They always say the beauty is in the detail however when it comes to working out moving abroad, the detail is not at all beautiful and is actually verging on the mildly overwhelming.
Getting to Australia and finding somewhere to live is the easy bit. I could do that in a weekend. The hard bit is finding a job out there and getting a visa to be there and having a job in the first place to support myself. At the moment I have three options…
The first option would be the best but is rather plagued by ‘technical details’ imposed by the Australian High Commission. This is the basic semi-permanent independent work visa which has no majorly restrictive conditions and allows you to stay and work in Australia for up to four years. However, to qualify for this you have to reach a certain number of points; specifically 120. I have 105. Their requirements are very high and short of being an experienced Doctor, or having a large amount of cash to invest in the Country (which I don’t) you don’t get to qualify.
The second option is the most preferable however involves a lot more ‘up front’ work and effort. This option involves me getting a job in Australia, whilst still in the UK, and securing a visa on the basis of that. Due to a shortage of planners in Australia, as in the UK, I am told that with my experience there is a reasonable chance of this. However, securing an actual job first appears to be an uphill battle. For a start I am not in Australia and am therefore unlikely to be the prime target of any Australian firms recruitment campaigns. Added to this I have no Australian planning experience (obviously) and at present, little more than a fleeting knowledge of the Australian planning system. This is a difficult route to proceed along.
The final option is, as I like to call it, ‘the seat of your pants option.’ This involves travelling on a working holiday visa. This allows me to stay and work in Australia for a period of one year subject to some rather irritating conditions. The first is that I cannot work for any Australian employer for more than three months (or maybe six months… I am still confused by conflicting advice on this). This therefore puts me in the ‘temp’ planner working bracket and means that, in essence, I will have to go out speculatively and find a temp job there, hopefully as a planner. There are some opportunities to get a temp job before I go but judging by the temping market this will be literally only weeks in advance, if that.
This option has the advantage of being able to extend the ‘working holiday’ visa by a further year, but in order to qualify I would have to do three months of my first year doing ‘regional work,’ ie. sheep shearing or fruit picking etc. in order to qualify. And to be blunt, I am somewhat unconvinced that I want to do that and how that would actually look on my CV. The difficulty is that this visa wasn’t really designed for me; I am looking at picking up my career and planting it again in a different country for a little while, not go on holiday.
At present I have not picked a route, however I have made at least one contact that I think can address some of these issues. I am not expecting this to be any easy journey by any stretch of the imagination however, fingers crossed something will work itself out, this is all early stages after all.
Then again, I could just try and find myself a nice Australian girl to marry, not too sure what Claire might say about that mind.
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5 comments:
1) Is there anything you can do to get the extra 15 points?
2) Can you not do something similar to my plan and find a multinational that will take care of the move/accomodation/everthing else. (That being said, they haven't contacted me yet, so I am starting to wonder)
1. there's a slim possibility i could push it to 115 if i was being ridiclously optomistic, but no chance of 120.
2. yes that's a possibility under my option two.
...or get my profession on the 'occupations in demand list' which i think is what gets you your 130.
don't suppose you fancy swapping passports for a while (for the people at the australian high commission, this comment is meant as a joke).
Fly by the seat of your pants!! You'll be right! Once you are in a council for three months if they have positions available you can apply and then they will sponsor you....you are more likely to be successful at that stage because by then you know the Council's policies, and trust me, there are a hell of a lot of policies so that's a massive drawcard. Stop stressing and in the words of Nike...JUST DO IT!!!!!
it'll be cool honey...it'll all fall into place for us...watch this space...and you know I don't mind the fruit picking/sheep shearing part...in fact I think I'd prefer that to sitting in an office as a planner but shhhh don't tell ...oops just did
:)xxx
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