Information needed help please!!!

[Guest yellowmonkey]

Hi I have recently been made redundant and as a result myself and my wife find ourselves at a bit of a crossroads...

We have been thinking about moving to Adelaide for a while and this has gained momentum with the unexpected redundancy.

 

Really we have no clue where to start and what is involved with the visa process.

From what I have read/researched it would be visa 175/176 (what is the difference?)

 

I am a Graphic Designer by trade and have done a few online assessments and have been told that I score 75 points so would qualify for a Regional State Visa.

 

So I guess the first few questions would be....

 

What costs are involved in applying for one (per couple)?

 

is it worth while hiring an emigration agent? How expensive are they?

 

How long does the process for the visa take?

 

Sorry if these are silly questions that are easy answerable elsewhere but my head is spinning at the moment trying to work out the best thing to do for us.

 

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

 

YM

[Diane]

Lots of migration agents offer free initial consultations, so it might be worth finding someone local to you and going to have a chat with them - you're not committed to anything and should come away with information that's "straight from the horse's mouth" about costs and stuff.

 

You may find your case is pretty straightforward and you can go it alone, without an agent - there are plenty who have done this on the site who can help and advise on the various forms and procedures - or if your case is complicated you might prefer the comfort of having an agent on board. If I were in your shoes, I'd start with that initial consultation, come home, spend a few hours trawling through the Immigration website, and searching through previous posts on here, then you can make an informed decision on the next step!

 

Any reason you have picked South Australia specifically? Have you visited before? Got friends here? (sorry, I'm really nosey - feel free to tell me to mind my own!!)

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

Heeeelllo

 

To answer a couple of those (only a flying visit I'm afraid):

A 175 basically means once you are granted the visa, you get to come to Oz, stay in Oz for ever and ever (if you are a good boy/girl) and can live and work where-ever you want (whatever state you want)

A 176 is the same as the above, but you promise to work/live in a specific state for 2 years when you get here. After which you can go live elsewhere if you want.

The 176 is granted a bit quicker than the 175 currently. But they are changing the system in July, and who knows what will be the fastest then? (Things tend to change quite a bit with regards to emigration to Oz, best way to keep ontop of them is to keep reading forums like this and read the http://www.immi.gov.au website, the DIAC's official website that has all the info on it, and is up to date )

 

Costs for a couple, currently, for a 176, for SA are around £3-4K, depending on your qualifications/skills and the cost of getting them assessed for Oz. I think ours came in at around the £3K mark all in, not including actually getting over here, or our stuff over here (even if that's still in the UK), but then I think I have one of the cheaper skills assessing bodies in the teacher's lot, so that saved quite a bit. The actual visa costs around £2K (depending on what the exchange rate is doing), then there are medicals, police checks, skills assessment to be paid for too.

 

Agents - depends on you entirely - we did it without and it was really easy, for us, for others they have used and agent and found it invaluable. Totally second what Diane says about getting a free assessment and then at least you know where you are and what it is likely to cost.

 

How long? For us it was a silly fast 4ish weeks end to end (not including a bit in the middle where we dithered about) for SS for SA and then the actual visa with DIAC. Think that is silly fast and not moving that quick now, but once you get your skills assessment done it moves along pretty fast if you are a 176. The current CO allocation times can be found here:

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm (if you don't understand what that means, just ask and if I'm not back (which I might not be - I'm currently touring around Oz in a camper having only arrived a couple of weeks ago), someone else will assist )

 

Hope that helps a bit, welcome to PIA

[Guest Helchops]

Adelaide Bound has given you a great answer.

 

We used a migration agent - and they were great...we hadn't got a lot of money to spare, but we found that safety net really comfortable although we did have a few bumps along the way with the agent...still a good experience overall.

 

I think the breakdown of our costs were:

1) Agent £2000

2) Visa Fees £2500

3) IELTS Fees £300

4) Skills Assessment Fees £400? (Can't remember!)

5) Police Checks £70

 

Then:

 

6) Pet Shipping £3000 (For a Jack Russell no less!!!)

7) Flights £1600

8) Furnished Accommodation for 6 months $11,700 (£7,800?)

9) Any Shipping Fees (We're not shipping anything probably)

 

I'm sure I've missed something, but that's our costs (1-8). We opted for the Accommodation as we knew where we wanted to rent in advance, and also we won't have any rental costs when we're there as money will be tight. Hopefully within six months our jobs will be sorted allowing us a fixed lease rental.

[Guest jplaysguitar]

Please help! We've done all our research, filled out the online visa application (for a 475, regional (provisional) sponsored general skilled migration - GSM). However, we're completely bamboozled by the skills assessment criteria. Wherever we look to find the correct route, we just seem to be going around in circles and, on the one hand, TRA assessment seems to be $300 but then they say on their paperwork that Vetassess are their approved assessor and there are multiple levels of assessment, including practical test, technical interview etc. All told, they're thousands of dollars in fees. Can anyone point us in the correct direction and clarify what's required? We've scoured immigrationsa, diac, TRA and vetassess and are no further forward. We're applying against his occupation (Auto Electrician 3211), he completed his apprenticeship in 2006 and has been employed as an auto electrician ever since.

We're all ready to lodge, save for this so would really appreciate any help you can give.

 

Jess

[Guest jplaysguitar]

Hi all,

 

Further to my last post I managed to figure out that TRA was (probably) the correct assessment authority. The application pack is ready to go tomorrow by courier. I just hope it gets processed before Immigration SA close out the regional sponsorship visa application - last year I think this was at the end of May but if anyone can advise more accurately, it'd be much appreciated. This is gonna be a close one, so I've already pre-filled in the DIAC application too, so we're not caught out next time. Fingers crossed!!!!!!

 

Jess

[Guest Paula H]

Hi

May I ask

why your not shipping anything?

 

Adelaide Bound has given you a great answer.

 

We used a migration agent - and they were great...we hadn't got a lot of money to spare, but we found that safety net really comfortable although we did have a few bumps along the way with the agent...still a good experience overall.

 

I think the breakdown of our costs were:

1) Agent £2000

2) Visa Fees £2500

3) IELTS Fees £300

4) Skills Assessment Fees £400? (Can't remember!)

5) Police Checks £70

 

Then:

 

6) Pet Shipping £3000 (For a Jack Russell no less!!!)

7) Flights £1600

8) Furnished Accommodation for 6 months $11,700 (£7,800?)

9) Any Shipping Fees (We're not shipping anything probably)

 

I'm sure I've missed something, but that's our costs (1-8). We opted for the Accommodation as we knew where we wanted to rent in advance, and also we won't have any rental costs when we're there as money will be tight. Hopefully within six months our jobs will be sorted allowing us a fixed lease rental.

[Guest Helchops]

Well, we're in a small semi and the furniture we do have isn't really worth a lot. On top of that, we've booked accommodation for six months which is furnished. We may take a couple of huge boxes but Ikea's just around the corner!

[Guest Chris_J]

How do you get in as a Graphic Designer? My Wife is a graphic designer and she couldn't get in SA. Obviously we were ok with my IT Sys Admin skills but just curious, because Lizie was a little upset her skills weren't on the list :-)

[barbaitch]

Hi Yellowmonkey:

 

Yes, I recommend you start off with a complementary phone call/email to a registered UK-based migration agent, and you couldn't do better than to contact Ian Harrop & Associates (you'll find him easily online). He'll tell you all you need to know in one phone call.

 

All the best.