Overland with Kids

Since our last update, we had paid a total £3,125 GBP or $6,250 AUD toward Andrew’s Australian Sponsored Skilled Visa application. Since this time, Andrew was granted WA State Sponsorship (4th November) at an additional cost of £538.20 or $968.02 AUD and we could now finally apply for the long-awaited visa. We lodged this immediately [...]

Andrew passed his Practical Assessment in Carpentry back in April (phew!). It was quite a thorough and demanding assessment needing preparation beforehand to dig out the years of skills from the back of his brain, make sure he had the right and adequate tools, equipment and Health & Safety gear, not to mention getting lunch [...]

Up until now, we had been working on the premise of having to validate Andrew’s Independent Skilled Based Visa (to prevent expiry of Australian port of entry date requirement) before his 45th birthday (the current age limit for this particular type of visa in order to legally live and work there). So, we assumed that [...]

Andrew was successful in obtaining a Level 1 pass in his paper-based skills assessment toward his (Independent Skilled Based) visa application. The next step is a practical skills assessment which he must undertake, scheduled for 7 April. Following this, visa application itself must then be prepared and lodged. The process so far has been expensive. [...]

Finally, we are about to send (early next week) all Andrew’s paperwork to support the Stage Two process for his Independant Skilled Visa Application. Phew! What alot of paperwork! It has been no mean feat gathering all of the information required which goes back to having to obtain a written and signed reference from all and sundry [...]

We have just parted with some cash in order to undertake the Preliminary Skills Assessment with the migration specialist and are now moving to Stage 2 of our application. This is where we must commit much more serious money and to Andrew actually undergoing the fomal Skills Assessment itself - a written and practical excercise. So far, we [...]

Australian Visas
It doesn’t seem that long ago since we launched this website and there were well over 700! days to go - seemed like an eternity. Yet, here we are, down to under 595 days already. The reality is starting to kick-in, in terms of how much preparation we still have to do (even though it looks [...]