Hello all,

We are going to be travelling down the east coast Oz in Feb 07 and although I am young enough to get a whv for Oz my boyfriend does not qualify.

Just wondering whether anyone can offer any advice etc on the sponsorship/visa dilemma - we may want to stay permanently - we actually came to NZ with that idea but we are sure this isn't the place for us, which leads us to contemplate Oz. Glenn (my boyf) was an assistant manager in a legal publishing firm in the UK and with this experience was offered a work to residence visa here in NZ - however, he does have a WHV for NZ (got in quick just before he turned 31!). Does anything similar exist in Oz? As for me, I am a biochemist with experience in DNA forensics.

I have looked through the Australian Immigration website but it is sooooo confusing even more so than NZ's - actually NZ's immigration laws/rules seems easy by comparison.

Any thoughts would be appreciated/or stories from people in similar circumstances!

GAP,
Yes, there has been a bit of a re-design of the Oz immi site which in my mind has it less easy to use than what it had been previously when in my book it was streets in front of the NZ one.

But the relevant information is still there, and it really just depends on what way you want to approach it, but either way, be it for sponsorship or getting immigration approved on skills, it'll be the skills of either you and your bf or just one of you if there is partner evidence - you do not have to be married.

For the sponsorship route, you'll need to be looking at jobs that you may be eligible for and then have a company that has had sufficient difficulty in attaining people with the skills to appoint.

There will still need to be the skills assessment done and some companies I'd expect be prepared to use a migration agent, paying costs etc in return for getting an employee prepared to commit to them - could involve some sort of contract that says unless you stay for X ammount of time, then costs that you may have actually had to pay up front do not get re-imbursed or if they have paid them, the ammount will be deducted from a final pay etc.
All that would just be up to what you negotiate with a potential employer and outside of the immigration regulations.

Sponsorship provides a temporary residence visa (TR) and then at some stage you apply for (PR), so it is a bit the same as work to residency in NZ, in that your skills are assessed and you have to have a job offer from an employer to get that permit, and then you eventually can get residency (maybe less of an application at the end)

Now if it is not so easy to get employers interested in the sponsorship route, then there is still nothing to stop you having your qualifications and experience assessed by the relevant authority, and fees are not all that high, but it can take a bit of time - several months for professional qualifications.

So, I'd suggest the following

. See where your skill/experience would place you as to the Skilled Occupations List SOL(covers both independent immigration and sponsorships )

You get directed to that from this page when you click on skilled and other workers and all the options you see for sponsorship have information more for employers to help them along the path, so sort of ignore all that.

. On SOL you'll find assessing authorities abbreviation listed and at end details for contacting the relevant ones and if you go to their web sites you will see what fees etc. are.

Rather than just apply for assessment, I would encourage you to get in contact with people who are working in the fields for which you want to apply for assessment/work, and before either you ought obviously to have well prepared resumes.

You could make preliminaruy contact though by email or phone to find out whether there is a different process (quicker) for people going the sponsorship route as against independent.

. To make contact with people in the profession, and maybe kill two birds with one stone, I would first have a look at sites like www.seek.com.au and www.careerone.com.au and see what relevant vacancies are being advertised.

You might luck out and find a contact that wants you to start tomorrow!, so then it becomes an ideal scenario for the employer to fast track things to the max through an agent or their own staff.

But at least, it may give you an opportunity to talk to people in the profession who should be familiar with registration body requirements, registration bodies and assessing authorities often being one and the same.

The other avenue you can try is to contact the relevant registration/assessing authority to see if they have member/training officer type people that can be available to have a preliminary chat with or offer suggested companies that might be worth contacting - they could even have inside information on companies struggling to get employees.

. OK, so you have done the ground work, possibly similar to what happened in NZ to get the work to residence offer, thus you can then decide on whether you lodge an application for assessment.

. The rest is relatively straightforward as once you get points for qualifications, your ages and speaking english get you the rest, you have two arms, two legs, one head and no police record of any great crimes and you'll get an invite to the party - you still have to apply of course.

Real difference is just whether you do it yourselves or have found an employer that helps it along, but then you'll still have PR paterwork to do down the track whereas doing it independently, you get PR straight off the bat.

More immediately

quote:

We are going to be travelling down the east coast Oz in Feb 07

You'll do far better to start in the south and not get too far north before April at earliest, as it'll be peak of tropical humidity, storms, possible flooding and cyclones in north for February.

Need any more explanation either way, happy to help.

Haha. What's there left to say, once gonorth has spoken.

As always, it's not that easy to attract companies to sponsor you - it's extre time and money invested. Another problem is that often companies need new employees 'now', but the sponsoring process takes a while. It took DIMA 5 months to process my visa application. Lucky for me the bridging visa (which is automatically granted when applying for a visa) takes over the work-conditions of the previous visa - which in my case allowed me to work. Therefore I could start immediately - which was the only way my current employer would have it. If they'd had to wait for 3-5 months. No way, Jose. Many companies will be like that. A way around this is to actually go back to Uni, get a Student Visa, apply for a student work permit...and then start looking for jobs. Obviously that costs money.

If you can get a whv, then I'd probably go for the spouse visa route. You get a job, let them sponsor you and then include your partner on your visa.

Hello and thank you both for your replies -they have been very helpful. Not sure what we are going to do yet - but I think I will be getting a WHV and my partner a simple ETA for now- it does seem a little pointless to go down the 'working and possibly staying' route once again so soon - we made that mistake when coming to NZ.

I agree that the time delay between getting sponsored and those elusive vacancies is very annoying and I am tempted on the study front...time will tell...roll on February!

with both of your skills- you should be able to get sponsorship. check out www.seek.com.au send in a few applications and see what happens- that is how I am here on a #457 4 year skilled migrant visa. My visa processed in about 3 weeks at most and I'm from the states. IT is Miles easier if you are English. Some of the companies are in such a skills crunch they are more than willing to sponsor people. I didn't have to use a recruitment firm or anything- Just apply for anything that seems that it fits your skills set.

Hi Ah Che',

It's good to hear from someone who is actually over there - where abouts are you living and what do you do exactly - I only ask since you mentioned IT which neither of us have particular skills in. Was wondering whether you have found it a breeze on account of being having IT skills that are in demand?

Like I mentioned in my first post, Glenn was a 2IC whilst working for a well known publishing firm in the UK (so has 4 years + exp in sales and marketing) and I have a Biochemistry degree and over a years experience in DNA forensics.

Hi Gap- I live in Sydney and am doing technical sales for environmental equipment. My background is Environmental Engineering. The IT thing was a typo. I meant it to say it is easier to get sponsorship if you are English than American.

http://www.australiablog.com/about-australia/skilled-mi...rk-in-australia.html

Check out this post. It contains a link to the list of skills that are needed.