Hi all
My wife and I are currently looking into moving to Australia from theUK (probably Sydney or Melbourne) under the independent send visa.However my wife is also currently in the process of changing career ...so would appreciate some advice ....
I'm currently 35 and shouldn't have an issue getting certified as an ITManager as I'm degree qualified and have a track record of doing thisfor over 10 years.
So points wise ... looks like this
IT Manager: 60 Age: 20 English Lang: 20 Work exp: 10 MODL: 0 Aus qualify: 0 Spouse bonus: 5 Gov bond: 5 :-(
= 120 points.
So far, so good. However ... this is going on the basis that my wife'shistoric professional experience was as an HR Manager.
For the last 6 months and the next 18, she is retraining as anoccupational therapist. Now the good news there is that OT is on theMODL list.
However .... here's where the questions come in.
1. At the very least we can't move until my wife has qualified in 18months. Any ideas on whether it would be better to submit anapplication earlier with my wife's previous (HR) experience and if sowhen?
2. An alternative would be to wait until my wife has qualified and runwith her as the lead applicant. Since she's a couple of years youngerthan me, she gets 5 extra age points and 15 extra MODL points .... butwould she actually need 12 months experience to get the 15 MODL points?That being the case would I then have to wait 30 months instead :-(
3. Once you have an application approved - how long is it valid for? Eg... say we applied now, got approval in 9 months (Sep 2006) and I poppedover to Oz to get it stamped .... would I still be able to wait anotheryear before coming out?
Ideally I would like to make the move sooner rather than later.
