Where do we start?

scirish

Hi, have been looking through this threads, some really helpful info.there, dh and I are seriously considering moving to australia but need advice where do we start?
We have 4 young kids, he is a roofer so as far as I can see comes under a skilled tradesman I was working in call centres till no. 3 arrived, so where do we narrow the search to look for a good area to raise a family and of course to find work? does he need to have a job arranged before we go out there? is there a particular area you do/don't recommend i.e.sydney, perth?
I know they are very wide ranging questions but as we don't know a sinner out there I thought I would start by asking those who do know what they are talking about!
any advice greatly appreicated!

Zambia

Hi

Well in a way you have started. Internet research is really a good way to start.

Right well first up you need to estabilish what Visa you are coming over or planning to come over on. you may want to go state sponsored which in turn would decide where you live for a while.

The Visa is really the biggy. Before anything else you need to estabilish are you eliglible.

There are lists below that you need to find your OH on.

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/sol/


Plus do not underestimate the impact losing the level of family and friend support you have in Ireland.

So first question is what Visa's can you come over under.

Mahatma coat

Bear in Mind that State Sponsorship often means REGIONAL work, Talkin to a Lad I know who took his Family to Emerald as an electrician, Great for Him, loads of work, but the family Hated it, Being removed from Cosmopolitan Ireland and being dumped in what I will admit is a Fairly Hick town in Australia for Four years.

I wouldnt blame them for not making friends with the locals, they tried but the locals can be quite Trying

Mahatma coat

How old is your eldest, anything over 12 nd they will have a vey hard time adjusting to life in Rural Australia

Zambia

Is that Emerald Vic or somewehere else?

ballooba

Mahatma coat wrote: »

I wouldnt blame them for not making friends with the locals, they tried but the locals can be quite Trying

That's not just for people from overseas, I have some friends who moved to Bamaga from SE QLD and took a long time to be integrated.

aido79

have a luck at this forum www.britishexpats.com for more info. There are alot of people on it that have either experience with applying for visas and also migration agents. Just be prepared for a long wait. For a skilled visa(175) you are looking at about a 2 year wait. State sponsorship(176) is around the same. The regional state sponsorship(487) is around a year but it requires you to live in a regional area for 2 years. As mentioned before be careful which regional area to live. Country areas in Australia are very different to country areas in Ireland. Towns can be hundreds of km's apart and the isolation can be alot to deal with for people who aren't used to this...I've been there..I lived on a farm where the nearest shop was 65km's away!

scirish

our eldest is nearly 12 now so would be about 14 going, no matter about him and 3 younger ones adjusting to the isolation I don't think I would like it too much either ! what about new zealand? is it as expensive to live there as australia?

Mahatma coat

Jaysus, I didnt mean to be offputting, but it is important to consider these things Before you move Almost half way round the planet.

emerald in QLD Zambia, altho I suspect that the VIC version may be just as Hick

scirish

no not at all at, I appreciate the advice! thanks, funds being tight its not like we can go over have a nose then make up our mind, would be more him going over then if he likes it I will rent out our house ( which we slaved over, extended and renovated) and then move over with the kids. One of those immigration beaureaus was onto me by email saying he as a roofer her would need sponsorship cos they are not on the priorities list the the regional skills list was out in october so maybe do like a state sponsorship? I don't know my head is fried looking through all this, all I know is I don't want a raise my kids where there is nothing there for them but the dole queue nor am I watching my hubby crack up hanging about looking for work.
Sorry to rabbit on - am venting lol, so immigration place said to put down three preferences so I was going to put - brisbane ( in the vain hope its not as expensive to live as the cities further down south? ) perth ( purely because I saw a programme about it and it was lovely and finally sydney or melbourne cos well I don't know bondi beach lol. As you can see pretty flimsy reasoning on my behalf but sure if you don't know about the place then you don't know what you are getting yourself into! so if you think I am nuts please do say!
thanks again for posts, much appreciated.
scirish

ballooba

I don't think you need to use a migration agent. It's a completely unnecessary expense in my opinion.

Zambia

SC your not nuts.

First up Australia is huge it has a mix of Big cities and places where you could hunt birds with a cannon and no one would even stir.

So that said there is a place for you somewhere.

It sounds as if you are waiting for the state skills list to come out. In that case I dont see the rush to pick a City. The logical thing to do is wait for that list then decide from the places that you can get state sponsored in.

Once you find that let us know and we can help you narrow down those cities. Chances are we all live near/in one.

This all seems very big and rightly so it is what you need to do is line up all the tasks and knock em over as they come up. The first task IMO is you have to find a way to get a VISA to live here.

Where to live, cost of living etc comes second. But thats just how I would do it.

ballooba

Are the state lists likely to be a positive risk or a negative risk to migrants? The current policy seems to be to cut back on migration. I wouldn't be putting all my eggs in that basket.

Zambia

ballooba wrote: »

Are the state lists likely to be a positive risk or a negative risk to migrants? The current policy seems to be to cut back on migration. I wouldn't be putting all my eggs in that basket.

True. If they are not on it now however then the list cant hurt.

ballooba

Zambia232 wrote: »

True. If they are not on it now however then the list cant hurt.

I know it's disdained upon but the following routes are a slim possibility and shouldn't be ruled out:
1) WHV -> 457 -> ENS
2) 457 -> ENS

or variations on the above. You could be waiting a long long time for independent or state migration. I'm in the process myself but I understand I could be waiting 18 months.

Zambia

I think 1 is out due to dependants, but I see no issue with 2.

Its a hard risky road though.

Mahatma coat

If they want you to nominate cities where you'd like to go, I suggest that you pck some of the smaller ones, everyone wantsto live in the Big cities, but if you say Caboolture or Toowomba instead of Brisbane it'd look better, it'd lok like you had reseached it a bit and they might look more favourably on ye.

Dont hold me to any of this but Id say if ya wanted to go to QLD I'd pick Mackay, tis a nice town.

or if ya went to WA, Try Bunburry, also nice.

I'm sure if you made a list of things you were lookin for in an area the Posters here could advise you, problem is most of the places I now aint places I'd recomend raising a family, with the exception of the above