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United Arab EmiratesDubai offer at AED 9,000 all-in, is that enough to actually save?
Offer is AED 9,000 total, which they described as "salary plus allowances" with no separate housing. I am single, no dependants, and the plan is to send money home every month. Everyone tells me Dubai is tax free as if that settles it, but I cannot find honest numbers for what is left after rent. If you are on something close to this, roughly what do you actually keep at the end of the month?
AustraliaHow long is the 189 EOI wait at 85 points right now?
I lodged an EOI for Skilled Independent 189 in March with 85 points, ANZSCO 261313 (Software Engineer). Still nothing. Everything I read online is from two years ago and the numbers do not match what people are saying in the Facebook groups. If you got an invite this year at 85 or 90 points, roughly how long did you wait after lodging? I am 33, so age points start dropping in a year and a half and I am trying to work out whether to sit PTE again for the extra 10.
CanadaExpress Entry CRS 478, is a provincial nomination realistic?
CRS 478. Recent draws have been well above that for general category, so I am looking at PNP. I am a civil engineer, 5 years experience, CLB 9, single. Which provinces are actually worth applying to for someone with no Canadian connection at all? Everything I read says Ontario, but Ontario streams seem to want a job offer. Has anyone here got a nomination without ever having been to Canada?
Agent in Colombo charging Rs. 450,000 for a "guaranteed" 482
Writing this anonymously because the office is close to where I work. The pitch: pay Rs. 450,000 up front, they have a "partner employer" in Queensland, sponsorship is guaranteed, visa in three months. They showed a printed nomination approval with an employer name on it. I asked for the employer name so I could check the sponsor register myself. They refused, said it was confidential until payment. That is the whole tell. An approved sponsor is a public fact and any real one will let you verify it. A friend of mine paid. Four months later there was no nomination, no employer, and the phone number had changed. He has not got the money back. If an agent will not name the sponsor, walk out.
United KingdomDoes my employer have to be on the sponsor register before I apply?
I have a verbal offer from a small company in Leeds, about 30 staff. They have never hired from outside the UK and they are asking me how it works, which is not reassuring. As I understand it they need a sponsor licence first, then they issue a Certificate of Sponsorship, then I apply. Is that right, and roughly how long does the licence itself take? They are asking whether I can start in six weeks and I do not want to promise something that is not possible.
Can I switch employers inside the first year on a UAE work permit?
Asking anonymously because my current employer would not be happy to see this. I have been here seven months. Another company wants to hire me. My employer is telling me there is a ban if I leave before two years and that they will not give a NOC. My understanding is that the rules changed and the automatic labour ban is gone, but I cannot tell what still applies to a limited contract. Has anyone actually moved companies inside the first year recently?
GermanyOpportunity Card points: does an NVQ level 5 count as a qualification?
I have an NVQ level 5 in automobile technology from Sri Lanka plus six years of workshop experience, no degree. The Opportunity Card asks for a recognised qualification before you can even start counting points. Does a Sri Lankan NVQ 5 get recognised, and is anybody here through on a vocational qualification rather than a degree? I have looked at ANABIN and I cannot find our NVQ system listed at all, which is what worries me.
Subclass 189 granted after 14 months, here is the full timeline
Posting the whole thing because I could not find one honest timeline when I started. Skills assessment (ACS) lodged: 12 Jan, positive 3 Mar PTE Academic: 79+ on second attempt, 21 Mar EOI lodged: 28 Mar, 85 points Invitation: 11 Aug Visa lodged: 2 Sep Medicals and police clearance: 18 Sep CO contact (asking for Form 80 and a payslip gap explanation): 4 Dec Grant: 19 Feb Total cost, everything included, was about Rs. 2.1 million with the AUD at what it was. The biggest single line was the visa fee itself, not the agent, because I did not use an agent. Happy to answer anything specific.
Toronto vs Calgary for a mechanical engineer
Offers in both. Toronto is CAD 82k, Calgary is CAD 91k. On paper Calgary wins twice: more money and no provincial sales tax. What I cannot judge from here is how much smaller the job market is if this role does not work out, and how much of the difference rent eats. Anyone working in either? Especially interested in how easy it is to move companies in Calgary if oil and gas turns down again.
Fake Health and Care Worker sponsorship, GBP 4,000 gone
Anonymous for obvious reasons. My cousin lost this money and I am posting so nobody else does. The setup: a WhatsApp contact claiming to represent a care home group in the Midlands. Professional-looking CoS document, a real care home name lifted from Companies House, and an invoice for GBP 4,000 described as a "sponsorship processing fee". Two things were wrong and we only saw them afterwards: 1. It is illegal for a sponsor to charge a worker the sponsor licence fee or the Immigration Skills Charge. If somebody asks you to pay those, it is not a real sponsorship. 2. The CoS number did not exist. You can check a certificate number, and a genuine sponsor will not mind you checking. The real care home had no idea their name was being used.
A2 or B1 German for an IT job in Berlin, honest answers please
Every recruiter tells me "English is fine in tech in Berlin". Every person who actually lives there tells me something different. I am at A2 and deciding whether to spend six more months getting to B1 before applying, or apply now. What I want to know is not whether you can do the job in English, it is whether you get shortlisted without German, and whether it changes once you are past the startup layer into larger companies.
Renting in Manchester without a UK guarantor
This is the thing that nearly stopped me and nobody warns you about it. Most letting agents want a UK-based guarantor earning around 30x the monthly rent. If you have just arrived you do not have one. What worked, in order of how much it cost me: 1. Offering six months rent up front. Accepted by two of the four agents I tried. Expensive but free. 2. A guarantor service. Roughly 5 to 8 percent of the annual rent as a one-off fee. 3. Company lets through the employer. Only if your employer already does this. Also: you will be asked for a UK bank account and a credit history you cannot have yet. Open the account in your first week, even a basic one, because everything downstream needs it.
IELTS to CLB conversion tripped me up, here is what I learned
I assumed an overall 7.0 was "CLB 9" and built my whole points estimate on it. It is not. CLB is calculated per skill, and your CRS language points are driven by your weakest band, not your overall. My reading was 6.5 while everything else was 7.5. That single band pulled me from CLB 9 down to CLB 8 for reading and cost me points I had already counted. If you are borderline, check every band against the CLB table separately before you spend money on anything else. And if one band is dragging you, retaking the test is far cheaper than any of the alternatives.
IT job market in Melbourne, honest picture from 8 months in
I moved in on a 189 last year and I want to correct some of what is being said back home. It is not the 2021 market. Recruiters are slower, there are more applicants per role, and "Australian experience" is still asked for even though nobody will admit it is a filter. What did work for me: three months of consistent applications, a resume rewritten to the local format (two pages, no photo, no NIC, no date of birth), and taking a six-month contract instead of holding out for permanent. The contract turned permanent. Salary: I came in at AUD 105k for a mid-level backend role. I was told to expect 120k+ by an agent in Colombo. That was not realistic for someone with no local experience.
PR landed in Vancouver, 11 months door to door
ECA through WES: 5 weeks IELTS General: CLB 9 first attempt Profile in the pool: 12 April, CRS 491 ITA: 24 May APR submitted: 30 June Biometrics: 14 July Medical: 2 August PPR: 19 February Landed: 8 March One thing nobody told me: get your police clearance from Sri Lanka early, and get it in English. Mine came in Sinhala and the certified translation added three weeks I had not planned for. Proof of funds was the other slow part. They want six months of history, not a balance on the day, so move the money in well before you apply.
Sharing a place in Sydney vs living alone, actual numbers
Six months of real figures, because every "cost of living" page I read before moving was optimistic. Sharehouse, own room, Marrickville: AUD 310 per week including bills and internet. One bedroom apartment, same suburb: AUD 620 per week, plus roughly AUD 60 a week for electricity, gas and internet. That is a difference of about AUD 1,500 a month. For a student or someone in their first year I would say do not even consider living alone unless somebody else is paying. Bond is four weeks rent, held by NSW Fair Trading, and you will need it in cash before you have a job.
Attestation of a Sri Lankan degree for the UAE, step by step
Did this last month. The order matters and doing it out of order costs you a full round trip. 1. University confirms the certificate is genuine 2. Ministry of Higher Education in Colombo 3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Colombo 4. UAE Embassy in Colombo 5. Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UAE after you arrive Allow three weeks if you are doing it yourself and everything goes right. Agents in Colombo will do the whole chain for a fee; I paid for steps 2 to 4 and it was worth it purely for the queueing. One warning: get the attestation on the original certificate, not a photocopy, and check the spelling of your name against your passport at every stage. A mismatch means starting again.
Blocked account funded from a Sri Lankan bank, three weeks start to finish
For students, since the blocked account is the step that decides whether your visa appointment is worth attending. Opened the account online, approved in 2 days. The transfer was the slow part: our banks need an outward remittance approval and the education purpose documentation, and my branch had not done one before, so it sat for eight days before anybody touched it. Total: 21 days from opening the account to the money showing as confirmed. Start it before you have your admission letter if you can, not after. Exchange rate cost me more than every fee combined, so compare the provider rate against the bank rate rather than looking at the fee alone.