UK Electrician... just don't know what else to do...

[skatingsparks]

I have been on here a few times asking bits and pieces about getting wireman's licence(installation electrician) sorted and this is basically my last.... don't know what you call it but anyway...

So I am a UK trained electrician, 10+ years. I am here in SA on the Skills Quota Visa(girlfriend is South African) and after much messing around got my UK qualifications assessed by SAQA. When I say messing around I mean hours on the phone, dozens of emails, dozens of letters and a 4 month trip back to the UK for more qualifications and then sitting in there office 3 day straight to make sure they have everything they need. So SAQA say my qualifications equate to an NQF 4, which is bit rubbish because I have been told you can get to an NQF 4 in about 1 year and 3 months(correct me if I'm wrong) if you do all levels back to back and would take at least 3 years to get the papers I have(if you really went for it).

So I hassel the ECA, trying to find out what I need to do to get my wireman's and have been doing so for over a year. I did the installation rules exam, passed(friking hard but passed). Did the COC course, not rocket science.

All these courses(ones in the UK and here) and the trip back to the UK have basically wiped out my savings. Saved for hard to come here, and i mean F^%$£"g hard for a really long time just to be dicked around. I haven't worked here since last November and have spent the time since trying to get my wireman's.

I have been signing of my own work in the UK for quite a few years and its not as if I'm fresh out of college. I'm not saying I know everything about electricity, no one does, but I'm sure I know enough to work out anything I come up against.

I went to the ECA today and now(after all the times I have been up there) tell me I have to do another one of there course. An assessment of foreign qualifications, costing 2800 rand. Why they didn't tell me to do that course a year ago I don't know. Now I have to wait until Feburary 8th to do that and even then after that I have to do units of credit for testing of a single phase and 3 phase testing. I don't think they realize the impact of there advise has been on my life. If I need to do something, tell me and I'll get it sorted. I was told I needed and equivalent of an NQF 4 before they can do anything, I go back to teh UK get more qualifications, and it still isn't enough

I can't start my own business, visa restrictions. Haven't done the SA trade test and don't intend to spend the 11 grand charged for the preparation to do it either. I'm due to do it some time between now and September 2010 according to the useless people at Olifontain, but who knows

If anyone has any ideas what I can do as after a year of messing around with this I'm pretty much broke. I have spent a fortune trying to sort this out, not to mention the lost the wages would usually get if i had just stayed working in the UK.(don't care if you have the weather and the so called SA lifestyle ain't so great to be honest, not a patch on what life was like in the UK, you just sit and wait for things to be sorted here, great).

I have wasted a year of my life on this

Open to suggestions and no the girlfriend won't go back to the UK, her families here.

CV if you know anyone who would be interested

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=9...8b19ba0e1b98eb

Out of ideas and enthusiasm....