Moving without Job

[RFourie]

I have a question that I hope someone can help me with.

I have recently been granted a VISA 190 in Victoria and am currently looking for a job in the engineering sector. Most of the discussions stated that you have a much better chance of securing a job if you are in Australia. 

My question is do you active your VISA by entering the country, stay there in a B&B for a month while searching for a job?

How do you rent a property without having a job first?

Maybe there is something that I am missing, but I would appreciate any assistance/advice regarding this.

[TamTam]

I can only answer the activation part - you activate your visa simply by entering the country - it used to be that you had to have your passport stamped but now it's all electronic. You do not need to stay in Australia for any particular length of time to "activate" the visa.

I do not believe you need to have a job secured to rent a property.

[CazK]

Hi @RFourie, we secured a rental without either of us having a job. We offered the owner two month's rent in advance, showed the agency that we had sufficient funds in our bank account to pay the rent, and they were happy. Finding a job takes time, depending on what you do and your level of experience etc.

[RFourie]

Thank you for the feedback.

If I may ask, how much is a sufficient amount to keep you going (rent etc.) for lets say 3 to 4 months?

 

[CazK]

Hmm, that is a tricky one as it depends on where you are staying and how large or small your family is. The closer to the CBD, the more expensive your rent will be. Rent is stated in $ per week - you can check out various real estate websites to get a better estimate (example: https://www.homely.com.au/). If you are willing to stay further away from Melbourne CBD, then you can find a rental for under $500 per week, we did for a family of 4. There have been various threads on the forum with estimates for a budget. Search around a little, I know Mara posted a detailed one earlier this year (I think, or it might have been the end of last year). Don't forget that you might also want to purchase a car and some furniture / appliances depending on whether you are shipping certain things over. They add up in the end.

[RFourie]

Hi CazK

Thank you very much for your reply.

 

[CyberJoe]

@RFourie Personally, I have to agree. I applied for quite a number of jobs from South Africa and while there was keen interest, I just never quite managed to receive an offer. Once we landed here however, the situation was completely different. My wife received an offer on her first interview and I could choose between companies within two weeks of starting the job search here. We also secured a rental without having employment but as @CazK said, we just showed that we had sufficient funds to pay for two or three months. Not sure what your family situation is but @Mara was kind enough to share her budget with the forum a while ago. It will give you a fairly realistic idea of what "normal" expenses are so you can get a feel for costs involved. You can find it here:

All the best, hope you enjoy it here!

 

 

[RFourie]

Hi Cyber Joe

I really appreciate the feedback.

I am very nervous about arriving in a country with no job etc. I have funds to keep me going for 3 months according to the budgets that I have seen on this forum. It will only be for myself and my wife. No kids yet.

I'm an engineer and she is a primary school teacher in mathematics.  

I honestly just hope it works out.

[Nev]

Figure out how to keep your costs as low as you possibly can,

 

Rent is one of the highest costs you will have to pay, so my suggestion is not to rush into getting a rental, do something like room share, then focus on living as cheaply as possibly until you are earning, hopefully you land a great job fast, but no point in nuking all your savings while you wait, and it may give you a much longer grace perod

 

https://flatmates.com.au/

 

[Mara]

@RFourie I agree with Nev, here are a few more sites:

 

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-flatshare-houseshare/melbourne/c18294l3001317?sort=rank

http://sharehouses.com.au/melbourne

http://www.housesharemelbourne.com.au/

https://www.realestate.com.au/share/melbourne-3000

https://au.easyroommate.com/victoria/melbourne-share-accommodation

 

Good luck...

[RedPanda]

"No kids yet" excellent, it helps a lot with the initial scramble, and increases your ability to pinch money. Apparently kids help you to integrate much faster though...can't have it all, can we?  
I agree with the statements that your rent will be the biggest single expense you have, so if you can go cheaply initially that's a help. If you can, try not to get yourself into a lease of longer than a year, sometimes 6month contracts pop up, not always. If you realise you really hate the place, and you've found a job, you can always move out. If you put some effort into creating the right menu then home cooked meals can also cut costs, without being bad for you. Experience Tip: If you're coming to Melbourne, you can go for cheap accommodation, but you have to make sure you can heat the place up. It's too cold, for too long to just shrug it off. When it comes to transport, if you live nearer the city, or even just close to a train station, you can get most places without a car. So you can put off buying one until you find work. Public transport is not free, but it's cheaper than a car, with fuel, and rego, and insurance. You will also find that you can walk much more here than in RSA. It's a real option to walk down the road to your nearest Woolworths and buy bread, milk, some veg, some meat (supper and short supplies) and walk home. Oh, and I nearly forgot: the city has several car share services, so depending on where you live, you really can go carless.

It's scary coming over without a job, but a lot of people have done it, and survived just fine  Doing your research ahead of time (like you're doing) will certainly help you. Depending on your skillset and experience, the EA events are actually really great places to meet people from industry, so it might be worth it to join for the first year. Personally I think seek.com.au is a bit of a mixed bag, if your skills are in demand it's great for you, but if you are not 'special' then it can be frustrating. Having a degree does not make you special in Australia. They want you to have already done the job they want to hire you for. Anyway. Talking to people definitely helps.

I can also recommend that if you have a container with furniture and stuff, try to send it over later rather than sooner. Moving can be expensive if you need to hire people to do it, and most guys don't have a network of friends to call on soon after landing. So it's better to know where you are going to be living for the next year before your stuff arrives. GumTree is amazing for getting stuff in the meantime, second hand appliances can be dirtcheap, like $50 for a dishwasher. And you can always resell your temp stuff when your own things arrive. We never did the GumTree/Bid or Buy/ eBay things in RSA, it just always seemed more trouble than use, but in Australia it's totally thriving!!! We've seen suburbs and the insides of houses that we would never have seen if we didn't buy stuff off GumTree  

Also, once you've landed, and taken your first breath, contact someone for coffee, and have a chat with them. It helps.

[RFourie]

Hi everyone

 

Thank you very much for the feedback.

RedPanda that helps a lot. Think I will definetly try Gumtree to get on my feet.

Nev, Mara - Thank you for the advice on renting. 

I'm planning on moving in January, everyday that passes I'm getting more nervous. I think by December I will be on Meds.....

 

[RedPanda]

3 minutes ago, RFourie said:

Hi everyone

 

Thank you very much for the feedback.

RedPanda that helps a lot. Think I will definetly try Gumtree to get on my feet.

Nev, Mara - Thank you for the advice on renting. 

I'm planning on moving in January, everyday that passes I'm getting more nervous. I think by December I will be on Meds.....

 

I know you might be joking about the meds, but I'm very serious when I say: If you start realising that you might need meds, please go see a doctor and get them! Immigration is a very stressful process, and sometimes it's better to get some medical help than to try to tough it out. Rather take medication for a short period and get through the whole thing successfully, than go without  and suffer short temper, panic attacks, or say hurtful things to family that you might regret later. It's not worth it.

Good luck! (Jump in, the water is fine!  )

[RFourie]

Hi RedPanda

 

Thank you for the advice.

It is a stressful time and you don't usually think of the smaller things like what you mentioned regarding panic attacks and hurtful things. Thank you for pointing it out. 

 

 

[ottg]

To be afraid is ok. Most migrants arrived without a job offer. That is the norm although not by choice. The be afraid is because of the unknown. If you do targeted homework the nerve settles slightly but remember you can never be 100% prepared. Settle with 60-70% and you will be ok.
That said, if you look at Seek and the number of jobs advertised in the different states for today, it shows that (rounded):
Victoria – 45,000 jobs; Queensland – 30,000 jobs; Western Australia – 13,000; Northern territory – 1,800 jobs; South Australia – 6500 jobs.

That says the probability that you will be able to land a job is good. However getting a job depends on 2 things, yourself and the economy.
 

On 10/11/2017 at 7:24 PM, RFourie said:

funds to keep me going for 3 months according

 

I'm not going to sugar coat. January is a dead month. Realistically applying and getting shortlisted,  going for an interview,  and receiving an offer may take >6 weeks. That leaves you with a few weeks of financial support. What is your plan B?

 

4 hours ago, RedPanda said:

Rather take medication for a short period and get through the whole thing successfully

 

Reminds me of the story of the guy, to his own embarrassment, keeps on burping continuously - even in meetings. So he went to the doctor for some meds. After a while, his friend asks so how is the burping going. He replied: All ok, I'm still burping but I don't worry about it anymore.

 

[RFourie]

Hi ottg

 

Very valuable information, thank you.

Maybe it would be better to arrange for middle-end January.

At this stage I'm working on Plan A, hopefully Plan B will be in place before I leave.