Amendments to Australian Student Visa announced

From time to time the Australian Department of Immigration make amendments and Legislation Changes which make obtaining an Australia Visa easier or indeed a litttle harder.

On the 26th of April a number of minor changes were announced. Most of these are not particularly relevant to most of our readers, however a changes to the Student Visa class are worthy of a mention.

The regulations are amended to:

• Include work rights on all initial student visa grants thus removing the need for student visa holders to make a separate application for permission to work.
• Prevent students and their family members from undertaking work until the student has commenced their course of study or training by amending student visa work conditions.
• Define the term ‘week’ as it applies to student visa work conditions.

Read more

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Opening an Australian Bank account from the UK

How can you open an Australian bank account from outside Australia?’ is one of the more common questions asked on our forums

It makes sense that you have some Australian cash waiting for you once you arrive down under but how exactly do you go about opening an Australian Bank account when you’re not physically there.

Within this article we’ll try and provide you with some helpful hints, tips and links to enable you to do just this

As well as opening an Australian Bank account from the UK, a large portion of this article should also prove useful for those of you looking to move to Australia from other countries.

If you have first hand experience of opening an Australian Bank account from outside of Australia, please help us build on the usefulness of this article by posting a comment at the end of the article, detailing your own experiences.

From our own research, it appears that the folks over at Westpac appear to do a half decent job when it comes to providing easy banking facilities for new or wannabe migrants. Read more

Popularity: 6% [?]

Australia to become a Republic

Australia is to become a Republic according to news released following the Australia PMs visit to the UK.

Kevin Rudd, in his first official visit to Britain since becoming Prime Minister in November, said: “Once a Republican, always a Republican.”

Mr Rudd, who was speaking at Downing Street where he met UK PM Gordon Brown, said that a referendum on the monarchy was not a priority. But he added: “I’m a life-long republican. It’s absolutely clear in the Australian Labour Party platform that’s where we intend to go.”

I also honour the commitments I made before the last election when asked this - I said for us it is not a top order question. We have other fish to fry right now in terms of priorities back home,” he said at the joint press conference with Mr Brown at Downing Street.

He said the relationship between the two countries was in “first class working order” and he believed the nations could be a “force for good” in the world.

Buckingham Palace, while publicly relaxed about Mr Rudd’s comments, is already concerned that the relevance of the Queen, as Australia’s head of state, is diminishing among the younger generations.

While public sentiment towards her is still strong, opinion polls suggest the majority of Australians would support the establishment of a republic. In 2000 the Queen acknowledged the debate and said that it was up to Australians to decide on the future of the monarchy. Read more

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What is a better Lifestyle?

I think it’s pretty safe to say that as your reading this you’re considering a move (or have already made the move) Down Under.

When we moved to Australia one of the main things that drove us here was the better lifestyle we saw Australia giving our family.

When you think about it though, what is a better lifestyle?

It’s pretty much an all encompassing statement isn’t it?

With this in mind I’d thought I’d attempt to break down ‘a better lifestyle’ into a number of key components and then ask you guys to let me know which of these things drive you to help us all understand the key drivers for moving to Australia.

Is it the just the weather or are you looking for something else?

I had to have a good think about the list and I’m sure there are obvious thing’s I’ve missed out but I think it’s a reasonable list for starters:

Heres the Poll Read more

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Construction Workers needed in Victoria

According to a survey undertaken by the Master Builders Association, the Australian State of Victoria needs 40,000 new construction workers in the next five years.

The MBA says skilled workers are needed in order to solve the skills shortage and it is the issue which is most affecting the sector’s progression.

This is obviously good news for folks skilled in the construction profession who are considering a permanent move to Australia.

MBA executive director Brian Welch said: Read more

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Australian 457 visa program to be reviewed

The 457 Temporary Skilled Migrant Visa is in the news today, with the federal government commissioning a review following accusations that foreign workers are being exploited.

Industrial relations commissioner Barbara Deegan will head a working party of industry and trade union leaders looking into the 457 visa program.

Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Evans said the six-month review would address concerns about the exploitation of migrant workers, salary levels and English language requirements with Industry and union groups in Australia welcoming the decision.

The general secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, John Sutton, says the deregulation of the visa program under the Howard government allowed abuse of the system and workers’ rights

Mr Sutton told ABC Radio. Read more

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UK Nurses heading to Australia

When our baby girl was born in Australia I was quite surprised by the number of english nurses and midwives working in our hospital.

Sure I expected to meet quite a few English staff as there a quite a few Poms living in the area anyway but at a guess I’d say over 85% of the nursing staff I met were of British origin.

It looks like this exodus is starting to have an effect to with the Royal College of Nursing warning that the UK may be on the verge of a nursing crisis as an unprecedented number of nurses migrate to Australia.

In 2007, a record 5,000 British nurses formally signalled an intention to take up work in Australian hospitals, having been lured by attractive offers and an unparalleled lifestyle.

Indeed, numbers of nurses making Australian visa applications have been so high that the RNC has highlighted the need for Britain to retain the nurses which it was producing.

Howard Catton, head of policy for the RNC, explained that he has met Australian employers who had come to the UK to recruit up to 60 nurses at a time, but who had in fact ended up making offers to twice that number.

Despite being wary of the record numbers of UK-trained nurses taking up employment in Australia, Mr. Catton admitted that he understood how attractive many of the offers were. He said:

“The Australians have stepped up their recruitment activity on the basis of what they believe is unemployment and downsizing in the UK.

“There is a belief that in the UK we don’t need the nurses we’ve got - but we know we do need them.

“The Australian recruitment agencies that I’ve spoken to since I’ve been here are making very attractive offers.

“It’s not just the starting salaries. The packages include air travel - for nurses’ families as well - relocation expenses, temporary accommodation and the promise that they’ll support an application for permanent residency.
“A couple of employers even offer a ‘meet and greet’ service at the airport with chauffeur-driven limousines, so the nurses are made to feel welcome as soon as their feet touch the ground.

“Nurses have always historically left the UK and gone to Australia but the numbers have doubled recently.”

I’d be interested to see if we have any British nurses visiting our site. If you are then perhaps give us your own view

Popularity: 6% [?]

Fresh New design for Getting Down Under

Hi Everyone! It’s been well over two years since Getting Down Under went live and I thought it was about time that I started to make some radical changes to the look of our site.

Some time ago I added an Articles page in an attempt to try and make some of our more useful and popular articles a little easier to find.

Having done this I still found the historical designs a little cumbersome and lacking in it’s ease of navigation due to the chronological order in which our posts were displayed.

As our site has grown it’s become more of an online magazine covering all aspects of migration to Australia. 

I wanted the design of our site to reflect this kind of format. Displaying posts from various categories and making these posts, our recent blog entries and Forum contributions available on the main pages of our site.

We’ve spent quite a bit of time looking for and tweaking the right theme for the site but I think the new look goes a little way towards achieving what I’m looking for.

Like anything, our new look will take a little further work before it’s just as we want it, however I think it’s good enough to go live on our site.

I really hope you like the new look getting down under but we still need your help.

If you spot a bug or something looking strange then please feel free to post any comments.

In addition, your own opinions are really valuable to us. As a visitor to our site we appreciate any input and suggestions on things we can do to help us make a visit to our pages a better visit for you. With this in mind please feel free to provide any feedback by posting a comment using the form below.

All the best

Regards

Mark

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UK Applicants - Police Clearance Certificates

For Australian Visa Applicants applying from the UK, it’s worth noting that Police certificates are now being issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

This covers applicants who have lived or currently reside in England, Wales, Scotland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland.

Application forms and guidance on how to apply for the police certificates for residents and non-residents can be located online at www.acpo.police.uk

Until further notice, the Australian Department of Immigration has announced that they will also continue to accept the outcome of a Subject Access Request made under the Data Protection Act 1998 for each relevant UK jurisdiction.

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Current Australian Immigration processing lead time as of April 2008

Well, we’re into April so let’s look at the current Australian Visa Processing timelines for April 2008.

To discuss this post, please use the appropriate thread in our forums here

PROCESSING AND ALLOCATION INFORMATION - For the week of 1 April 008

Applications lodged on or before the dates shown below have been allocated to case officers for further processing.

Applications Lodged Before 1 September 2007

Onshore Skilled visas (permanent and provisional)

Student/Graduate applications - Class DD and DE visas
Subclass 880: 18 August 2007 (paper), 9 August 2007 (e-lodged)
Subclass 881: 29 August 2007 (paper), 29 August 2007 (e-lodged)
Subclass 882: 29 August 2007 (paper), 29 August 2007 (e-lodged)

Onshore Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) (SIR) – Class UX visas Subclass 495: All applications: all applications are now allocated to case officers

New Zealand Citizen (Residence) - Class DB visas
Subclass 861, 862 and 863: all applications are now allocated to case officers

Offshore Skilled visas (permanent and provisional)

Skilled Migration visas - All paper based applications for Class BN, BQ, BR, UX and UZ visas
Subclasses 134, 136, 137, 138, 139, 495 and 496: 2 May 2007

e-lodged Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) applications
Subclass 495: all applications are now allocated to case officers

Applications Lodged After 1 September 2007

General Skilled Migration visas: Class VE, VF,VB and Class VC subclass 487
Subclasses: 175, 176, 475, 476, 885, 886, 887, and 487
E-lodged: 8 November 2007
Paper lodged: 16 September 2007

General Skilled Migration visas: Class VC subclass 485 only
E-lodged: 29 September 2007
Paper lodged: 16 September 2007

If a visa application was made more than two weeks before the relevant date shown above and you have not been contacted by a case officer please contact the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre from the web page which can be viewed by Clicking Here

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