For those wanting to go through the process of immigrating, first check to see if your profession is on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL), there is also a CSOL which is per state sponsorship for work visas (NOT 189 Permanent Resident visa). If your profession is on the SOL you may be able to apply for a 189 permanent resident visa which has no restrictions. Be careful of work visas that are sponsored as if you do manage to get one (more rare than hens teeth) if you get fired/retrenched you get deported the same day.
1) Contact a MARA registered Aus agent to do a free assessment of your skills, age etc to see what points you get and if you qualify. Don't do the assessment yourself, you will assess yourself incorrectly and if you submit an expression of interest (EOI) with the incorrect amount of points you will be denied further application/re-submission.
2) Once you have assessed that you have the right amount of points/can get the right amount of points with the IELTS (English) test, then you can start with getting your docs together. Depending on your profession you will have to get your skills assessed/tested. Because I am in the software field I just submitted my ref letters/transcripts/degrees/cv to the Australian Computing Society and that was all. Plumbers etc have to go through a test by an Australian authority who I am told only come to SA twice a year.
3) Do the IELTS test. You will have to register and pay for this online and choose a date to do it. Sometimes the venues can be full for months. With the surge of people wanting to immigrate it is better to get in there early. Unless your profession is that of a teacher or some other kind of pro scholar you can do the general IELTS test (which I did) rather than the academic. The test itself isn't hard but they sure do work hard to trick you into making mistakes. I needed an average of 8 to get enough points to apply for the my visa. If you get 7.5 in one of the 4 tests (written, listening, spoken, reading) then the highest average you can get is 7.5 - although apparently they have changed this. Either way some people have done this test 7-10 times at R2500 a pop and still haven't got it right.
4) Submit your EOI and hope you get an invitation to apply for your visa
5) If you get an invitation, you get a special code to go do medicals. The medical is a chest exam and blood test. You also need to go apply for your Police Clearance Certificate at this point.
IMPORTANT: If you get an invitation to apply you only have 2-3 months to submit your medicals and PCC. PCC takes on average 6-8 weeks leaving no room for mess ups so get on this ASAP after invite.
ALSO: if you get a VISA you have to enter Australia within a year of the date of your PCC/Medical Results, whichever is earlier.
6) Once the medicals and PCC have been submitted then it is a waiting game. A Case Officer (CO) will be assigned to your submission. Some people get feedback from their CO for more docs while others, like myself, didn't hear anything for 3 months and then were granted a VISA.
Other) My GF applied for a visa on my application as a defacto partner. We had to submit proof of our relationship having been ongoing for at least a year and that we had been LIVING TOGETHER for at least a year. Rent Invoices, tax docs etc coming to the same address was sufficient for us. I have heard stories of some people being harassed for more docs to prove this. Both of us had to do the IELTS for the app although I needed an avg of 8 where my GF needed an avg of 6.
We just got a migration agent to check our docs before submission rather than doing it all for us which saved us $4000.
Some Costs:
Migration Agent: $1500 (+- R15000)
VISA app: $3800 for me, $1800 for de facto (+- R56000)
IELTS x 2: (+- R5000)
ACS Assessment: $450 (+- R4500)
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+- R80 000 - this was when $1 < R10 so it will be quite a bit more now
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VISA Granted 7 November, both of us have to step foot in Aus before August 2016.
