Contracting in Oz

**janey** · 17 March 2006, 16:08

I'm currently looking into emigrating Oz so can give you some info on the visa front....

basically you have 2 options

1. apply for a working holiday visa... you will have to be under 30yrs old when you apply and you will only be permitted to work for 3 months in any one work place and your stay in oz will be limited to 1 year. If you meet teh criteria (i.e. under 30) then you're pretty much guaranteed to be able to get this visa). Once you are out there there are some recruitment agents which will sponsor you so that you can stay in one company for longer than 3 months.... I don't know too much about this tho but one company to look up is www.lesters.com.au

2. apply for a skilled migration visa. There are various different options for this, the one I'm doing is the independent skilled migration visa. It is points based (you have to have 120 points based on age, education, work experience, nominated profession, etc etc etc etc). Applying for this can take 12-18 months and you aren't guaranteed a visa at teh end of it. The whole process, if you do the application yourself rather than using a migration agent to do it for you, will cost about £1500. This includes skills assessment, medical tests, police checks, main visa application fees etc etc etc. This visa lasts for 2/3 years (can't remember which) and after 2 years you will become eligible to apply for citizenship. However during this tiem you are free to work for any company for any length of time.

there are loads of job web sites... www.seek.com.au seems pretty good. also check out the country contracting profile here on contracting uk.

just make sure you don't take my job

**privateeye** · 17 March 2006, 20:33

Originally posted by janey

I don't know too much about this tho but one company to look up is www.lesters.com.au

Lesters also work the other way bringing in aussies to the uk, however, I have experience of them as a privateye in the UK. I represented a couple of aussies in the uk who were not paid by an agent. The aussies were working via lesters and some rather questionable tax practices were taking place to say the least but thats diversing. When the crunch came to the crunch Lesters simply refused to get involved in taking any action against the agency for non-payment and as most umbrellas this meant the contractors got no money.

If you take the route of using an umbrella ensure there is a method of legal action for non-payers etc and you understand fully what can be done.

I got the money from the agent in the end using other methods

**privateeye** · 17 March 2006, 20:34

Originally posted by Fish Food

3. Any problems I may come across.

yep..Australians

**ASB** · 18 March 2006, 12:59

Don't know if this still works or not but when took a contract in '95 it was in the aussie end of an international company I was working at the UK end for. The australians wrote in support of a business visa.

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/456.pdf

I ended up with a visa that was valid for 1 year not 3 months.

**TinTin** · 18 March 2006, 16:42

What's going on ?

What happened to the application of 'reciprocal arrangements' between the UK and our Antipodean cousins ? They seem to come in and stroll into most contracts in the UK without any formalities. Come all ye faithful !

**expat** · 19 March 2006, 10:23

Originally posted by TinTin

What happened to the application of 'reciprocal arrangements' between the UK and our Antipodean cousins ? They seem to come in and stroll into most contracts in the UK without any formalities. Come all ye faithful !

I suspect most are here on working holiday visas because they get off their arse and go overseas eariler and in greater numbers than we do, and most end up here whereas most of us who go on the road don't get there (and yes we all know about the rules for what you can work in but lets be real aout this).

**janey** · 20 March 2006, 08:21

Originally posted by expat

I suspect most are here on working holiday visas because they get off their arse and go overseas eariler and in greater numbers than we do, and most end up here whereas most of us who go on the road don't get there (and yes we all know about the rules for what you can work in but lets be real aout this).

also an awful lot of them are here due to "ancestry" rights... ie their parents or grandparents were british and therefore they can come over here and work straight away and for as long as they want.

**Epiphone** · 20 March 2006, 12:49

I would say go for the working holiday visa first off. Very simple to apply for and can do it all online.

Just make sure to give a copy of it to Immigration when you land.

Good luck!

**janey** · 20 March 2006, 13:01

Originally posted by Epiphone

I would say go for the working holiday visa first off. Very simple to apply for and can do it all online.

Just make sure to give a copy of it to Immigration when you land.

Good luck!

but beware that with this approach you may make yourself unsuitable for the proper migration visa should you want ot apply for it in the future... i.e. you have to have worked in you nominated profession for 12 out of the previous 18 months.

If this isn't an issue for you then yeah go for it!

working hol visa is extremely easy to get. good luck

Contracting in Oz