How I applied for migration to Australia

Migrating from Singapore to Australia

Immigration was a totally foreign concept to me. My wife and I met while we were studying in Australia. We came back to Singapore to get married and had our kids. While we were in Singapore, we realized that we were not happy and felt that something is lacking - work-life balance. We thought of coming back to Australia and looked for ways on how to migrate. Back those days, I did not have any idea on how to start. I was back and forth to the Australia High Commission and research online to get information. Guess what, all these researching did not help and confused me even more on how to apply correctly. Added to my worries are the stories I read from forum websites where some people's applications are rejected.

Since after weeks of research and I was still not sure where to start and what to submit, that's the time when I decided to seek help from a professional. I returned to the internet and searched for registered migration agents in Singapore. One of the agencies I found with good reviews is NTRUST. We attended their immigration seminar and we found it very informative. From there we made an appointment for a consultation to discuss our case in more depth. Their consultant analyzed our eligibility and criteria and we were advised about every step of the process in details. Of course, to make sure I would engage with the best migration agency, we consulted with other agencies in Singapore. My wife and I decided to use NTRUST because we felt they could provide a better service than the others.

One of the requirements I needed to complete is the IELTS general training exam and get the score I need to add more points for my application. I registered for the exam at British Council and I practiced almost every night for a month to improve my English. Luckily, I was able to get good scores so I did not retake the exam as other people do. From there, I submitted all other requirements to our migration agent and they took care of the submissions and communication with the Australian authorities.

It took about 7 months before our application for Australian PR was approved. After a year of preparation, our family moved to Australia. We are now living in Perth.