an aussie in austria

Around the middle of 2014, job seeking became my main focus. To be honest, I wasn’t overly motivated, and I wasn’t really expecting to find a job in Austria. I sent off a letter maybe every few weeks, and very few of those job ads were actually in English, so consequently, the return rate was very low. Actually, it was pretty much non-existent. I had the skills, but without the German language, I was pretty much useless to most companies.

So when I finally got a job interview, for a proper job that I might actually be able to get, it was a bit of a shock. Luckily, the recruitment process took ages (I sent the application on July 21 and I started work on November 3), which gave me extra time to get used to the idea that I actually might stay in Austria.

We had done our homework and knew exactly what kind of job I needed, how much I needed to earn and what documents were required to obtain the visa. While we were a lot more confident than the first visa, we were also pretty sure there would be some kind of nasty, stressful event that would see it rejected, or at least delayed.

With the official job offer came the initial excitement, and then we got down to work. Luckily, the company I now work for is a large one, and well-used to recruiting out-of-towners, and because the position I was taking was a new one, they weren’t in any hurry for me to start.

First was the police report. This is something that has to be done for every visa, and because it’s only valid for three months, it has to be done again and again. Funny thing was, I’d only spent three weeks in Australia during that time (seriously, how much trouble could I have gotten into. The online application is easy, but then it has to be apostillised (cue another trip into the city for Mum & Dad) and sent to Austria. The whole process took almost three weeks.

Given that the job I received fulfilled all the requirements, and had the added bonus that they had specifically mentioned native English speaker (eg. no Austrian can steal my job), the rest wasn’t too much of a problem. The paperwork was tedious, of course, and then we took it down to the visa office, recorded my fingerprints (again), paid the measly 100€ and sat back to wait… up to 8 weeks.

At this point I was pretty happy to wait the full 8 weeks and use the last of my unemployment wisely. I spent it walking dogs, writing, shopping and taking time for myself. But it was less than 3 weeks later when we got the call we’d been waiting for – VISA APPROVED.

The excitement also gave way to extreme homesickness, but that was to be expected. And luckily here in Austria you start a job either the first or middle of the month, so I had an extra two weeks to celebrate and see the last of the autumn sun.

So I was lucky with this one. And now we’ve enjoyed the last few months free from visa woes… until we get married in a month… whereby we’ll have to go through the whole process again!