How do I pack up and move to Australia?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve got about a year before I graduate from college (yay for the 5 year plan!). I would like to take a break before starting grad school. I was wondering what to do, when I had an epiphany of sorts–what about living in Australia for a year or two? This isn’t something I can just do without any sort of preparation, so I thought I’d ask the wisest people on the planet.

[ul]
[li]Should I try to get a job there before I move, or should I go first and get a job after I’m there?[/li][li]I’d probably need some sort of visa to work there. If I do the first option (get a job, then move), I could get a work visa (right?). But if I don’t have a job yet, how do I justify getting one? What sorts of bureaucratic hurdles are there in moving from one country to another?[/li][li]I would preferably like to work in my field (I’m a biomedical engineering student. My focus is on materials.) I’ve started doing preliminary searches, but does anyone know of some medical companies in Oz?[/li][li]What’s the strength of the Australian dollar vs. the US dollar? Will I get hosed in my move there or back?[/li]Advice? Anyone done this sort of thing?[/ul]

2

My SO is from Australia and tells me that it has gotten extremely difficult to arrange for long stays in the country. From what she tells me, what was once a very liberal, open-door policy to emigration has tightened up significantly. I’d contact the Australian consulate and ask them - I’m sure they’d be happy to tell you "sorry, come visit, but don’t stay) in the nicest terms possible.

3

I know it costs something like $1000 to apply for citizenship.

You should call up the Australian Embassy or go to their website. Talk to somebody there and have them send you a package on immigration. At least that’s free and you can see what kind of stuff they offer and how much it will set you back. I think you can stay up to 6 months on a tourist visa.

Or you can sneak in with all the Indonesians. Wow, nobody I met there had a single nice thing to say about them.

4

If you’re under 30 and a recent graduate, you’re a prime candidate for a temporary work visa program. The downside is the application fee and the fact that you can only work for four months; the upside is that you DON’T have to have a job before you go. Here are links to a couple of organizations offering very similar programs in Australia:

www.bunac.org
www.councilexchanges.org

5

Oh, NO!!

Not another Merkin heading down 'ere!

Nah, we’d love to have you, at least so that when you go home you can dispel some of the myths about us that abound in the U.S. of A.
Like the one that we are xenophobic rednecks who ride our kangaroos down the main street of Sydney.
Just make sure you leave our beer here when you leave (don’t want youse guys getting too jealous).

You WILL go home, won’t you? :smiley:

6

plnnr is, unfortunately, right. Our government welcomes cashed-up Americans providing they stay at the Hilton for two weeks, buy lots of cheesy, overpriced souvenirs, then bugger off home. If you plan working here, well all I can say is good luck getting the appropriate visa.

If you were from the the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malta, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway or Hong Kong, you would be able to arrange a “working holiday” visa, but even then you’d only be able to work for up to half the total time you stay here -and that’s doing stuff like waiting tables, fruit picking, or bar work. Not exactly highly paid. As an American, [Blues Bros]I guess you’re really up shit creek[/Blues Bros], unless you can persuade an Australian employer here to take you, and they would have to persuade the government that there is nobody in the country with the expertise to do your particular job.

Paid-under-the-counter cash jobs still exist, but the govt is cracking down on them, so they are getting hard to find, and the pay is lousy.

Looks like yer gonna have to marry an Aussie. :eek: (You will find your US dollars are very strong here though).

Here’s a link to the Australian Department of Immigration.

Sorry I can give you better news. It looks like you’ll have to save up, and just come as a tourist. It sucks, but that’s the way it is.

7

kambuckta, coming from Melbourne, is not to be relied on the behavoural matters of the gentle burghers of Sydney town. Here in Sin City, we’re not above trumping any trick in exchange for hard currency.

Another option you might consider, as mentioned by Osiris, arriving unannounced on a leaky boat on the spectacular eco-tourist wilderness of the Kimberley in the north west is a hoot. In that case we’ll offer you an outback adventure that’ll get you mentioned by Amnesty International and allow you to dine out on the diplomatic circuit for life.

8

Never having needed an Australian visa, I can’t tell you about how hard or easy they are to get. I know that there has been recent discussion about raising the quota for skilled migrants, but I don’t know where all that’s at.

As for biomedial companies, we have a few - it’s not really my field, so I don’t know a great deal, but here are a couple of websites that might start you off:

The Australian Society for Biomaterials
Hospital Biomedical Engineering - Biomedical and medical device Resources

As for the value of the US$, it’s roughly double the AUS$. Things tend to cost around the same number of dollars (ie if a loaf of bread costs US$1 in the US, it costs AUS$1 in Australia), so you’ll find that your US$ goes a long way. Having said that, it doesn’t work the same for everything, but for most of the basics, this is what you’ll find.

9

Hi there, easy e. Just reportin’ in from New Zealand.

Got a link here for you to the New Zealand Immigration Service which is a comprehensive site giving you info on work permits, visa etc. etc. into NZ.

Also, you might like to try contacting the University of Auckland Biomedical Sciences Group who might have info on work available in that field here.

10

Your best bet would be to get a job in a desired skill such as IT or medical. I believe with certain IT skills you can even get sponsored by employment agencies, rather than employers.

These industries not only fast-track you for work sponsored residency, but also permanent residency.

Or you could try and get a job with a multi-national that posted you to an Australian office.

Or you could do a year’s study there in something, you would then be allowed to work 20 hours (or 10?) a week in paid employment. However tuition costs quite a lot for overseas students.

Unlike the US, Australia has a points-based skilled migration system. It’s very hard to get enough points though unless your profession is at least reasonably “desired”. Also it takes up to 2 years.

11

I have been Down Under and I can dispel that myth. I didn’t meet anybody there that was xenophobic.

:smiley:

12

Australia???

What ever you do bring lots of petrol (AKA guzzolene). They trade it like money down there. I hear tell of people hijacking tankers and others getting shot with arrows for a pint of petrol. Oh yeah, and watch out for the little feral kids with boomerangs.

What you’d need is a V-8 Interceptor. That’d do the trick down there.

13

Dieter, your post is mostly correct. One important correction: we use the metric system here; people are shot (with arrows) not for a pint of petrol, but for a litre. :rolleyes:

14

Australia???

What ever you do bring lots of petrol (AKA guzzolene). They trade it like money down there. I hear tell of people hijacking tankers and others getting shot with arrows for a pint of petrol. Oh yeah, and watch out for the little feral kids with boomerangs.

What you’d need is a V-8 Interceptor. That’d do the trick down there.

15

Don’t ask me how that double post happened. Opera crashed last night and when I fired it up today it posted my reply again.

Weird.