ACT State Migration Plan

I received an email from ACT State Sponsorship office to confirm that they will most likely be submitting their baseline list of occupations for their State Migration Plan (SMP). This is the wonderful news we were hoping for. Providing that their list is approved by the Minister of Immigration, Chris Evans, it will mean we will get bumped up from Priority 5 to Priority 2. Fingers crossed. We are not sure when ACT will submit their list for review, but lets hope it happens soon.

Australian Forum Support

I wanted to also thank the people on the PomsinOz Forum who have provided fantastic information, especially since the new changes on the 8th. it seems to be a great group of people, who, like the ExpatForum folks, go out of their way to help people out with their immigration dilemmas.

Austrlian States Unaware

Well, surprise surprise, it seems that the States were unaware of the changes made to the Australia Skilled Migration program yesterday. Having emailed the Canberra office for more information on the new State Migration Plan (SMP) they responded by saying that they were not privy to this information, and had no further information for us at this stage. Hopefully over the next few weeks more information will reveal itself as the states figure things out.

DIAC Announces New Changes

This morning the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has announced even more changes to the Skilled Migration Program. On inspection it appears that there may  be some good news for our application but we will have to wait  a little while more.

The key change for us is the reworking of the Priority list for applications. Whilst we are still at priority level 5, they have introduced a new Priority 2, which has what they describe as a State Migration Plan. Which will allow states to pick occupations they want to get priority above the general 175  non-state sponsored applications. Here is the new processing priority:

1. Applications from people who are employer sponsored under the ENS and the RSMS.
2. Applications from people who are nominated by a state/territory government agency under a state migration plan agreed to by the minister.
3. Applications from people who are nominated by a state/territory government agency and whose nominated occupation is on the Critical Skills List (CSL).
4. Applications from people who are neither nominated nor sponsored in priority groups 1, 2 or 3, but whose nominated occupation is listed on the CSL.
5. Applications from people who are nominated by a state/territory government agency whose nominated occupation is not listed on the CSL.
6. (i) Applications from people whose occupations are listed on the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL).
   (ii) Aplications from people who are sponsored by family and whose nominated occupation is not listed on the CSL.
7. All other applications are to be processed in the order in which they are received.

Were not quite sure what the new State Migration Plan (SMP) is yet, but with any luck we will be able to get on there, moving our application to the top of the queue.

New Changes Expected with Australia Immigration

New changes to the Australian Migration program are expected to be announced on Monday. We are very apprehensive after the last changes. Fingers crossed for some good news.

The Importance of Support

During this past roller-coaster year, I probably wouldn't have survive without the support of other people going through the Australian Migration process. I have been an active member of one particular forum, ExpatForum.com, which has some great members who offer advice to all, at absolutely no cost. Most of the people on there are people who have received a visa, or are currently awaiting theirs. There are also some Migration Agents who make an appearance. I think its critical that you keep on top of changes in the migration program, otherwise you could sit there for ages, and not know that things have changed. Being on the forum has allowed me to keep apprised of the current landscape.

About Canberra, Australia

As I said earlier, I didn't know too much about Canberra apart from the fact that it was inland, somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne.


View Larger Map

Looking at the map above you will see that Canberra is much closer to Sydney than it is to Melbourne. It's about a 3 hour drive to Sydney, and a 9 hour drive to Melbourne.

Canberra was established in 1913, and was a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne, as neither could agree which city should be the capital. They decided to create a new city to be the government center. You can find more info about Canberra here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canberra

ACT Sponsorship Approved

More good news today! Our ACT State Sponsorship application was approved. I was surprised that it came through this early in the year. With the Christmas break I was expecting to wait until February. We are thrilled that now we have moved up 2 priorities to level 5. This might not seem like much, but even if they process our application 6 months earlier, its better than the position we were in.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Julianne, the client manager, at the Canberra office. She answered the phone and responded to emails in that 'only in Australia' friendly manner. I can't imagine getting such great service here in the US.

Now the real work begins. Learning more about Canberra. Scoping out the real estate market. Researching restaurants and neighborhoods. Of course, we still have to wait for the actual visa,  but I'm confident that will come through eventually.

State Sponsorship Submitted

Today my State Sponsorship Application for the Australia Capital Territory has been submitted by my migration agent. This process will take about 3 months to be complete. I won't discuss the details of what needed to be submitted, but if you are interested in State Sponsorship, and living in Canberra, you can get more details here:


Canberra Skilled Migration Sponsorship

I am really hopeful that this will come through for us so we can be advanced in the priority processing to level 5. I don't think we can cope with waiting until 2012 for our application to be complete.

Commitment to Canberra

As part of the State Sponsorship application process we are required to write a 'Commitment to Canberra' statement which shows how serious we are about making a new life in Canberra, and what entices us to the area. To be honest, until I found out about State Sponsorship I haden't even considered Canberra and knew very little about what was there. I knew it was somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne, but that was about it.

As I researched Canberra online, I found it to be quite a charming little town. Here are portions of my commitment statement that show some of the things we look forward to:

Canberra has a rich and diverse culture, that we are excited to explore. With 21,000 years of aboriginal history and thousands of aboriginal sites within driving distance, we can immerse ourselves in this important aspect of Australian history. The vast range of museums and galleries within Canberra are a fascinating starting point for developing an appreciation and understanding of our new adoptive country. As an avid book reader & collector, I am also excited at having the National Library's vast collection of reference material at my fingertips.

Canberra has the benefit of being a smaller city, whilst still retaining some of the features we enjoy of big city life, such as excellent dining and entertainment opportunities. As self proclaimed 'foodies', we have spent countless hours online researching dining opportunities, and found plenty of restaurants that focus on using local fresh ingredients which we are excited to try. With hundreds of restaurants and cafes, ranging from eager to explore local markets, sampling the abundance of local foods that we have read about. I wasAustralian to Greek to Vietnamese, we will have no problem keeping ourselves entertained. We are also surprised to find that Canberra has a long history of wine making, with many wineries in the area. We travel to California's Napa valley on regular occasions, and look forward to spending time learning more about the Canberra wine region.

When we move to Canberra we will be bringing our 2 dogs with us. We enjoy spending time with them outdoors, exploring new places. We love that there are expansive areas of bush and parks within the city. Looking at the Territory and Municipal Services website we found many areas that are dog friendly and allow on-leash and off-leash dog walking. Compared to Melbourne, there are many more options for us in Canberra and our dogs will have a much better lifestyle. As animal lovers, we also volunteer with an Animal Rescue group in San Francisco, and hope to continue this work in Canberra. We have discovered several Animal Rescue organizations such as ACT Rescue & Foster, Canberra Pooch Rescue and Companion Animal Rescue which look like great places to volunteer.