We like it here, please may we stay?

Well it's been quite along time since I last id any blogging and lots has happened since then.  Anybody who has follwed our life on facebook will know we've moved to Australia, had a son (Teddington) and bought a house.  And with all these "life expereicnes" under our belt we've kind of decided we might like ot put down some roots and stay somwhere for a while.  And will Teddington being a ripper aussie nipper we figured whuy not make it his home country - Australia!!

Now there are many ways to get into Australia: Tourist visa, migrant worker visa,

The Australian tourist visa.The Australian working holiday visa, The Australian business visa, The Australian business sponsored visa, The General skilled migration visa, The Spouse, Fiance, Partner and De Facto Visa, The Australian student visa.  And even within all these there are sub-classes and special lists; and failing all these you can always just turn up at Christmas Island and hope for the best......but often that isn't so "best"

So it was that The Co-pilot and I started looking into the more favorable, if burocratically challenging options and it basically came down to two:  Independent Migrant Works Visa or the General Skilled Migrant Visa - Subclass 856 Employer Nominated Visa (I kid you not, that is the name, roles off the tongue doesn't it?  Having made initial inquiries I managed to establish that processing times were 1-3 years and 3-5 months respectively.  With those sort of time frames options two looked best but required my company to sponsor us; something that isn't usually offered according to my terms of employement until you have been with the company 2 years.  We've only been here 1.  However, in the best spirit of "if you don't ask you don't get" I tried my luck and put a proposition to them and they liekd what they heard:  and so we are now heading down the road of General Skilled Migrant Visa - Subclass 856 Employer Nominated Visa or GSMV-S8ENV.......or perhaps we can call it Bob for short

This was all agreed just before Christmas and at the begining of the month I received an email from the companies visa lawyers to explain the process to me and get the ball rolling.  I therefore thought that it woudl be a bit of fun and perhaps an interesting record for prosperity to keep a blog of the whoel process, as I'm sure there is bound to be problems along the - after all this is beurocracy!!

So sit back, get comfy and behold the pantomine of our journey through the world of administratum, as we set sail for AUSTRALIA!!