SAAustralia Forums

Introducing myself
Hello all

I would like to introduce myself to the forum. I joined and then posted a note in the foyer and then I was not sure whether I should make an introduction in the general section. My relationship with technology is a hit and miss affair. Sometimes it's a hit and sometimes a miss but being an eternal optimist I know it will only get better. Reading through this forum I feel like I have come to know a few people and enjoy their posts. To mention a few, I have learnt that Jordy is an encyclopedia of knowledge and always helpful, Riekie is optimistic and I like her opinions. My family and I are moving to Melbourne in August. We are really excited to embark on this new adventure. We have two daughters and have found a school for them so that is a big weight off our shoulders. We are on a 176 visa and like many on this forum will get there and do the whole getting of temp accomodation and then a more permanent one and take it from there. The other day someone asked me what I would miss the most and my answer "my maid" LOL but I will carry on regardless. I figured, I am moving to a place where I don't know anyone so I really won't be getting many visitors and off course no need to impress the inlaws so clean up will be "The-no-need-to-impress" kind of clean up. Lol. I like reading this forum and glad to have joined.

RAD

Happy to be back and how beautiful the new "look"
After a long absence I am back. It feels like a long lost friend that you have seen again.

We are happily settled into our own home and have been in Oz nearly 2 years.

I have started working again and am very happy indeed with my fantastic employer....drumroll... "Merise"

(Merise magazine is for all of us and I have to share this, as Merise can help each and every one on this forum.)

I have also started a group SA Ladies - Bayside, Brisbane (you can check us out on facebook) We currently have about 120 members in the group.

Now it is my turn to give back and pay it forward for the HUGE amount of help I always received on this FORUM. I never let a chance go by to mention this FORUM and what you meant to us in the whole PROCESS.

One lucky customer.

Be careful which agents you choose!
Hello all you potential migrants and Forumites looking to use a migration agent. My first suggestion would be, if your case is fairly straight forward and there are no health issues that could be a problem or funnies in your work history or occupation, do the skills assessment and visa application yourself.

Yes agents have their place in the world and their advice and experience can be useful and even sometimes very valuable, but remember this (and it's a personal opinion), they are there to make money, if they weren't they would dispense their advise and services for free. They also have many other clients, you are not the only one they have to provide a service to.

When you do decide to use an agent, choose them very carefully and make sure you do your homework. Ask as many people on this forum and anywhere else you can to refer you to an agent. There are four or five of them on this forum that come highly recommended and have proven themselves to the saaustralia.org community (a quick search should reveal them). I say this with no shame whatsoever. DO NOT USE ---REMOVED PM ME IF YOU WANT THEIR NAME--- Unfortunately we have and we are paying the price. They have had our skills assessment for the last 47 days and have done nothing with it. We have asked and asked and almost begged them to tell us what is going on but keep getting dodged or handed to another consultant. Our next email will be to MARA to make an official complaint.

If you are also in the unfortunate position of having appointed ASA and they have not done anything as yet I suggest that you also lay a complaint with MARA. The more complaints that MARA receive the more likely something will happen. If you have just appointed them, lay on them like a bad rash and pepper them with emails until you get what you want.

Yes those of you reading this may say that this is an emotional response, you damn right it is. I am extremely annoyed and angered at the fact that as a direct result of their actions (or should I rather say lack of action), we will miss the 30 June 2012 deadline for the visa application and will only be able to submit our EOI under the new skills select program somewhere at the end of July or beginning of August after we receive the skills assessment results (which we will more than likely have to submit ourselves). Who knows how many other EOI's will have been submitted by then and how long it will take for us to get an invitation to apply for a visa? That is to say if our points are high enough to get a good ranking in the system and if my wife's occupation as a teacher is still in demand and on the new SOL.

All I have left to say is, thank you ASA for potentially destroying our dreams of migrating to Australia. You have done a stunning job of doing absolutely nothing in the interests of your paying client.

Should I take my piano?
Hi all,

Quick question: Should I take my piano? Normal upright .. no centimental value.
Is it worth it? Does it get damaged in the container - even with them "boxing" it?

I also worry that if I take it ... how does it get moved around on the other side. Like most other, we will rent before we buy and we may need to move a few times? And as we know .. you don't get help to move the piano from the "street corner" like in SA!!!!!

Also, last year I let the kids start piano lessons to make sure they can / want to play the piano. All 3 girls enjoy the piano, but I don't think it is like life changing for them! They do enjoy it, but I think they are OK to go without it as well. I asked them if I should take it with and they said 'if I want to" !!!???

We also have a very good electronic keyboard, so maybe I must switch the piano lessons to keyboard for the next 6 months and leave the piano behind and just take the keyboard.

I can also play piano, but it is not like I play every day (or week for that matter) ... Thus I don't think it will do so much harm to leave it behind. I am just really worried that the piano gets damaged or water damage during the weeks on the ship.

What do you think? Is it worth bringing a piano over?

Reasurance
I am moving to Derrimut west of Melbourne and will be earning about $1000 a week.
I am worried that this will not be enough to support a family of 4. 2 adults and 2 boy 9 and 5.
I will be going on a 457 visa.
HELP
Any advice out there?

Smart phones in OZ?
Hi All

Can anynone tell me is it worth bringing over your existing smartphones (BlackBerry, I-phone) and just get something like a simcard over there, or are there issues to use them in Oz?

Thanks

AMP ADELAIDE
Hi everybody
I urgently need to get some information from any South African employed by AMP in Adelaide or surounding areas.
If you can help, or know somebody, can you please let me know?
I would appreciate it

The roller coaster
So its been a while since my last post and the reason is simple. The roller-coaster!

People often say "enjoy the ride" or "what a roller coaster" but I do not think anything could have prepared me for the last two weeks. I finished work on the last day of April, a Monday, with us leaving that coming Saturday. I thought 4 days between 2 of us should be fine to wrap up those final few things, like canceling the DSL, arranging some foreign exchange, and one or two personal good-byes. BIG mistake. The week leading up to our departure I tried my best to get use to sticking to the speed limit when driving, but those last three days killed all my good intentions. I drove at 140km/h everywhere I went, just to get everything done. Racing from one place to another, just to get home and and pack one more suitcase till late night. And this was the case the whole week. Even 30 minutes before we leave for the airport, we are reminded that I forgot my brand new suit (that I want to use for my job interviews) is still hanging in the closet of our now empty house. So luckily my father was there to do the round trip to our house to collect it.

The airport was a sad affair, but it was expected, and I think my wife's homeopathic calming remedy did the trick for all parties concerned. The 4 hours on the airport went by very quickly and before I knew my 4 year old was jumping up and down from excitement about the huge airplane. Still confident about our flight details thrice confirmed, as we arrived at our seats I notice that the bulkhead that we requested is non existent, we are sitting in the second row from the bulkhead. After an argument with the chief host on the plane we were stuck. Luckily, later, we negotiated with the single person in our row to move to another seat, and we had the whole row of 4 seats to ourselves. SAA also managed to 'forget' about both my kids meals that I requested 3 times. But other than and the lack of sleep the flight went well.

We arrived in OZ on Sunday morning at around 7 as planned. Customs was a breeze. We declared everything, and all the were interested in was what type of nuts (snacks for the kids) we had with us, and they waved us through. Big relieve. Our friends picked us up and we went to their house. I had a quick shower and head back to the airport for an job interview. The interview went great, and on the way back I got a phone call to inform me I got the job. Not bad for 4 hours in OZ.

The next day was dedicated to a trip to the city to finalise our medicare and banking affairs. What a pleasant experience. Everything works the way it is intended.

It seemed like the roller coaster was slowing down, but I was wrong. Our house hunting started the next day, and has not stopped since. Every day driving from one show house to the next, with only time to eat, only to be met with 10-20 people also looking at the same property. The children hates it in the car all the time so occasionally we have to stop at the park along the way just to let them run. This is always a pleasant experience, never needing to look over your shoulder or worry about who lurks behind the bushes. I thought that the weekend will be more quiet but between the houses and mother's day we had very little R&R time.

So here I am, more than a week post migration and still loving it. Having found a job took a lot of pressure of our shoulders, but we still need to find a more permanent place to stay. I trust that we will succeed in the next week or two. I will try to keep you posted.

PR VISA
HI everyone!! So I'm looking into PR visa, can anyone help me with some info, costs, time frame ? how to go about ? We have a pending offer from a company for 457 sponsored, but Im thinking of going the PR route, just dont know where to start

Please help: Visa 457 to PR
Good day Forum friends!


Today marks my 3rd month anniversary in Australia! I love this place to bits and would like to get my PR alot sooner if that is possible.

I am here on a 457 Visa. How do I go about in getting my PR without waiting the 2 years out?

Is it expensive and should I just wait the 2 years?

Thanking you in advance for your responces.

A South African friend who wants to stay...
G'day guys,

First up I'm Australian with no ties to South Africa, however I have a friend (lets call him bob) and he currently resides in WA with his girlfriend (sally). Now Bob and Sally are hitting a tough spot and the future is uncertain for them in their relationship. However Bob would like to stay in Australia and work. However the Visa that he currently is here on is the Defacto Visa, which worked fine however if they break up would mean that he is here illegally. I really want to help Bob out any way I can, he works hard, but I understand that rules are rules.

My question now is what can we do for Bob to either get a different Visa (he has already used up the work visa) or maybe get sponsored? The issue with sponsoring is that he is a dental nurse and apparently that isn't on the list of jobs that the Australian Government deem to be of value.

Are there any options available or if things go south with his relationship will he need to leave? If so does he need to leave ASAP? Is there a possibility for him to find another lady and stay (obviously not using her but if he legitimately loved her?).

Thanks for your time,
regards,
Steve

Opening a bank account
Hi.

We got our visas last year, and went across in December for a "holiday" to activate our Permanent Residency. So this year we are finalising everything over here, and we are aiming to make our final move by April next year.

When we were there over Christmas, we neglected to open a bank account in time, and by the time we wanted to, the banks were closed because of the holidays.

Does anyone know if it will be possible to open a bank account from here, and without a permanent Aus Residential address? We want to start transferring money over as we can. We were thinking of joining ANZ Bank, but I cannot find anything useful.

Thanks

IT work 457 sponsored
Hi!! . Anyone know of IT company willing to sponsor senior software developer ? My husband have done exams and passed interview with an IT company in aus, but haven't heard back from them, we have sent reminder emails with no reply, so we are thinking of moving on and looking for something else. If anyone knows of any openings it would be greatly appreciated I was thinking that all things happen for a reason, but I refuse to think that Aus isn't meant to be
Have a lovely day !

Documents signed by Notary or at SA Embassy

Hi All,

I am giving my Mom general power of attorney (GPA) to handle things back home in SA.

My attorney in SA has sent me over the documents for my to sign. They have requested that the documents get signed in the presence of a Notary (costly) or at the SA Embassy (free).

I am in Sydney and correct me if I', wrong, but the SA Embassy is in Canberra?

Regards,

Robbie

DIAC MIGRATION BLOG Immigration locates 17 illegal workers in regional NSW March 2012 quarterly visitor visa statistics now available
The Visitor Visa Program Quarterly Report for the period ending 31 March 2012 is now available at: www.immi.gov.au/media/statistics/visitor.htm.For the nine visitor visa subclasses, the report provides information on applications, grants, arrivals and processing times. Highlights from the report include: 

• Tourism Visitor visa application lodgements fell by 0.6 per cent in 2011-12 to 31 March compared to the same period in  2010-11 (down from 2 540 382 to 2 526 231).  However, lodgements by Chinese citizens continued to grow (up 28.2 per cent to 260 450).
• There were 358 815 Business Visitor visa applications lodged in 2011-12 to 31 March.  This was a three per cent increase compared to the same period in 2010-11 (348 371).  It can be partially attributed to an increase in applications from the United States of America (up 8.6 per cent to 52 058).
• There were 115 016 Tourist (subclass 676) visas granted under the Approved Destination Status (ADS) scheme in 2011-12 to 31 March.  This was a 29.4 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2010-11 (88 893).
• On 31 March 2012, there were 219 672 Visitor visa holders inAustralia.