Family thinkink of moving to australia where to start

Hi Audrey,

Visit Australia's Official Immigration website at :  http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/

You will find information about all the different visas that are currently available to apply for. Since you mentioned that your husband is a carpenter, your husband maybe able to apply for the General Skilled Migration visa. It is for people not being sponsored by an employer. But you can apply yourself (Skilled Independent (Migrant) Visa 175) )or be sponsored by a relative that lives in a certain region of Australia Skilled -Sponsored (Subclass visa 176)) or by participating State or Territory government (Skilled -Sponsored (Subclass visa 176)).

Visit this link which explains in better detail of the different skilled visas:
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general- … utside.htm

I have already been granted the visa 175 so I'll give you a brief description of what it is. You can check out the website for more details.

The visa 175 is a permanent resident visa which will allow you to stay permanently in Australia. You can work, go to school,etc. It is valid for 5 years. However, if you never leave Australia once you move there, then you really do not need to renew this visa. You will need to live in Australia for 2 years in total out of the 5 years in order to be able to renew this visa. This is only important if you leave Australia and must return. If you don't want to keep renewing this visa, you have the option to apply for Australian citizenship if you meet the residency requirements. 

Before your husband can even apply for the skilled independent visa (175), he must first get his carpentry skills/certification evaluated by the specific authorizing organization. There is a fee to have this done. If your husband's skills/certification is recognized in Australia, he should receive a letter stating his skills/certification is recognized and will have a reference number. That reference number is required in the visa application. If the letter states his skills/certification is not recognized, then it's likely he will not be able to apply for this visa. But he will need to consult the organization and determine what he can do to in order for his skills to be recognized. It may require further schooling, training,etc.

Besides having your skills reviewed by the specific authorizing organization, this visa requires that you pass a points test. All this information is in the website. It basically means that you get a certain number of points for your age, skill (carpentry, doctor,etc.), work experience,etc. In order for your visa to be processed at a reasonable time frame, you will need to meet the points pass mark. From what I remember it is 120 points.  If you fall short of 120 points, then your application gets put on a waiting pool for 2 years. And I believe if you are 100 points or less, your application will be denied.  It's probably a good idea what points you will get to determine if this is the right visa for you. There are no refunds for the application fee if you change your mind once you submit.

In addition to having the pass points mark, I believe you must be under 45 years old when applying for this visa. I'm not quite sure what happens if you turn 45 or older while you are still waiting for the visa to be approved. 

From my experience going through this process. Apply online since it will save you money since you just need to scan documents required and upload the documents to the place they give you direction to send it to. It also will help to minimize your documents getting lost if you send it through regular mail. Using FedEX, DHL, or other tracking documents might be costly if you need to send documents on different occasions. However, you may need to send the official documents through the mail if your immigration officer requests them.

When you finally submit your application online, you will get an email stating about how long it might take your application to be processed. I think depending which country you are applying from determines how long it will take. For example, if you are from a country where there are many visa applicants, it might take awhile for them to go over the application.  From the visa you are applying for, there are a set of required documents you will need to submit. You will have to follow the directions of the email sent to you to know when to actually submit the information. Medical exams and police clearance should not be done until you are given direction. The reason is because there is an expiration of when these are valid. Since you don't know when your application will be reviewed, the medical exams and police clearance date might expire. You will then need to have it done all over again.

All this information is available from the website immi.gov.au  for detailed information. It's a lot of information. My suggestion is for you and your husband to review the visa options and determine which visa is the best option.

Your husband also has the option to try applying for jobs online in some popular websites such as seek.com.au , mycareer.com.au, or careerone.com.au   I think there might be more but I'm just familiar with these three.  If a company is interested in his credentials, they can sponsor him. This is probably the best way since the visa will likely be approved and there will be a job waiting for him when all of you arrive in Australia. 

Good luck.