SA Sponsorship

[JoRed4]

Hello I'm new to Poms in Adelaide. I've been a member of Poms in Oz for a little while, however having been to the Down Under Live Seminar in Leeds this weekend; plans have changed. Originally I thought we had enough points for a 175, turns out we don't unless OH does an English exam, which he knows he wouldn't pass, not sure I would either to be honest! So State Sponsorship it is... We had always planned on Melbourne; however Victoria does not sponsor Landscape Gardeners. Our options are WA & SA. Due to the nature of the work my OH will be doing i.e. outside manual labour, he is opting for SA, i.e. Adelaide as the weather won't be as hot or as wet.

Does anybody know what the general timescale of SS to SA is? My OH also has to obtain an AQF III, providing we get the first part of that off this week, does anyone have any idea how long that process takes. We were informed at the seminar that the "changes" will be announced at the end of April, taking effect from the 1st July. Does anyone have an opinion on whether or not if our application has not reached visa process status by then; is Landscape Gardener likely to remain on the State sponsor list for SA?

Little bit of info about us. I am 28. OH 27. He is a Landscape Gardener & owns his own business & my job title is an Office Manger in a Commercial agent. We're engaged getting married in Sep '10. We have no children. We met in Perth 7 years. We've travelled all over Oz, with the exception of SA funnily enough!

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[Guest Jules37]

Hi

 

Have you spoken to a migration agent to see what your best options are? No one knows what is going to happen with regards to all the changes. The states will have their new state migration plans by July so until that time everyone is in the dark about what will happen. With regards to the AQF qual, my O/H completed the AQF111 certificate in Painting and decorating and they told us that the completion would happen as quickly as we could get the info together. We had to show lots of photgraphic evidence of his work, references etc and then they came out and viewed him at work. He also had lots of questions that he had to answer about his trade and H&S in Oz. I think it took him about 3 months but it could have been done quicker except he was a bit slow at getting all the documents together.

 

I am sorry if I am not being very helpful with my answer but I think you should talk to an agent to see what is your best option or have a look on the poms in oz site, there have been lots of discussions on there about people in the same situation as you.

 

Jules

[Guest barb]

Hi

my OH is a landscape gardener. The best bet is to get AQF111 asp.

We went with Australian skills assessment £1500 which is the norm. He will need photos, references from suppliers & customers He did a portfolio and a brief description of tasks done on a reguler basis and tools used and health & safety brief risk assessment for each job.He was then assessed via skype with a technical interview. A lot of work but get as much info together as poss and a C.V.

This is all then sent to TRA along with a mix of evidence to show tradeing ie a few bank statements, statements from trade accounts possibly a letter from accountant or trade suppliers and compile a few references to send.

He passed his AQF in sept 23rd and got his TRA in oct.

It will depend on how long it takes your oh to get all his evidence in order. We submited our state sponsership for SA on March 12th A delay due to work house move etc. And are now waiting for our sponsership and then we are ready to submit our main Visa 176 application as all paperwork is ready.

The main problem now is he is now haveing to retake his AQF due to the assessment not including irrigation Not his fault at all but the assessors not including it in his technicalinterview. So now he has to resubmit, although TRA have said this will not affect our application as they will just swap the details but still a lot of hassle we did not need.

He has now to attend a course next week on irrigation with some other guys who are in the same boat what a nightmare!. So tell him to brush up on that area as they are now including it.

We are with Overseas immigration based in Edinburgh who have been good so far. I cant say if Landscapers will be included in the SMP but i have been told that due to the lack of experienced Landscape gardeners there is a high demand forthem and a good chance to be on the list. What with developments house building, maintenance etc so fingers crossed.

Good luck it will all be worth it.

 

Barb

[JoRed4]

Hi

my OH is a landscape gardener. The best bet is to get AQF111 asp.

We went with Australian skills assessment £1500 which is the norm. He will need photos, references from suppliers & customers He did a portfolio and a brief description of tasks done on a reguler basis and tools used and health & safety brief risk assessment for each job.He was then assessed via skype with a technical interview. A lot of work but get as much info together as poss and a C.V.

This is all then sent to TRA along with a mix of evidence to show tradeing ie a few bank statements, statements from trade accounts possibly a letter from accountant or trade suppliers and compile a few references to send.

He passed his AQF in sept 23rd and got his TRA in oct.

It will depend on how long it takes your oh to get all his evidence in order. We submited our state sponsership for SA on March 12th A delay due to work house move etc. And are now waiting for our sponsership and then we are ready to submit our main Visa 176 application as all paperwork is ready.

The main problem now is he is now haveing to retake his AQF due to the assessment not including irrigation Not his fault at all but the assessors not including it in his technicalinterview. So now he has to resubmit, although TRA have said this will not affect our application as they will just swap the details but still a lot of hassle we did not need.

He has now to attend a course next week on irrigation with some other guys who are in the same boat what a nightmare!. So tell him to brush up on that area as they are now including it.

We are with Overseas immigration based in Edinburgh who have been good so far. I cant say if Landscapers will be included in the SMP but i have been told that due to the lack of experienced Landscape gardeners there is a high demand forthem and a good chance to be on the list. What with developments house building, maintenance etc so fingers crossed.

Good luck it will all be worth it.

 

Barb

Hi, thanks so much for this information. We are with Australia Skills Assessment too.... They keep telling us about the irrigation; they keep saying it's not really done in this country!! So how they are supposed to know how to do it, I don't know! You say you're OH went on an Irrigation Course, was that organised purely because they messed up & left in out of your OH's interview process or is there an actual Irrigation course that Landscape Gardeners can go on... My OH says that any Landscape Gardener in this country will have only done a certain amount of Irrigation work in the form of drainage & use in vegetable plots & flower beds because irrigation systems aren't really used here, certainely not in the same way they are in Oz. Do the people interviewing take this into account??

 

Thanks again for your help