book keeping work. In 2010 I will hopefully be doing a primary teaching degree which will take 3 years and then I should be able to go straight into full time work. We don't have a huge amount of money and are still not homeowners so it is doubtful we will be able to pay our way in (if this is even possible).

Will it be hard for us?

Thanks

They are dramatically cutting the skilled working visa programme in light of the recession.

I think you can get a list of the professions that are in demand from the Dept of Immigration. I would guess teaching would be on that list but you may have to give some sort of commitment about living in a rural area for a certain number of years. I have been told that if you're a medical professional, it's far easier to get residency if you are prepared to live in the outback rather than Sydney/Melbourne.

I don't think paying your way in is an option. You have to have a skill that the Australian government wants.

Would your DH be prepared to wind up his company and take a job? Probably the most straightforward way would be for him to get a job offer and the company to apply for an employment visa on his behalf.

The other thing worth mentioning is that everyone in your family needs to be healthy - you are unlikely to succeed if anyone has a condition that would require very expensive ongoing treatment.

Go to the immigration website and see if he'd qualify for a visa. They have a wizard thing that will ask you some questions and tell you if you qualify or not.

You could do it through your teaching but you'd need to have a few years experience behind you or you could may be try for a work sporsorship place but if you lost your job or you didn't like it you only have a short time to find another sponsor before your visa would run out and you have to come back.

Can I be rude and ask how old you are? The age limit is 45.

It is not for the faint hearted either. A visa application can take up to 2 years to be approved or even declined!

Message withdrawn

If I were you, I would approach an immigration consultant and get their advice. We used a company called Fragomen who were great and gave us lots of info as to how we could get over here.

There are a number of possible visas (based on employment, family, points system etc).

It is a fairly expensive process (I think we spent around 2000 pounds in total) and it took us about a year to get permanent residency (although we came earlier as DH got a job and was sponsored).

The visa system is complex though so well worth using an expert.

It's a good place to live though, although I am currently finding I am missing my friends and family quite a bit. But having said that, our standard of living is so much higher than in the UK.

Anyone know if it is possible to get my whole family - i.e me, DH and the two kids out there if I applied for a student visa and went to Uni there instead? Or would DH need a visa of his own i.e skilled worker?

Go on the britishexpats website for lots of information about student, and other, visas. If your husband has IT qualifications and experience he might just be lucky enough to be on the "occupations in demand" list. That's how we came in 2 years ago, when we first looked his specific job wasn't on the list but when the list changed six months later it was. We put in our application in Januay 2007 and got our PR in May 2007.

The skilled migrant immigration quota has been reduced recently, but OH says that in lots of areas of IT is really gearing up again here (Sydney) if you have specific skills.

If you have enough points (there's a quick test on the immigration website) I wouldn't bother with an agent. However, if it is not straightforward and your DH may not sail through the ACS verification of his qualifications and experience it's probably worth paying one.

I would do the applications sooner rather than later as your age will count against you. If you wanted to get in on your teaching you would probably have to go to a place where there is a demand for teachers ie in the countryside (out bush ) or a small town. Somebody I know applied and was told that they could come if they moved to a certain place.

Hey bloss, are you coming back any time soon? Ae the kids doing ok at school? I went past your house the other day and thought of you. We've just done our citizenship test so we're here for the long haul

savoycabbage I didn't say how old I was . I am only 30 now so allowing 2 years to redo my Alevels, 3 years of a degree and then one year working here I would be applying when I am 36 which is fine as far as I can see. I am starting to veer towards midwifery as a profession rather than teaching as it has always appealed to me I just thought teaching would be easier with regards to childcare for my two kids. However we are pretty desperate to get over to Aus at some point and being that midwives are on the in demand list currently (teachers are not). I am starting to swerve towards that. I don't have to decide yet and when I put my UCAS form in in a years time I can always put both teaching and midwifery courses down so I will have two years to decide what to do.

I wasn't calling you old I just meant don't wait until your dd is near to starting high-school if you can do it sooner. The most simple way would be for one of you to get a job here, my friend has jut done that this week. He got a job with BT and another couple I know here got a job with IBM. The IBM one is an IT job. It is possible. My dh gave a job to a British woman with no visa a couple of weeks ago because he couldn't find an Australian. My dh works for GE money.

The problem I have savoy is the chances of me getting in are much higher with a degree. I am starting to sway from teaching to midwifery at the moment as they are both things I wanted to do but midwifery is easier to get into I think both here and in Aus as there are shortages (hopefully there still will be in 7 years though... sorry very selfish of me!). DH has a small company that will never be big enough to apply for a business visa. His previous work history is all over the place - a few years working in pubs then 7 years fitting car alarms and in car entertainment (plus a year at the end of that time working in the technical support department for a large car alarm company), then he worked in my parents hotel for 3 years when we had to move in with them for financial reasons - he was a breakfast chef, ran all the ICT for the building plus loads of other stuff. And for the past year he has been running a company which he started while at the hotel as a side line, they do websites, networking etc but he is the one who runs the company and makes the sales and he does some of the computer stuff but he is not a programmer so cannot do it all. He has no qualifications at all.

So really this all comes down to me. I can't work full time yet because of the kids and to be honest I think my chances of getting in to Aus are far higher as a registered midwife or teacher than if I was just working for a large company. Plus if the worst happens and we don't get I am still left with a good career over here (or we can try canada I guess...).

Please feel free to disagree and let me know your opinion if I am wrong though!

No, you are probably right. I would sway you further towards the midwifery. I'm a Primary teacher and I haven't even tried looking for a job.

Actually though, you could look into working in a 'kinder' as they have qualified teachers running them but I know a normal British teaching qualification is not what they want for that as you are only qualified to teach from age 5. At least that was the case when we lived in Sydney before I had my dcs. There were lots and lots of teaching jobs in the childcare centres but I couldn't do them.

I don't know much about it but you might ant to look into it. They are called 'Kinders' in Melbourne and they are like a nursery school. Here they do a 'three year old programme' and a 'four year old programme'

There is a Early Years Education and Childcare degree that I could do so that is another possibilty but I think you need 5 years work experience and an NVQ in Childcare so the timing is a bit off.

I could also do a degree and my teacher training at the same time then be a secondary school teacher but the problem is if we didn't get in I would be stuck in this country doing a horrible job - not sure what the teenagers are like in Aus but here they are evil

I think midwifery may be the way to go.

Thanks for your advice