Hi all, I am currently working in Australia in one of the world's largest professional services firm. What I can say is I have enjoyed my life so far working in Australia. Flexible working conditions and high enough disposable income for me to travel. Reasonable working hours and have a bunch of friendly colleagues. I consider myself lucky as I graduated at the right time with the right qualification to stay in Australia. Racism is everywhere but I haven't really felt it yet in my work environment. We have good enough support that nobody 'dares' to show racism even if they wanted to. And I would be shocked to see anything like that happening here. Occasionally, I miss the food, friends and family in Malaysia, but I guess that's about it. As to the application process for PR, I can't comment about it because I applied a few years ago. And as you can see, the policy changes every year. I have a friend who hasn't had any Australian working experience who's gotten PR and currently looking for job here. And I also have a friend who graduated from first class honours in engineering from an Australian university who was jobless for a year before he got accepted into a very good firm.

This post has been edited by eyhc89: Apr 16 2013, 02:07 PM

It depends solely on the employers. Generally employers are quite reluctant to sponsor a visa unless they have to. And I don't think all employers would scrap your Malaysian experience. If you have knowledge on something, you have it and you just have to demonstrate it in your interviews. I know someone who had a few years of experience in Malaysia, applied for his own PR and in less than a month, landed a contract job with an employer in Australia onshore. It is quite difficult to be offered a job offshore. Having said that, did you graduate from an Australian university?

I agree with annielee. The immigration website is very helpful and resourceful. I applied my own PR based on these information and got it approved in less than 4 months' time but it varies for everyone.

I know of someone who has ACCA qualification and is currently working in Australia. As long as you have the experience they are after, don't think it matters *that much* if you have CA/ CPA or ACCA.

Accounting firms in Australia do engage people in India especially for some repetitive admin work. But my firm is trying to cut more costs by having 'virtual' seniors from India on the job. They're all equally qualified and well trained with the Australian accounting standards so we thought we might as well utilise their knowledge for the better. Communication will be done via all the online tools. Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

I forgot to attach my skills assessment along with my application. Got an email from case officer informing me that. Attached it and after one week, I got my visa approved. But this was nearly 3 years ago. Don't know how the system works nowadays.