Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#31

Post by fingerprinter » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 11:44 PM UTC

beilabs wrote: post #23

fingerprinter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you describe the problems you've seen? Wife and I were over 30 when we moved to AU from the US. Certainly quite a bit of paperwork, but wasn't all that tough in reality.

It took me 12 months from start of my residency application, 4 years total to get permanent residency in Australia. I was working for an Australian company for those 4 years. I have a MSc in Software Engineering (on the critical skill list), experience on 4 continents and it was nothing short of a nightmare. The immigration process over here is in a state of change at the moment for residency, hopefully this means it…

As someone else noted, 3-4 years for perm residency is rather common. And just so you know, I was annoyed by that as well hoping it would be faster, but it isn't. And, yes, I do think the paperwork and runaround can be crazy in AU. My wife is a GP and I'm a MS in Comp. Sci.. There was no way for us to "hurry along" the process. To get perm residency, we needed to live in the country for 2 years before we could apply. 2 more years for citizenship. Even so, 4 years to citizenship isn't a bad deal.

I hear there is reform coming around July 2012 to expedite certain skills shortage list candidates, so hopefully that helps.

The crazier thing is the amount of paperwork my wife needed to do to prove that she was competent to practice medicine in the country. In the US, she went to a great med school, had MCATS off the charts, went to one of the best residency programs in the country and worked for the best hospital in the world for 5 years. In that regard, it was frustrating.

Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#32

Post by beilabs » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 1:36 AM UTC

fingerprinter wrote: post #31

beilabs wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took me 12 months from start of my residency application, 4 years total to get permanent residency in Australia. I was working for an Australian company for those 4 years. I have a MSc in Software Engineering (on the critical skill list), experience on 4 continents and it was nothing short of a nightmare. The immigration process over here is in a state of change at the moment for residency, hopefully this means it…

As someone else noted, 3-4 years for perm residency is rather common. And just so you know, I was annoyed by that as well hoping it would be faster, but it isn't. And, yes, I do think the paperwork and runaround can be crazy in AU. My wife is a GP and I'm a MS in Comp. Sci.. There was no way for us to "hurry along" the process. To get perm residency, we needed to live in the country for 2 years before we could apply.…

Interesting, I have the exact experience as you.

My wife trained as a doctor in China, the effort to get the qualifications recognised over here is nothing short of crazy.

Don't get me started on the Australian Computer Society. It took them 6 months to recognise my own qualifications.

Re: Is Australia the next upcoming tech startup hotspot to watch?

#33

Post by locusm » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 2:22 AM UTC

taligent wrote: post #27

inopinatus wrote: post #20

The left-learning government is not supportive of startup business. And the economic indicators are not good. Notable issues include High income earners cannot offset business losses, thus deterring entrepreneurs. IR protections intrude on flexible working. Border protections make labour import difficult, despite the lack of a critical mass for skills. Government spending is high (although less than in the US), at 34…

a) Australia has one of the strongest economies on the planet right now. The IMF predicted that Australia would be the best performing major advanced economy in the world over the next two years. b) Australia is on track to deliver a budget surplus which many countries would be envious of. It has one of the lowest GDP to debt ratios out of all major economies and there is no way Australia is at risk of defaulting. c)…

I can recall a case where Govt interference killed off an entire startup scene - datacasting. When Australia announced its move to a digital spectrum back around 2000 there were a bunch of us that started developing product for it, when the Gov't finally announced what content could be broadcast (childrens programmes) we closed up shop the next day. So we lasted 12 months, had major backing from the Ten Network and had working product demos. I think to a large degree the Govt at the time adopted Kerry Packers stance to keep the status quo. This is all reflected in what we have today, slightly better resolution and an EPG? Absolutely zero innovation is happening in this space as a result of the Govt.