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.
Posted: December 17th, 2006