Decided to move to AUS, what now?

[travo]

My name is Travis and I've lived in Saskatchewan, Canada my whole life. I have recently decided I am wanting to move to Sydney Australia. I have never been but I've always wanted to move and now I've fully committed to make the move.

My problem is that I have no clue where to start. I've found a few forums but none of them were any help. I just stumbled upon this forum and am very impressed with the activity and users.

My main question is where to start with the visa situation. I have no experience with visa's as I have never left Canada. So how and where do I apply for a visa to live and work in AUS? I don't know if it's better to get a 1 or 2 year visa then upgrade after that time(if its possible) or get a permanent visa as I am pretty confident I want to move permanently (but you never know). Would it be easy to look for someone locally to help me apply or is it easiest or possible to apply online.

Another question is how long it usually takes to get accepted or how the how process takes and if there are any tests or anything your required to take and how much do the visa costs to acquire?

Well I think those are my main questions and eagerly await your response and am very great full for your help


Thanks so much,
Travis

[kaz101]

Hi Travis,

Welcome to the forum

If you check out the sticky towards the top of the Aussie forum saying "Please read" that has links to the visa websites for Australia.

There are several different types of visas to choose from depending on whether you want a permanent or temporary visa. Some of the visas also depend on age, business experience etc. Have a look through the available visas and see if you find one that suits your circumstances.

When applying for visas it depends on how complicated your situation is. Some apply on line whereas we did it through an agent in the UK (we were moving from the UK to Australia).

How long and what tests really depends on the visa....
We did skilled independent and that took us about 2 years. My husband had to prove that he was a skilled gardener so he had to apply to the trade body, I'm in IT so I had to apply to the Australian Computer Society. Then there were medicals and police checks as well.

Why Sydney and why Australia if you've never been? I'm just curious since personally I couldn't move to a country I've never been to although I know people do it all the time.

Hope that helps!

Regards,
Karen