Help needed - 22y/o engineer

[ianjdavy]

Hi

I'm 22 and a qualified engineer from England. I'm a CNC operator and work on borers and 5 axis milling machines (Heidenhain + Siemens control). I am traveling to Australia on a 12month working holiday visa on the 2nd January. I was wanting to stay over there but didn't realise how complex the process was or the costs incurred until now. I have been in touch with the visa bureau and they said it will cost between 4 + 5000 pounds. I won't have that as I am going traveling for a period of time to find where I would like to settle, and was told that I could get a sponsorship and it would only take 2-4 months and they would pay the cost.

Is it difficult to find an employer willing to sponsor me, where would I start to look and would I have to remain with the employer for a fixed period of time?

Any information would be great.

Thanks in advance

Ian

[kaz101]

Hi Ian,

Moving to Australia isn't cheap!

If you haven't already done so check out the 'Think of emigrating...' sticky post towards the top of the forum since that we give you a clue as to whether your skills are in demand.

If your skills are not in demand then it's unlikely that you will get sponsorship.

If you do get sponsorship that's usually only temporary so you'll have to apply for a permanent visa (but that's usually cheaper and easier than doing it from outside Oz), and yes you have to stay with that company in that area for 2 years (usually).

There is also state sponsorship as well as company sponsorship - see links in the 'PLEASE READ...' post for the visas.

Regards,
Karen

[ianjdavy]

Cheers for the fast reply, yeah its definitely on the skills on demand list, I also passed the basic test with 160 points. Hopefully when I'm out there I'll be able to find a company willing to sponsor me

[Dolly]

Hi Ian,

That does sound a bit dear to me. You could always do the application yourself if your circumstances are straightforward....it's not that difficult and you'll get lots of info and help from the members on here. Or you could play safe and have help with the skills assessment part and do the main application yourself.

For starters, as Karen said, look at the sticky at the top of the forum page "please read...." - there are a couple of links to websites that help people with sponsorship. I have to say that it is rather difficult to obtain (depending on your skill set).

Dolly