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

The long-awaited new Baz Luhrmann-helmed Australian tourism campaign has finally launched! With the backing of AU $40 million, the 'Come Walkabout' series of ads has started to hit TV screens in 22 countries across the world, with the UK the first to see Luhrmann's mini-masterpiece.

As a director, Baz Luhrmann rarely travels the beaten path, and the ads certainly take a different approach to Aussie tourism campaigns of previous years. Rather than providing a breezy montage of clichéd Aussie scenes (i.e. sunny beaches, Sydney harbour, shrimps on barbies, ice-cold beers from a friendly barman), it takes a more narrative approach, telling the story of a stressed-out office worker in a bleak, rainy city and her escape to an idyllic Australian landscape after a magical encounter with a tiny Aboriginal child.

Sure, it's a little more conceptual than the Paul Hogan ads of the '80s, but it's certainly something different! Check it out below:

Fortunately, if you fancy a trip to Oz yourself, having magic dirt sprinkled into your hand by a member of the country's indigenous people isn't a pre-requisite. In fact, there's no mud involved whatsoever; provided you hold a passport from one of the eligible countries, just apply for an Australian ETA visa before you leave.

As one of the world's most efficient visa processes, most applicants will have their ETA visa application approved instantly, meaning you'll be able to book your flights and find a billabong of your own in no time!

- He arrived as Tom Blackett, Online Editor for the Australian Visa Bureau.  He departed as Tom.

A few weeks ago, we wrote an article for British Expats called "Would You Be Better Off in Oz?"

The article, it seems, set off a bit of controversy in the British Expats discussion area!

In the interest of transparency, I would like to share our background research so that we can be entirely open about where those numbers came from.  Interestingly, our original versions of this article, and in places where we use it in promotional material, the piece contains full citations.  We removed them from the version on British Expats in the interests of brevity.  It is an editorial decision that we regret!  (You'll have to forgive the boring statistical explanation below.)

The figures in all of the comparison tables are based on the exchange rate of 2.12 Australian dollars to the British pound, as provided by Oanda.com on August 2nd 2008.  Oanda.com powers the exchange rate calculations on our site, among others.

Salary figures were sourced from Salaryexpert.com's August 2008 data, which is in turn based on industry and government publications.  We also used an Australian State and Territory funded employment information source called My Future, found at my www.myfuture.edu.au

If any readers are interested, MyFuture is actually a great source for highly specific career, wage and qualification information!  You can find detailed industry and occupation information at MyFuture.

We are confident that the average salaries we listed were accurate at the time the document was written: 02/08/2008.

Our cost of goods research was from the UK Office of National Statistics (numbers circa July 2008) and from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which uses the average cost of goods in the eight capital cities of Australia.

As for property prices, these were sourced from the 2008 Real Estate Market Outlook provided by the Real Estate Institute of Australia.  Our UK housing prices were, in turn, sourced from the UK's Direct.gov site: www.communities.gov.uk.

I hope that addresses where we got our numbers, but I also recognise the feeling that we have been misleading.  We painted a rosy picture of life in Australia in an article that reads more like a sales pitch than the kind of neutral exploration of life abroad that British Expats is known for.

I'd like to extend an open invitation to British Expats members (Hi BE readers!) to poke away at our research, ask questions, and share their opinions and experiences with us.  That's the great power of online community!

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

In the Australian Visa Bureau Casework Department, we take responsibility for seeing our clients through the Australian visa application process. Essentially, this means that every year we help a large number of applicants and their families through to getting their Australian visas approved.

We try to ensure that our clients are as informed and prepared as possible throughout their application, but due to the nature of the migration process, there are some aspects which are beyond our control. For example, once we have lodged a visa application to the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), the case is essentially out of our hands until the visa has been granted. Unfortunately, in the last year or so, DIAC's processing times have become almost impossible to predict.

So why are there such variations between DIAC processing times? What prevents them from providing a concrete, consistent timeline? As with any large, bureaucratic organisation like DIAC, there are a number of reasons, many of which stem from last year's re-vamp of the General Skilled Migration (GSM) programme on September 1, 2007.

In the run-up to the GSM changes, there were a huge number of visa applications lodged by applicants keen to apply under the old migration programme, with DIAC reporting that August 2007 saw five times as many applications as usual. With so many applications lodged before the new changes came into effect, DIAC were already struggling to keep to their normal schedules by the time they changed to the new GSM system, which brought with it a number of changes to the processing methodology used by the department.

One of these was the introduction of widespread online processing. Before the GSM programme was over-hauled, the only visa that could be processed online was the now-defunct Skilled Independent Regional (SIR). However, following September 1, all GSM class visas can now be lodged through online processing.

While this might not seem like a cause for further delays, the new online processing brought with it a number of teething problems. While many of these initial difficulties have since been resolved, there is still no indication that online processing is any more efficient. For example, we have had applications lodged in April 2008 through manual processing that have already been granted, whereas applications lodged in January 2008 through online processing are still languishing in visa limbo.

Additionally, July 2008 also saw the opening of a new processing centre in Brisbane, to accompany the processing centre in Adelaide. Again, while we hope that it'll result in shorter processing times in the long term, we're still caught in the transition period and are yet to see any acceleration of processing times.

So, despite the attempts made to provide a faster, more efficient process for General Skilled Migration applications, the end result is that we've seen DIAC processing times balloon to be as much as three times as long as they were a year and a half ago. We currently give the average processing time for an Australian skilled visa as approximately 9 months, but this is only a rough estimate; depending on DIAC, it could be either longer or shorter.

While I'd be delighted if DIAC's process were formalised to the point that we could give our clients exact visa grant dates, that doesn't seem like it'll become a tangible reality in the short term. However, what I can do is ensure that clients are kept aware of the situation and know to use the time constructively so that whenever their visa is granted, they'll be ready.

- Lauren Mennie is the Casework Department Manager of the Australian Visa Bureau

While the Australian tourist visa application process is one of the most efficient in the world, the number of visitors to the land Down Under has been slipping in recent years. Despite concerns that Australian tourism figures are flagging, a new hope comes in the form of the soon-to-be-released film 'Australia'. Helmed by Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann, it's hoped the epic will revive the fortunes of a once-proud industry. With this in mind, it seems like as good excuse as any to take a look at how Australia's been presented to the rest of the world over the years.

While the appeal of a country rich in sunshine, sandy beaches and crystal-clear ocean waters seems obvious, it seems like Tourism Australia have never shied away from putting their own spin on the country. For most of the '80s, they relied on the appeal of Paul 'Crocodile Dundee' Hogan, unofficial Australian ambassador to the world, who presented a sunny, cheerful paradise (where yes, there was always another shrimp on the barbie).

Check out some of these classic commercials below (although we take no responsibility for the semi-naked Paul Hogan that features prominently in the first two):

However, amidst concerns that Australia was being misrepresented as a country lacking in sophistication and culture, the marketing campaigns have since taken a shift in tone. Rather than focussing on the laid-back lifestyle and beach culture, they instead began to represent the country through its vibrant natural scenery. This was most evident in the following ad from 2004 (featuring the vocal talents of ex-Neighbours star, Delta Goodrem):

However, this more sedate outing for Aussie tourism wasn't to last, with the next campaign in 2007 combining the spectacular Aussie sights with a cheeky slogan, for the memorable 'where the bloody hell are you?' campaign:

Unfortunately, the slightly salty language caused controversy in the UK (one of the key sources of tourism for Australia, as one of the countries that is part of the instant ETA visa scheme), with some complaining that it was unsuitable to be shown pre-watershed. The campign has since been referred to as an "absolute rolled-gold disaster" by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and whether it did anything to help promote Australia to the rest of the world is debatable.

So, with all hopes resting on Baz Luhrmann's film, can we expect Tourism Australia to capitalise on a potential blockbuster to provide a campaign that shows Australia in all its glory, or will we all be left pining for the days of Paul Hogan?

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

When the Australian skilled migration scheme was re-vamped on September 1, 2007, the skilled Australia visa application process went through a number of changes. One of these was the removal of the capital investment scheme.

Prior to September 1, it was possible to gain an additional 5 points when applying for an Australian skilled visa, provided you were willing and able to deposit AU$100,000 in a nominated Australian bond for at least 12 months. While few could afford to deposit the AU$100,000 to take advantage of the capital investment scheme, it was still a route to migration for a number of applicants who relied on the additional 5 points to qualify for an Australian visa.

As part of the Australian General Skilled Migration changes, applications lodged after September 1, 2007 would not be entitled to utilise the capital investment scheme. We anticipated this, and did everything in our power to ensure clients with applications that relied on the additional points through the capital investment scheme had been lodged by this date.

However, following news reports that hundreds of visa applications had allegedly been part of a 'scam' regarding unauthorised loans being made to applicants using the capital investment scheme, DIAC advised that from November 30, 2007, no State or Territory Government would be actively participating in arrangements that allow the allocation of 5 bonus points to skilled visa applicants through the capital investment scheme.

Essentially, this meant that even if you had successfully lodged your Australian visa application before the scheme's removal, if you hadn't been invited to lodge a deposit by November 30, your investment would no longer be permitted and the points would not be awarded.

Despite continued promises that DIAC would be investigating and proposing a replacement for the capital investment scheme, there has been no decision made yet. A number of solutions have been proposed to DIAC, such as the reallocation of points through the IELTS test or the creation of a new bond scheme to allow clients to be granted the points they need to qualify. While neither of these have been taken on, some clients have found a pathway through certain states allowing applicants to switch their application to a state-sponsored visa application.

However, there remain a number of migration hopefuls without a clear end in sight. While we understand and support any cause to crack down on fraudulent applications, it will soon be a full year since these applicants were placed in their current situation, with no sign of relief on the horizon. It's unfortunate and frustrating that we've been put in this position, but we'll continue to lobby DIAC for a solution, and hope that one will come soon.

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

According to new research from demographer Bernard Salt, Australia is suffering a drought. A man drought, that is. For the first time ever, women are outnumbering men in Australia and it's all due to the many Aussie migrants making the Great Escape overseas.

The situation is almost a complete reversal to Australia's situation from thirty years ago, when the number of men far outweighed the ladies, which was mostly due to the gender-bias of the Australia visa application process.

While the immigration process has been largely updated to acknowledge a far broader range of occupations and applicants as suitable for a skilled visa application, the result has still been that the number of single men coming into Australia can't keep up with the mass exodus of Aussie men to foreign shores. The latest statistics reveal that there are nearly 100,000 more women than men in Australia, which currently has a population of 21 million.

The situation might not be as dire for the Australian ladies as it first appears, as up to the age of 34, there are generally as many Australian men as there are women, if not more. However, after 34, the balance starts to wobble, and by the age of 40, there's a startling nine per cent more single women than men.

Essentially, this means that all the lucky single fellas who've stuck around in (or recently migrated to) the 'Land of Plenty' could quickly become an in-demand commodity. While every other Aussie guy is chugging down pints in South London or suiting up to work the Stock Exchange, there are thousands of single 'Sheilas' waiting at home for the next batch of charming Brits to emigrate to Australia to sweep them off their feet.

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

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.