Which Visa?

[Guest]

Can somebody please give me some advice? I am 26. I have been working as a furniture upholsterer here in England for 13 months. I do not have qualifications for this job as there is no training in this country that provides a qualification for this trade. It's all about learning the skill. I do have a portfolio and photos of my work though. But now I want to apply to migrate to Australia, furniture upholsterer is on the Occupations in demand list but I am confused because somewhere I read that you have to have qualifications equivalent to an Australian one and 6 years work experience, but somewhere else I read that as long as you have been working in this occupation for 12 of the last 24 months then the qualification itself does not matter, only the work experience. Can you please tell me which of these is true as I am a single mum and cannot afford to keep paying out loads of money on skills assessments and applying for different visas only to have them rejected.



Also, my mum is 45 and is an Antique furniture restorer here in England, she has been working in this occupation for 2 yrs and 3 months. Is it true that she can not migrate to Australia because she is too old?? Which visa should she apply for?? Furniture restorer is classed as Cabinet maker and is on the Occupations in demand list. We have been told that the cut off age limit for skilled migrants is 45 but we have read that there are exeptions to this rule, what are the exeptions? is there a visa she can apply for that wont be rejected?



Thank you so much for any advice you have



Lucy <img src='http://www.melbournechat.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[glen]

hi lucy! welcome to the forum.



have you had a look at these websites?



[url="http://www.immi.gov.au/"]http://www.immi.gov.au/[/url]

[url="http://www.australia.gov.au/Migrating_to_Australia"]http://www.australia.gov.au/Migrating_to_Australia[/url]

[url="http://www.australia.gov.au/Passports_&_Visas"]http://www.australia.gov.au/Passports_&_Visas[/url]

[url="http://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au/"]http://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au/[/url]



i would have thought you can just email your questions to the relevant government agencies. or have you already tried?



cheers, glen