February Update

Life has been a little crazy. I thought of being nice to one particular disabled person, and he responded by approaching me for sexual satisfaction. What ??!! So much for feeling sorry and wanting to be kind by accompanying him, that was just too much. I am so glad I had refused the first time he requested to see my place.

Thinking back of the time when I was chatting with him in the room, eww it was so disgusting. He shivered with excitement - at that time I thought he was just happy and excited talking about his favourite singer. Sick sick sick ! I have instantly removed him from my facebook and stopped chatting with him.

Driving in South Australia With An Overseas Driving License

2017 Update:

I have successfully gained my full South Australian driving license. Thanks to DrivingSchoolSA for their high quality coaching and superb guidance through the whole process.

Original Post:

Having your own car to drive around is the most convenient way of visiting many places in a short time. Plus, instead of having to wait around for unreliable public transport or unpredictable taxi drivers, driving your own car provides the flexibility and independence that some people just need sometimes.

Also, with a valid driving license that allows you to drive in Australia, your opportunity for employment opens up greatly. Most employers here insist that you have your own driving license, and sometimes even your own vehicle.

Hence, one of my first priorities when I landed in Adelaide was to ensure that I am legally allowed to drive around independently. My first lead to this information about getting your own driving license is available from the Service SA website ( https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/transport-travel-and-motoring/motoring/drivers-and-licences/driving-with-an-overseas-licence).

According to Service SA, an individual classified as a short-term visitor may drive the same types of vehicles as stated in the original country driving license. However, the license must be carried on the person together with an English translation if the original license is not in English. This means that if you are on a working holiday visa, you may drive with your license (with translation if required) up to two years without having to apply for a license from SA.

However, it turns out that if you are a permanent resident the allowance above does not apply ! Your original driving license may only be used for 90 days before requiring you to to go through all the driving test hooplas again. This doesn't apply if you carry a driving license from the UK or other countries which are recognized by the Australian government.

Driving License Application Process

So yesterday (18 Jan 2016) was when I went out to Service SA and sat for driving theory (paper) tests. There are three tests that an applicant needs to go through:

1. Driving Theory Test - which will test you on the rules, signs, facts and correct behaviour expected of a driver in Australia.
2. Hazard Perception Test - computer / touch-screen based test that shows you a situation playing and asks you to respond accordingly. For example, exiting and intersection on a busy road, or slowing down when driving near a pedestrian.
3. On-Road Test (VORT) - practical driving test in a car with an instructor / assessor sitting next to you as a passenger.

The above steps are similar to what Australian teenagers and new applicants will face when they apply for a driving license. However, if you are a PR who is already holding an overseas driving license, you may extend the 90 days restriction to 12 months just by doing the theory test. The condition attached with this is that you will have to do the Hazard Perception Test and VORT within 12 months after you have passed the theory test.

The Theory Test

The theory test comes in two parts. The Give Way diagram test consists of eight simple diagrams showing a bird view of an on-the-road situation. The instruction tells you to mark a circle around the vehicle / participant in the traffic that must give way. It was fairly simple but if you failed this one you would have failed the whole test.

The second part is a multiple choice test made up of 42 questions. You will be given a question book with roughly 250 multiple choice questions together with a question paper. The question paper will have 42 answer boxes with a random question number next to it, i.e. 2, 5, 13, 15 .... 180,117. You will need to lookup for the right question in the book according to this number. Be very careful not to do a silly mistake when looking up the question, as you may get your answers wrong by looking at the wrong question even if you knew the answer. The passing mark for this part is 32.

Tips

You can take your own sweet time as there is no time watch for the tests. I had allowed plenty of time to double check my answer sheet against the question book. I think I took about an hour to complete it. The results were worthwhile, this being the first time I sat for the test: full mark on Give Way diagrams and 40 / 42 for the multiple-choice questions. I also spent a couple of minutes to look at the other questions, and I decided I was lucky and could have prepared more.

One of the tips that my friend shared with me was to do as many practice as you can at http://mylicense.sa.gov.au/my-car-licence/practice-theory-test. The quiz generator gives you random questions which are similar in format to the actual test. However, I would personally recommend that you don't solely rely on the quiz generator in order to pass. You should also read the Driver's Handbook from cover to cover. This is not only for the purpose of passing the test, but to ensure that you know and understand the uniquely Australian road rules, signs and system you will interact with when you actually drive later. 

Even though I have passed the theory test, I personally will read the Driver's Handbook again and again as I have felt inadequately prepared when I took a peek at the other questions available in the question book.  Koala, Emu and Wombat crossings are things that you would not find in your home country.

Hazard Perception Test

... to be continued

Different Visa Routes To Australian Permanent Residency

A good friend of mine recently asked me to tell her more about how I got my PR. So I decided that I am going to share the different types of visa available that will put you on the right path towards permanent residency in Australia. Specifically in this post, I will be covering the visa options for workers / employees / medium-income individuals who are coming in without a job offer. There are many other options out there just so you know, for business owners / high-income earners, specially talented individuals and employer-sponsored workers.

• Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 489) 
• Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 495) 
• Skilled Designated Area Sponsored (Provisional) visa (subclass 496) 
• Skilled Regional Sponsored visa (subclass 475 or 487) 
• Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)
• Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190)
• Skilled Sponsored visa (subclass 176) - Not available anymore since Sep 2015
• Sponsored visa (subclass 886)  - Not available anymore since Jan 2013

I will start with Provisional Visa: 495, 475, 487 and 489. One of the conditions that come with these visa types mean that you are committed to live and work in regional (rural) areas of Australia. In South Australia case, all of SA is defined as regional, so you can live in the city of Adelaide of Port Lincoln and still meeting the commitment.

After two years of meeting this condition, provisional visa holders may apply for permanent residency via Skilled Regional visa subclass 887. One important fact to note however, is that provisional visa holders are not entitled to MediCare (public medical insurance) and hence must find and purchase their own private insurance policy. They will only be covered by MediCare once they have been granted visa 887.

Visa 189 / 190

The other routes that are non-provisional (in other words, immediately permanent) are visa 886, 176 189 and 190. I am not going to touch on visa 886 and 176 since they are already closed to new applications ( but still valid for those who already are on those visa ).

To quote the DBIP definition: "This visa is for points-tested skilled workers who are not sponsored by an employer or family member or nominated by a state or territory government." (link). This means the applicants will need to go through a series of checklist questions that will give varying scores depending on your answers/situation.

The kind of questions that you will be asked includes your age, English language ability (IELTS), educational level and lastly years of experience in nominated skilled occupation. The higher you score on these points, the more likely your applications will be picked up, endorsed and approved by the DBIP during the Expression of Interest (EOI) stage.

I think I need to highlight once again, that these visa are for points-tested skilled workers. This means that as part of your application, you will need to prove that you are a skilled worker that is in-demand according to the national or state-specific skilled occupation list (SOL). You can check the SOL list and decide by yourself if you are eligible. However, the necessary official proof can only be acquired by going through a Skill Assessment (google vetassess) process which is separate from the EOI.

The difference between visa 189 and 190 is that the latter is a state-nominated visa. It means you will go through almost exactly the same process described above, but for visa 190 you would have to apply for a nomination through the state immigration office (in my case, Immigration SA). This gives you an additional 5 points on your EOI application. The application for state nomination varies from state to state, but in my case it involved writing a short essay telling the reason why you want to migrate to that particular state, a declaration of assets .

So to summarize, this was my order of doing things which lead me to visa 190:

1. IELTS & Skilled Assessment

• Booked for IELTS (General Training module) writing, listening and speaking test. (Apr-May 2014)
• Scanned, translated and declare as original in front of a public notary: college transcripts, professional courses, certificates, membership. Sent for Skilled Assessment through vetassess (Apr 2014-Aug 2014, 3 months from application until result).

1. Applied for SA state-nomination
• short essay of 'why you want to live in SA'
• declare your assets and agree that you have the amount of cash to tide you up if you migrate
2. With IELTS, vetassess and state-nomination all positive, proceed with Expression of Interest
• Request for a good conduct certificate from domestic police. You may be required to request for the same from other countries where you have resided priorly.
3. Wait for EOI to be processed. If your EOI is picked up, approved and endorsed, you will get an invitation to apply for visa.
4. Once you have received an invitation to apply for visa ( Dec 2014)
1. Fill up the visa application online form
2. Fill up and sign Form 80 - Character Assessment
3. Perform eMedical health checkup at a recognized local medical establishments.
4. Scan, translate and declare as original many documents (birth cert, passport, driving license and others, which you will be given a list of if you actually get invited).
5. Wait for visa grant / rejection letter ( Feb 2015 )

For me, I started my application process by registering for IELTS on 23 April 2014 and succeeded with a grant letter received on 2 Feb 2015, so roughly 9 months. I would consider my case a very successful and smooth application. I probably could have shortened it a little more if they didn't ask me for a UK police cert, which took a month and half to apply, pay for and deliver by post due to their bureaucracy.

My Migration from Malaysia to Australia

I flew to Adelaide on a plane after Christmas 2015. The reason for this journey is a long-term migration on a permanent residency visa. This is something that I have planned for a long time, since May 2013. Thankfully, my application for the PR visa was granted on Dec 2014. One of the conditions with the visa is that I must land in South Australia before 31 Dec 2015. So here I am in Adelaide, a permanent resident of Australia with permission to work.

Prior to entering Australia, I had quit my job one year earlier in order to be better prepared. The visa that I applied for is called SA state-nominated 190, which means I am morally (but not legally) obligated to stay and work within South Australia.

Well, 2015-2016 is not exactly the best time to find a job in South Australia. However, I felt determined to challenge myself and thrive as a permanent resident and perhaps towards Australian citizenship in the future. To tell you the truth, it has not been an easy decision to make. There is a huge impact and consequence in terms of personal career progression ( in my case it's total abandonment ), financial accommodation, physical and emotional struggle, social circles and other forms of sacrifices. It was partly why I delayed my actual move almost a year after the visa was granted.

As mentioned earlier, I decided to prepare by resigning from my position and started my own business. I knew there was little probability of success and there will be a major hurdle to continue managing the business once I have moved. But it was the easiest way for me to challenge myself and learn life outside of the corporate executive life I was used to. I also took up small-scale farming, partly because I do enjoy gardening and nature, and also because I thought no matter what happen, one can always survive by living with nature.

... to be continued

Facebook Ad Is A Scam

After going through several Facebook Pages and Ad experiments, I have concluded that Facebook Advert is a scam. I restricted my Ad campaign audience only to my own country and I keep getting Likes from Indonesian individuals. This happened for each distinct campaign and page.

I suspect Facebook is outsourcing to click farms in order to harvest Post Engagements at a very low cost by using minions from these countries. Because of this, I have personally stopped using Facebook Advert and would rather stick to sharing posts on my personal FB page.

Watch out friends. Don't get cheated by Mark Zuckerberg and his minions.

Been doing some writing

I have been writing my tips on living easy at https://petuahidupsenang.blogspot.com. I hope it will help others in their daily lives. The tips apply to everyone regardless if you are employed or employing people, whether you are an entrepreneur or a science researcher, whether you are already rich or poor.

The tips have been gathered from my recent experience jumping into the business world. I have uncovered gems that I wish other people would also be able to collect. Obviously some things can only be learned and understood by experience. However, I still hope that some of the articles I have written will offer some benefits to friends and strangers.

Peace out