The Complete Guide to Getting an Australian Residency Visa

November 11, 2020

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Every year it is estimated that thousands upon thousands of people consider emigrating to Australia on a permanent basis. The lure of the beautiful beaches. The charm of the sunny weather. The rich history and fantastic culture. It’s no surprise that so many people want to run away to Australia and never return.

But, of course, not all of these people will actually move over, for a number of reasons. Some can’t afford it. Some simply change their mind. But most simply can’t pass the visa application process or secure a residency visa.

Australian Immigration

Australia is one of the countries known for its tough immigration stance. It is no small feat to secure a residency visa. They operate on a points-based system that assesses all applicants on a number of different factors.

These factors include everything from an educational background and language proficiency to employment history and personal interests. No aspect of a possible immigrant’s history is ignored when deciding who to let into the country.

The Australian government decided what jobs and skills are worth more points, based on the needs of the country. Jobs such as Doctor or Engineer will improve your chances of entering the country, whereas a job working as a fast-food worker might not be to your benefit. But this isn’t guaranteed. There have been times when the country needs more labor for general jobs.

So the first step to securing your chance is getting a residency visa is to take stock of your history and information and check out how many points you will get during the process. If you meet the requirement you will be off to a good start.

Family

If you happen to have family in Australia, or family roots from the country, your chances are greatly improved. Like with any country, you have certain rights attached to your heritage. If you can prove this, you stand a greater chance of getting approved.

Another way you could bypass a lot of the application process is through inheritance. If a family member in Australia leaves their estate to you, you can bypass the points system of the application process. In this instance, you would need to secure professional legal help and fill out a qld family provision application to ensure you actually receive the estate in its entirety.

The Application Process

Once you have calculated how many points you will receive due to your history you will now need to provide a number of different checks.

The first is, of course, a passport check. You need to have a valid passport for your current country. Without one, you will be finished before you even begin your immigration journey.

Secondly, you will need to make sure you have got a full police check done and ready to provide. Australia is very strict about criminal records. Even some minor infractions can lead to you be rejected from the country outright. So before you start the process make sure you have your check done.

You will need to put together a complete and comprehensive employment history. This goes beyond a simple CV. You will need to provide proof of income and references. The Australian government needs to know you are experienced and reliable. If you have a history of unemployment or being fired a lot, chances are you won’t get into the country.

Job Hunting

Employment is a huge part of immigration. Australia is insistent on only allowing in people who are going to work. They want to keep unemployment numbers down and have taxes being brought in. So providing your employment history is only the first step. You need to actually secure a job.

Now it is possible for you to wait until you are moved and settled to start job hunting. But this won’t help your chances of making it into the country.

Your best bet is to start job hunting while still in your home country. Start attending online or phone interviews. Apply to as many jobs as you can, even if you get a lot of rejection notices. If you can compile a lot of evidence of trying to secure a job you will greatly improve your chances of getting approved for immigration.

If you can actually secure a job in the country, you can have that company act as a reference for your application and get it sped along. The country is more willing to allow people in if they have already secured a job. So this is one of your best bets for getting into Australia.

History

It never hurts to start brushing up on your Australian history and customs as well. This will play a huge part in getting into the country, but it is mainly for what comes next. A residency visa is only the first step. After that, you will want to start looking into getting citizenship for Australia.

During the citizenship test, you will have to prove you are clued up on their history. Think of it as a history test but focusing more on basic history and customs, rather than specific details.

We hope this has helped you understand how the application process for immigration to Australia works. It is a tricky process but is a worthwhile one. Australia is a fantastic country and, if you make it there, you will not regret your decision to move!

Explaining Food Hygiene Legislation For Dummies

Food hygiene is essential for ensuring food safety. Failure to take proper hygiene practices often leads to unfortunate outcomes. Considering the risk involved in the consumption of unsafe food, food businesses are required to follow strict hygiene procedures to ensure the safety of consumers.

What is Food Hygiene Legislation?

Food hygiene legislation refers to the laws guiding food hygiene. These laws may vary depending on the state or country but they are all aimed at achieving the same goal, which is food safety.

Food hygiene is an important requirement for those in the food industry however, some businesses compromise on safety. The hygiene regulations were formed to ensure that businesses prioritize the safety of consumers.

Join us as we highlight simple and important food hygiene requirements to help ensure food safety.

5 Simple Food Hygiene Requirements for Dummies

Most of the laws guiding food hygiene may vary a little, based on the region, but they are mostly similar. These requirements are mostly referred to as the 5Cs of food hygiene, namely-

#1 – Check

Food Hygiene is not only needed during the course of preparing the food. Its importance goes way back to when the items needed for the preparation of the food were being purchased. One of the major issues that lead to foodborne illnesses is the consumption of expired products. Ensure that you do a thorough check on any food items to ascertain if it is safe for consumption. Check for signs of spoilage, the expiry date, and lastly, ensure that the packages are intact. Taking other precautionary measures without this first step is pointless.

#2 – Clean

The importance of thoroughly cleaning the environment and space where food preparations take place can not be overemphasized. All food contact surfaces are to be thoroughly washed and sanitized, and this includes food preparation tools and the entire workstation. Maintaining a clean food preparation space also involves pest control. It is the responsibility of every food establishment to ensure that they run their business in a pest-free environment. Food exposed to insects or animals like rodents becomes fully contaminated and can cause severe food-borne illnesses when consumed. Food business owners or managers can either get rid of the pests by themselves or hire professionals to help. If you are clueless about how to get rid of pests from your food establishment, joining a pest control forum online will help guide you through the process.

#3 – Cook

Cooking food thoroughly kills any bacteria in it. Food businesses are required to ensure that raw foods are cooked thoroughly and at the right temperature to ensure that they are fit for consumption. Cooking at the right temperature determines the lifespan of the food. After cooking, it is important to maintain the appropriate temperature required before the food is consumed or stored in the refrigerator.

#4 – Chill

Food is not supposed to be reheated more than once. The best way forward is to store the food in the refrigerator. While chilling has proven to be the safest way to store food, the food should be kept chilled below 5°C. It is also important to note that the food should not be stored for so long in the refrigerator. Ensure that the food is properly covered when chilling it, to avoid contamination. Lastly, clean the refrigerator before storing food in it.

#5 – Cross-contamination

Cross-contamination is likely to occur when the practices listed above are not properly followed. Cross-contamination involves the transfer of bacteria from one place or thing to another. For example, transferring bacteria from your hands to the food preparation surface or from the cooking tools to the food. The first step to avoiding cross-contamination is to ensure that raw food is kept far from cooked food. Other procedures include ensuring that your food preparation surfaces and tools are clean, thoroughly washing your hands, maintaining a pest-free workspace, and so on.

Conclusion

Food hygiene is an important practice that is necessary not only for food establishments but also for individuals. Consuming unsafe food can lead to both severe and minor illnesses. One of the most popular food-borne illnesses is food poisoning. Food poisoning occurs when the food is contaminated. This food-borne illness is often drastic, especially when not properly treated.

It is the right of every consumer to consume safe food. Failure to maintain proper food hygiene compromises the quality and safety of any food prepared. Making poor-quality food puts the health of consumers at risk, and it also puts your business at risk.

Follow the 5Cs of food hygiene to ensure that you meet up with the right standard that guarantees food safety.

Property Owners Guide: All the Legal Stuff you Need to Know!

Selling your property can be overwhelming and it involves a lot of work, this makes moving difficult as if you’re also searching for a new house whilst selling your own there is a lot to keep up with. Some decisions you make when trying to sell your property may seem unimportant to you, but often when people make the wrong decisions it can cost them hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Before you read this handy guide about all the legal stuff you need to know about selling your property, you should make sure that you definitely want to sell it. Think about why you’re selling your property, for example, if you need more space you may think that you need to move when in fact, it could be cheaper to build an extension or undergo a loft conversion. There are many scenarios like this so make sure you think about why you’re selling your property so that you’re sure that you want and need to. Selling a home is a long process and often an expensive one so you don’t want to start the process are realize a few months down the line that you don’t want to sell. Once you’re sure about selling your property, there is a lot to consider. We’ve made this guide for you so that you can find all the legal stuff that you need to know in one place.

Your mortgage

Most people who own a property and are moving have not yet fully paid off their mortgage. This is the first bit of legal advice you need to be aware of. When you sell your house, you will be able to pay off whatever is left of your mortgage, you should figure out how much you will have left before you put the house up for sale to make sure you can afford another place if you’re moving. You’ll have to take out another mortgage on your new home, so this is the important legal bit, you’ll need to check with your current mortgage provider if there are any additional charges that you’ll be required to pay for switching early. This is also an opportunity for you to look at different lenders to see who the current best mortgage provider is.

Find an estate agent

Selling your property can be one of the most stressful things you’ll ever have to do. If you’re not sold a property before then it is hard to imagine just how much work is involved with preparing your house for sale and finding people who may be interested in purchasing it. By finding an estate agent, a lot of the responsibilities are passed on from you to the estate agent making it a much less stressful process. There are a variety of legal requirements when selling a house, for example, getting a house inspection is a necessity so that potential buyers are aware of what condition the property is in so they’ll know if they will have to budget to fix things once they arrive. Finding the right person or company to conduct the inspection can be difficult but estate agents will make sure they are certified home inspectors and that everything goes smoothly. Those conducting the home inspection are vital to the process and it’s definitely better to have someone who is well known by your estate agent to be reliable than to find someone yourself.

Offers

It may take a while for you to receive an offer on your property or if you’re in a popular area, have a great price, or just have an amazing property you may receive many offers fairly quickly. Once you receive the offer you can choose to accept or reject it depending on if the price is right for you, if you think there is a price that you and the potential buyer could agree on then you can also negotiate through your estate agent. Once you have an offer that you are happy with, your estate agent again will take care of the legal work. The next legal business in this process is drawing up the draft contract, this will clearly lay out any agreements between you and the other party like if any discounts are applicable after problems being flagged up by the home inspector.

Other helpful tips

All of the main legal issues have been covered in this guide and we think that it is definitely worth hiring an estate agent to deal with all of the legal business rather than doing it yourself. You should take some care when choosing your estate agent as there is a lot to consider, you should look at the sales time of any potential estate agent you would use, and you should compare their fees. There is also the option of using an online estate agent whose services are often much cheaper so if you’re not wanting to do the work yourself but not wanting to pay a lot, these could be a good in between to do some research into.

The other important thing when trying to sell your house is making sure that it always looks presentable so people can start to imagine their lives there and you should also make sure that it smells pleasant too. The nicer the environment in the house the more likely you are to receive an offer.

Medical Cannabis: Which Nations Have Legalised It?

The healing powers of cannabis are indisputable. Sadly, for the longest time, the war on drugs ensured that cannabis was demonized rather than utilized to its full potential. In the last few decades we have seen the public view shift. People are waking up the truth about cannabis. More nations are legalizing the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Smoking or vaping cannabis has a number of health benefits. It is a potent painkiller, making it extremely useful for patients suffering from chronic pain. It is also a muscle relaxant that has been extremely helpful for people suffering from parkinsons. It also has a number of mental side effects such as reducing stress and anxiety. And the main thing that separates cannabis from traditional medicines is that it is non-addictive.

Not every nation has yet legalized cannabis for medicinal use. But the number of nations that have is increasing each year. Today we are going to look at a few of the nations that have legalized medical cannabis.

Germany

One of the latest nations to legalize medical cannabis. The bill was finally passed by the German Federal Council in March of 2024. The bill came into full effect in April of the same year. Alongside this the German government also legalized the recreational use of cannabis in public spaces as well. But, it is still hard to get a hold of cannabis plants without a prescription. In the years to come we will likely see a number of cannabis dispensaries pop up within the nation.

The Netherlands

People often assume that cannabis is 100% legal in the Netherlands. Primarily due to the popularity of the Coffeeshops that are strewn throughout cities like Amsterdam. But it is actually a gray area. It is technically illegal to own or sell large quantities of cannabis. But there are a few loopholes that the coffeeshops use to get around this. And the government often turns a blind eye due to the amount of money that this industry brings into the nation.

Medical cannabis, however, is legal in the Netherlands and has been since 2003. The Netherlands is arguably one of the easiest nations to get a medical cannabis prescription in. But the Netherlands has a very closed system when it comes to the cultivation, import, and sale of medical cannabis. Meaning no private entities are involved in the process.

United Kingdom

The UK has been pushing for the decriminalization of cannabis for years now. But, due to the pushback from the Conservative government, it has been stifled at every turn. Luckily in 2018 the nation did finally legalize the use of medical cannabis. Including irradiated cannabis. This was a huge boon for many people considering the NHS has been under considerable strain for years now.

Irradiated cannabis isn’t used in many nations. The UK made a huge push for its usage during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The important information about irradiated cannabis is that it is much safer for people with a compromised immune system. Such as people with cancer or those suffering from Long Covid. We expect many more nations to follow in the footsteps of the UK in regards to the use of irradiated cannabis and the legalization of medicinal cannabis.

South Korea

South Korea finally made cannabis legal for medicinal purposes back in 2018. But only for specific medical conditions such as epilepsy, HIV, or certain types of cancer. South Korea was the first country in East Asia to legalize medicinal cannabis.

It is important to note that all recreational cannabis is still highly illegal within the nation. Both to cultivate or to use. Even possession of small amounts of cannabis could land you in a lot of trouble. And they take this very seriously too.

The United States

When discussing America the topic becomes quite tricky. The legalization of cannabis is handled at a state level, rather than nationally. As it stands there are currently 11 states where the use of medical cannabis is illegal. But, out of that 11, 7 of them do allow the use of CBD oil for medicinal purposes.

Every other state has legalized cannabis for medicinal use. But a large majority of them have completely decriminalized it and legalized its use for recreational purposes too. California is the poster child state for the legalization of cannabis. It was back in 1996 they legalized the use of medical cannabis. But it was Colorado that first legalized the recreational use of cannabis back in 2014.