Progress, at last!

Well, something to report...

As if by some hidden signal, we have finally had some meaningful contact with employers and their agents in Melbourne. I was getting a bit worried about the jobs situation out there - after reading comments on nurses fora it was starting to look like the nurse shortage in Aussie cities is being compounded by payroll budget constraints.

Tuesdays events have alleviated these fears. In addition to three agencies contacting us, we also heard from one hospital directly. As stated in a previous post, it is Marys intention to work in the public sector and it seems sensible to attempt to be recruited directly by a good hospital.

We have nothing against agencies, in fact we may well use their services at some point.

In order to be fair to those we are communicating with, we will not be posting names or locations of people or agencies, or other personal data.

The general gist of the situation as it stands is this: It is clear that a number of nursing positions are indeed available in the Melbourne metropolitan area. Having fully researched the requirements, visa rules, costs, and other key factors it seems certain that we will both be able to begin our adventure on schedule (subject to medical) and get jobs. Happy days!

As Mary is lead passenger, I will concentrate on her next steps...

We will be travelling on a sponsored 457 visa. This is the Business Entry (Temporary) visa and can be issued for a period of 1 to 4 years. It offers a simple route to Australian citizenship (should we choose to apply later) and allows a spouse and/or kids to accompany on the same terms. As the spouse I will be entitled to work for any employer, pay tax, get a bank account etc.

We have been told that 5 to 6 months is a realistic timescale. About 4 of these months will be used up by the immigration process, plus a month or so in employer-related dealings.

Priorities at this stage;

1. Register with Nurses Board of Victoria. No formal job offer until this is done. Reciprocal arrangements are in place with the UK which mean that UK qualificatons do not need to be assesed by Australian authorities - saving time and money. There is still a fee around 100 GBP and a 9 page application to send to Australia. Along with the forms they need original proof of identity documents, qualifications, evidence of current employment (transcript from employer). This means that the current employer will discover our plans at this stage - unavoidable really without being dishonest.

2. Forward up to date CV and referees contact details to Aussie employer - also likely to let the cat out of the bag, not a big problem but we have other people to tell first and this will force us to do so before we even book a flight. (Not much chance of family accidentally finding this blog!)

3. We need to think about scheduling a medical with an Oz-approved panel doctor. This is not as urgent as the 2 points above. We both need to be screened for diseases, chest x-ray included. Could cost around 200 GBP each.

I've also looked into shipping some of our stuff to make things a bit more homely on arrival. A 20kg box of books or whatever costs around £180 to air freight and takes 5 days. To ship by sea takes about 60 days and costs roughly half that.

Anything that can't be taken on the plane in our luggage will be costly to send. For mundane stuff like household goods that can't fit into luggage, it's probably not worth sending unless shipped in bulk. A friend whe emigrated to Sydney last year sent six biggish boxes for around £200 by sea.

Of course we can sell some of our stuff, or store it with friends, or even rent storage.

One great resource is Freecycle. I'm a keen user of our local group and there is a local group in most places - including Melbourne. For those who don't know about Freecycle here's the deal.

Let's assume I have a TV (or wardrobe or houseplant etc.) that I want to dispose of before departure. I post a message to my local group website saying 'OFFER - TV - [location]' and add a brief description. Within a couple of days I will get an email from a local who wants it, and arrangements are made. They turn up and take it away for free. I then post 'TAKEN - TV - [location]'.

Two weeks later in Melbourne I join the local group and post 'WANTED - TV - [location]'. I'm sure one will turn up soon enough. I then post 'RECEIVED... etc.'

You don't have to give items to qualify to receive, but it does have a nice feel to it if you do. It's also a very 'green' way to do things and a very efficient cashless goods exchange. Ok, you might not get a 50 inch plasma TV - but there are some surprisingly good things on there. Plus you get to meet like-minded locals in your area.

One other great tool is data. I've put a big hard drive in my old desktop PC. Onto that I will put my entire music collection, photos, scan important documents, backup the laptop, add a few e-books, and password protect the drive. The drive will then be removed and put into a USB caddy. On arrival this can be used to print some pictures for the walls, burn CDs, and can be installed in another computer if necessary. I've considered storing everything in cyberspace but I will then be reliant on having an internet connection - this might not be possible during our first couple of months, especially if we use short term rentals while finding our feet.

Time to stop ignoring the pile of paperwork on my desk...