[TYPO3-UG Australia] Hi from germany

[Christian Lerrahn]

Hi Chris,
> because I need to get some "fresh air" I thought about working in 
> Australia for a while. It is not easy to get some good informations
> if something like freelance work for a foreigner would be possible
> in your country. So I thought perhaps some of you can help me to find 
> the answers I need.

Your problem in Australia will not be the work but the visa. You
certainly will be able to find TYPO3 work somehow in particular if you
want to freelance anyway. However, Australia has a rather complex
immigration points system which you would have to go through to be able
to freelance. The other option is to get a sponsored visa where a
company agrees to hire you under terms worked out with immigration's.
Your visa is then linked to the employer and you can only leave the
company by finding another sponsor that immigration's agrees to.

If you want to have only the short-term Oz experience and aren't 31,
yet, you can use a Working Holiday Maker visa. That probably does not
allow you to freelance and you cannot work for one employer for longer
than 6 months. The visa expires after 1 year and can only be renewed
under very special circumstances (which you are not planning to
fulfill ;)).

So, yes, it is possible to immigrate into Australia but it requires a
bit of a plan. If you have an IT degree that will certainly make life
easier because it means that you get plenty of points from your
degree. There are a few others, too (maybe you're a hairdresser?). You
can always have a look at http://www.immi.gov.au/ . Have fun spending
hours on the site. Oh, and after having studied the site for a few
hours, don't get the idea to ask them questions. You will already know
more about the system by then than anyone they would let you talk to
does. ;)

Cheers,
Christian