All Activity

Have you guys got PR visas?

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to start a thread for anyone to share their stories, whether you have been successful in getting your Travel Exemption approved, or still stuck in South Africa waiting to get a Travel Exemption approved. Maybe you even have some tips on how to have a successful application, or just need some support from people in the same situation. My name is Morne, last year I was offered employment at an Australian Telecommunications company, with their office in Gold Coast QLD, as a Senior Network Engineer. My partner, Megan, and I received our Visas in December and

Hi @NikkiR We were initially supposed to travel to Australia in January 2021, so in December I opened a bank account with NAB. Since I'm unable to transact with that account, and still being stuck in South Africa due to not getting a Travel Exemption approved, I opened another account with Revolut Australia. My employer in Australia is able to pay my salary into this account, and I am able to spend some of that money in South Africa using a virtual card. Also worth mentioning that Revolut allows you to have multiple virtual accounts which can be in many different currencies, so

When we migrated many years ago now - we had opened an account prior to moving and transferred some funds. You will need to check it is still he case but we did not need 100 points of evidence - I think it was just our passports. When in the bank activation the account we asked the bank to print us a letter - and we were also then able to use that towards proof of address and the 100 points at other locations. It was one of the useful tips we had been given on here before we moved!

Re Citizenship: during the lockdown's the Dept of Citizenship at first had an increasing backlog of Citizenship Ceremony's - then they started doing the ceremonies on line. This cleared a significant backlog that had even been built up pre-COVID in many areas. I assist with Citizenship and whilst it varies considerably by LGA in general the Ceremonies are proceeding a lot quicker than pre-COVID at the moment. Unfortunately, the tests and interviews, need to be done in person, and these can still take a while - but varies considerably.

Hi, I'm also still here. I also only check in here every few months. I will also be applying for citizenship in 5 weeks' time. I agree with some of the statements above about the temporary nature of Facebook group. I guess Facebook is the default platform these days, but I find a forum like this is much better as a long-term knowledge base.

Honestly, you will be competing with people who do have qualifications and are already in a network for jobs. My advice, if you have the time to study, do something. Then again, if I were you, I would rethink it. Trades make good money here so dont think just management positions in Australia. Electricians in my company make more money than the electrical engineers........

Just to update everyone. I have closed my bank account. Did a income tax return with all ZERO's. Then started and completed the financial emmigration. This all happened over a period of 12-months. Today I logged into SARS eFiling and saw an option that they probably added in the past month whereby I can "DEACTIVATE" my tax type. I selected income tax, and now the page shows I am not registered for income tax. Let's see if I am issues any income tax returns to do after June this year! Yay! Is that it? anything else before I can once and for all

The Dept of Home Affairs usually announce the quotas during the budget next month. The processing dates table was updated on the 16th April and they are still stating processing 143 Applications lodged "Lodged May 2016"

Thank you very much.Will get on it ASAP.

Difficult to say as you didn't elaborate what specific you have done in operations - as its a broad field. Instead of following the normal route looking through job advertisements, may I suggest that you identify which companies you would like to work at. Lets pick petroleum - now look for their Petroleum Associations of Australia. There area few: APPEA; APACMA; PESA Often they will have a members directory. Their you will find all 60 players in the market and 140 upstream players eg https://www.appea.com.au/members/ Now view each member's website for jobs. See which role f

Hi All, Is there any update about the 143 visa processing time? I can hear some rumors about changing the tracking system to the fast processing so that all outstanding visas be granted soon. is this news correct? On the other hand do we still know about the next financial year budget for parent visas? is this again increasing to at least 7000 visa per year? As I mentioned before I applied for my parents on June 2017 but I don't know what would be the estimated time I still need to wait to see them

Hi, Yes we spoke to the agent and he made us aware of the situtation. We still hope that things will get better soon. The process also takes time so have to be ready incase. Thank you

Joined 2008 and have a look-in at what is happening every now and then. Did a few journal posts in the early days, but as time passes and you settle in and the new becomes the daily I think people's focus change, they made new friends and have established social circles and...frankly time moves on and the people with it. Did learn a lot from this site and hopefully my contributions gave someone just starting their journey an idea of what life is like on this side, but as mentioned by someone else, I also think my experience may be a bit dated when it comes to the visa process 🙂 On

Skilled Occupations: The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has commenced (March 2021 ) a review of the ANZSCO categorisation of occupations associated with: agriculture, forestry, and fisheries cyber security naval ship building The ABS is working with several Australian Government Agencies to progress a targeted update of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupation (ANZSCO). Consultation has progressed well and there is now necessary support and resourcing for ABS to immediately commen

Welcome to the Forum Johan Hopefully someone will come along and answer your query about availability of work soon. In the meantime, whilst you are probably aware, I thought I would mention, just in case, that at the current time as a broad generalisation Australia's borders are closed. As a consequence of this very few people are being invited to apply for the 'points scored' independent skilled visas unless in an occupation critical to Australia's COVID-19 recover. You can still submit an EOI into the pool of people hoping for an invitation.

Hi, My Wife and I are busy with the application process for Australia. She has a BCom degree and has enough points for us to Qualify. However we can not be dependent on her salary alone as Accountants that side does not make much. I have 9years Experience in the Engineering (Operations ) sector but no qualifications. Mines,Marine,Petroleum etc. Will it be easy for me to get work on that side? Even if it means starting from the bottom again. Thanks Johan

Same to you, it really feels like the whole visa application timeline again. And I hate waiting so its a bit painful but I'm sure its that way for everyone. We've kind of went with the notion that if SA says no..... we'll not cry a river over it 😄

As a generalisation I have heard some very positive comments about the Darwin quarantine set up. Hope the flights went well and you are settling in - and welcome to Australia.

Hi all, Just a quick update to all the members still awaiting approval. Hang in there!!! We submitted at end of March 2016 and received final approval on 9 December 2020. Mad scramble put house on market and sold up everything. Happy to say we are on a repatriation flight which departs JHB on 10 April 2021 at 16:30 hrs. Did our covid tests today at the approved Qantas/Australian approved testing center. This flight is going to Darwin where we will quarantine at Howard Springs quarantine center. If all goes well there we will join our family in Silverdale NSW on 26 April

I have been here since 2015 when I decided to make the move which is long after the many familiar usernames in this thread joined. I have always been a lurker of note, happy to let others explain unless I felt better placed to do so. I am forever grateful for this forum especially back in 2015 when I was looking to make the move. The forum in those days became a glimpse of Australia for me which was important as I decided to go all in without the luxury of an LSD trip. Many people here and others invested loads of time sharing their journeys from the migration process to everyday life in Austr

Updated Processing Times from this week

I sent the application to retain RSA citizenship in February 2021 which will be about 2 months before our imminent Australian Citizenship application. My understanding is that it must be confirmed before taking the pledge in Oz so I assume we will be safe, with the Oz timeline being approx 1 year? Maybe things a bit slooooow back home. I am not worried, the 2 are not co-ordinated between governments. Good luck with your application

@TakeItOnTheChin have you applied to keep your South African citizenship? We sent the forms through three months before we applied for Aus citizenship and to this day have not heard anything back. So in total its been about 9 months for SA 'permission'.

Many thanks TeeTMI, got this done last night