You are out of the Priority

Let’s face it, COVID-19 has put most of our life plans at halt – this is even more so for those people who have been contemplating about moving across to Australia and start a new life there, but have had faced the biggest hurdle when the Department of Home Affairs has postponed applications.

Prior to the re-opening of the skilled visa nomination and business programs, and complete allocations for the financial year 2020-21 on 7^th October 2020, the Department of Home Affairs has allocated limited interim places to some states, giving priority to those who are critical for the nation’s battle against the COVID-19 situation.

Yes, your occupation may be out of priority, but that doesn’t mean you don’t stand a chance.

With the complete state and territory nomination placements to be announced anytime soon, and the competition surely to get tougher than ever, established and registered Australia migration agents should always be bound to provide permanent solutions to all their clients. Where there may be lack of push factors, people should always be pushed to think and plan ahead for a brighter future, specifically with foreign workers whose career stability and security are at stake. 

While these Australia migration agencies in Singapore or elsewhere cannot guarantee any success of the application, they should be able to advocate all their client’s application to the best of their abilities. 

Most of the time, we tend to believe that a “just in time” attitude towards life will not help you achieve your goals, as every delay in your actions translates into lost in opportunity. In this world full of uncertainties, we have to live with a “just in case” attitude for us to be prepared to whatever’s going to happen.

Buy Your Australian Citizenship, Seriously?

It's been awhile since my last blog post. Well anyway, I came across a very interesting article on Sydney Morning Herald's website today and I thought I wanna share it.

It is about the Australian government considering to make the immigration system 'price-based'.

Enter Australian Citizenship for Sale.

Interested?

My opinion about this is quite straightforward. This news about 'citizenship for sale' is simply meant to entertain because it will create a lot of discussion. There would be people who would vote for it but more people will be against it. This is something that the Australia government could weigh on but at this point in time, it would just be another hot air.

I do not think anything concrete will come out from this talk. I bet nothing good would come out of this if implemented.

Read the article using the link below:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/citizenship-for-sale-government-explores-pricebased-immigration-system-20150503-1myvwk.html

P.S: Be back in Singapore in 2 weeks, miss the food!

IELTS and choosing NTRUST Singapore as my migration agent for Australia visa

Books.. Practice.. Score!

Many of my friends and relatives were asking me how my family applied for permanent visa in Australia. My answer was always, "I used an agent". Then they will ask me which agent. I tell them I used NTRUST, a local company in Singapore.

Since I haven't tried other agencies, I cannot compare them with others but I was very satisfied with their service. Of course, hiring an agent does not mean I would do nothing and just wait for our visa to be approved. I needed to prepare for the IELTS, an English exam that would add points to my eligibility.

At first, I thought I needed to enroll on some English course specializing in IELTS for me to get a better chance of obtaining a high score. But because of my busy work schedule, I decided not to. I purchased some books, if I my memory serves me right they are from the publisher Cambridge and just study on my own. Despite going home late at night, I dedicated one hour of practice before I go to bed. I even asked my wife to help me practice. She wrote some questions that are most likely to be asked in the speaking exam such as "Tell me something about yourself", "What do you usually do during your free time?", "Who do you look up to?" and a lot more. I even recorded my own voice while practicing and listen to it to know which parts I can improve!

Let me tell you, it was not fun practicing but because I really wanted to give my kids a better future, I just did what I needed to do - practice English. I took the test and after 2 weeks of waiting for the result, I obtained the score I needed. I got at least 7 on each band (not bad!) that made me eligible for skilled migration. I have a friend (whom I guess speaks English better than me) who took the IELTS twice before getting his target score on each band. He said he did not practice for his first exam because he was too confident that is why he failed. On the second one, he practiced and even got a minimum of 8 on each band.

So there, PRACTICE is the key to IELTS.

Back to my agent, after submitting my scores, the process went smooth. I was updated with the progress of my application. I gave them all the necessary documentation they needed for the application. We thought it would take about 1 to 2 years to get approved but surprisingly, our visa was approved in 7 months only!

You are not required to use an agent but if you are not confident in handling your application, just use one. Using an agent would cost you more than applying on your own but it would be totally worth it once you get the visa!

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.