Advice for relocating to Australia as a Designer

[RJ Allen]

Hi there,

I’m a 24 year old Creative Designer, from the Uk. With just over 2 years experience in a Design and Advertising agency, I would love to relocate to Australia next year - and was wondering if anyone had advice on how to gain sponsorship within Graphic Designer?
From my research, it seems slightly tricky. Perhaps the best route, simply being gaining a Tourist Working Visa for a year and trying to get contract work with an agency, then asking for sponsorship in the future. With Design not being classed as a Skilled job, it makes the situation a lot harder.

Any help or advice would be so appreciated.

Cheers

RJ

 

[scotty]

I fear "slightly tricky" is a bit of an understatement and it's become extremely difficult since they took Graphic Designer off the skills list.
It was hard enough before when it was on the list.

I think getting over there in person is the best bet as realistically, nobody is going to consider you from an off shore application.
Getting an employer that'll be patient enough to wait for this will be difficult as there are no shortage of good Designers in Australia now and plenty of competition even in the big cities.

If you do get a sponsor, then you're literally tied to and dependant on your employer as if it doesn't work out and they fire you or lay you off then you have a very short time to get another job with another employer that is willing to sponsor you and they know that if you get my drift.
I also think the employer has to fulfil a lot of criteria too and they used need to have a minimum number of employees and so on.

As I said, the rules change a lot so it may be different now.

Check out the British Expats site on the Australia forum as that's very up to date and plenty of other people and sometimes Immigration Agents willing to give advice.
There used to be a few things like backdoor immigration which meant getting residency in New Zealand first but they probably closed that door now.

I don't want to sound negative but in all honesty, it will not be easy although I do wish you all the best.