I am currently married to an Australian citizen, and have a son who is an Australian citizen. I am planning to move to Australia with my family next year and live in my wife’s family’s house. I also want to teach TEFL there, and plant to get my Certificate IV in TESOL through either an online provider or either a one month or five day intensive course.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience with doing this kind of thing, especially those who have moved to Australia without being an Australian citizen. I have seven years teaching TEFL in Taiwan. I started out at the bottom of the barrel in HESS, then went to a very well run Columbia school, and finally to a Giraffe franchise in Danshui which is hard work but hands down the best school I have ever seen, let alone worked in. I know there are some areas of experience I have not covered that could be useful, like preparing exams for Cambridge (although I have written all of my own exams at Giraffe), but I am prepared to do anything to work in Australia.
If anyone knows anything that could help, please PM me or just reply to this thread.
If you are from a native born country you will get a TEFL job very easyl for an average pay.
If you you are asian, you could well get a job teaching english in a “Foundation school”. It is the school where international students come to learn english so that they can study at uni. International students in australia are required to pass an english test before they can go to uni, if they dont pass the test they have to go to “Foundation school”. These jobs wont pay as much though as they are usually run by asians.
(: Any other questions let us know.
If you are planning to buy property while you are not a citizen you may have some problems getting a home loan. The banks still run by the old rules where an australian married to a foreigner cant buy property, even though the legistlation was changed several years ago to allow this. (Friends of ours even tried printing out the legislation and taking it to the bank but it didn’t help)
I have friends who have done this. They get a job, but as part of the job they have to first pay to be trained to teach. These sorts of jobs arent typically advertised online, however this will be a good start:
[quote=“pqkdzrwt”]If you are from a native born country you will get a TEFL job very easyl for an average pay.
If you you are Asian, you could well get a job teaching english in a “Foundation school”. It is the school where international students come to learn english so that they can study at uni. International students in australia are required to pass an english test before they can go to uni, if they dont pass the test they have to go to “Foundation school”. These jobs wont pay as much though as they are usually run by asians.
(: Any other questions let us know.
If you are planning to buy property while you are not a citizen you may have some problems getting a home loan. The banks still run by the old rules where an australian married to a foreigner cant buy property, even though the legistlation was changed several years ago to allow this. (Friends of ours even tried printing out the legislation and taking it to the bank but it didn’t help)[/quote]
I already have a place to stay. My wife is Aus/TW nationality and lives the tradiotional Chinese way with her mother when she is in Aus. My issue is mainly whether I should get CELTA or Tesol Cert IV. Sources seem to indicate that CELTA is more advantageous for wroking in Asia, but Cert IV is better for teaching in Australia. I have no idea if this is true and am trying to find as much information as I can. All i know is that I have been advised to stay away from online courses.
The CELTRA qualifies you to the minimum standard of supervised classroom hours +. I checked it out by ringing last week. I also checked out the CELTRA course in Thailand on January 31st next year. If you book 45 days in advance it costs only 1440USD. The same course costs 2600USD in Australia plus additional testing fees and interview fees. In Thailand the 1440 is all inclusive. You can do the course in Chiangmai and rent very good accommodation for a month and still come out ahead. That’s what I plan to do.
What a load of bollocks. I have plenty of friends living and working in Australia as Permanent Residents with no Citizenship who have home loans.
There has never been a rule that banks won’t lend money to permanent residents in Australia for home loans. There are no rules preventing foreigners from buying home properties in Australia either.
The rules regarding who can own property change every few years:
[quote]“On 24 April 2010, the Assistant Treasurer announced changes to the screening of foreign investment in residential real estate. From 24 April, temporary residents need to notify the Government and receive approval before buying residential real estate in Australia (these changes were confirmed through regulations, which commenced on 26 May 2010 - see Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Amendment Regulations 2010).”
Also the following new rule which is prooving to be quite damaging to the retail property market at the moment. This used to apply to a married couple if the property was joint owned and one partner was not a citizen. Now as long as one partner is a citizen they are exempt from this rule.
This of course all assumes the OP is not a citizen nor has PR, as you have to either be very special or to live here for some time before you can get PR
As the OP is married he can get a permanent resident visa for Australia before he moves there. It was only temporary residents who needed prior approval, it has never been those with permanent resident visas, which the OP can get before moving to Australia. He can apply here in Taipei and it usually takes around 3 plus months to process. There is no requirement the OP moves to Australia on a temporary visa first and then applies for PR there. It’s much better he does that here, it will actually be faster.
Most immigrants get their PR visa’s prior to moving to Australia, thats why Australia has the immigration programs it does.
Interesting advice, I strongly recommend the OP follow your advise.
My experience in this area is all based on people I know already living in Australia. One couple I know have been married for a year, and the partner from the UK still does not have PR!!
Yup, getting a visa once you’re in Australia is a BITCH. If you qualify for one before you go, get one… otherwise you will wait forever and spend thousands while you’re doing it.
I just had a look at some of the job sites for ESL and the only one that came up with more than one was Seek.com.au . This ad is for Southbank TAFE, which is a government position, so if you meet that criteria you’ll be good for anything else. The Cert IV that they’re talking about you can do in about 6 weeks at any TAFE in Brisbane and is standard for all teachers at actual schools across QLD (maybe not for private English centers, though).
[quote=“tsukinodeynatsu”]Yup, getting a visa once you’re in Australia is a BITCH. If you qualify for one before you go, get one… otherwise you will wait forever and spend thousands while you’re doing it.
I just had a look at some of the job sites for ESL and the only one that came up with more than one was Seek.com.au . This ad is for Southbank TAFE, which is a government position, so if you meet that criteria you’ll be good for anything else. The Cert IV that they’re talking about you can do in about 6 weeks at any TAFE in Brisbane and is standard for all teachers at actual schools across QLD (maybe not for private English centers, though).
Never heard of them (unless they’re the school attached to QUT, in which case I’ve heard but not the name) but looks professional.
I don’t think TEFL counts for TESOL… but CELTA probably does [/quote]
Thanks for the advice, but a few friends I know on a few forums have told me that most good jobs are not advertised on websites. I will be pro-actively sending resumes and have a small network I can work from. Finding a very small number of ads doesn’t really surprise me.
[quote=“pqkdzrwt”]Interesting advice, I strongly recommend the OP follow your advise.
My experience in this area is all based on people I know already living in Australia. One couple I know have been married for a year, and the partner from the UK still does not have PR!![/quote]
Thats because you need to be married for more than a year to get PR. Read the rules on the Australia Immigration website. If married less then the legal time frame wich is different to those with children to those without PR is not granted until the required time period has elapsed due to too many scam visa marriage applications.
