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Moving To Australia – The Idea

This is the first post in the series on moving to Australia. In this series, I am going to write about how I conceived the idea of moving abroad, my experiences, challenges I faced as a visa applicant and later on as a newly arrived immigrant, tips to overcome them and staying sane throughout the whole journey. All the posts are written in chronological order and will make more sense if read in that order. It is my sincere belief that by sharing my experiences, other aspirants will become more aware of the challenges that lay ahead, ways to tackle them and make better decisions.

Back in the early 2000s, when I started my career as a software professional, unlike others I was not crazy about “onsite opportunity” and living outside India. Let’s just say I never gave enough thought to that idea. I was busy shaping my career and in general, content with my tiny little world.

All that suddenly changed in mid-2007, when I was sent by my employer, Merrill Lynch to the US on a business trip. I instantly fell in love with the lifestyle, the infrastructure, the weather, the opportunities and overall energy level in the people there. On my next trip in 2008, I visited a lot of friends from different states in the US and though people complained about many things, nobody ever thought of coming back to the home country. That’s where I started contemplating the idea of moving to the States.

But then the disaster struck! 2008 introduced us to a new monster called “subprime crisis” and the whole world saw how few crooks can bring the world economy to its knees. It affected me on a more personal level. My dream of getting H1B visa and living in the US shattered into pieces. Next few years brought a lot of changes to my personal life with marriage, changing jobs, moving to a different city, the arrival of a baby girl and so on. As a result, I had to put my “living abroad” plan on the back-burner for a while.

Foundation of an Idea

Then came the day of awakening. One late evening, while discussing with a friend about different experiences we both had abroad, I suddenly asked him “Would you like to move to a different country? now?” He and I both knew the answer to that question. That discussion revived the idea I was contemplating for so many years. Next day, we decided to play the biggest and the riskiest gamble of our life.

We went to a visa consultant in Pune to see if we are eligible to file for H1B. As it turned out, due to a smaller quota, higher chances of rejections and bigger competition, the US was already out of question. Out of the choices I had, Australia seemed like the place to be, in terms of the visa process, employment opportunities, weather, public safety and proximity to the Indian sub-continent. This was the start of a long journey ahead which was going to be fun, adventurous, hard and fulfilling.

Moving To Australia Series

  1. Moving To Australia – The Idea
  2. 10 Reasons Why I Chose Australia
  3. Which Work Visa Is Right For You?
  4. Should I Go With Migration Agent?
  5. Introduction To Skilled Visa Points System
  6. How To Prepare For Skills Assessment – Part 1
  7. How To Prepare For Skills Assessment – Part 2
  8. How To Clear IELTS In First Attempt – Part 1
  9. How To Clear IELTS In First Attempt – Part 2
  10. How To Clear IELTS In First Attempt – Part 3
  11. EOI – Express Your Desire To Migrate
  12. Getting Visa Invitation
  13. Lodging Visa Application And Making Visa Payment
  14. Getting Evidence of Functional English
  15. Undergoing Health Examination – The Whole Story
  16. Getting Indian PCC And The Road Ahead

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( 10 Comments )

  2. Hi Harsh,

    Thanks for this lovely and detailed blog about AUS.

    I am planning for AUS PR, below are few points which would help you in answering my questions:
    – I am 29 years old right now. 15th July 1988 born,
    – Unmarried
    – Planning to marry in coming one year.
    – Did my BTech in Electronics and Communications
    – My total years of experience now is 7.5 years as a software engineer.
    – Will be applying for Software engineer occupation under AUS PR

    My questions:
    – Should I start my PR process now, before marriage or should I wait for marriage and kids? Because I read that adding dependents later is cumbersome activity.
    – If I apply now, my points would be 60(due to EC in BTech), which has fewer chances of getting an invitation.

    Thanks for your help!

    Cheers!
    Deepak

    Reply

    • Hi Deepak,

      I am glad you found my blog useful.

      As for your query, I would suggest you to apply right now rather than waiting till marriage as the immigration rules are ever changing, especially now. Secondly, even if you apply now it would easily take 6-10 months for the whole process to complete. By that time, as your experience increase, your points will be automatically recalculated. So based on the skills assessment, if you get 60 points today, it may increase to 65 points later.

      As for adding wife and kids on the visa, it is slightly cumbersome and expensive but doable. On the other hand, if you wait till marriage and kids, you might diminish your chance of getting PR altogether. If I learned one thing in immigration process, it’s that you should always act quick. Other things will fall in place when the time comes.

      All the best!

      Reply

      • Thanks Harsh for the reply.

        I am getting married in within 6 months so I feel better to go for PR together with wife and later we can add kid as dependent or have kid in AUS only 🙂

        Because getting partner visa for the wife will drag things later and I also won’t be able to move to AUS because the wife will be here, getting partner visa takes around 12 months as per my reads.

        Cheers!

        Reply

        • Well, nobody can judge your situation better than yourself, so if you feel confident about applying with your wife, that’s great! I wish you good luck for your journey. 🙂

          Reply

          • Thanks!

            One more query. I am preparing the employee reference documents(Roles & Responsibilities) for skill assessment later.

            Want to know if there is any requirement that documents date should be within some time frame? I have not seen it anywhere but one of my friend has mentioned that there is a validity date for documents which we submit fo SA.

            Thanks again!!!

          • Hi Deepak,
            As long as the documents are for the period for which you are getting your skills assessed, I don’t believe there should be an issue. For example, if you are claiming points for experience till Nov 2016 and you have a letter supporting that, you can submit it even in March 2017. ACS will see that the letter matches with your experience till Nov 2016 and will asess it accordingly. But if you are claiming points for experience, let’s say, till feb 2017 then you need to get a fresh letter upto that time.

            If the roles and responsibilities letter is open-ended i.e. it doesn’t mention end date of your experience, it’s better to get a fresh letter if it is more than a month old.

  4. You have no idea how much this identifies with me. After all, we love our country, but aspire to what heights we can achieve and we yearn for a better life for ourselves and our loved ones. Its not about what we are, but trying to find out what we can be. Thank you for putting my state of mind in words.

    Reply