SolaBee:
Good evening everyone and happy new year!

I am new here and I have gone through the thread, thank you all for all the information. However, I am still looking for information on applying with ones family especially if you have a child. I gained admission into the University of Melbourne on scholarship. Please I need information that has or had to apply for visa with his/her family. Please kindly reach out or if anyone could point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

DrCollins218:


Thanks for the information. Are you a student or PR? STUDENT

Which airline did you use and how much was it? QATAR. I PAID ABOUT 800,000 FOR EACH ONE-WAY TICKET.

Where was your first stop over and how many hours was it? ONLY ONE STOP OVER IN DOHA FOR 4 HOURS

How many hours was the total journey duration from Nigeria? APPROXIMATELY 24 HOURS. 6 HOURS FROM LAGOS TO DOHA. A LAYOVER OF 4 HOURS AND THEN A 14 HOURS STRAIGHT FLIGHT TO MELBOURNE.

Which province did you land at first? VICTORIA (MELBOURNE).

Congratulations on your new location. THANKS.

alao1981:
Hi everyone. With the hope that borders will be opened for international students soon, I was wondering if anyone can update this very helpful post by Tyosho. Some of the information may now be dated, especially due to Covid but it covers a lot of information that people coming into australia will need. I am moving to Melbourne from Nigeria when borders opened and will appreciate any update. Thanks.

Henryocm:
Please which flights can get to Australia (particularly south Australia) from Nigeria.. I’m hearing a lot of rumors about Ethiopian and Qatar air

ozonechrome:


Nothing has changed.

The information is still 100% valid. States are considering scrapping hotel quarantine if you double vaccinated.

tyosho:
It will be nice if this thread is restricted to info about life in australia.Not questions on how to secure visa or gain admission.

My family and I made use of IOM to secure our travel tickets.We went with emirates and had a stopover in Dubai.Nothing special about the travel experience.We were entitled to 40kg per adult,40kg for a child and 23kg for infant.We also paid for 2 extra bags of 32kg each but i hear prices have gone up so cargoing is cheaper.You can cargo through certain airlines like saa,emirates and etihad.
All in all we had like 12 luggages.
I went with ALL kinds of food stuffs except beans(becos of weavils).With my food items,i put them individually in transparent bags and labelled them.Fish,egusi,dry pepper,garri,amala etc.
Got to melbourne,declared i had food items but was not searched and was allowed to go through.

We opened accts with NAB and commonwealth bank but didnt transfer any money from nigera.We went with some cash and left the remaining in a GT dom acct and transferred from there to our OZzy acct when we arrived.We also opened a dom acct in OZ(commonwealth bank was seamless) for ease of transfer.There might be a cheaper way to transfer funds but this is what we did.

We stayed with family in Northern suburbs initially but got our own place in the Eastern suburbs,somewhere not far from Dandenong.We settled for the East because its quite busy,more factories and industries in these areas.If i dont live in the East,I will go for the North and West in that order.West is cheapest but people say it has a history of crime.I however have friends who have lived in the West over 10years and have never had any incidents.Anyhow,wherever you decide to stay is fine.Just get somewhere close to the train station and mall.

In melbourne,you can use your naija license for 6months.My husband passed his victoria drivers test on first attempt,i havnt tried yet for my drivers license.People say though that it can be quite tough cos i know someone who failed 5times!I was able to start driving within 2months of getting here.Just remember,you drive on the left always.

No ideas on how mortgages work but when choosing a neighborhood,also consider ones with good schools if you have kids.If your kids are still of daycare age(below 5),use careforkids.com.au to compare prices,reviews etc.

Settling in was not bad for me cos i had friends and family here already.My kids settled fine as well.

Upon arrival;
Get a mobile sim(i use lebara)
Apply for TFN(tax file no)
Open a bank account or go and activate the one you opened from Nigeria
Go to centerlink and medicare for registration
Get a travel card(MYki card if in melbourne).

Update your linkedin profile and make it very appealing to recruiters.You can also search for recruiters on Linkedin.

With regards to work,there is always something to do.It might not be want you want initially but there is work.Some people start off working at factories,aged care homes,disability and support centres etc until they eventually get what they want.Some people also end up going into nursing,community welfare,policing etc.But like i said,if you dont mind chopping humble pie to start somewhere earning money with these blue collar jobs,you will be okay.I know people who have houses with money earned from these blue collar professions.
There is dignity of labour here so people dont care what job you do to earn money.

For transportation,if you can afford it,pls plan to buy a car asap(carsales.com.au,gumtreee.com.au).please buy cars with roadworthiness and valid registration(at least 6months).If no car,you can use the metro system until you can afford to get a car here.

For housing,a friend referred us to her agent who leased us an apartment even though we didnt have jobs at the time.She accepted our bank statements as proof of income.We pay just a little below 2k monthly as rent.

Then i also just found out about NRAS housing scheme from a colleague days back.Its for families who fall within a certain income threshold.IF your rent was like 350,you would pay like 260 and the govt will pay the balance.I dont have much info as i dont qualify anymore since hubby and I both work now.But im certain most freshbies would qualify.

With furnishing the house,we went across gumtree.com(for people who were selling their furniture due relocation or other reasons),kmart stores( for kitchen items),bestbuy.com(this is a company that sells new electronics at reduced prices because they have scratches or marks on them;there are plenty stores like that but this is the one i patronised) and ikea stores(for kitchen and beddings)

For people that dont mind as well,in order to save costs,you can patronise Salvos stores(its a charity shop that all kinds of household items in great condition).

To get the best energy providers,internet providers,insurance etc,you can make use of iselect.com.au

During cold weather,you wear jacket and use heater(we paid almost 200 a month for heating during this past winter)

I do most of my shopping at Dandenong Market as food stuffs there is cheaper than everyother place I know.There is also Marmara market at Dandenong(all kinds of food items including shaki,cowleg,cow tongue etc) and an African store not far from the market(cant rememeber the name).At noble park is SUR african shop where i get dry fish,palm oil,egusi and stuff like that.

With departmental stores,woolworths is most expensive and aldi is cheapest.Coles is in between.
I know of only one nigerian restaurant that recently opened in the city and i have never been there before.
There is also another popular naija shop in the West called Fatimoh"s shop

With centerlink link claims,we were paid family tax benefit part A and B,family rebate and child care assistance.This all sumed up to $621 forthnightly for the first 4months,it came down to 550 and then now sits at $89 fortnightly.It reduces with every income increase.
Childcare rates was $113 for two kids initially (5days a week) and now is $370 a week.

We also got a concession card which has now been cancelled since we both have jobs.With the concession card,we paid discounted electricity and waterbills,half price for transportation,free ambulance cover,susbsizied fees if we had done any studies at the time and my first kid who is in kinder got 15hours free of daycare weekly .

With jobs,for me,it was just God.I got a job in the Tier 1 team of an IT company with no technical knowledge whatsover.It was my 3rd video interview and i got the job two months after arrival.I commute 54mins by train to the CBD which is quite a distance by OZ standard.But i dont mind really.I got the job through indeed.com which i prefer to seek.com
There a couple of recruitment agencies i know and i will list as i remember.

Strategy one(blue collar)
Adecco
Hoban
Ozstaff(blue collar)
Randstad
Sharp &carter
Hays
Smaart



cc Bellong,vinsmuft,funkjo,oknee,hordunayo,incemay,abeg you guys should come and add o

seunfoster:
Good morning guys, please I urgently need your help.

My agent requested my sponsor's CAC certificate and which she confirmed to me that she does not have. In fact, all her business transactions are completed online. No receipt nor invoice for the goods she purchases from China. She is in the Jewelry business.

Kindly give me pointers on what can be done to replace the CAC certificate to prove her source of income.

ocpaschal:
my Uncle... it was around December 2020 that my brother applied for visa and submitted his sponsor's (uncle) bank statement... On June 2021, d embassy called my bro to also provide his sponsor's bank statement. We realize d sponsor (uncle) had depleted most of his money in d account compared to d bank statement he presented last December 2020. I am deeply worried now, because even though the sponsor topped it and added extra money this month to reach d expected estimate account in demand, d embassy still wants to know exactly that same bank acct that my uncle (sponsor) used in transferring money (i.e d embassy wants the bank acct of d one where that transferred money came from) into his account that has been presented to the embassy... My sponsor claimed he transferred d money from his investment account. But he is yet to present that second bank acct statement for submission. My question is what will be d extent of d impact of a sponsor's bank account details on my brother's visa processing..?

iamdutch:
Quick question guys, if I’m granted a student visa to Australia, can I travel with my wife? Thanks.

Naijabad:
My wife's studies commences 19th of July 2021; no visa grant yet.

She differed her admission to July because of this same visa issue.

Her visa application was lodged in December 2020 and all processes were dully followed.

What should we do at this point?
Online learning is out if the question.

Naijabad:
My wife applied for visa in December 2020. Close to February 2021 when her studies was billed to start, she deferred her admission till July 2021.

Up till now there has been no response from the relevant authorities. What could possibly be the problem?

shams040:
Dear All,

Thank you all for the good job. I just got a PhD offer with scholarship in UNSW and would appreciate if someone can guide on how to package my visa application better.

I just got my US visa for PhD also but I prefer Auss. Also I have got some travel history, all for study purpose. Equally, I have a PhD offer with Scholarship in Canada but would reject it if the visa for Auss is sure.

I would appreciate your kind guidance.

ocpaschal:


that is serious... my brother still hasn't gotten his student visa.... He applied for scholarship (Masters) which he got since April last year 2020 and paid fees by December. Yet He has not been called from d Australian embassy for visa processing or so ever since he did and submitted his medical assessment test this year.... What could be the reason for the delay?

lomaxx:


Yeah I had a scholarship. Funny thing is I had the scholarship in Nov 2019 but I couldn’t take up the offer. The scholarship was given again in Jan 2021. That’s when I knew it was destiny �

The total tuition is about $210,000 so I agree with the expensive bit.

lomaxx:
I was hoping that one day I would give my testimony on this thread. I got my 5-year visa grant yesterday for a PhD in Medicine at the University of New South Wales. Applied Feb 3, 2021 and it has been 3+ interesting months. I did it all by myself because of the experiences shared on this thread - I started from the very beginning and read every page. This is me saying thank you to everyone that shared their stories.

Now we wait for the borders to open.

lomaxx:
Omorh this is so demoralizing

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-06/australia-s-borders-may-not-open-until-late-2022-minister-says?utm_source=url_link

nicolofm:
Good day everyone, any news on the border? Please share

genny080:
Hello all,

Please I want to ask a question for a friend. He has done his biometric and medicals on the same day 31st of March. The medicals have shown on immi account that the result has been sent to DHA but the immi account is still requesting for the biometric. He went back to vfs to as them and they said they have sent it to DHA.
Please will the immiaccount keep requesting for biometric while the visa application is been processed. Please is urgent.

Cheers
Genny

FieryJoe:
Hello.House,

Need your advise here pleaseeee!

What reasons can one provide on sop for leaving his job and travelling with his family particularly when the company one is working with is not ready to issue/approve unpaid leave of absence?

skyfaze:


Please when did your friend apply because i applied on 8th October and still haven't gotten a grant.

max99:
Please has anybody gotten visa recently.

max99:
Please kindly advise what content should be in my employer (HR) Reference Letter and Study Leave Letter?

nicolofm:
Anybody with an info of when the border will likely be open for international students?

JennyKadry2:
One of the botanical gardens in Australia

zeb04:
Hello guys, I applied to University of Southern Queensland for an Msc in health and community. the course is an external one.
Will i have a problem obtaining visa , also i do not really understand what the world eternal mean.

alao1981:
Hello all...thanks for all the tips. Any special advice for those who have their visas but did not make in into Australia before border closed. What are those things you would recommend one can use the intervening period to plan for since it is very much unclear when the border will open?

eusuph99:
Good morning guys, I just got an offer letter from the University of Melbourne for Msc geology (coursework).Please, is there a way I can get any form of scholarship for the course.

dew02:
As long as your sponsor can show evidence of the business he is doing through which he generated the funds, it is not compulsory for him to have a registered company. For instance, if he can show copies of agreements/invoices/receipts from the people he did business with that led to the payment of money to him, that should be acceptable.



Please, in line with this question, must my sponsor share same surname with me. Can I use a distance uncle from my maternal side?

VickayThrills:
Hi!

I'm not so cleared on my last question please...
What I meant was, must my sponsor show proof of source of income?
He's into business and doesn't have a registered company.
My agent mentioned that and that's what's holding me from applying for admission.

Thanks a lot...