Slow down!

[Wash]

Hallo, everyone!

 

My name is WIllem and I have no idea what I'm doing.

 

Short version:

We visited my wife's sister (also an immigrant) in Bunbury over December.

Now she wants to move.

We were talking about it before the trip - I was very recalcitrant and refused to give the idea of immigration any thought.

Now, I'm not too opposed to the thought - in fact, the more I ponder, the more I feel like her insistence on immigration doesn't have to be met with scorn.

 

So now here I am, barely back from Oz for a week, looking at IELTS vs Pearson, 189 vs 190 vs 489, worrying about what and how my skills assessment will turn out as, wondering if paying an agent 3 months' bond payments is worth it...

 

Anyone with experience specifically in the EA skills assessment for BEng degrees care to weigh in?

 

I know there's a LOT of other issues and hurdles to get through / over - but for now I need to focus on one thing at a time...

 

 

 

[Ta2Bryan]

Welcome!

 

The process will test your emotions to the max, highs and lows. During the process things change and it sets you back.

If you are not committed to the process, chances of following through are not too high.I don't say this to scare you.

We are 9 months in since we started and have made it through to submitting of Visa documentation. Now the waiting and uncertainty is always on my mind.

This has not been a cheap episode either. Costs up until this point are in the R150k, and we have not even recieved a Visa yet. This is for Board registration, IELTS x 2, medicals, documentation and transcript costs, police clearance, agent fees and visa application for a family of 4 on a 189 visa.

In the end it will be well worth it, and all members of the family are committed.

Sorry if it appears negative, I just want you to know what you are in for.

 

On a side note: what were your impressions of Bunbury? It is one of the areas with job opportunities for my wife.

[Mara]

@Wash welcome to our corner of the world.. trust you will find a lot of your questions answered here.

 

One thought to put into your mind... if you have children... this is not a choice.... it is a must DO... in order to give your children a future.

 

Will it be easy? Heck no! That is life though, you have to work hard for the good things in life!

 

If you are ever in doubt, visit the forum, where you will find a great crowd of like minded people, all working towards a better life for their families!

 

I have been here 20 years, and 24 years out of RSA... still the best move we ever made!

[Fidjet]

Hi and welcome. First like mentioned above, make sure you want to do this! It will not be easy, it WILL cost a small fortune and it has happend before that when one member of the family isnt 100% onboard things fo belly up for the family. Aplying for the VISA is stressful, and that is the easy part, prepping for the move and saying goodbuy to everything and everyone you know (in my opinion) is even harder. We havnt left yet, (leaving in March) but cant emagine the first couple of months or even years will be easy ither. I know of a couple, hubby wanted to move to USA whife didnt, she did it to be seportive, and because she wasnt compleatly against the idee, but after aplying moving and about 6months there, they ended up getting a divorce and she moved back with the kids. Really messy, not saying that will hapen to you but it can happen. So ja, first thing, decide if you want to move, and why you want to. There are allot of good reasons, but "because x wanted me to" isnt good enouth.

 

Ok after scaring you (sorry) Ill try answer some of yout Q's.

1st since you want to use EA you need to do IELTS. Im a mech eng and from what I can remember EA needs a spesific IELTS score as part of your skill assesment ( @RedPandamaybe you can convirm this)

 

2nd, if your case is simple, your on the list, can get the points and no funny addons or anything like that I would recomend skiepping the agent. It is "easy" to apply for a streightforward visa, and all you need to do is allot of reading and reasurch, but being Bing you shouldnt be unvimiliar with that. Adgents do help, and they make the stress a little less (then you dont have to worry, eek did I do this right) but they are expensive, your choice, we did it alone and now have 189 PR visa.

 

As for tipe of visa, if you can get the points for the 189, the go for it! The amount of perks you get from it is so worth it. A state sponsered will help with points, but then you have to stay and work in that state, it does significantly limmit your job options when you land. As for company sponsored... not easy to get a company that can/is willing to sponser, and again it ties you to them, limiting future options. 

 

Skill assesment with EA was very easy, go to there website, they have a booklet that shows what is needed, tick all the bokses and send it of to them. (They now take online aplications, no more stresssing about mailing origional certivicates) We had no problem there, had slightly more issus with hubbies ACS aplication. 

 

Also if you do this apply for unabridged everythine NOW! It took us 10months to finaly get our unabridged Marage certivicate, in the end we aplied and got our VISA with the origional paperwork we signed and fingerprinted on our weddingday. And only got our unabridged after we got our VISA grant letter. 

 

Goodluck with the desisions and if you have questions ask, people here are super friendly and helpful. 

[SafferBlue]

Hi, Wash

 

Welcome and good luck with this endeavour!  It is a long a tough process so, as your rightly said,  just take it one step at a time.  As your application progresses it will make more and more sense and your desire to emigrate should grow too.

 

The EA assessment is very straight forward and one the easiest steps in the process.  Their website explains the requirements well.

 

 Your degree should fall under the Washington Accord (but check to confirm first) which makes the process fairly simple.

 

I lived in Bunbury for over five years and it is a fantastic little part of the world!

 

Cheers,

 

Safferblue

Edited January 13, 2018 by SafferBlue

[Wash]

Wow!

 

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone!

 

First, Let me answer a couple of questions:

On 1/12/2018 at 6:46 PM, Ta2Bryan said:

On a side note: what were your impressions of Bunbury? It is one of the areas with job opportunities for my wife.

Bunbury felt (to me, anyway) a lot like Pretoria - you could live and work in a small part of it and find everything you need close by.  You also, however, have the option to explore a bit, and find a lot of fun, interesting things on your doorstep.

 

On 1/13/2018 at 10:03 AM, Fidjet said:

since you want to use EA you need to do IELTS. Im a mech eng and from what I can remember EA needs a spesific IELTS score as part of your skill assesment

EA requires an IELTS score of 6 in all bands, but for 75 points on the EOI for a 189 visa, I need all 8's...  still trying to decide between the IELTS and the Person test.

As for the skills assessment, I'm worried about the fact that since I got my degree, I haven't really done any work in that field - I received a bursary from a construction company and, long story short, I've spent the majority of the 10 years since graduating in an estimating position...

If I understand correctly, the skills assessment looks at (in addition to the English scores) your degree (whether it is "good enough") and your academic transcript.  The CDR is only a requirement if your qualification isn't part of the Washington, Sydney or one other accord.  Can anyone confirm this?

On 1/13/2018 at 0:28 PM, SafferBlue said:

Your degree should fall under the Washington Accord (but check to confirm first) which makes the process fairly simple.

My degree does fall under the Washington Accord.  I seem to remember one of my lecturers going on about it for some reason.  hehe!

As I said above, I'm just a bit concerned about the work experience AFTER I got the degree.  But I'll take it as it comes.

 

Thanks again for all of your advice.  I'm sure I'll be picking some of your brains again soon! 

[Fidjet]

EA trears work xp and degree as 2 different things. So if they feel the work you did doesn't count, then they will still acredit your degree. This might influence the points you get on EOI but you will still be able to claim the occupation. 

 

I would sugest do IELTS (since you need it for EA, they dont recognizes Person) and see how you do if you get an 8 great, if not you can consider Person?

[Wash]

10 hours ago, Fidjet said:

EA trears work xp and degree as 2 different things. So if they feel the work you did doesn't count, then they will still acredit your degree. This might influence the points you get on EOI but you will still be able to claim the occupation. 

 

I would sugest do IELTS (since you need it for EA, they dont recognizes Person) and see how you do if you get an 8 great, if not you can consider Person?

@Fidjet,  EA DOES accept Pearson, but you need to take the Academic test.  They accept both the General and Academic IELTS tests.

 

Having a closer look at the document requirements, It seems that the work experience does not come into it at all - except if your degree isn't part of the Washington accord.

 

I should be fine with the EA assessment.  Now to decide if I want to do IELTS or Pearson...

[Fidjet]

3 hours ago, Wash said:

EA DOES accept Pearson, but you need to take the Academic test.  They accept both the General and Academic IELTS tests

Awsome, must have changed, then you can do whichever. 

[Eva]

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your emigration journey.  From my personal experience I can only say we have never looked back!

[RedPanda]

As stated before, EA is the easy part. (they like being paid for the service, so they encourage people to use it   *Ok, I'll just put the lid back softly and leave that little can of worms in the corner*) Experience is not needed at all to get a successful skills assessment for engineering if the degree is BEng, and the university is listed with the RSA body, and falls under the Washington Accord. However, you might want to claim points for work experience in order to get a better application score. I this case, you could run into problems with getting your experience vetted by EA, if it is not related to your uni degree. But that will only affect your work experience eligible for points.

When choosing between IELTS and Pearson, go search for topics in the forum comparing them. There are several. It would seem that they are somewhat different in what people find difficult about each, so read up and pick the one that would suit your circumstances best. Pearson is faster to book and get results, people have difficulty with mic settings and other 'technical difficulties' related to the machine marking process. IELTS has long booking periods and the results also take long to process. People have issues with test venue setups sometimes. This is from memory only, so please go do your own reading too. I would also recommend doing the practice material, even if your English is superb, every test has it's own quirks, usually totally unrelated to the thing it's meant to be testing. If you want a good score you need to know the system too.

Regarding the move: should you or should you not? This is a tough one, because you have to make up your own mind and stick to your decision. It doesn't help to 'be along for the ride' on someone else's decision. Things happen that are really tough to deal with: family dies/gets married/grows up/old and you're not there, you could experience real difficulty securing a job and have to deal with rejection and feelings of failure, your spouse could become depressed, you could be totally overwhelmed by having to function in a strange new place as an adult that is expected to know how everything works....The list is really long. And the point is that any one of these or a combination of these could send you packing back home if you don't have good solid reasons for wanting to be in Australia, wanting to make a new life here, wanting it to work. You have to sort out your reasons before you get here. Once you have them, and once you know exactly why you want to move to Australia you should be able to work through issues you might run into on this side. Lots of us have done it, it's totally possible.

Ps. we all think you should move over here  But it's really important that you have your own reasons for why.

That said: Good luck with the process! Hope it goes smoothly, shout if it doesn't.

[Fidjet]

2 hours ago, RedPanda said:

I would also recommend doing the practice material, even if your English is superb, every test has it's own quirks, usually totally unrelated to the thing it's meant to be testing.

Eg from when we wrote IELTS last Jan, 9am is 9:00 not 09:00

[TamLovesRic]

Heyyy - also new to the Forum  Just my two cents on Pearson/IELTS. 

Do Pearson...here's why....

1) booking is quick and easy.

2) you can get a test date quickly

3) results come out in a few days.

 

My hubby did IELTS first and we feel it delayed our process for a substandard result (10 points) vs Pearsons (20 points)

If you really hated pearsons....you can always do IELTS afterwards. Yes its expensive- but you gotta do what you gotta do...

 

GOODLUCK

[ChrisH]

8 hours ago, TamLovesRic said:

also new to the Forum

 

Welcome to the forum!

[Wash]

Some time has passed.  Some things have happened.

 

I Wrote the IELTS and received 8's and 9's for everything but writing (6.5).  That was good enough for the EA assessment, though, and now I have a positive assessment.

I wrote the PTE test on Friday (7 Sept) and received results on Sunday (9 Sept). I got all 90's.  Submitted the EOI right away - 70 points for a 189 visa.

 

Now, I've heard that people wait a long time for an invite.  Even the Home affairs website says to submit the EOI and start gathering your docs while you wait for the invite. 

Which is why I nearly :censored:-a-brick when I received an invite email yesterday (10 Sept).  That's right - EOI submission to receipt of invite in less than 24 hours!  I couldn't believe it!  

 

I thought this would be a long leisurely process - giving me time to do more research and wrap my head around the moving away part.  But... I now have 59 days to apply for the visa.

 

So here come the questions:

1. What happens if I don't submit an application before the 60 days are up?

2. We have no documents ready except for the stuff we got for the 600 visa last year.  What else do we need? By when do we need it? Do I apply for the Visa and gather docs as and when they are requested?

3. Do I need to pay the for the Visa on application, or does that come later?  R80k (visa cost estimator on the Australian Home Affairs website) on short notice isn't a small thing to arrange...

4. The "Skilled employment" requirement is still a mystery to me.  I sent the EOI with 8-10 years, since that's how long I've been working after varsity.  How do I prove this?  Or, more to the point, how do I prove that the work I did was relevant to the qualification?  This question is really bothering me...

 

I'll probably have a LOT more questions, but that's it for now.

 

 

 

 

 

[TakeItOnTheChin]

You would not want to miss that 60 day deadline, you don't want to waste an opportunity that may never come again. If you have a skills assessment and the English results then you are most of the way there. Why don't you get the assistance of an agent to take you through the application process, you need their assistance I am sure? When applying for the visa you would need to make the payment on application as far as I can remember

Edited September 12, 2018 by TakeItOnTheChin

[Duggen]

14 hours ago, Wash said:

Some time has passed.  Some things have happened.

 

I Wrote the IELTS and received 8's and 9's for everything but writing (6.5).  That was good enough for the EA assessment, though, and now I have a positive assessment.

I wrote the PTE test on Friday (7 Sept) and received results on Sunday (9 Sept). I got all 90's.  Submitted the EOI right away - 70 points for a 189 visa.

 

Now, I've heard that people wait a long time for an invite.  Even the Home affairs website says to submit the EOI and start gathering your docs while you wait for the invite. 

Which is why I nearly :censored:-a-brick when I received an invite email yesterday (10 Sept).  That's right - EOI submission to receipt of invite in less than 24 hours!  I couldn't believe it!  

 

I thought this would be a long leisurely process - giving me time to do more research and wrap my head around the moving away part.  But... I now have 59 days to apply for the visa.

 

So here come the questions:

1. What happens if I don't submit an application before the 60 days are up?  - your invitation will lapse and you need to submit an EOI again

2. We have no documents ready except for the stuff we got for the 600 visa last year.  What else do we need? By when do we need it? Do I apply for the Visa and gather docs as and when they are requested? - The documents you need are available on the immigration website. One will be a positive skills assessment. If you do not have one I would suggest you get onto it asap.

3. Do I need to pay the for the Visa on application, or does that come later?  R80k (visa cost estimator on the Australian Home Affairs website) on short notice isn't a small thing to arrange... - You pay in full when you lodge your application

4. The "Skilled employment" requirement is still a mystery to me.  I sent the EOI with 8-10 years, since that's how long I've been working after varsity.  How do I prove this?  Or, more to the point, how do I prove that the work I did was relevant to the qualification?  This question is really bothering me... - You need to get a skills assessment done. This will usually also include your years of work experience (at least it did on mine). Generally only work post getting your qualification will apply. I.E if you are an accountant  your articles wont be counted.

 

I'll probably have a LOT more questions, but that's it for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TeeTMI]

20 hours ago, Wash said:

So here come the questions:

1. What happens if I don't submit an application before the 60 days are up?

2. We have no documents ready except for the stuff we got for the 600 visa last year.  What else do we need? By when do we need it? Do I apply for the Visa and gather docs as and when they are requested?

3. Do I need to pay the for the Visa on application, or does that come later?  R80k (visa cost estimator on the Australian Home Affairs website) on short notice isn't a small thing to arrange...

4. The "Skilled employment" requirement is still a mystery to me.  I sent the EOI with 8-10 years, since that's how long I've been working after varsity.  How do I prove this?  Or, more to the point, how do I prove that the work I did was relevant to the qualification?  This question is really bothering me...

 

 

 

Congratulations on the invite.  Over time the points required and waiting times can increase and decrease (as we have seen in the last couple of months).

1) Given this is your first invites - after 60 days your EOI will lapse and your EOI will return into the system again. 

3) You would need to pay for the visa at the time of application.

2 & 4) You are advised to have the attach the majority of documents, there are a some where there may be reasons to delay a little.  Be aware that if you do not provide sufficient evidence towards the claims you made towards the points.  For example work experience your application should be refused if you do not have the appropriate evidence to support your claimed points.  If so you might reconsider your application and EOI.

   

Edited September 12, 2018 by TeeTMI

[RedPanda]

I would very strongly suggest getting in contact with a migration agent ASAP! If you mess around with your actual application you will lose your money. Like if you can't prove your years work experience.

R80 000 is not pocket money to be gambled on shoddy admin.

Please get an agent to look over your whole case, and advise if you need to retract your EOI.

[BriD]

I have to say I am quite worried that you submitted your EOI without having received anything acknowledging your work experience.  When you submit an EOI you already need in your hands and dated the various items proving your elidgibility to claim each section of points. Ie. Your Pearsons/IELTS scores, your EA assessment of your degree, your EA assessment of your work experience relating to the skill you are applying for. All these docs need to be dated before your EOI is submitted. Otherwise they could say you were lying about your points and you could be banned from applying again for up to 3 years!

 

My hubby is an industrial engineer.  We did skills and work assessment through Engineers Australia. We had received an email from them saying both applications were positive assessments. I replied saying how happy I was and that we'd submit our EOI immediately.  They wrote back quickly and advised us not to submit until the letters had been printed and date stamped as BEFORE the EOI was to be submitted.  This because you should already have proof of elidgibility of points in hand before submitting EOI.

 

If I have misunderstood and you do in fact have all points accounted for with proof signed and dated with relevant authorities then I do apologise for the misunderstanding. 

 

However if I understood correctly and you don't have your work experience accounted for you may need to allow the 60 day period to elapse and resubmit your EOI when you have all documents in hand.  

 

All the best for the process.  If you do do this on your own you need to read and research every single thing.  Follow the rules to the letter.  A mistake could be extremely costly. 

[Tntaglia]

@Wash I'm curious - did you end up applying for the visa?

[Wash]

On 9/18/2018 at 1:58 PM, RedPanda said:

Please get an agent to look over your whole case, and advise if you need to retract your EOI.

 

R80k is a lot of money.  But adding R30k on top of that makes it even more.

 

We've decided to bite the bullet and engage the services of an agent to assist us with the application.  Go big or go home, right?

 

11 hours ago, Tntaglia said:

I'm curious - did you end up applying for the visa?

 

In case the above proves too vague:  No.  We have not gone ahead with the application just yet.

 

Next step now is to figure out where we're going to find R110k...

[CtrlAltAustralia]

16 hours ago, Wash said:

 

R80k is a lot of money.  But adding R30k on top of that makes it even more.

 

We've decided to bite the bullet and engage the services of an agent to assist us with the application.  Go big or go home, right?

 

 

In case the above proves too vague:  No.  We have not gone ahead with the application just yet.

 

Next step now is to figure out where we're going to find R110k...

 

My limited experience and finding myself the same boat as yours, 0.02c worth of advice - Put R 110k on a weight scale, and on the other side you put - life without fear, money not depreciating endless amounts, land expropriation, kids future etc., etc., etc....see what side the balance scale land on.

 

Good luck mate.

 

PS.

 

excuse the picture showing South America and Africa, ideally should show the land down under.