Lulu78

Thanks for your advice. We have a 190 visa, so we shouldn't have to register our arrival so. Surprised about the drivers licence though, I thought you could keep current(Irish) one till it is due for renewal and then change over. I must have a look at the other banks!! tell me, does the list ever get any shorter ? thanks again x x

Hi All, I hope you are all well in the land of Oz. I know there has been various posts on this topic but I couldn't find them so am looking for your help (even a previous post bump would suffice). Thankfully we don't need accommodation. I am basically looking for a list of things that need to be done when we arrive: *Registering our arrival in Perth, where do we do this ? *Medicare? *Tax number? *Banking, I want to open accounts now but the bank a relative recommended (P&N) dont really do online applications. (No previous Oz address) *What else?? Thanks

We got our 190 visa and my partner has an under active thyroid and is on 200mg eltroxin per day, he was also on cholesterol med and has haemochromatosis but is healthy and well, a ok weight etc. Try not to worry, I did and it is a waste to time that you could be spending getting excited about the adventure.

I did the skills assessment with ACWA, under Welfare Worker and it takes about 8 weeks but I think it can be done quicker. A friend of mine who was in Oz had hers done quicker. Call ACWA and explain, they will tell you if they can do it quicker. Pm me and I can advise you on the assessment as the longest part for me was understanding what they wanted from me. I ended up sending a book of stuff. It's the five core competencies that confused me, as I didn't gave an agent but I can help if you need.

Ah, ok. Thanks for that. So they allow you to start without it! I am trying to get as much done from this end as possible. Ah well.

Hi All, just wondering if I can apply for a Police check and Working With Children check before I arrive in May? cheers Lulu

Wow Chris, you are there already. We had our visa granted 2 weeks ago and its only really sinking in. So, I look forward to hearing how you get on. Best of luck Louise

Hi All, we had our visa granted last week and am delighted but need to shift into the next gear. So, now wondering what the job scene is like? Are things really tough? Has anyone found a job recently ? Thinking of coming out in May 2014, we need to validate by June and want to save as much as we can. Any advice will be gratefully received.

Hi Jodi, Thanks for the info, I will defo start looking at other job titles. I think that for the visa application, your assessment has to be within the past 12 months. I will check through my stuff tomorrow but the 12 month figure is in my head. HTH

Hi Jodipodi, Thanks for the reply. From what I see on Ssek, ethical jobs etc, there is work but worried as want to hit the ground running. I had the same issue with refs, as got them for skills assessment in summer 2012, for visa app in summer 2013 and will need them when I get to Oz. I asked referees to email them so in future I can just change date and if needs be copy a signature as all refs were ok with this! They prefer this to writing another ref.

Anyone got a job? We just did our medicals and starting to get nervous as have been hearing that work is drying up!!!

Hi Jodipodi, It took me so long to get the pieces together for ACWA under Welfare Worker heading but I had no advice so kept throwing in the towel. In hindsight, it's straight forward enough. Put together a portfolio of 1. References, job descriptions, work you did while in those jobs; if you have newspaper cuttings of events/conferences or web pages, if you are named in publications that you contributed to etc. 2. Degree/ Diploma cert and transcripts and extracts from courses ( to show topics covered) 3. Write the piece on how you have met the core competencies. This took a while as there is no guide, so I gave a blend what I understood the competency to mean and an example of work that met it. 4. Your birth cert, passport and I think I put IELTS in. I had quite a bit of work experience unqualified so they seemed to take this into account except when they were assessing me for points. I would advise you to pay to have this done. I think it's $650 in total. HTH

Great news, well done

Out matching a salary to this. Cheers for the links. Lou

Thanks cjbchris, I think you are right, I need to work out how much my new life will cost and start thinking ab

Great to hear there are jobs as that's the big fear, isn't it? It totally helps to hear that the life in Oz is worth it as motivation can dip especially when you have a job and family and don't have spare time to give to a confusing process. Do you really need to earn double in dollar salary to have a good standard of living?

Great to hear there is lots of jobs and you are right re. hope for sponsorship. You have kick started my motivation again. You are working in Youth Mental Health, great. From my searches it appeared there was more jobs in residential care and disability than youth/community. Am working in Ireland. Thanks for sharing the learning.

Try your public library, mine had lots.

I am applying for 190, I calculated all of my work experience pre and post qual. I changed work exp details on my EOI as DIAC told me to and spoke to WA and they told me to reapply for SS with 70 which apparently includes 5 points for SS that hasn't been approved but they said this was how it was done. DyLeB: I don't know where I got the 10 for SS. so back to where I was a fortnight ago alas a little wiser.

Ro88, I am applying for 190 and I got WA SS last week but I had put in all my work experience on my EOI and it calculated 80 points ( i was delighted to have so many points), so that's what I stated on the SS. Silly me, the SS is invalid so have to apply again. I wouldn't mind but I applied and was approved within the same week so hopefully that happens again. Im kind of set on WA as have lots of family there and accommodation when we get there, which helps. Interesting that you say they are a bit behind. I'm currently working in Youth Mental Health and thought they were light years ahead. I don't know if any of you have seen the ceiling figures for community/ welfare workers, there are about 1300 visas but not too many applications so that may be good for us. I gave an agent a call yesterday so may get one to help with the rest of the process. It's all money!

Hi, am delighted to see others in similar sector to myself. I got my skills assessed by ACWA under the Welfare Worker but was unsure which heading fitted best, as I do a lot of community work. The application for assessment was very lengthy and took me months to get together but was positive thankfully. i have also noticed plenty of jobs and found ethical jobs and seek.com good also. However, I have been told that offshore sponsorship is very rare, as face to face interview is vital for this work. I've suggested Skype but no joy so far. Ro88: How are you finding working there? Anything very different about how things are done?

Ok, so I have been instructed to reapply for WA SS, another $200 but my own fault, I suppose. I also made changes to to my EOI by entering my work experience differently. I was in the same job for 8.5 years but only 3 of that was post qualification, so entered it under 2 different posts held, so one post spanned the period pre and the other post qualification. I said that the pre qualification work experience was not relevant/related or whatever term it uses. This way the correct points were calculated. I am due to have a chat with an agent in the morning to run this by them and hopefully I will be back in the game again.

Does anyone have a number for DIAC? I can only get the High Commission in London and they weren't very helpful the last time I spoke to them.

I just got an email from WA re. SS saying that I need to reapply for SS with the new pints which is 65 and will only be 75 when they give me the SS. Is that correct? Skillselect gave me a total of 80 points. I counted 65 plus 10 for state sponsorship. DyleB, It appears that they counted 8 yrs work experience instead of 5 post qualification and also counted SS before I got it. I'm sure I only ticked required SS. I might just withdraw EOI to be on the safe side and start a new one.

Thanks Candygirl, you are right. I will call them tomorrow.