Further information on the requirements for the TRA job ready program has become available. The job ready program applies to people living in Australia who wish to apply for skills assessment in a trade occupation.

Stage 1: Provisional Skills Assessment

The provisional skills assessment requires applicants to show 6 months of work experience, 6 minimum in IELTS and an Australian Certificate III qualification.The following clarifications have been made by TRA:

• You must have worked for the equivalent of 2 days per week over a 6-month period.
• Work can be counted if it is part of the course – for example an industry placement – providing it is in a commercial environment rather than work on the premises of an educational institution.
• Overseas work experience cannot count – the work must be in an Australian workplace Read the full story

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From today (1st of January 2010), applicants applying for an offshore GSM visa who are nominating a trade occupation will no longer be able to meet the Australian Study Requirement. These applicants are now only able to meet the work experience criterion.

Work experience means that an applicant must have been employed in a skilled occupation for a minimum of 12 months of the 24 months immediately before the day on which the visa application was made.

This change relates to the following visa subclasses: Read the full story

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Exchange rates might be something you’ve traditionally not paid much attention to in the past.

Sure you may have found yourself faced with the prospect of having to calculate the ‘value’ of the 20 Euro leather belt you’ve just purchased in the local Spanish market but it’s never been that big a deal.. right?

Well, when migrating to Australia the exchange rate you get for your home currency when transferring your hard earned money into Australia can be a very big deal indeed. With this in mind we’ve launched a new “exchange rate” category here at Getting Down Under to help us focus on this often overlooked area. Read the full story

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A member of parliament for the ruling Labor Party on Friday called for Australia’s immigration quotas to be cut in light of the threat from homegrown Islamic terrorists. That threat was exemplified last week when five men were charged over an alleged plot to storm an army base in Sydney.

Kelvin Thomson rational for the cut was that fewer migrants would mean more stringent background checks on applicants could be carried out.

He said Islamists were entering Australia through official immigration channels stating that this was “a far more serious issue than the prospect of us being attacked by another country”.

Hmmm, sounds like an interesting character this Kevin Thomson chap and I really don’t think he quite ‘gets it’. The current checks and as many of us who have been through the process can testify are more than rigorous enough. Read the full story

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Changes to the Skilled Occupations List (SOL) have been made by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) in consultation with the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).

The Skilled Occupations List (SOL) lists all occupations that the Government considers to be a skilled profession for purposes of migration to Australia. Applicants for a General Skilled Migration visa must nominate a skilled occupation listed on the SOL in order to gain points towards their Australian visa application.

They must also have their nominated skills assessed by an approved assessing body before their application will be accepted by DIAC. Read the full story

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Not the best news for wannabe migrants I’m afraid. In a bid to protect Australian jobs, the Federal Government is cutting the intake of skilled migrant workers – removing virtually all the trades from the program.

In a sign of the times, the permanent skilled migration program is being slashed by 18,000 over the next three months, with no foreign bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters or electricians allowed in for the foreseeable future.

And the migrant worker program is likely to be cut back further in the May budget.

From the press release issued by The Aussie Ministry for Immigration and Citizenship:

The changes to the program are:

* A 14 per cent cut in the 2008-09 permanent skilled migration program intake from 133 500 to 115 000.
* Removing building and manufacturing trades from the Critical Skills List, such as bricklayers, plumbers, welders, carpenters and metal fitters. The list will now comprise mainly health and medical, engineering and IT professions.

These changes follow measures announced in December that resulted in only those migrants sponsored by an employer or in an occupation on the Critical Skills List being granted visas under the permanent skilled migration program.

Almost half of the permanent visas granted are to applicants already living and working in Australia.

The Critical Skills List will remain under constant review and the Government will remove occupations from the list if demand for those skills can be satisfied by local labour.

The overwhelming message from business and industry is that Australia still needs to maintain a skilled migration program but one that is more targeted so that migrant workers are meeting skills shortages and not competing with locals for jobs.

There are still skills shortages in some sectors, such as healthcare, and these measures will enable industry to continue to source the skilled professionals they need while protecting local jobs and the wages and conditions of Australian workers.

What this means for those migrants who have already applied I’m not to sure but the short term outlook isn’t that great!

As always, when we have more news we’ll report it here at gettingdownunder.com

Related links:  

Discussions in our forums on the news  :   Click Here
Press release:  http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/media-releases/2009/ce09030.htm

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An interesting post made on our forums has been getting quite a bit of attention recently.

The story goes that Chris Evans, the Australian Immigration minister has announced that Australia will cut its annual immigration intake for the first time in eight years due to the slowing economy and weakening demand for labour.

The story posted on “The Age” website quotes Chris Evans as saying:

“I expect the numbers of our programme to drop next year … as a reaction to the economic circumstances… It is fair to say that we expect the demand in the economy for labour to reduce. As it is a program very much linked to the demand for labour, we expect to run a smaller program.”

Australia has been accepting immigrants in record numbers in recent years and set a target for 190,300 immigrants this year, up 20% on the 2007-08 financial year and higher than the post world war II record of 185,099 in 1969-70.

About one in four of Australia’s 21 million people were born overseas, and Australia has been actively trying to attract skilled workers, with immigration fairs targetting university graduates and people with trades in Europe, Britain and India.   Then this thing  called the ‘  credit crunch’ started!

What does this mean for you?

Well,   Evans has  said that the final number of immigrants that Australia would accept has yet to be determined so hopefully this will mean that the 2009 intake will not be effected.

The Aussie government intend to make a final decision leading up to the national budget to be delivered on May 12.

As always,  as soon as we have this news, we’ll report it here at getting down under.

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The South Australian Government has finally reinstated the capital investment pathway to Australian skilled migration for those who lodged their visa application before September 1, 2007.

After 13 months of patient waiting, those skilled migrants wishing move to Australia using capital investment scheme can now finally proceed with their Australian visa application.

On the 1st September 2007, as part of changes to the Australian General Skilled Migration programme, the Australian government removed the right to gain five extra bonus points towards an Australian skilled migration application if the applicant invested a minimum $100,000 for at least one year in a nominated Australian bond.

The removal of the capital investment scheme meant that applications for skilled migration lodged after September 1, 2007 could no longer use the capital investment scheme to gain bonus points towards their application.

After reports of a scam involving unauthorised loans, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) then ruled that the capital investment scheme would no longer be open to any applications, even if they submitted their visa applications before September 1. This affected thousands of migrant hopefuls, who until now have been left without a pathway to Australian migration.

The South Australian Government Financing Authority (SAFA) is now officially reinstating the capital investment scheme for the General Skilled Migration program (bonus points for capital investment). However, this applies only to those applicants who applied under this category before 1st September 2007, and were instructed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) to invest a minimum $100,000 for at least one year in a nominated Australian bond.

As it has been over a year since applications for migration under this category have been allowed, eligible applicants are encouraged to consult their migration agents before proceeding with their application to ensure they are eligible.

Applicants are also warned that the processing times of applications may be considerably delayed due to the expected influx of applications under this re-opened pathway to Australian skilled migration.

To discuss this change please feel free to post a response to the thread started in our forums here.

Article Source : visabureau.com

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In response to the current demand for IELTS test results for candidates with Student Visas expiring by 15 March 2009, a number of IELTS test centres throughout Australia have opened emergency places on February 7 and February 21 2009.

There are additional tests available in Sydney, Wollongong, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns, Rockhampton and Darwin.

These tests are for students based in Australia if your visa ceases on 15 March 2009 and you want to apply for General Skilled Migration.

You will only be able to secure one of these emergency test places by presenting proof that your student visa ceases on 15 March 2009 along with your passport. Read the full story

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Thousands of migrants have been left in limbo as the Trades Recognition Authority (TRA) postpone the release of the new Migration Assessment Policy (MAP)

The new MAP stood as the most recent initiative that offered hope to migrants currently stranded without a path into Australia.

MAP would essentially consist of two streams; Stream A and Stream B. Stream A would assess those workers trained and qualified in Australia, while Stream B would assess internationally trained or qualified skilled workers.

Within each stream, workers would be assessed for either their former vocational training or formal skills recognition, and their term of employment using that skill. Additionally, the term of employment would be reduced from five years to four, which would allow for less experienced or younger workers to qualify for skilled migration to Australia. Read the full story

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Yay! After returning back to our old For Sale sign for a good few weeks I’m chuffed to bits that we are now the proud owners of a sold sign again.

To make things even better, we had our house surveyed again today and everything appears to have gone well.

The survey report should be completed by the end of this week and everything will be in the hands of the solicitors after then.

We are meeting with the solicitors on Friday to arrange for my parents to become Power of attorney so that they can sign on our behalf if the house sale completes after we move out to Australia. Not really sure if it’s going to be possible to complete the sale within the next three and a bit weeks, still anythings possible…right?

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Well since accepting the latest offer last week I’m really pleased to say that our new buyers are a breath of fresh air and things appear tp be progressing quite well.

Their mortgage has been approved, the survey fee’s have been paid and the surveyor comes to survey our house this Wednesday. We might even get our sold sign back this week.

The first full week spent unemployed has been pretty strange but I’m slowly but surely getting into the swing of sorting things out.

I’m assuming it’s just a bloke thing but its amazing how much crap you can accumulate over the years.

At this rate I wished I started the sort our process before we even sent the application forms off for the Visa’s. Still, I’m putting a pretty brave face on things if I do say so myself and the charity shops should be well sorted out with clothes, suits, shoes and other items for the next few months. I even packed my first case!

A skip arrives tomorrow so it’ll be time to chuck on the safty gear as I enter the dreaded and dangerous realm known as……….the loft!

Hopefully I’ll survive to write another entry!

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Well, in the last few days we have had three offers on the house from three different people and we have accepted the offer that was both the highest and appears to be the least risqué.

The only potential risk is that the couple buying our house are in a chain, still after the girl who couldn’t get a mortgage and the couple who messed us around for weeks before announcing that they were having marital issues this one should hopefully be the one that goes all the way through.

The person buying our buyers house (stick with me) is a first time buyer, the Halifax have confirmed with our buyers estate agent that their buyer has a mortgage in place and everything appears to have been confirmed OK

Let’s hope this is third time lucky for us.

I think it’s unlikely that we will be able to get everything sorted before we leave on the 24th of November but it would be really great if everything is good to go before we depart.

It’s strange that we don’t feel particulalrly excited, but we’ve been through this so many times now it’s pretty difficult to get that excited when we’ve been through the emotional lows when previous offers have fallen through.

We also popped into the Halifax on Saturday to give two weeks notice to terminate our contract.

We told them we will be going elsewhere unless of course we accept an offer within this two week period.

Looked like the threat brought with it some added luck. Lets just hope it continues.

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Well, it was my last day at work on Friday and so I have now joined the ranks of the gainfully unemployed.

It seems really strange not to be at work. This is the first time that I’ve handed in my notice and left a job with nothing to go to at the other side. I must say, it was probably one of the most unnerving and unnatural things I have ever done

Thankfully I’ve managed to hold onto my company car for a few more weeks and they have also let me keep hold of my mobile until I’m ready to move (probably so they can call me if they get stuck).

Although banks are not normally associated as being the most fun places to work, I’ve really enjoyed my 2.5 years there. I worked with a really good bunch of people. The cash was half decent and the job itself was great!

Let’s just hope that I can look forward to acquiring a similarly good role when we move out to Aus

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Well, the house has been back on the market now for a few weeks and we are getting lots of people through the door. Still no buyers though.

The chap who was really interested has decided that he won’t pay more then his initial offer (which wasn’t a satisfactory one) so we’ll leave him simmering for a while.

Not holding out much hope for this chap anyway. At the end of the day, I’ve asked him twice now to formally confirm his offer with the Halifax but still nothing.

Its also interesting how many people are trying to pull a fast one and trying to take advantage just because we are moving abroad.

We even had one chap saying to the missus last night..’You moving to Australia, you give us cheap price..yes?’

Err, no

We may be moving abroad but we aren’t going to sell the house for a pittance, were not that desperate (yet!) At the end of the day, if we don’t sell before we move out in just over a months time then we’ll have a mortgage and rent to pay at the same time.

It’s not a perfect situation but we’ve budgeted enough to be OK for a few months and I seriously think if it does come to that, an empty shell would be easier to sell. Hey that rhymes!

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Well, its been an interesting week since we were blobbed on by the buyers who decided to retract their offer due to marital issues.

We instructed the Halifax to drop the price by a couple of grand and offer a £2000 cash back as an incentive for buyers to complete within 28 days. As a result the weekend was a very busy one with 6 couples coming to view the property between Friday and Saturday (Sunday was kept for our sons 4th Birthday – a big boy now)

We had one offer £1000 short of the minimum we’d always agreed to never go below so this one was declined although I’m quietly optimistic that they may come back with a slightly larger offer as the buyers sister lives on the same estate and seemed to give our house the thumbs up when she brought her for a ‘walk by’ later on in the day.

We’ve also had an Asian chap come to look at the house who also made us a verbal offer although he didn’t want to go via the agent.

You’ve probably gathered by now that the Halifax are not at the top of my Christmas card list right now, however if we were going to be dealing with a sale whilst in Australia we were mindful that it would help if they had been involved from the start.

The chap was told that he needed to proceed via the agent. He said that he would, he also came to show his wife around on Saturday ‘before he made an offer’.

Has he made an offer. Nope!

Its amazing how many people say they are going to do something and then proceed to do nothing. Still its early days yet and we continue to get quite a few viewings through the door. The asian chap also worked during the day which doesn’t make a perfect match for the Halifax’s opening times. Especially as his wife doesn’t speak any English.

More news to follow..

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