Thinking of moving...!

[JulieBrooks123]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping someone would be to help me with a few questions that I have. My boyfriend and I are hoping to come to Australia early in the new year. I am a vet and he is a chartered accountant, we are both 25.

At the moment we are living in London and have just had enough having an awful work life balance, the weather (June and raining) and are just looking for a change while we still have no attachments to london (apart from family).

We were planning to apply for a working holiday visa which would be quick to come through and allow us to travel around for a month or so and then settle down and find a full time job. We'll probably end up in either Melbourne or Sydney so that my boyfriend can find a suitable job.

It is the next bit I want some advice on. We are planning on applying and writing on our CVs (resume) that we have working holiday visas with a view to applying for permanent visas. I understand that we can;t work in the same place for longer than 6 months on this visa. However, i was hoping once in employment we could get either sponsorship or apply independelty on skilled visas?

I was wondering how feasible people think this route would be? And also if people had any experience of doing it like this? I know permanent visas can take ages to come through - would there be any way of speeding this up if we were in full time employment so taht we could just continue working???

I'd be really grateful for any help xxx

[Kingbear]

Hi Julie,

I'm not 100% sure of this but you seem to be in a bit of luck as both of your jobs are on the new Skilled Occupation List (SOL) thats being introduced as of the 1st July 2010 (which can be found here http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/gener...ccupations.pdf)

You can certainly follow this route (looking at sponsored/working migrant visa's) but what you may find is that once in Syndey, you/your bf may get offered sponsorship, assuming you get a job, at the place you are in. To be honest, i reckon your boyf might be the more likely, as I'm guessing a vets practise (and this isn't to sound derogatory in anyway) probably wont want to meet the cost of sponsorship...this is what happened to my wife who is a teacher (and that was on the list a little while ago). I got offered (im in IT) so its just where the money is really, but personally, I reckon you're in a vey strong position. I would certainly look into the residents visa stuff (look at the sticky posts on this forum or go to Department of Immigration & Citizenship) and read through your options. Once you have a longer visa to stay in the country, (like a temp sponsored) you can go through the longer process of residents visa's/etc

Good luck

KB

[Adam&Emma2010]

Hi Julie,

Myself and my girlfriend are in a very similar situation to yourself. We are both 25 and looking to move to Sydney on a working holiday visa (WHV) - initially. We are both chartered accountants. We have book our flight (one-way) and are in the process of getting our visa's sorted.

I have sent out my CV's to a number of recruitment agents and spoke to them about working under a WHV. I have registered with these, but because the first route of employment is going to on a contract basis for max 6 months, we are just best contacting them 1 - 2 weeks before we get there. The temporary / contract market is very fast moving, as in the UK. We have been advised, as chartered accountants, that there is plenty of work out there and would expect to find a 3 - 6 month contract within 2 weeks of being out there.

Rectuiters I have used so far have been:

Ambition
Hays
Reed
Michael Page

We are currently looking at suburbs around Sydney to live and "King Bear" has been very helpful in suggesting places to live.

If I come accross any further useful information, I'll let you know.

Thanks
Adam