I finally received my Australian skills assessment results and I am happy to announce that it was approved. I received my approval letter last week on 15 April 2008.

It did take about 3 months but I am sure it would have been faster if not for the delays. If you’re reading this, send in certified true copies of documents instead of the originals. I had a few original copies of references letters and I submitted one of them to the Australian Computer Society and they were rejected. Extremely inflexible if you ask me.

Now that I have the green light to submit my application for the Skilled - Sponsored visa, I have about 3 application forms to fill up, AUD $2060 to pay to the Australian government for the application fee and some other paperwork to do.

In my process of applying for this visa, I have learnt that some of the common myths of emigration out of Singapore are absolutely untrue.

1. Myth no. 1: You must have a degree to emigrate to Australia. This is not true at all. I only have a Diploma and it is enough. If you don’t have formal qualifications, you need to prove to them that you have related work experience.
2. Myth no. 2: A migration agent is necessary and they can get your application approved faster. Rubbish. I went to a migration agent because I didn’t know what to do at first. Then the migration agent I went to told me which visa I can qualify for and what are the documents I need to prepare. However, I did not follow up with the migration agent because I did think paying him SGD $4000 for filling up forms was a good investment. Read the instructions carefully and do it yourself. The Australian government does not give applicants priority if they submitted through a migration agent. Save that money to move your stuff or pets over to your new country instead.
3. Myth no. 3: Your skills have to be on the “in demand” list of occupations. My chosen profession was not in the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL). That does not mean that they don’t want you.
4. Myth no. 4: Places like Melbourne and Sydney are “full” and it would be hard to migrate there. I am not so sure about this but I do know that there is a labour shortage problem in Western Australia. Common sense tells you that they need more people in that area. The Australian government is issuing an additional 6000 visa this year for skilled migrants. Obviously, they want and need more skilled people in Australia. If your plan is to migrate to the eastern side, get to Western Australia first and move to the east. Unless your visa is for a “designated area”, there isn’t any restriction on you to move around within Australia.

Even Lee Kuan Yew once stated that most Singaporeans cannot leave. This is nonsense. A more accurate assumption would be that most Singaporeans can leave but they won’t. You do not have to be the “top 20 to 30 per cent of educated Singaporeans have the skills and abilities to emigrate to anywhere in the world”.

I once believed I was not able to emigrate out of Singapore because I listened to friends and relatives who knew nothing about how to do it. You should not listen to these unqualified people like I did. Instead, go to immi.gov.au and check out the requirements yourself and visit a qualified Australian migration agent that has free consultation.

Tagged As: australia, Australian Computer Society, Migration Occupations in Demand List, MODL, singapore emigration

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I submitted my skills assessment application to the Australian Computer Society in mid January. It should take about 4-6 days to reach Sydney, Australia by air mail but they received it and opened up my package at the end of January.

It seems like I missed out on 1 step - I forgot to certify true copies of my reference letters. I do not remember it was a requirement but maybe I overlooked it while I was reading the instructions. Any way, I had to visit a lawyer to get it certified and I mailed them back to the Australian Computer Society last week. They just acknowledged to me via email that they have received the documents.

This is kind of funny because I sent in a copied reference letter and an original reference letter. It seems like they do not accept the original reference letter. Very inflexible indeed. My skills assessment application should take about 12 weeks. I am hoping that it will be done by the end of April 2008 or earlier because the Australian visa application will take about 7 months.

A couple of days ago, the Australian government announced that they will be adding 6000 more visas for skilled workers. That is great news for me because I will have a higher chance of getting one of these visas!

Tagged As: Australia Migration, Australian Computer Society, certified true copies, reference letter, skilled migration, skills assessment, visa

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