Regardless of your situation, when you're in the midst of lodging a visa application, it can sometimes be difficult to keep a perspective on your situation and see your visa grant as a tangible reality. Even with the support of a migration agent, there's always the possibility that a new life in Australia can feel further away than it actually is.

With this in mind, it's refreshing to see the return of the BBC's Wanted Down Under, which is currently being repeated on BBC2 on weekdays at 5:15 PM. Not only does it show the light at the end of the tunnel by showcasing the gorgeous locations of Australia, it doesn't shy away from exploring the difficulties that the average Brit family faces as they pursue a new life Down Under.

I've always found that the best option to take with clients is to be completely honest and upfront about the visa process. While on paper it can seem like a straightforward application, there are often hidden hurdles, and Wanted Down Under is a programme that goes beyond the simple aspirational melodrama of other relocation shows.

In a time when television is undergoing something of a 'crisis of faith', we can testify to the validity of the subjects featured in Wanted Down Under, as some of the show's 'stars' in the first series were Visa Bureau clients. What's more, we're delighted to report that they've since successfully made the switch and are now happy Australian residents.

Also, the programme does well in acknowledging that 'Down Under' doesn't just mean Australia; the second series also follows Brits as they look to emigrate to New Zealand, making it ideal for any Kiwi-minded migrants.

Tune in for yourself to see it, or catch up on the BBC iPlayer - it's definitely worth your while!

- Lauren Mennie is the Casework Department Manager for the Australian Visa Bureau.

News reports continually remind us that IT professionals are in short supply across the globe, so it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn that Australia is one of the countries keen to lure new tech-minded individuals to their shores. However, the addition of the 'Computing Professional - .NET technologies' occupation classification to Australia's Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) gives the indication that they're finally getting a bit smarter about enticing a broader range of developers and programmers.

The MODL is essentially a list of the occupations which are part of the country's ongoing national skills shortage, with workers in any of the listed occupations awarded extra points and put on the Australia visa fast-track. Simply put, there are few better indications that you're all set to migrate to Australia than having your occupation feature on the MODL. Historically speaking, the MODL has always featured a fairly broad range of IT-centric occupations… unless you were a .NET programmer / developer.

Some headway was made in rectifying this with the introduction of the occupation classification of ‘Computing Professional - specialising in C++ / C# / C’ in September, 2006. All very nice for those with C# experience, but not much use to programmers using any other .NET language.

However, with May's MODL addition of 'Computing Professional – specialising in .NET technologies', Australia's doors were finally flung open to .NET programmers of all shapes and sizes. Many Visual Basic.NET programmers, as well as those specialising in less common .NET languages like PerlNET and IronPython now have a path to the 'gold standard' of Australian permanent visas – the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 175).

So, if you’re a programmer working with .NET on a day-to-day basis, then chances are you’re 'in demand' by Australia. Certainly something to feel warm and fuzzy about, right?

- Tom Blackett is the Online Editor for the Australian Visa Bureau, and has a compulsion to make bad puns in blog titles

It's difficult to restrain my disappointment with The TRA: Trades Recognition Australia.  Almost a year ago, the TRA announced the closure of Skilled Pathway D, which gave skilled tradespeople without formal qualifications a pathway through the skills assessment stage of the Australian skilled migration programme.

To me, Pathway D was an integral part of the migration programme.  It met the insatiable demand for skilled tradespeople in Australia, and allowed thousands of experienced workers from the UK to make the move down under.  The closure of Pathway D, without warning or consultation, came as a body blow to industry in Australia and to thousands of families in the UK.  Australian industries lost a source of dedicated, highly skilled workers, and families saw their plans to establish themselves in Australia delayed indefinitely.

Earlier in the summer, the TRA announced that they would begin to implement a replacement to Pathway D on September 1 with their new Migration Assessment Policy (MAP).  We were extremely excited at the prospect, as it would allow thousands of families to get their visa applications back on track and to start making long-term decisions about moving to Australia.

The TRA has once again thrown these lives into disarray by delaying their implementation.  They have postponed their announcement about implementing MAP indefinitely, without any explanation or indication of when we can expect more information.

I am appalled at the TRA for its apparently blasé attitude towards the thousands of people who they have left to twist in the wind by delaying their announcement.  Families who want to make the move down under need concrete information in order make decisions that affect the rest of their lives. The TRA is making this heartbreakingly difficult.

This appalling attitude is demonstrated by the TRA's complete lack of transparency or explanation.  They did not give a concrete reason as to why they closed Pathway D and they did not give detailed information about its replacement.  Now they have delayed the implementation of a replacement without explanation or any indication of how much longer families will have to wait.

Many would-be emigrants face a difficult choice: to pursue the long road to skills qualification through a different pathway, or to wait out the TRA and hope for a positive announcement in the next few months.  The TRA is directly responsible for forcing families into this stressful situation.  The Australian Visa Bureau staff will do their best to ease the stress that this decision may place on our clients by providing as much information and help as we can.

I sincerely hope that the TRA to task for explanations and more information.  I look forward to the day when we can help the thousands of families affected by this fiasco to realise their dreams of a new life in Australia.

- Andy Harwood is the CEO of the Australian Visa Bureau.

It's summertime in Britain and (surprise, surprise) it's cloudy again.  But, we mustn't complain because we are not alone in the world of the dark and gloomy weather.  Storm clouds have covered New Zealand for some time now, but instead of moaning about it, the Kiwis are begging them to stay.

In New Zealand there's a different kind of cloud cover at this time of year – a much more refreshing, more exciting, more exhilarating cloud; a cloud which has left skiers and snowboarders to revel in the best snow conditions in eight years.

Already thousands of Kiwis and Aussies have hit up the country's Southern Alps to play on the new world-class terrain parks and explore the famous back-country slopes.  Mount Hutt, the southern hemisphere’s highest ski field, is wallowing in a nearly 2.5m base with a soft powder surface. Nice. As the Ski Area Manager of Mount Hutt put it so perfectly, "the snow gods have truly blessed us this winter."

It doesn't seem to be a one-eyed opinion either - skiing superstar and World Cup champion Bode Miller, along with the Norwegian and Austrian downhill ski teams, have caught on to the rush and headed to Mount Hutt to train. 

If the thought of missing out on that fun strikes a chord of jealousy, then you’ll be pleased to hear New Zealand offers extended working holiday visas for UK nationals.  Even though the season has already started, if you are keen to hit the slopes than a NZ working holiday visa is the best way to do it.  You'll be able to work, ski, and travel for 12 months, and then apply for an 11 month extension if you find it too hard to tear yourself away. 

In a place like Queenstown, where adventure sports thrive all year round and snowfields turn into hiking playgrounds, leaving to come home won't be as easy as you thought.

- Jessica Bird is a writer for the New Zealand Visa Bureau, and has spent more than her fair share of time on the slopes.

Imagine this: you're in Adelaide city for the first time and you need to arrange to meet your mates in town at a landmark.  That's fine, except that they've never been to Adelaide either.  So, what do you do? While you could abandon your social plans and become a hopeless recluse, an easier (and altogether less drastic option) would be to ask Google.  Their wandering eyes have mapped out Australia for you so you can wander around the country without ever leaving the comfort of your computer chair.

Google Street View has created a virtual street map of Australia so that web users can take self-controlled tours of its cities and towns with a 360 degree, street-level panoramic view.  The streets marked in blue on the map have streetview enabled.

Since November last year, the web king has sent its foot soldiers in Google cars to film almost every possible nook and cranny of Australia. Some locations like Uluru have been omitted for reasons of Aboriginal land and cultural rights, (but really, you'd be in trouble if you didn't already have a rough idea of what it looked like.)

The new feature launched in Australia this week, after pilot programs in the US and parts of France and Italy proved to be successful… well, relatively successful.  Not surprisingly, a number of scenes in America were caught on tape that weren't really meant for public eyes, and have since been used by privacy activists as a damning tool to have Google Street View banned.  However, Google has since learnt from its mistakes, and now blurs out faces, number plates and anything else that could be categorised as an ‘offending scene'.

Regardless of these minor concerns though, we here at the Visa Bureau are congratulating Google – they've done a massive favour for our clients, tourists and migrants to Australia.  Visitors to Australia will now be able to check out accommodation before they book, take a pre-peek at tourist attractions, or get their bearings in a city before even stepping foot in the country.  Migrants can also use Street View to help decide which suburb to move to in any chosen city, and once they have settled in, friends and family will be able to take a virtual tour around their new neighbourhood.  It's brilliant – and absolutely free.

Over the next few months New Zealand will join in on the fun too.  It's a pretty exciting development for anyone with travel or migration on the mind – we can now tell our clients that seeing Australia from the UK is not just a visual possibility but a virtual reality, and the best way to get a taste of what they're in for is just a few clicks away!

- Tom Blackett is the Online Editor for the Australian Visa Bureau, and a streetview addict.

I thought I'd take my opportunity on the Visa Bureau Blog to say a few words about the transition from the HSMP to the new Tier 1 General Skilled Migration programme here in the UK.  It's occupied a lot of our time!  It usually does whenever the Home Office makes a major change like this.

Our UK caseworking team and our online editorial team worked hard to make sure that the UK Visa Bureau website was up to date as soon as the change from the old HSMP went ahead.

The changeover has certainly been an interesting experience!  Aside from the days of research, writing and caseworking, the biggest challenge has been getting the message out to clients.  The HSMP, it seems, was a very well known programme.  It was an easy "brand" to remember, and it described exactly what the programme was after - highly skilled people who wanted to live and work in the United Kingdom.  It was so well known that people continue to refer to the new Tier 1 programme as the HSMP.

It's an easy confusion to make.  Both the Tier 1 General Skilled Programme and the HSMP are essentially the same.  Both use a similar points test with similar education, occupation and income requirements, and both are meant to attract highly skilled migrants to the UK.

We've been working to help educate our clients and prospective clients on the changeover.  Our site now has detailed information on the Tier 1 programme, and we make sure that we talk callers to our freephone line through the changes.

But, if people still want to call it the HSMP, that's fine by me.

- Tom Blackett is the Online Editor for the UK Visa Bureau.

I noticed an article posted on our website about how the Australian Tourism Board is taking a whole new direction into cyberspace so it can make some friends on Facebook.

For a bit of background info, Facebook is a social networking website which facilitates social communication around the world.  Mostly young people sign up to the site to chat with friends, share videos, store photos, send emails, and maintain contact with people they haven’t seen for years.  Users can only get Facebook friends by searching for people, and only if both parties accept the "friend request".  Only friends are then able to access their personal profiles. 

So it struck me as a curious direction for Tourism Australia to head in, considering not many people (or so I thought) would waste their time becoming "friends" with what is essentially an aging board of directors employed to market Australia to the world.

But when I logged onto Facebook, sure enough, Tourism Australia had nabbed itself over 10,000 friends.  A few weeks later, that number had more than doubled, reaching a whopping 24,175 "fans".  Most people don’t even make it past a couple of hundred! (I certainly haven't at any rate.)

Looking at the site I can understand why. Tourists are provided with everything and anything there is to know about travelling Australia, and are given the opportunity to put their own personal experiences up for the world to see.  There’s space for fan videos, photos, and reviews.  People can post comments on the wall, ask questions, or check out upcoming events around Australia. 

The Discussion Board (which is maintained by Tourism Australia) gives travellers helpful hints, for example about the transport system, or sample itineraries, like a trip out to Broken Hill in New South Wales.

It’s brilliant, but it doesn't stop there.  MySpace, a similar social networking site, is being used by the board to promote the Australia working holiday concept to young people around the world.  This site focuses more on visuals though, by using videos of testimonials from young travellers living and working in the UK to entice more people to take the plunge for some real Australian adventure.

It's a wonderful thing to see that travelling the world is becoming a lot easier and a lot more exciting for young people these days, especially now that it can be shared with anyone around the world.  The Australia Facebook page was initially designed to be an information source for the tens of thousands of international visitors in Sydney during the World Youth Day this month.  But, now that event has passed, the site is still clocking up the friend-count and sporting new posts, reviews, photos and videos from people all around the world, which suggests to me that Tourism Australia and tourists around the world are going to be life-long friends.

- Tom Blackett is the Online Editor for the Australian Visa Bureau.

If Amanda and her team were excited about the new changes to the Australian working holiday visa last week, then it is the New Zealand Visa Bureau's turn to breathe a big sigh of relief.  After many months of consultation, the UK Government has finally decided to continue running the New Zealand ancestry visa program and allow free access for Kiwis for up to six months.  Phew!

The British Home Office are having a big clean-up of their immigration system, and have been looking at the policies of other countries, mainly Australia, to base their new "simplified" structure on.  Although they're more interested in a new "Path to Citizenship", where migrants have to "earn" their right to become a UK citizen, they were also looking to restrict access to the UK for Commonwealth citizens.

Here in the New Zealand Visa Bureau, we all feared the Home Office would listen to suggestions to restrict the six month visa-free access to three months, or cancel rights to get a five year UK ancestry visa.   Thousands of New Zealanders live, work, and play in London already - city life just wouldn't be the same without the Kiwi contingent! 

Luckily for New Zealanders, the doors have stayed open.  Those who have grandparents born in the UK can still apply for a five-year working and residency visa, and the six month visa-free access is out there for the taking. 

Apparently, PM Helen Clark has been batting for New Zealand so that young Kiwis can keep flying to the UK.  In a press release, she told the country she understands how important it is for young people to have an OE in the UK, and went directly to Gordon Brown to ask him to reconsider.  

And so she should.  The New Zealand Immigration policy has been more than welcoming to UK citizens.  UK travellers also have six month visa-free access to New Zealand, and Brits on a working holiday visa are entitled to 23 months in NZ (everybody else in the working holiday program only get 12 months!). 

Imagine having that much time to see all the breathtaking sights New Zealand has to offer, or watch the adrenaline-pumping activities in the country's adventure capital Queenstown change to match the season.  You could even catch a full live season of the Super 14s Rugby Union competition, or just chill out in a batch for six months on the Coromandel. 

It's no wonder Britons make up the second largest source of tourism for the Land of the Long White Cloud – I think they're getting a pretty good deal!

Thanks to the announcements this week from Ms Clark, it gives me great pleasure to tell our NZ and UK clients they can still go on their well-deserved holiday to the other end of the world, just as their brothers, sisters, mates, parents (even myself) have done before them.  It just wouldn't be fair if the fun stopped here!

- Andy Harwood is the CEO of the Visa Bureau.

I'm very, very excited about a piece of news that we posted the other day: working holiday visa holders can apply for a second working holiday visa if they work in construction.  It's about time!

We find that most of our clients want to go for a second round in Australia. Who wouldn't?  It's warm, sunny, and huge! It's hard to cram the entire country into a one year visa, especially when you want to earn a few bucks while you travel.  One of the most common questions we're asked is "can I apply for another working holiday visa?" I always hate saying no. Thanks to the new announcement from DIAC I won't have to say no so often.

A few years ago, DIAC caved into pressure from travellers and agricultural companies who needed workers.  They allowed anybody who worked for at least three months as a "seasonal worker" in "regional Australia" to apply for a second working holiday visa once their first one expired.  (Translated out of government-ese, that means to get another working holiday visa, people needed to work on a farm way out in the middle of nowhere.)  Up until now, people who didn't really want to bend bananas in the sun for a few months have been out of luck.

I'm happy to see that construction and building workers are getting in on the act.  The construction industry in Australia is so desperate for workers, they successfully lobbied the government to get the same rights as the agricultural sector. Working Holiday Visa holders who work for three months in construction or building can now apply for another Working Holiday once their first visa expires.

As great as it is (and it really is great for a lot of our clients) I want the program to go even further. Construction and agriculture aren't the only industries that need young workers.  Working holiday makers make up a pretty hefty chunk of the temporary work force in Australia - and I don't just mean bar staff!  Child-care workers, nurses and other skilled pros often call us to head down under on a Working Holiday Visa.

I can't wait for the day when they can apply for another chance to explore Australia.

- Amanda Gripske is a Working Holiday Visa Manager with the Australian Visa Bureau.

The Alberta Minister of Employment and Immigration Hector Goudreau is on a mission this week to encourage thousands of UK would-be migrants to move to Alberta, Canada.  The Minister has given himself a quota of 50,000 immigrants for this year alone, and has headed straight to the UK to find them.  I think it's easy to see why.

Alberta, a province in Western Canada, is a commercial hub and proudly sustaining a steadily growing economy.  But the local population can't keep up with demand for workers, so the Minister has spearheaded a campaign to inform UK citizens how to fast-track the application process for Canadian visas so that local industries are no longer in high demand for skilled workers.  The professions at the top of the demand list include GPs, teachers, nurses, electricians, carpenters, engineers, construction workers, management consultants, cardiac specialists and diabetic specialists, although many other skilled positions are waiting to be filled.

We posted a news story on our website yesterday about the exodus of "boomerang migrants" (Australian ex-pats returning home). The thousands of Brits following them shows exactly why Mr Goudreau is targeting migrants from the UK.  The cost of living has risen again over the past four months, making the UK among the most expensive places to live in the world.  Staple food prices have risen by almost 60 per cent and fuel prices have risen by 22 per cent.  The Pound is weakening against the Australian dollar and the Canadian dollar, and more people from the UK are now deciding to make the move to better lifestyles and climates.

Canadian Immigration isn't always easy, though.  At the moment, it can take up to two years for a skilled visa application to be approved for skilled migration to Canada from the UK.  We always recommend that clients attempt to find a job offer before applying so that they can apply for a fast-tracked skilled visa.

I've often felt that there's a disconnect between the needs of employers in Canada, who need employees now; and the Canadian immigration system; which can be a slow and frustrating experience for some visa applicants.

However, this week Mr Goudreau has been putting Alberta's best foot forward to UK nationals.  He boasts of its comparatively lower cost of living, higher standard of living, matched and sometimes higher salaries in all professions, superior public services and educational services, lower business taxes than most countries, no provincial sales tax on goods, and its breathtaking scenery. 

The interest that a news story like this generates is tremendous.  I'm always happily surprised by the number of Brits who are ready to make the jump across the ocean in search of a better life.  Even the media here in the UK is getting in on the act with the BBC and GMTV calling to ask questions about Canadian immigration.  Mr Goudreau's arrival has caused quite a stir.

The UK government will have to work hard to entice overseas workers to fill their increasing skills shortages, while all the Canadian Government has to do is show Brits where to sign on the dotted line.

- Andy Harwood is the CEO of the Visa Bureau.