10 June 2009

Skilled Independent Migration

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to do this. It will take a fair amount of time and money to do it, and the money starts getting spent on it almost immediately! If you have the money, and can’t be bothered or don’t have the time to apply yourself, you can use a migration agent. They will do most of the legwork, although they will cost.

I would start by trawling through the government migration website http://www.immi.gov.au/

There are probably 3 potential ways you can get here:-

1. Skilled independent migration (how we did it).
2. Company sponsored. If you can get a friendly international company to sponsor you over, then your problems are solved. There may be some pitfalls if the job doesn’t work out, as your visa may expire if you leave the job. Not a problem if you have been over 2 years and become a citizen though.
3. Family sponsored. If you have any family over here that are prepared to act as sponsors, this is definitely worth considering.

Assuming its Skilled Independent Migration for you, then here is what I know:-

If your current passport has only a short time to go (i.e. a couple of years), get it renewed now! Same goes for any children.

You need to satisfy the basic requirements, which I am sure you do, but it is worth checking at http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/skill_basic.htm You need to nominate a occupation on the skilled occupation list … I did it as an IT Project Manager (code 1224-11) would suit. When we applied, this code was on the Skills On Demand list, which meant we qualified for extra points for our migration … the more points you have the better.

The approval authority for this occupation is the Australian Computer Society, so your first step is to apply for Skills Assessment for the SOL code 1224-11, the information for which is on the website http://www.acs.org.au/ This is not a trivial exercise and you will have to dig out loads of stuff about your qualifications. As well as your qualification certificates, they will want a course schedule which details the classes and grades you got. You will probably have to get this from your college/university.

When sending stuff off, don’t ever send the original documents. Every document you send should be a “certified copy”. To get a certified copy, you will need to find a friendly solicitor that will do this cheap, or better still for nothing. A police officer, or Justice of the Peace can do it as well. My advice here is to get multiple certified copies of all documents, as we ended up going back to our solicitor many times to get the same document re-copied.

The ACS bit will take a couple of months to come through, Make sure you fill in the form correctly, as minor mistakes will cause it to be rejected and you will have to reapply …. and probably have to pay another fee.

Get as many glowing references from companies you have worked for to support the ACS process. The references should state what role you performed and what dates. It doesn’t have to say you were any good! Start getting these now. They also accept “peer” references. i.e. you don’t need your boss to give you a reference, someone you worked with will do. They don’t have to be on headed paper either, although it would be preferable.

All you get back from them is a letter on ACS headed paper stating that you are qualified under that occupation. Money for old rope really. You will need to send the original ACS letter with your migration application … it’s the only original document you will have to send (I think!) If they say you don’t qualify, then you are a bit stuffed. You will have to go back to them an show “prior learning” which is a real can of worms and well worth avoiding.

Armed with this letter, you can progress to your migration application. This is where it starts getting really complicated. All the information and forms you will need can be found at http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/books6.htm#how Form 47SK is the one you will need, but you will need 1119 as well. I have attached both to this e-mail. Try to print them off on a colour printer …. I think it looks a bit better.

Again, you will need to send off a bucket load of supporting documentation with your application including Police checks and stuff, as well as a fairly hefty fee. I would send it registered post. You can expect to receive a letter in a couple of months saying that they have received your application. You can then expect to sit back and wait. Could be 6 months or longer. You are advised not to try to contact them during this time, as it just causes additional delays.

If your application looks like being successful, you will be sent medical examination forms. You need to get x-rays done (we got this done at Murrayfield hospital in Edinburgh), and yes, you have to pay for them, although children probably wont have to have an x-ray. You will have to make an appointment for both yourself and any children to get your medicals done at the Morningside Medical Practice on Morningside road, or your nearest approved surgery. They are on the board of migration practices. This will cost you more money, and be prepared for a fairly thorough going over … no nook and cranny left unexplored type of thing! You need to have your X-rays in a sealed envelope with you when you go. They take blood and urine samples. The results of the blood sample takes a few days to come back. When it does, the doctor sends the medical report away directly to the migration people.

Once the medicals have been sent off, you can expect to wait another 3-4 months for your visa to be granted. You send off your passport and it comes back in a week or so with a visa in it. Yippee! You then have 12 months to register with the migration authorities in Australia. In reality, what this means is that you have to get your visa scanned by the Customs boys at Sydney airport. You tell them you are a permanent resident and they do the rest. You then have, I think, 5 years to take up permanent residency in Oz, or your visa will expire and you will have to reapply.

The next step is to bulk buy sun lotion and start working on that tan.

If you have made it this far down this, then you are obviously serious about the whole thing. The process is a real pain, and I get the impression it is designed like that to put off the non-committed. If you have access to the Internet newsgroups there is a really good one for asking questions - misc.migration.australia+nz and you can obviously ask us as well.