Those Life-Changing Saturdays
It was a Saturday morning in winter. The weather looked nice in Melbourne. No rain, no wind, no fog, just lovely winter sunshine. I was eating a late breakfast and my phone was ringing. It’s mum’s video call.
As usual, we were just catching up while I was eating breakfast. Then I found my phone buzzed once, then twice. Maybe it was an app push, or was somebody sending me a message? I assumed it wouldn’t be something important, it’s Saturday morning. But I don’t know why I still exited the video call interface to check my phone. Then it was a life-changing moment:
“ Congratulations! A new chapter of your life just started !” It was my immigrant agent who sent me the message. I couldn’t believe it was coming on a Saturday until I clicked and opened that PDF file, which said my permanent residency has just been granted.
Yes, Saturday! Who knows the Australian immigration department works on Saturday? Or maybe they don’t. They just set up those emails on Friday and automatically send them on Saturday so the applicants like me can celebrate with their mum in a video call? That’s very considerate, mate!
This life-changing Saturday reminded me of many Saturdays in the past few years when I was working so hard to get permanent residency.
I still remember those Saturdays, I had to go to a one-day per week course called Professional Year. This course aims to help international graduates to be familiar with the Australian working environment. Sounds boring right? Yes, it is very tedious, we were learning how to write meeting agenda, what is FairWork, etc… Actually, many of us were already doing professional work or had years of experience overseas, the course seems useless to us, but we have to pay for it and take the course because it will give us 5 points for skill immigration.
Australia's independent skill migration (subclass 189) is the main pathway for international students and professionals to get permanent residency. This stream is a point-based selection, in which you can get points based on your age, degree, English proficiency, length of studying in Australia, specific certificates you get, work experience etc … The higher points you get, the more likely you will be invited to apply for permanent residency.
To be eligible to play this points game, you need to get a skill assessment for certain professions first, such as IT, accounting, engineer, nurse etc, and that’s why all these majors are full of international students in Australian universities.
I was studying Arts Management when I first came to Australia, while when I found Arts was not on this “immigration list”, I took a couple of accounting courses and get my skill assessment, so at least I can get into this game. It’s a sad story as I really don’t like accounting but that was the best option I had back then.
Since 2015, this 189 stream became really competitive due to the immigration department cut the quota and more candidates intent to migrate to Australia. Everyone tries different ways to get more points. Such as taking this boring but easy professional year course. At that time, I was also taking a Naati course ( For interpretation between Chinese and English), which worths 5 points, and I spent a lot of time preparing the Pearson Test of English. If I passed 65 in all the four components (Listening, Speaking, Writing, Reading), I will get 10 points, if I passed 79, I will get 20 points.
The whole year was very busy and stressful. International graduates usually can get 2 years visa after they finished their degree. If I couldn’t get enough points in this 2 year period, I will be going home. So I have to make use of every day to get the points as early as I can. My schedule was like this:
- Mon-Wed: Natti Course
- Thurs and Fr: Work part-time in marketing
- Saturday: Professional Year
- Night: study and prepare for the English test PTE
- Sunday: Rest and play soccer games (P.S amazing sports community in Australia is one of the reasons why I want to immigrate here)
I remembered those cold Saturday mornings, there were only a few passengers on a tram from Brunswick to City. Nobody wants to get up so early on Saturday especially in Melbourne’s freezing winter. And one of the time I even found all the passengers were international students, as I can tell they were Indians or Chinese or Vietnamese, they all carried a similar folder and handbook from similar institutions offering Professional Year course.
During the break of the class, we usually went downstairs to get a coffee. Because the class made us so sleepy. The institution located in the city, it is next to a lovely laneway that full of great cafes and restaurants. We can see many young local Australians in our age were enjoying their weekend, having brunch, hanging out with friends, shopping, while we were having a boring class, every Saturday.
You have to know that’s life. Some people born to have an Australian passport, some people from developing countries, living a tough life, and have to fight for a better future here.
The next year when I finished my PY course, I already passed my Naati test. After failed in PTE twice, I finally got 65 in the third time. Plus other points I got, I submitted the EOI with 70 points, which I thought was quite decent as it used to just need 60.
But I was totally wrong. With time passing by, I still waited for the invitation rounds but points went up to 75, even 80. I have to push harder to get more points.
During that year I worked for a small accounting firm, yes I did a job that I really dislike, and what even worse the pay was skimpy. But I need this relevant 1-year work experience to get another 5 points.
On Saturday, I had another casual job as I need some supplemental income to pay for the petrol ( I got a car that year). I taught Chinese to two kids at their home.
Their parents are Vietnamese immigrants. The mum said she was a refugee, came to Australia on a boat with her family. Obviously, she and her husband have achieved their Australian dreams, they went to uni, worked hard, became successful professionals, now live in a big house, and can afford 3 children to go to extracurricular classes like Chinese, basketball, piano, etc.
I really admired this Vietnamese family and I wish I could have a family like this someday, in Australia. Especially when I saw Australia legalize the same sex marriage that year, as a gay, I was even more determined to live here. I don’t need to suffer as a refugee but I need to pass the test, earn the points, get the invitation, get my PR, and settle my life here.
It takes 40 minutes to drive from my place to their home. I usually listened to podcasts while I was driving to the class. It’s not for fun, it’s for practicing my listening skills and preparing for the English test. I need to get 79, the full mark is 90, it’s pretty difficult. Even a native English speaker like Irish could fail this test… I worked at day, studied at night and weekend. I almost don’t have social and leisure time for a couple of months. And many international students have been through these days when they are working so hard on a test that could change their whole life.
At that time, my graduate visa has only 4 months left, if I couldn't get the invitation by the visa expiry date, I have to go back home. It sounds super stressful, right? But I handled it well, all my hard work paid off, I got 90 in PTE with all four components passed 79. I remembered I even cried when I received my PTE test result, and I downloaded the transcript from the website again and again just want to make sure it is true. Yes, it is true, and I got 20 points for immigration! Then my total points went straight to 80, and I finally got the invitation….
If you have never been through the tough skill immigration process in Australia, you will never know that kind of extremely exciting, happy, and relived feeling when you finally made it.
Once I got the invitation, I worked with my agent to prepare all the documents and submitted the application. Behind that life-changing Saturday, it was a lot of anxieties from every Monday to Friday (as I thought the government officers only works on weekdays). I was waiting, expecting, keeping refresh the application status pages to see if there any updates.
There was an update one month ago actually, which required me to upload two of the important certificates. It was totally my agent’s fault, they forgot to upload these documents.. I was so angry as I have waited for this so long, I thought it would take a few more months for them to review it again just because of this stupid mistake. And you should know Australia has a lot of paperwork, and sometimes they are very very slow…
I even had a nightmare about an HR, oh, no, about 2or 3 HR who was sitting right in front of me, checking my visa, kept saying I am not PR and questioning my identity…. In real life, I have been through this a couple of times and missed good job opportunities simply because I am not PR..
But luckily, it took 4 weeks to end this nightmare. It’s finally granted on a Sunny Saturday! If someday I have a son, I will name him Grant. This word, “Granted” , on the right corner of that letter, means so much for an immigrant.
On that Saturday afternoon, I did some weekend things as usual, got petrol, grocery shopping, but I felt a little bit different. I felt more secure, more confident as I am permanently part of the community. Then I celebrated with a couple of friends that night. On Sunday, it’s soccer game day, all my teammates congrats on me….
It’s been three years since I got permanent residency now. After that Saturday, I got a job offer from one of Australia’s largest companies, and I can have the freedom to choose whatever I love to do. Most importantly, I do not need to go to a useless class on Saturday anymore. Like the local Aussies who were having brunch in Melbourne’s laneway, I can enjoy the weekend like them as well.
Thank you, Australia, for all the challenges on this “go hard or go home” immigration journey. Thanks for those life-changing Saturdays that always inspire me, remind me how resilient, how persistent, and how strong I could be in those tough days….
