Take the Free Online Interview to see if you are qualified for an Australian Migration Visa.

Already planning that bold move to Australia? Perhaps, you need someone, an expert in the field of immigration to help you with all the matters pertinent to this idea; Australian Visa Consultants are widespread over the land and even online, which one to choose among the many? Let me guide you in that lengthy process. It is important to know that if you do not have any relatives or acquaintances from the land down under, it would be difficult to go do the immigration requirements and interview all by yourself. Most people get denied and fail in trying because they feel like it will just be as easy as sipping a juice from a bottle. It is the other way around. Finding that expert in the field will not just help you get the deal, they would guide you about other important matters, and even keep you abreast with the latest details and changes in migration rules as mandated by the Australian government, these people have more time to do the professional searching about the latest information happening in their field of work because it is their job to do so. This could be perhaps the hallmark of a consultant who is true to his or her calling.

These cities were ranked based on various criteria like: cost of living, quality of health care, public safety from government, public safety from illegal activities, level of corruption, level of censorship, cultural availability, food & drinks, consumer goods & services, quality of education, quality of transportation, quality of private and public utilities and services, and even weather conditions. These criteria are divided into 5 categories: Stability (25%), Healthcare (20%), Culture & Environment (25%), Education (10%), and Infrastructure (20%).

Last year, Vancouver of Canada was in the top of the rank as the most livable city in the world. The scores however were artificially inflated for the arrangement of 2010 winter Olympics and Paralympics. As the host, the city enjoyed boost in scores in infrastructure and cultural and environmental categories. Moreover, the security was also high concern for the event, which also helped the city to score high. However, after a year, Vancouver drops down the rank and Malbourne makes its way to the top as the most livable place in the world.

Melbourne actually ranked many times as the most livable city by Economist Intelligence Unit. Due to convenient weather, quality healthcare, low corruption, public safety, public cultural activities, quality education, and proper infrastructure; Melbourne enjoys higher score than any other cities of the world. According to various reports by the Australian Government, Melbourne has seen many improvements in recent years, such as:

• - The housing affordability has increased and gradually increasing over the years. Melbourne is also able to provide affordable private rental dwellings in comparison to other cities,
• - The green initiative by the government has contributed in low consumption of energy and water, which also reduced living cost,
• - Private and public transportation facility also increased along with many transport infrastructures in recent years. The investment in transport infrastructure has also risen in recent times. Use of public transport in Melbourne is also high in terms of other cities in Australia,
• - Melbourne was also able to reduce Oil and Mortgage Vulnerability,
• - There has been significant improvements and investments in healthcare of Melbourne to make quality service which attracts other patients from other cities and countries,

Although Melbourne is the number one livable city in the world, some other cities in Australia also made it through the livability rankings. Sydney, Perth, and Adelaide are also in list of top 10 cities to live in. These cities have consecutively stayed on top 10 rank for long period of time. Though currently, not in the list, but Brisbane is also a livable city in the world and ranked top 10 during the 2002-2004 period.

Due to congenial economic activity, infrastructure, and living environment all over Australia, many cities have gained high scores in livability index. According to Economist, these cities have a consistently high standard of living in comparison with other cities of the world. Moreover, Australia also is growing it’s service industry as well as demand by providing better quality services than other countries of the world, which is not only improving service export, but also increasing the livability index of various cities.

However, there are debates whether this index is best or not. But, in the eye of world situation observer, like Canada, Australia is also a less violent, less crime prone, less safety hazard news producing country. Moreover, due to many positive factors, Australia is one of the best places in the world after heaven. Due to this fact, living in Australia and getting Australian Visa, Immigration, and Permanent Residency is like a dream for many cities in Europe, Americas, and also for many low livable cities of the world.

Adjusting to a new culture is not an easy thing to do, but when we’re talking about Australia we can’t really say we don’t see the good outcome. You meet people who have been educated in a different way, with different values and habits and this can be difficult, especially if the differences are big. But don’t worry, the cultural shock is just temporary.

Australia as a culture

Australia is a country of many cultures and recently a lot of Asians have immigrated here. More than 50% of the population was born overseas or has a parent who was born overseas. There is a one week festival dedicated to multiculturalism that is celebrated in Canberra since the 1980s.

Aussie Land has one of the most urbanised populations in the world, but agriculture is an important sector in the economy of Australia. Taking into consideration the great Australian landscape, we understand the widely spread fascination for the outback.

Cultural shock stages

The honeymoon in Australia

Just like in a marriage, the honeymoon stage is the romantic time when you love all the new things you learn about the culture you are entering. People might be nicer than back in your country, politer or more sociable. The place you moved to might be cleaner, the weather might be better, everything is fascinating. But, like in a marriage, honeymoon ends at some point.

The negotiation

After aproximately three months (depending on the individual), you are more aware of the differences between the old and the new cultures and this might make you more anxious. You might even become frustrated because of several undesired situations or any other thing/happening that you might consider offensive.

There are not only subjective differences that you need to overcome, there some practical obstacles like the circadian rhytm (the remaining flight lag) that leads to insomnia, the new environment, with its illnesses, humidity level or any other characteristic.

Communication barriers are becoming hard to bear sometimes, especially when your energy level is low. It is difficult to create new relationships, all because of the different body language, mimics, language tones and nuances. They all need time, compromise and acceptance. And since all the new things need so much energy to be processed and filtered, no wonder you get tired with so many novelties.

The adjustment with the Australian Culture

After half a year to one year, the new Australian will have seen and experienced a lot of things, so he or she knows what to expect. Negative reactions to the country should be fewer and fewer the new things should also be. Australia is a country with people coming from a lot of cultures, so we believe the adjustment phase should come faster than in any other country.
However, no matter how much of a paradise might Australia be for some, there might be the “rejectors” (as Wikipedia names them) who will find the Australian culture to be hostile and will never fit in. For these persons, the reverse culture shock will be great as well, as they will have problems integrating their old culture.
On the contrary, there persons who lose their original identity and fully adopt the new culture. These are the Adopters. Somewhere in between, but the most adaptive category, are the Cosmopolitans, who have no problem relocating and adapt to the new culture, while not losing their old identity. They represent a very original mixture of two or more cultures and feel happy with their choice.

The New Australian: Mastery phase

This is the bi-culturalism phase in which the person is comfortable with the new culture and can participate fully to it. However, the accent, language or habits can remain the same.

Don’t worry, it’s normal

The cultural shock is different from one person to the other. It is a normal process in which you assess your original and adoptive culture. In the end, it is advisable to try to choose the best for you. You will go through these phases, no matter how excited you are with this great country. Nevertheless, the better you prepare, the faster the less positive stages go away.

If you need help moving to Australia or assistance for obtaining an Australian vise, contact Synch1 and count on our team of immigration specialists with a lot of experience in this field.

Cheers!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock

In a ranking of 140 cities around the world, Melbourne was given a score of 97.5 per cent. Other Australian cities in the top 10 include Sydney, which ranked sixth best – up from seventh  in the previous survey – while Perth and Adelaide ranked unchanged with a joint eighth slot.

Brisbane lagged other Australian cities with a ranking of 21st, behind cities such as Toronto (4th), Helsinki (7th), Paris (16th) and Tokyo (18th).

“Australia, with a low population density and relatively low crime rates, continues to supply some of the world’s most liveable cities,” said Jon Copestake, editor for the EIU survey.

Vancouver’s score slipped to third after a lower rating for infrastructure, placing it below Vienna in Austria. It’s the first time since 2002 that the Canadian city hasn’t occupied or shared the top slot for liveability.

It seems residents have to pay for what they get, though, with another recent EIU report ranking Sydney as the sixth-most expensive city in the world, with Melbourne coming at No. 7. The survey assessed the cost of living in both cities to be about 40 per cent higher than in New York, mostly because of steep housing costs in Australia.

Residents of Perth boasted the strongest purchasing power in Australia, aided by the fattest pay packets in the land. Even so, the cost of living in Perth and Brisbane – the 13th and 14th most-expensive locations – came in at about 25 per cent higher than New York.

On the skids

Not surprisingly, the debt-ridden eurozone countries ranked poorly in the EIU liveability rankings. Greece’s capital Athens dropped from 62 to 67th. That ranking put it below Uruguay’s capital Montevideo.

Similarly, the sliding liveability across much of the Middle East with its so-called Arab Spring-inspired civil unrest will come as little surprise.

The Libyan capital Tripoli, which has fallen under the control of rebel fighters in recent days, dived to 135th – and presumably would be even lower if the EIU conducted the survey now.

Perhaps more jarring will be the relatively low-rankings given for cities well-known to Australian travellers.

Hong Kong was ranked at 31st, San Francisco came in at 51st, as did Singapore, with both narrowly pipping London at 53rd and New York at 56th.

Elsewhere in the Asian region, the giant Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai came in at 72nd and 79th, respectively, while India’s commercial hub of Mumbai languished at 116th, just above Jakarta, Indonesia, at 119th.

Hardship haunts

The worst places to live among the 140 locations surveyed by EIU were Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh’s Dhaka and Zimbabwe’s Harare.

In a statement accompanying today’s release, the EIU said the survey’s original brief had been to supply guidelines to human resources departments worldwide as to when to grant hardship allowances as part of expatriate relocation packages.

“It has since evolved as a broad benchmarking tool used by city councils, organisations or corporate entities looking to test locations against one another,” it said in a statement.

Cities are scored on political and social stability, crime rates and access to quality health care. It also measures the diversity and standard of cultural events and the natural environment; education (school and university); and the standard of infrastructure, including public transport.

According to the EIU, every city is assigned a rating of relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable.

The scores range from 1 to 100, where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal. To provide points of reference, the score is also given for each category relative to New York and an overall position in the ranking of 140 cities is provided.

Article Source: http://www.smh.com.au/business/melbourne-judged-worlds-most-liveable-city-20110830-1jjaq.html

Among other statistics, the report shows that  of the 56,834 former student visa holders who transferred to other visas in the first half of 2010-11, almost 30% continued their studies in Australia and were granted another student visa!
According to the report, student visa applications fell by 18.9% between 2008-09 and 2009-10, but since it’s still not less than the number of application in 2007-2008, we think this is just a temporary change.
One of the main reasons for this decline has coincided with the global financial crisis, which influenced the whole world. Other reasons are coincided with ongoing college closures creating uncertainty about the stability of Australian education providers, the welfare of international students studying in Australia,  the rising value of the Australian dollar and the recent changes in the visa processing to improve the integrity of the student visa program (Well, don’t you think it’s a good time to try the free visa assessment?)
There have also been changes to the skilled migration program which have effectively decoupled the student visa program from permanent residence.
We were also very glad (but not surprised) to know that applications that are complete are generally processed faster than incomplete applications. So, again, we suggest you not to take any unnecessary risks of wasting time, it’s to important to neglect it.

If you want to read the full statistical report you can find it here.

In Australia, migration agents must be registered with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority.

As an official immigration agency (see the badge on our synch1 homepage), Synch1 is bound by a Code of Conduct and are required to have an in-depth knowledge of Australian migration law and procedure and meet high professional and ethical standards.

The departmental spokesoman said: “…migration agents must be registered to ensure they have the requisite qualifications and undertake professional development to maintain their knowledge of migration law and procedure”.

As an immigration candidate, we urge you not to take shortcuts that might put your chances at risks. The visa process is to delicate to be treated poorly, so start your visa journey on the right foot, only with official and registered agency.

The northern Territory, although not popular as the National front, attracts mostly immigrants from the UK and Philippines as well as other countries such as China and New-Zealand.

In order to solve labour needs in rural areas and stretch the australian economy, Australian government makes a lot of efforts in expanding immigration areas beside the main cities to a special eligibility places which needs certain skilled and professional labour. All this efforts are according to a well crafted migration program.

You can download and read all immigration statistics here.

Australia Day is the official national day of Australia, celebrated annually on 26 January. If you want to migrate to Australia, it is wise to know some facts that will probably help you getting around and make the right impression while celebrating in the nearest pub. So, here are some facts for you:

1. Australia Day celebrates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney cove in 1788 when the land was claimed for Great Britain under the rule of King George III.
2. formal proclamation of the colony and of Arthur Phillip’s governorship was read out, even though the holiday is celebrated on January 26.
3. The tradition of having Australia Day as a national holiday on 26 January is a recent one. All of the Australian states and territories didn’t start using that name until 1935, and it wasn’t until 1994 that they began to celebrate Australia Day consistently as a public holiday on January 26.
4. The first official Australia Day celebration was in 1818 when the governor organized celebrations that included a 30 gun salute and a dinner at Government House followed by a ball.
5. New South Wales was the first state to declare Australia Day as a public holiday in 1838, the fiftieth anniversary of the landing at Sydney Cove, but it was called “Anniversary Day” until the mid 1940’s.
6. Great Britain didn’t stop sending convicts to Australia until the 1860s and the reason was the rising costs of keeping the system going.
7. The HMS Supply was the first ship of the First Fleet to land in Botany Bay. It was both the oldest and smallest of ships in the fleet, built in 1759 an armed trader.
8. The approximate number of convicts sent to Australia was 160,500, of whom 24,700 were women!

And do not forget to stay updated with the official Australia day website!

In Australia people have many freedoms but are still required to follow the law. Australians have a number of fundamental freedoms including free speech, joining groups, holding meetings, worshipping whomever they choose, and moving around in the country without restrictions. Everyone is free and equal and is expected to treat each other with dignity and respect. Discrimination isn’t allowed, and Australians don’t use violence, intimidation, or humiliation to settle conflict.

As long as the words don’t cause harm, aren’t false, and don’t prevent others from doing so, Australians can say whatever they want about the government or a social issue. Australia has a secular government, meaning that it doesn’t have an official religion. Religious laws (such as those about divorce) aren’t recognized by the government, and only laws from Parliament apply. Australians are free to gather together and protest any organization, including the government, as long as no one is hurt and nothing is damaged. Everyone in Australia is expected to follow the law, but at the same time all Australians are protected by the law. This means that even people with power, such as government officials and police, are not “above the law.”

All Australians are equal under the law, meaning no one should be treated differently because of their race, ethnicity, or country of origin; their age, gender, marital status, or disability; or their religious or political beliefs. What someone achieves should be a product of their talents, work, and efforts rather than how they were born or because they’re a favorite. Australians are proud of their peaceful society. Change comes from democracy rather than violence. They also have compassion for those in need and do things for the public good.

Many Australians help their community during their daily lives, whether by caring for the environment, working together in times of need, or volunteering to help others.

All of these values have been talked about and supported by Australians for many years, and have helped the many different types of people live together successfully. Australia’s cultural diversity strengthens its society, and the people of that society are asked to commit to its values, laws, and people in return.