Chartered Accountant moving to Australia

elgeraldo

Hi All, hopefully someone out there has had experience in the above - looking for words of advice they could give.
I am an exam qualified ACA accountant and looking to head for Oz at some stage in next 12-18 months.

I want to work and travel, so the WHV is most obvious. Is there an alternative VISA available that would allow me to stay, work and travel beyond 1 year without having to do the 88 days farm work? I am aware Sponsorship is an option - but I assume this would mean working your regular 9-5 job with Annual Leave etc - more of a permanent role as compared to the 6 month contract work with the WHV?

If anyone has any past experience please leave them below.

Much appreciated

aido79

elgeraldo wrote: »

Hi All, hopefully someone out there has had experience in the above - looking for words of advice they could give.
I am an exam qualified ACA accountant and looking to head for Oz at some stage in next 12-18 months.

I want to work and travel, so the WHV is most obvious. Is there an alternative VISA available that would allow me to stay, work and travel beyond 1 year without having to do the 88 days farm work? I am aware Sponsorship is an option - but I assume this would mean working your regular 9-5 job with Annual Leave etc - more of a permanent role as compared to the 6 month contract work with the WHV?

If anyone has any past experience please leave them below.

Much appreciated

The best option is to apply for a permanent residency visa.
Use the visa wizard on here to find which Visa is best for you
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-finder

The 189 visa will probably be the best Visa to go for. It's a points based visa. Here's a guide to the points system

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/skilled-independent-189/points-table

You can get an agent to do the paperwork for you but as you're an accountant I don't think you'd have much trouble researching and doing the paperwork yourself. You'll save a lot of money that way. The visa itself costs $4045 so definitely not cheap but an agent will probably add another few thousand to that.


12-18 months would be a fairly optimistic timeframe given how Australia is dealing with covid by closing it borders. It'll definitely be closer to the 18 months before you'll get a permanent Visa.

Another option is go over on a whv but apply for a permanent visa as well and hope that the permanent visa comes through before your year is up so you don't have to do the farmwork.

elgeraldo

Great - Wasn't aware I could apply for that VISA , will definitely look into it and do some research.

The Farmwork isn't all that appealing as I have read - it is unlikely you will get 88 consecutive days of work, which means the working period could drag on 4-5 months, eating into the valuable travel/work time in the cities and other areas.

Thanks for your response.

aido79

elgeraldo wrote: »

Great - Wasn't aware I could apply for that VISA , will definitely look into it and do some research.

The Farmwork isn't all that appealing as I have read - it is unlikely you will get 88 consecutive days of work, which means the working period could drag on 4-5 months, eating into the valuable travel/work time in the cities and other areas.

Thanks for your response.

The farmwork or regional work only takes 3 months. 88 days is 12.5 weeks. You can count the full 7 days in the week even if you only work 5 of them as long as you have worked at least 35 hours in the week.
The regional work can be hit and miss but can be a very good experience and it's not only working on farms that qualify. Here's a list of industries where you could work:

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/work-holiday-417/specified-work

Another thing to be aware of is that if you don't meet the points requirement for the 189 visa then you may need to do an English test which is a lot harder than it might sound and I know many people who have struggled to get a decent score in it.