work holiday visa switch?

[northnorth]

Hi all,
I will be going to australia soon whit a work holiday visa.My question is,is it possible to get a stable job there and change the paper work to lets say a permanent work visa?is that possible?im a construction worker , and as i undestand it,sinces the changes made to the critical job list,no construction trades migration will be possible in the near future...
So i was thinking to go on a work holiday visa to have a look first since i never been there before,and if i like it maybe try to get more serious about staying.Looking to work in construction buisness or mining.
Any advice,help or experience would be greatly appciated.As well as any information related to construction or mining.
Thanks.

[Faye]

Hey,

I came to the Newcastle area (2hrs north of Sydney) in June 2008 with the working holiday visa. It took me 9 month to find work - the unemployment rate is really high.

The job I have now is interested in sponsoring me to stay so I've been on the immigration website a whole lot looking at my options. The permanent visa doesn't seem to be an option for me right now because they want you to have either trained in Australia for your occupation or have 2 years experience in the occupation in Australia and a whole lot of other stuff... it's pretty strict and doesn't work for me but the employer sponsored temporary business (long stay) visa (subclass 457) does and it's a gateway, possibly, to the permanent one. The temporary one can be for 3 months to 4 years, so as soon as I work there for 2 years I may apply for the permanent one since I'll have acquired the needed experience by that time.

And, yeah I know you don't have any work yet, but it is possible to upgrade if and when that opportunity arises.

[northnorth]

Thank you verry much for the reply.
i know it wont be easy ,especially in those hard times.But a t least there is a little hope...
Does it give you an andvantage to be from commonwhealth(canada)for immigrating?
Is the situation bad all over or just in and aroud big cities?Im aiming for west australia.

[Faye]

When I was looking at the visa I'm applying for soon today I saw an estimated waiting times chart which separated low-risk and high-risk countries. I'm not sure what makes a country high or low risk, but I'm assuming that Canada is pretty low risk. We're fairly harmless, right? But I'm not sure what other advantages being from Canada might give.

I think the unemployment rate and the whole economy being in crisis is all over the world. It hit Australia a bit later and not as hard as the states... so says the news. But the dollar's a lot lower now so your money will be worth more when you get here. When I came last year it was almost at par.

Anyway, come on over and check it out first. No point in getting too far ahead of yourself and letting the what-ifs put you off.