The start of a long journey

[kdub]

Hi everyone!!

My name is Kentin and i am currently living in Centurion with my wife Vanessa and my 2 year old daughter Micaela. We have a boy on the way due in April 2013. I am turning 30 in February and my wife is a year younger.

I have been slowly trying to convince my wife that we should look to immigrate to Aus over the last 1-2 years and she has recently agreed

I have read many posts in this forum and now that we are serious about leaving, I figured it was time to join and correspond with all you fine people and share my experiences from day 1.

The main reasons why we have decided to leave are twofold: firstly and mainly would be the freefalling education system in South Africa. I am terrified that my two kids will suffer because of it and unfortunately I do not see a recovery happening anytime during my kids' school careers. The recent assessment scores of an average of 13% for grade 9 students for mathematics was really just the push we needed to get our backsides into gear and get out of hear.

Secondly, I am a qualified Chartered Accountant and I have experienced BEE and AA policies first hand. I cannot believe how difficult it is to find decent work as a qualified professional in a country with such a severe skills shortage. I do have a job with a decent salary, but cannot see myself getting anywhere higher up the ranks. It took me many months to find the job I currently have but its very difficult to stay motivated in an environment such as this.

My wife is a Business Analyst and has been working in the banking sector for 6 years. She is currently working at Standard Bank.

It is a very sad situation when you come to the realisation that you are going to have to leave your friends and family and everything that you have worked for to start a new life far away, and I know it is going to be really really tough especially on my wife as far as leaving the grandparents behind goes. Many tears will follow.

My first realisation on moving is the enormous costs involved especially with obtaining a visa! For this reason we have set ourselves a target of leaving in December/January 2014/15.

Hopefully all goes well! From what I have read, I think Perth would suit our family quite nicely as the weather seems good and the living expenses appear to be manageable compared to the East Coast.

My first question that I hope you guys can help me with is about employment as a CA there. How "in demand" are CAs in Australia and Perth in particular and do you think I will struggle to find employment, as well as employment for my wife in the banking sector?

OK - first post long enough

[Cranzy]

Hi,

Welcome and best of luck to you

Luckily not all costs are paid straight up front.

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Hey kdub

Welcome to the forum and yes this is a long and emotional journey to be on and I understand totally about the wife not wanting to go until now. My wife only decided to make the move this year February and things have been an emotional roller coaster ride since then. My suggestion to you would be to start collecting all the necessary documentation that you will need for the skills assessment and EOI submission as soon as you can. Some of the stuff will take a while to get and could delay you skills assessment or EOI. You will need to get current passports for the whole family as well as unabridged birth and marriage certificates.

As far as the employment opportunities for CA's go as long as your occupation is on the SOL you will stand a good chance of getting an invitation to apply for a visa, I am not sure how in demand CA's are but it all ends up being relative in the end, if you are prepared to go where the work is you will have work. Yes this is an expensive little venture that you are embarking on but the rewards that you will reap and the benefits that your children will have in the future far outweigh the costs you will incur. We are leaving for exactly the same reasons (and more) than you and your family and it angers me that we have to leave family, friends and everything we know behind because we don't have another choice.

Good luck with the rest of the process and please don't be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to, there are lots of really nice, friendly people here on this forum that will help as much as they are able to.

[Jordy]

Welcome to the forum. I dont know specifically but I would think CA's are always in demand. I honestly cant see you being out of job in Aus. The journey is long and seems huge but you know what they say about eating an elephant!

[kdub]

Hi again

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely start by collecting all my docs as I know this can be a problem. My first hurdle is to get our university degrees and qualifications reissued by the universities as they were stolen along with a whole bunch of other important documents in a burglary last year. They were all in a safe which was stolen that had nothing that anybody else could use or sell. I guess thats another reason for wanting to go.

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Hi again

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely start by collecting all my docs as I know this can be a problem. My first hurdle is to get our university degrees and qualifications reissued by the universities as they were stolen along with a whole bunch of other important documents in a burglary last year. They were all in a safe which was stolen that had nothing that anybody else could use or sell. I guess that's another reason for wanting to go.

Depending on where and when you studied you can use MIE to get copies of academic transcripts, module detail and degrees. If they can't help you the should be able to tell you where to go or who to call. You are going to find it very difficult to find anyone at the university that can help, these people are professional and worth every cent. We used them for my wife's degrees and transcripts and it took all of 25 days in total and they deliver to your door.

[Sunnyskies]

Welcome.

Don't close the door on the east coast so quickly.

As a CA you should find work in Perth, a lot will depend on where the mining boom is when you move over. Remember that while there are a lot of jobs in Perth, there are far fewer jobs for certain careers because of the fact that most businesses or their head offices are still over on the east coast. That was the case when we looked - I could get work but for every 1 job in Perth there were 10 on the east coast, granted there was more competition on the east coast but don't believe that you will simply walk into a job in Perth either.

In relation to your wife, do a bit of research on how big NAB, CBA, Westpac and ANZ are in Perth - I know from the bankers that I deal with professionally that their teams are much smaller in Perth and that sometimes they rely on the analysts on the east coast because they don't have enough deals to hire analysts in Perth. They are growing their teams, but how much will again depend on whether the we are in boom or bust.

I know that the weather is better and the SA community is bigger and you will probably be happy in Perth, but Australia is a big country and there are a lot of great places to live. We started our journey thinking it would end in Perth and here we are in Melbourne - so keep your options and your mind open.

[kdub]

Wow thanks HadEnough! This forum has been useful already. I will definitely use them to get my UP certificate and transcripts. Quite reasonable with pricing too. I just need to find a way to get my Unisa certificate now.

Hi Sunnyskies. I definitely haven't closed the door on the East Coast. Its just my initial fact-finding seemed to indicate that it is easier to get by financially in WA and together with the weather seemed like a logical choice. Still lots of deciding and investigating to do but at the end of the day the availability of good jobs will more than likely be the deciding factor on where we settle.

The entire process is very intimidating for me as there is SOOOO much to consider. But we will take it one thing at a time. By the way, did you guys use an agent or are you using one before you went over and would you recommend using one?

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Wow thanks HadEnough! This forum has been useful already. I will definitely use them to get my UP certificate and transcripts. Quite reasonable with pricing too. I just need to find a way to get my Unisa certificate now.

Although it's not listed on the site I think they also do Unisa degrees as well, I just don't think you are going to get the module details out of them.

[Fish]

...Hi Sunnyskies. I definitely haven't closed the door on the East Coast. Its just my initial fact-finding seemed to indicate that it is easier to get by financially in WA ...

From reading many posts on many forums and some newspaper articles the price of quite a few things seem to be higher in WA (with less choice) than some east coast cities. It also has high average wages (which would account for some of the higher prices) so I guess it depends whether the higher than average wage is not only in mining related jobs but also general accounting/BA jobs as well. Guessing, but house price average probably below Syd/Mel but above Bris, Adel, Hob.

Edited December 13, 2012 by Fish

[Soweto]

Very interesting comments. I and wife have also made up or minds and will be heading anywhere in Australia (not decided yet). I am also a CA and have the same worries ( The job market for Accountants in Oz). I have already applied for the visa and still waiting for medicals which were refferred in Nov last year.

Will keep you posted as soon as the visa is granted!