Help / Advice Required re move to Melbourne

[jojo23]

Hi Guys,

I would appreciate some help/advice re a possible move from the uk to melbourne,australia. the reason i say melbourne is i have looked at this area in some depth and have family and a few friends who stay there. I am a male 42 years of age with wife the same age (would our age go against us) We have two teenage sons, one looking to start university in 2010 and one at 14 who is very sporting, athletic. Both boys have shown an interest in moving when we ran the idea by them.

the key question i have is this: i,m not qualified in any particular field having spent the last 20 years in direct sales within the banking industry and the last five i owned properties which i have now sold. How easy/difficult is it to try and move to australia with a background in sales (non qualified) and lookin to work in sales, possibly something like estate agency or does anyone know of any good sales type industries to be involved in within melbourne/australia.

I wish i had done this years ago but really want my boys to consider living in another country.

many thanks in advance.

Billy.

[kaz101]

Hi Billy,

Welcome to the forum.

If you haven't already done so start reading through the sticky posts at the top of the forum. In the 'PLEASE READ...' sticky post there is a link to DIAC (Dept of Immigration) visa wizard and that details the most common visas.

Your age may work against you for some visas but some may be okay if your skills are in demand.

For example we came in through skilled independent visas but had to apply before we were 40 otherwise we wouldn't have enough points to get in.

Regards,
Karen

[Dolly]

Hi Billy,

Welcome to the forum.

As Karen suggested, have a look through those stickies, especially the DIAC link.

It might be wise to seek some advice from an agent. We do have agents who post on here. Veronika (SOMV) posts fairly regularly and you can contact her via her signature. If you do decide to talk to an agent, always check that they are MIA/MARA registered.

I guess one visa option would be to get sponsored by a company, taking into account your work experience etc I don't think you would qualify for the 175 Skilled Independent visa. Anyhoo, have a good read and come back with any queries etc you might have.

Dolly

[Angela123]

Hi Billy

We too are planning to move to Melbourne area nxt year - similar ages in our family. Happy to chat if you want - planning to use an agency, just seeking to establish which will be the best one.

Kind regards, Angela

[jabba]

Whatever you decide you need to apply before you are 45 ;cos after that they don't wantcha LOL So in essence HURRY HURRY HURRY9 spoken as one who knows)xx

[jockopaul]

Hi Billy welcome to ep,
Im not sure if you are aware that there are some major changes taking place at the moment with DIAC .. These are retrospective and apply to everyone who is still in the application process, DIAC has in light of the global economic downturn decided to halt the processing of the general skilled migrant visa subclasses 175 and 176 on the modl.. they have also put a time line for the processing of these visas at 2012 and in the intrim are only processing gsv's that are on the critical skills list (skills that are urgently in demand) who also have employer sponsership or regional sponsership, there are not too many skills on the csl mostly medical and engineering and some electrical skills..

There is however a new format for processing criteria in the pipeline, but there is no clear indication when this will come in to force, It seems that the AUstralian goverment are going to target specific skills in regards to requirements and as you do not seem to have a particular skill in demand that would fall in to any of the viable groups for processing, please tred carefully, you should take some advice from a good migration agent there services are usially free for first consultation in regards to your visa eligability most good agents will tell you right off what your visa options are and put you straight if there are no options and little chance of a visa.

I would like to stress that it is a very difficult time to be applying for a visa for Australia for someone who is not on the skills in demand list as there is no processing time frames for this visa option you would be pooled and if you were not processed in 2 years you are automatically rejected, please think carefully before going down that route.. sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear, please hang tight there may be better news when the global recession has come right..
regards Helena..