General advice when applying for permanent residency/ making the move

[IanErasmus90]

Good day

I love South Africa , I love the culture diversity, I love the people and our ways of doing things here.

I have been pondering to "make the move" for a while now, and when I try to discuss the matter with my wife due to my babbling nature I stuff it up the every time.

So I thought Ill post here and get genuine advise of people in the same boat as my family, and try to make sense of it all.

I cannot see any sustainable future for my 6 month old son. He ,even born in 2015, will still be branded as most white south Africans are. and in the near future will not even have the opportunities I had when growing up(work/family).

I have done some research in making the move, and have been in contact with New World Immigration and we applied for a skilled Australia Skilled Visa as my wife as the main applicant.

My reasons and my wife's reason for leaving everything we know and love differ a lot, I'm more of pessimist(current government state/safety ) where she is optimist(love for country and see's hope in every situation/believe our son can make it work) , but we are in agreement we can make this move work for our sons sake and give him the future we envision for him.

My wife has a Bachelor of Education degree done through Tuks in 2012, 3 full years of experience at one job afterwards, and I have trade tested in Motor Mechanics(red seal) also in 2012, but only 4 year prior and 1 year experience after the trade test, where thereafter I went in to the Vehicle Insurance sector administrating claims on vehicle insurance products.

New World Immigration has already advised us my wife will have to be the main applicant as she was the only one who did qualify on their point system(I have to work in my trade currently which I'm not even if its related) which means they are able to lodge an application to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to secure our residency in Australia. They advised this will cost R14 250 for a skilled Australia visa and if that goes as planned a further R7980 to the department of Immigration. there after an additional AUD1800 for me and AUD900 for my son. Miscellaneous cost would be English language tests, police clearances and the whole family would need to do medicals. they estimate per adult this will be AUD300.

This adds up at the end of the day, but is doable if you are doing this for a good/right reasons. The first and initial cost will only be the skilled Australia visa application for my wife.

We are only at this stage, researching the cost of living(many helpful links and forums on this page), and areas to live in/ health care(what they cover and don't)/second hand vehicle cash price.

I stand under correction what I have found the minimum average pay for a secondary school teacher is AUD60000 per annum. For an mechanic is around AUD50000. I would like to get similar work in Australia administrating warranties/maintence plans for vehicles and not go back to the workshop environment, but I'm willing 'to go to VETASSESS in Cape town if I need to do it so I can get work there.

Currently I have a vision of the following, if all goes to with the application of my wife and we see is doable. Sydney/Waterloo. We can mostly use public transport in the beginning as I know we would not be able(hope we can) to buy a second hand car when we land. average estimated cost per month will be AUD8100+/- in the first few months. meaning AUD2025 per week. this includes rent(3 bed 2 bath and 2 cars/Waterloo NSW 2017), some one looking after my son, mobile phone (unlimited calls), Internet, public transport costs, insurance house and health, electricity, gas bill, water and council fees ,groceries, tolls, banking charges and in first few months clothing, haircuts, electronics.

So my questions I have will be the following,

Firstly have anyone used New World Immigration?

Have you had issue with them or not?

Are the cost stated above for them to be able to lodge by department of Immigration and Border Protection reasonable?

Is my estimate on monthly cost under estimated or not?

After/or can we buy a second hand car on finance?

Will it be beter to work in a general workshop as a mechanic (eg Audi where in initially did my experience) or try and get a job by an Insurance company like SaWarranties/Motorite/Innovations? I know of Warranty & Insurance in Artarmon, NSW, 2064

And if so will the Annual pay be higher as a trades man mechanic?

Is Sydney over estimating what we can afford?

And please any/ANY advise for us to make this process easier/ thing you may have though would be necessary but wasn't?

And any success/fail stories in line with my wife's work we can take into consideration.

This is my first post sorry if its not well structured.

Kind Regards

Edited November 13, 2015 by IanErasmus90

[AFreshStart]

IanErasmus90,

Firstly, welcome!

I, like you, am rather pragmatic about things and your reasons for leaving were much the same, the future of our 2 children. We've been here a year and in that time, looking back and into South Africa we have just seen things worsen, the economy, education, inflation and the rand vs dollar, which is at an all time high.

That out of the way, Sydney is expensive, in particular childcare and rent.

If you are planning on both working you'll need long-term daycare of an aupair which means you'll need an extra room to accommodate them as well as cover food and stipend. The average cost of daycare in The City Of Sydney (Sydney has over 600 suburbs, what you see on TV and the iconic landmarks largely fall into this municipality) is around $30,000+ per child per year, which is why many, myself included, choose to be stay-at-home parents and (maybe) budget for a day or 2 a week at a local childcare, in our case that's $125 a day. I know some paying $80, others paying $160, all depends on the suburb you choose/can afford to live in.

We live in the city, in Waterloo, good old 2017. My wife works in the CBD and she is only 8-minutes away by bus to her office downtown and 10-15 minutes from Circular Quay. We've grown to LOVE city living, even with 2-kids (5 and 3 years old), we live in an apartment, but are surrounded by beautiful, safe green parks, sport fields, libraries & and aquatics center all within walking distance from our front door as well as a fantastic public schools, our son is at the fastest growing in NSW. We are a rarity though, most family's here commute in from surrounding suburbs.

It's a total mind shift though, it's expensive here, rent/childcare will be the biggest costs, within the city limits you'd be hard pressed to find a 3-bedroom terraced house for under $1,000 a week in rent, 3-bedroom apartments around $750+

We wanted to be closer to work and family. You quickly learn that your family is your immediate unit here, there isn't a childminder (for many people) to fetch the kids if they are sick, or there is an accident at school, or one of you comes down with an illness. No mother or father-in-law to take the kids for a few hours or a regular date-night, a cleaner costs around $25 an hour, so many, if not most do that, as well as cooking, gardening etc.

Being close to home and flexible-hours makes this a lot easier on us and gives us a better work/life balance, better than we ever had in Cape Town.

Our son's school is great and has a very active P&C committee, parents come in weekly to run reading programs and offer extra training help for those kids that might be falling behind. His class is incredibly diverse, many speak English as second language with Vietnamese, Indonesian and Chinese (Mandarin) being their home languages.

RE transport, we own a car, a SINGLE car, but for the most part use public transport. We've taken the car into the city TWICE in a year, parking is horribly expensive, even if you can find it, and public transport is reliable and safe. We use the car to largely get OUT of the city, we go camping, do farm stays and have been down the coast several times, are regulars in the Hunter Valley and are off to the Central Coast for the weekend, so that's why we have a car.

Here's our current budget:

Rent - $4,000

Mobile phones - $45 (1 phone - Unlimited Calls, Texts and 2GB data with Optus, other phone is covered by my Wife's company)

Internet - $124 (Home Phone, Unlimited ADSL, FetchTV with Netflix)

Transport - Public - $100

Vehicle - Bought for Cash on Arrival, sold both cars in SA and used the cash to but 1 here.

Petrol - $80

Vehicle Tax - $58

Insurance - Vehicle - $91

Insurance - Health (Family) - $200

Insurance - Household Contents - $52

Electricity - $100

Gas - $50

Water & Council Tax - $57

Groceries - $1,000

Total = $5957

A few extra things we have include the following:

Clothing - $150

Haircuts - $72

Tolls/eTag - $20

Bank Charges - $12

Others - $300

Total = $554

GRAND TOTAL = $6511

This budget EXCLUDES childcare, which as shared above will run you up to $140 a day or the costs of a nanny or au pair.

I hope that's somewhat helpful?

Cheers

Matt

Edited November 13, 2015 by AFreshStart

[RedPanda]

Hi IanErasmus, welcome to the forum!

I don't have any recommendations regarding a migration agent, since we didn't use one, but I'm sure other forumites will fill you in. I do think it's probably wise to know what the type of visa is that you will be applying for, and the number, eg 190 or 189, and then to go onto the Australian government website and read up everything you can find regarding that visa. It will give you a good idea of the conditions and benefits attached to your visa.

Regarding the fees, I don't know what visa you are applying for, and the prices vary a lot between them. But our application for 189 with one main applicant and one spouse cost us in the region of R60k, including IELTS and assessments, without the use of agents. You can also go onto the government website to check what the fees are for each type of visa. I'll give you a link, just navigate yourself around to the right visas ... http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Work

I think most of the people on the forum at the moment have about the same reasons for moving out of RSA including: high crime, depreciating Rand, corrupt government, BBBEE requirements making work difficult (my husband got a callback after one interview from an HR lady who just thought he deserves to know that they like him a lot and his skills are exactly what they want, but they cannot afford to hire a white man, sorry.), failing infrastructure, falling education standards. These are not tiny annoyances, and they are unlikely to change in the near future without major shifts in the political landscape, and that is just the reality. But it's all the good things still there and the people who want to make a change that make leaving so hard.

One should also keep in mind that Australia is not perfect, and it's not a magic fix. I think as long as people look at things realistically and are honest about what they want in their lives and what is important to make them happy, they should be able to make good choices about where they want to live. Some of the things that draw South Africans to Australia in particular are: the climate that's so close to ours; the culture is the closest to ours of all the English speaking countries; they like the same sports as us, and go just as nuts about it; they obey the rule of law, and their systems work (as well as any large systems with lots of people can); they don't have any strong religious views or religious laws; they are not generally involved in wars. (and then of course all the things that bother us the most about RSA are not issues in Australia)

But ja, whatever your reasons for moving, you can ask your questions here, and somebody is bound to have the answers. Best of luck with the whole migration process.

[IanErasmus90]

Good Day Matt

Thank you for the response! Much Appreciated!

Did you go the private route or did you use an agency like New World Immigration for the process? I assuming a lot of cost may be saved doing everything yourself?

Your break down of your budget was the first post I read here on SAAUS. Since then I read through multiple pages, search for average prices on day to day items needed, electric components and mainly consumed my entire week when I released that the move is possible even for an ordinary/average family like us

In your opinion will a Tradesman(mechanic) be paid more than someone administrating claims for cars at a Insurance Company? This is my biggest issue because this will mean I have to retest/trade at VETASESS.

I don't think we would be paid enough for one of us to stay at home and look after our son situation(or is that my South African mentality firstly assuming the worst speaking here?)

Does the banks have specific rules or a certain amount of time you need to be a resident before you can by a car on finance?

Thanks yet again,

Kind Regards

[IanErasmus90]

Hi IanErasmus, welcome to the forum!

I don't have any recommendations regarding a migration agent, since we didn't use one, but I'm sure other forumites will fill you in. I do think it's probably wise to know what the type of visa is that you will be applying for, and the number, eg 190 or 189, and then to go onto the Australian government website and read up everything you can find regarding that visa. It will give you a good idea of the conditions and benefits attached to your visa.

Regarding the fees, I don't know what visa you are applying for, and the prices vary a lot between them. But our application for 189 with one main applicant and one spouse cost us in the region of R60k, including IELTS and assessments, without the use of agents. You can also go onto the government website to check what the fees are for each type of visa. I'll give you a link, just navigate yourself around to the right visas ... http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Work

I think most of the people on the forum at the moment have about the same reasons for moving out of RSA including: high crime, depreciating Rand, corrupt government, BBBEE requirements making work difficult (my husband got a callback after one interview from an HR lady who just thought he deserves to know that they like him a lot and his skills are exactly what they want, but they cannot afford to hire a white man, sorry.), failing infrastructure, falling education standards. These are not tiny annoyances, and they are unlikely to change in the near future without major shifts in the political landscape, and that is just the reality. But it's all the good things still there and the people who want to make a change that make leaving so hard.

One should also keep in mind that Australia is not perfect, and it's not a magic fix. I think as long as people look at things realistically and are honest about what they want in their lives and what is important to make them happy, they should be able to make good choices about where they want to live. Some of the things that draw South Africans to Australia in particular are: the climate that's so close to ours; the culture is the closest to ours of all the English speaking countries; they like the same sports as us, and go just as nuts about it; they obey the rule of law, and their systems work (as well as any large systems with lots of people can); they don't have any strong religious views or religious laws; they are not generally involved in wars. (and then of course all the things that bother us the most about RSA are not issues in Australia)

But ja, whatever your reasons for moving, you can ask your questions here, and somebody is bound to have the answers. Best of luck with the whole migration process.

Good Day Red Panda

Thank you for your response,

Sorry was supposed to mention her Visa, it will be a Skilled independent 189 like you guys.

Your costs at the end of the day was a lot less as what I have calculated for ours so far, everything will be R90k including IELTS and assessments. So just based on that maybe I would be better to process it ourselves.

After you guys applied for the Visa's and it was granted, did you then only started job searching over the internet or went over and then only tried to search and apply for work?

Thanks yet again,

Kind Regards

[OubaasDik]

Hello IanErasmus _ I can't help with your questions, but you gave a lot of pertinent information, which helped the rest of the people to give you informed answers - it really helps.

[Mara]

Ian, welcome, I do hope you find many answers here!

If you go to the top right of the screen, there is a search function, type in new world immigration and ensure that the button next to it shows "forums", they are not MARA registered. There are a number of posts that may give you some enlightenment.

[RedPanda]

The 189 is the best visa to get, if you can get it (if you are on the SOL). If your wife is the main applicant then you will also get the same benefits as she has, with no restrictions on what work you do or where you do it. I would suggest you look on seek.com to find out what various people earn and how much demand there is and where that demand is. This might help you decide about the work you do. I do know that labour is very expensive in Australia, so you find that jobs that we in RSA tend to mentally chuck out, are actually respectably paid over there.

I must say that our case was extremely simple, so it was very easy to do on our own. I don't know the hoops for teachers, and I've read that people need to be careful to apply under the correct code(for the age of the children that they teach) or the application could be chucked out and you lose your money. So it depends on how simple your case is. It seems the going rate for migration agents to handle a full application is about R30k at the moment, so you are not being charged excessively. So I feel that although agents are not for everyone, and they do increase the cost of your visa process, they also do have a place. If you are confident that you can read up all the requirements, and have time to do all the booking of tests etc yourself, it will save you the R30k fee. But R60k is a lot more to lose if you do it wrong. So it's up to you to make an informed choice about your own situation.

We managed to save up enough to tide us over without work for longer than 9 months if it becomes necessary, but we'd prefer to put that money into a house. So yes, our strategy is to go over without any work and look for it once there. We will be putting our CVs on LinkedIn by Feb, and starting to look for work online by that time as well (landing in May), but we are not bargaining on getting work that way, it will just be a bonus if we succeed. We are a young married couple without children or debt, this makes finances a whole lot easier, and the stress a whole lot less. After all it's a lot easier for two adults in a team to decide on oats for breakfast and polony sandwiches for lunch for the next month, than to try to explain that to kids, who also need to go to school, get uniforms, believe "Mommy and Daddy have it all under control, and the world is perfectly fine." Of course babies might be easier than toddlers??? Anyway, sorry, I digress.

I think your best tool at this stage would be lots of reading. And searching. I'm sure there must be threads on the forum that you can look up where they list recommended agents, and I seem to remember reading New World immigration somewhere, but I can't remember where. But SAAustralia's search function works rather well, so just look for it.

Good luck and just keep going!

Oh, I just remembered, there is also a service that some migration agents offer where you do your whole thing yourself, and right at the end before you lodge your Expression of Interest (EOI) you send them the application and they check it for you. I personally think this is a good way to hedge one's bets, pay less and work harder, but know that a professional has checked that your stuff is right. Maybe ask about that?

[Peanuts]

Hi,

We are a family of four and we applied without using an agent.

The cost was roughly R100 000 including medicals, english exams and skills assesment.

A lot of money but worth it.

If your case is not too complicated and you don't mind doing a lot of research (which I can tell you are good at doing) then you can definitely consider doing your application without an agent.

If you want peace of mind and get stressed easily then consider using an agent because the process can feel long and sometimes you just need someone to reassure you that everything is submitted and correct.

Good luck!

Edited November 13, 2015 by Peanuts

[KnoxFamily]

Hi Ian

both my husband and I will need to work, because of child care costs I contacted an aupair agency with regards to looking after my son and daughter at home.

Big problem, the agency will not place an aupair with a family where they will be solely responsible for a child under the age of 2. (leaving your child in her care while you work away from the residence).

If you were working from home its a different story and something I will look into when I get there. as I may be able to work from home 70% of the time.

My son will be pre-k (4) age next year so I would like him to go to a pre-school. he is excelling in classes at the moment and have been told to get him assessed for higher learning. gets bored at home and craves interaction.

so the aupair would just be for my daughter really.

Just something extra to think about.

Good luck. start getting all your paperwork together and for yourself get all your references etc together. in our case the paperwork took the longest.

[Hoping4Oz]

Hi Matt. I'm still at a fairly early stage in my process but your detailed input above is unbelievably helpful. I've taken a screenshot and will use it as a reference point for my own family's planning. Thanks for being such an awesome contributor.

[AFreshStart]

Good Day Matt

Thank you for the response! Much Appreciated!

Did you go the private route or did you use an agency like New World Immigration for the process? I assuming a lot of cost may be saved doing everything yourself?

Your break down of your budget was the first post I read here on SAAUS. Since then I read through multiple pages, search for average prices on day to day items needed, electric components and mainly consumed my entire week when I released that the move is possible even for an ordinary/average family like us

In your opinion will a Tradesman(mechanic) be paid more than someone administrating claims for cars at a Insurance Company? This is my biggest issue because this will mean I have to retest/trade at VETASESS.

I don't think we would be paid enough for one of us to stay at home and look after our son situation(or is that my South African mentality firstly assuming the worst speaking here?)

Does the banks have specific rules or a certain amount of time you need to be a resident before you can by a car on finance?

Thanks yet again,

Kind Regards

Hi Ian,

We went the private route, our case was fairly straight forward so we saved the money by doing it ourselves. It did require 175+ pages of documentation to get us over the line, but much of it would have been required even with an agent.

We were very blessed because we applied and paid for the VISA's ourselves, but my wife was offered a job and her company refunded us the money after her 3-month probation period.

Sadly I can't answer your question about the higher pay, but I can tell you that in Waterloo/Alexandria there are at least 4-5 shops. Central Autohaus deals with German cars, Ferrari and Maserati are here on Elizabeth St, there is Sydney Toyota as well Honda's workshop over in Roseberry. All within a 15-20 minute walk of each other, and that doesn't even include the small independent guys. Their workshops all employ mechanics.

I also can't answer RE financing a car, we bought ours cash.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Matt

Hi Matt. I'm still at a fairly early stage in my process but your detailed input above is unbelievably helpful. I've taken a screenshot and will use it as a reference point for my own family's planning. Thanks for being such an awesome contributor.

Hi Hoping4Oz,

Glad to be of help. If you have any further questions, just ask.

Cheers

Matt

[Geite]

Hi Ian,

We are also working via New World Immigration, their service is excellent and they are MARA registered http://www.nwivisas.com/mara-agents/

The service from Jonathan Pretorius is outstanding, always updating us with emails and phone calls.

Unfortunately we lodged our EOI with 60 points my wife being the main applicant and for accountants the number of 189 VISAS allocated has fallen drastically actually half of what it was before. It seems at this stage that only applicants with 70 points get invites.

In January 2016 our points will increase by 5 points hopefully we will get the invite. We have also applied for NSW state sponsorship in the effort to earn the additional points.

All the best with your plans. In the meantime we are looking at New Zealand - we also have a baby, these kind of thought cross your mind when you want to give security and a bright future to your little one

Regards

G

[IanErasmus90]

Ian, welcome, I do hope you find many answers here!

If you go to the top right of the screen, there is a search function, type in new world immigration and ensure that the button next to it shows "forums", they are not MARA registered. There are a number of posts that may give you some enlightenment.

Good Day

Thank you for your response, read though all of it and searched a little more! What I have found is that many people have used them, since dating back since 2009, and no issues.

Kind Regards

[DavePE]

In your opinion will a Tradesman(mechanic) be paid more than someone administrating claims for cars at a Insurance Company? This is my biggest issue because this will mean I have to retest/trade at VETASESS.

Hi Ian,

Welcome to the forum. It's a very important point to note is that if you apply and get a Permanent Resident Visa, either the 189 or 190, you can work in any field you get employment in. Seeing as you would be applying under your wife's occupation, "Teacher", you wouldn't event need to get assessed anyway. I believe getting your skills assessed can lead to an extra 5 points in your application but I'm not sure of the exact details. Below is a good website that will allow you to quickly calculate your points. You need a minimum of 60 to apply.

http://www.harriswake.com/skillselectpointscalculator

Also what level does your wife teach. High School, Primary or Pre-Primary? Primary schools have been taken off the Skilled Occupation Lists which means you would not be able to apply for a permanent residence visa without State sponsorship.

Have a look at this website, it gives you all the information you would need about your particular occupations, and which states could potentially sponsor you.

https://www.anzscosearch.com/

Also do you have your heart set on Sydney? It's rated as one of if not the most expensive city in the world to live in. I'm currently applying for a State Sponsored visa from NSW, as that's the only State that would have sponsored me, so this has me really worried coming over with my couple of rands... I don't want to put you off Sydney it's just something to aware of. By all accounts I've actually only heard positives about Sydney it's just good to know that from you're opening post I think you would be able to go to any city.

My advice would be to go to the first website I posted and do a quick points calculation. Age and years of experience being the most important area's because of the amount of points associated with each. From there come back and let us know how many points you scored. We can then advise further on what options are available to you to immigrate.

[GandTash]

Hi Ian,

We got 189 Visa's issued this year, for my wife and I and our child and it was in the region of R105k, we used Migrate2Oz agents.

Good luck !

G

[Guest]

Hello Ian and welcome to the forum. We actually did the visa process ourselves it was all done online and fairly stress free. If your case is not complicated then you could opt for that option. Keep in mind though that if there are any issues a migration agent would be able to advise and can prevent you from messing up your application. Its something to consider.

I would also reiterate what others have said regarding Sydney, it is an expensive City to live why not widen out in your search for other states. Melbourne is the most livable city in the world. If your prepared to commute obviously depending on where you work then rent can be as extremely affordable. We are paying 400 a week but you can get for 300-350 elsewhere and also nice areas. Because my son is 4 I have decided to stay at home with him until I can enrol him next may. Preschools are expensive here although you can get rebates. We are managing very well on one salary and it all depends on how you budget.

I wish you all the very best in your journey. I remember all too well the stress of having to get everything done...it seems it is never going to happen and then suddenly it does.