<p>My D has decided to take the unconventional route. She was set to be a freshman last year at Tulane. Due to Katrina she ended up spending a quarter at a host school. She decided for many reasons not to go back to Tulane when it opened. She briefly played with the idea of staying at the host school but ultimately knew it wasn’t the place for her.
She ended up coming home. Getting a full time job in a field that interested her. Living on her own and almost fully supporting herself. She thought about trying to transfer for the spring term but doesn’t want to rush into anything. She is signed up for the fall at a junior college. Her goal is to be back at a 4 yr college fall 2007. She doesn’t know where.
She has come up with an idea for the spring. She is feeling as someone else’s kid has said suffocated being back in her hometown and cannot see herself spending another year here. She would like to go to Australia or South America and get a job at a hotel or resort. Her first choice would be Australia.
I don’t love the idea. I would like her to just spend the year at the jr college and then transfer. She has agreed that if she went anywhere in January she would need to have all her transfer apps done before she went.
Does anyone have any advice for her. How hard would it be for her to get a work visa for Australia. She has been told it isn’t hard. Are there programs for young people to work abroad. I might be more comfortable if she went through a program.
Ideas for anywhere in the world would be great.
thanks</p>
<p>It’s easy to get a young person’s work visa for Australia as long as the person is under 30 and doesn’t stay over 1 year. This is called a WORKING HOLIDAY VISA. You need to prove you have about $5000 in the bank and have a return flight to Australia (both of these could have changed) and off you go. About 50% of students in the UK seem to have done this and a lot from other European countries as well. The only restriction is you cannot work for one employer for more than 3 months. What happens is most people travel till their money runs out, then work for a couple of months where ever they are, then travle some more. At the end of the visa a 3 month visitors visa may be granted but no further work is allowed. Only one visa per lifetime too. </p>
<p>I flew into Melbourne and worked for uni of Melbourne as a Zoology field assitant for 3 months. Then I travelled up to CairnS by bus over 2 months. Flew back to Sydney and then went back to Melbourne before flying home. I arranged my work myself before I left home but most people find something when they get there. There is a huge network of hostels, most of which advertise jobs to residents. There are also many companies which specialise in “gap year” projects and will help people find and job and accommodation
eg
<a href=“http://www.bunac.org/usa/workaustralia/[/url]”>http://www.bunac.org/usa/workaustralia/</a></p>
<p>edited to add. I’ve just looked at the page I linked above and it says work visas for US citizens are only for 4 months. Every other nationality seems to be for 1 year, so shop around because I don’t think this is correct.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. It does looks like US citizens can only get a 4 month visa. It also looks like it can be only gotten through a sponsoring agency.
Did you come across many american students working in Australia?</p>
<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I can’t be a lot of help but will share a little bit from experience. There likely are GAP year programs and my guess is that a search on here of GAP year, may produce some results. I am not sure if your D would qualify or not since she has been out of school for a bit. </p>
<p>Anyway, the only experience I have is that my 19 year old wanted to get a job in France this summer. She searched a bit around on the internet. Then we bought a book about summer jobs abroad. I do recommend buying a book of this nature about jobs abroad for students, etc. </p>
<p>My daughter then developed a resume of her work experience and composed cover letters. She chose jobs out of this book based on two categories of work that she had experience in on her resume…working/teaching children and restaurant server. She wrote away to about five-six jobs in each category. Of that mailing, she heard back from one, a resort area chateau, to work serving meals and some other areas, complete with housing. They wrote her saying she was exactly what they were looking for. They even offered her if she had a friend who wanted to work there, she could come too, if my D did not want to go alone (she had only looked into going alone, and had no worries but it was a nice gesture). We looked the chateau up online and my eyes popped out of my head about how gorgeous it was…the chateau and the town, etc. </p>
<p>My D also applied to one job not in the book, that we heard about by chance when I mentioned to a local person whom I knew had spent a year in France, that my D was looking to work in France. She is currently earning a masters in ESL and happened to have recently (at the time) gotten a mailing about a summer job for college students in France with kids and forwarded it to us, so my D wrote/applied to that job as well. Turned out that job was interested, did phone interview from Paris, and she was offered that job too. So, she had two offers that were quite different. She first accepted the one at the chateau but I won’t get into the conflict that arose that she could not arrive in France by the original date agreed to because she would not have her passport in hand due to it being in the Italian Consulate where she was applying for a Visa for next semester in Italy. Also, she opted to do a ski race program in Oregon in early summer. So, she had to opt out of the job and accept the other one where she is now. It is a program for kids ages 9-13, residential two week sessions, that is meant as a language immersion program so the kids use English in educational activities but don’t have to leave the country to do an immersion program. My D is one of only a couple of English/American staff. She went alone. </p>
<p>She traveled to Paris for two days on her own before traveling to this program. When it ends, she plans to travel to a few places in the Alps (she has always wanted to go there because she is a skier) for a week, on her own, and then is meeting friends in Nice before coming home (and leaves soon after for a semester in Italy, poor thing). So, there is an element of traveling alone at the start of her summer and at the end. Yeah, I get a little nervous but I figure she has been to college two years and she is 19 and it is time to let her fly. She is very responsible and reliable and bought a cell phone and calls us. I’m not as nervous while she is working at this program but a little more when she will be traveling alone. She managed well in Paris and she also speaks French very well. She had been on travel programs that were supervised to Europe in High School and obviously this is way more independent. </p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t know the deal with Australia but I think there must be websites and books about working there for students, like she used for her search. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks. She has been back in school this summer and will be a student in the fall so I think she will qualify for student gap programs.
It is helpful to hear what your D did. I will suggest to my D to look into a book regarding jobs abroad for students. Was the book your D used specific to Europe?
She feels like she has is going to have a gap year of sorts. Just divided between two different years. The employment she has had this past 7 months has been invaluable. She had a lucky break finding this job and has learned about a field that she is interested in. She would like to find work abroad in the same field.</p>
<p>
Yes, I just had a search of the Australian Embassy site and it says US citizens are not elligible for the visa I had.
<a href=“Australia Visa - Price, Requirements and Application - VisaHQ”>Australia Visa - Price, Requirements and Application - VisaHQ;
<p>
1 or 2 but Americans don’t travel very much as a rule so that’s not unusual. Also taking a “gap year” is the norm in many other countries but relatively rare in the US. Mostly I met the Brits abroad (because Australia basically is Britain with more sun and less crime. Very much the same culture), Japanese, Hong Kong/Chinese and other European countries.</p>
<p>It’s not that easy to get a work permit in Europe so I would strongly recommend going through an organised programme if you are going to try this. An employer can employ someone from any EU country at no cost, but to employ someone from the US they have to apply for expensive visas. Also it is usually necessary to speak the native language of the country. So if you don’t speak anything other than English, you’re limiled to UK, Ireland and Malta.</p>
<p>Google “gap year” and you will find lots of potential programmes. The BUNAC one I linked above has other programmes. I would also recommend New Zealand very much (combine with Australia?)</p>
<p>The book my D used to find jobs to apply to was Summer Jobs Abroad by Woodworth and Pybus and it actually included Australia (many countries). It explained how it works in each one and what you have to do or not do and then listed the jobs with descriptions in categories. As I mentioned, she did get one job from a place in this book though the one she is working at ended up not from the book. But she also looked a lot online about this topic and even if the actual jobs were not listed, it led to information, names of books and resources, and so forth. Her job did not involve a work permit but it is just for two months or so. She had a passport. Her semester to study abroad this fall in Florence involves a student visa.</p>
<p>cupcake- The bunac link is great. She is going to give them a call on Monday. She has a good lead on a job if she can secure a Visa. From your link to the Australian govt site it looks like the only way to get the temporary work visa is to go through a sponsoring agency like Bunac.
When you were in Australia and working where did you live? Do some people stay an extended time living in a hostel? Did you spend anytime in Sydney?</p>
<p>The danger of world travelling is that so many kids fall in lvoe with the backpacker lifestyle. If you think your D will come back to the rails, then by all means, encourage her to test her boundaries. My son did some extensive travelling–loved it but did start university on time.</p>
<p>Another alternative is a combination Australia /New Zealand trip. Americans can get a one year working visa in New Zealand through an instant online process. <a href=“Immigration New Zealand”>Immigration New Zealand;
<p>Click on ‘shortage’ on the link below to find out which 'skills ’ are most needed. We know a young Aemrican ywho listed himself as a painter and was offered a NZ$16 per hour job on arrival. <a href=“http://www.immigration.govt.nz/nzopportunities/opportunities/workenvironment/findingajob.htm[/url]”>http://www.immigration.govt.nz/nzopportunities/opportunities/workenvironment/findingajob.htm</a></p>
<p>mom, if you don’t want to lose her to the southern hemisphere or global living then leave off this bit, but it wouldn’t be hard for her to establish NZ residency and gain a dual passport. One advantage of a residency is the subsidized university tuition for permanent residents which brings the cost down to US$5K a year incl board–and you can get a BA in three years. </p>
<p>There are some excellent universities in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Auckland, Canterbury and Dunedin.</p>
<p>I wonder why New Zealand is so much more lenient with Residency and Work Visas than Austrailia. ???</p>
<p>
NZ is suffering from an aging population. Kiwis can work in Australia with no permit and it’s not that hard for them to get a work visa for the UK either. So many young and educated people are gone. The population is only 4 million. In order to pay for their public services they need more young people to work there and pay taxes. </p>
<p>
University of Melbourne student accommodation because I worked for them.
Yes. In big cities many hostels only allow a maximum of a 2 week stay. So you can either move from hostel to hostel or they will advise you where to find an apartment to rent (usually shared with other hostellers). There are SO MANY backpackers in Australia at any one time. I met lots of people from all over the world in hostels. I always had someone to do something with. </p>
<p>After I finished working I travelled from Melbourne to Cairns (and flew back) on the bus. Staying at hostels on the way. I bought a “Kilometer pass” which means I paid for the number of kilometers I wanted to travel and got on and off the bus where I wanted (It’s the greyhound bus company. Same as the US). I stroked a kangaroo, learnt to scuba dive and dived with sharks, saw many snakes, got bitten by leeches, saw a platypus, and touched a whale.</p>
<p>It’s the wildlife and wild country of Australia which is so amazing</p>
<p>
Yes, about 25 days. I went to the Olympics! </p>
<p>Sydney central YHA is probably the best hostel on planet earth
<a href=“Our Locations | YHA Australia”>Our Locations | YHA Australia;
It has a pool (on the roof), a sauna, a cafe, internet cafe, bar, shop, travel store etc etc. The perfect location.</p>
<p>If you want to be close to the beach Sydney Collaroy is the place to stay
<a href=“Our Locations | YHA Australia”>Our Locations | YHA Australia;
<p>Just writing this makes me want to go back!</p>
<p>All OECD countries have an aging population. Australia does not need (or want) more American residents. They are a preferred destination for UK, European, NZ, white African and (professional) Asian immigrants.</p>
<p>The commonwealth countries have a very liberal working holiday program amongst one another. </p>
<p>New Zealand is in the midst of a boom economy. They lose a huge swath of their young professionals to higher salaries in Australia and the UK. They recruit in the UK and the US to replace that lost ‘brain drain’ population.</p>
<p>cupcake!! That must have been a wonderful adventure!! Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>I’m sure I’m showing my ignorance here, but, why is New Zealand not the same kind of cultural, travel, and immigration draw as Austrailia? Why are they loosing their “youth” to Austrailia and the UK?</p>
<p>OK, I understand that NZ’s population is aging, but I guess I’d just like to understand why. What was the mechanism that put the youth flight into motion?</p>
<p>New Zealand has a population of 4 million. It is an agrarian based economy, primarily. The economy has suffered severe highs and lows over the past 25 years. The tax rate is 39 cents for every dollar over NZ$60K. The upside of professional salaries is much lower than other OECD countries. Only 15% of the population earns over $60K. The NZ student loan rate is 7% and kids cannot pay that back in NZ dollars. The pound is worth nearly 3 times the NZ dollar. </p>
<p>Oz is warmer. The beaches are phenomenal. Ozzie salaries are 20 to 25% higher, the dollar is higher, the job prospects are better. Australia has a population of 20 million–most of which is on the coast in big booming cities like Sydney and Melbourne. The Aussie tax rate for $25K to $75K is 30%. NZ citizens automatically qualify for Australian citizenship.</p>
<p>Thanks Cheers. That explains things rather well. I wonder what NZ has in mind to “turn that ship back towards harbor”, as it were.</p>