mr joseph bell

[jospeh bell]

Hello there,

[jospeh bell]

I am a gas safe engineer in the UK. I am 27 years old with my partner and 2 year old daughter.

My partner and i have both lived abroad for a significent portion of our adult lifes and have made the decision that australia is the move for us.

I wanted to get more information on the easiest route to get over and straight into work plumbing. I have no problem getting stuchk straight in and working hard.

Please could someone step by step me with the neccessarry process.

[VERYSTORMY]

This isn't a quick, cheap or easy process. For licensed trades, more so. 

My advice would be to speak to a good registered migration agent. But start with lots of reading at Homeaffairs.gov.au and look at the 189, 190 and 491 visas. This will start to give you some idea. 

In essence, first, you need an occupation on one of the skilled occupation lists, which I believe your is.

Second, you need a skills assessment. This will be a assessment of your qualifications, experience and potentially a practical and theory exam. 

Third, you need sufficient points. This can be a funny area as it can be a competition for the highest points and so most people find they need to take English exams such as ILETS to claim points for English.

Once you have all these, you can lodge an expression of interest (eoi). This is where the competition can start. You then wait to be invited. 

Then medical and police checks will be requested. 

Then visa. 

Staet to finish, allow about a year. 

But. On arrival, you will not have a license to be a plumber. To obtain this will vary on state. But, may include some college courses and working for a while as a trade assistant - a bit like an apprentice 

[Marisawright]

As VeryStormy says,  your best bet is to speak to an agent first.  A good agent will give you a free initial consultation to check that you're eligible, and give you an idea what kind of visa you can get.  

In the past, many people did their own visa applications without a hitch. These days, it's more complex and Immigration is very unforgiving - if you make one litle mistake in the application, they don't come back and ask, "Did you mean....?", they just reject it and you've lost your application fee.  So when you're ready to apply, an agent is worth the money IMO.

Immigration couldn't care less if you're keen to move to Australia, or how hard you're willing to work.  Your application is judged on whether you meet the requirements, and then they cherry-pick the applicants with the highest point scores.

As VeryStormy says, you'll need to check the licensing regulations in your chosen state.  For most trades, you can just arrive and start work.  You''ll probably have to do a course, and also work as a trade assistant (at lower wages) for six months to a year.  

[LouDYorkie]

Definitely check out plumber requirements in the state you want to move to (requirements are all different for each state)... the occupations don’t seem to align with the U.K. in this area.
My OH had Gas Safe (formerly CORGI) including LPG and his 16th edition IEE wiring regs and he had to go to TAFE and do parts of a course for electrical- he got skills recognition for most of it but still had to attend day classes for some parts, he stuck to ‘restricted electrical’ (disconnect-reconnect) as opposed to full electrical as that was all he needed else it would have been another year to wait.
For Gas Safe, he still hasn’t done his GasFitter qual here in QLD as it required so much more classroom attendance -I think also a year of supervision to have someone sign off his work despite him being qualified and working with gas for years in the U.K.
He then had to do his QBCC to get his contractor licence. Not difficult (and mostly online) but time consuming.
We have a friend who is a plumber in QLD who freely admits he knows far less than my OH about gas as it is plumbing and drainage here with gas disconnect-reconnect, and GasFitter being a separate trade.
Do consider than gas may not all be natural gas, it may be LPG.
Your qualifications and experience will definitely help and you should certainly look to get recognition of prior learning for some modules to reduce the time it takes but it is not a straight swap.
All the best!

[paulhand]

... on the plus side, this is the State where it’s a legal requirement that you call an electrician if you want to change a plug!

[LouDYorkie]

... on the plus side, this is the State where it’s a legal requirement that you call an electrician if you want to change a plug!

Yes, once properly licensed, an electrician wouldn’t be short of work!