Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Success Stories - A Judo Athlete from Brazil (Marieta Clozel)

Hi! My name is Marieta.

I’m Brazilian from São Paulo. I’m a Judo athlete.

I’ve been practising Judo since I was 7 years old.

I decided to come to Australia to study English

and met some people here who were doing Judo.

They told me that it was possible to stay in the country through my Judo achievements.

And that’s how I got my visa: Distinguished Talent Visa.

It’s a Permanent visa in Australia.

I first landed in Australia in 2010, to do 7 months of English course.

In the meantime my friends from Judo told me that there is a visa which I could apply for,

and I needed to decide what I wanted to do.

If I was to stay in Australia or if I would go back to Brazil.

I liked living here.

So I looked for Bravo Migration to help me and I met Erica, whom I had a consultation with.

I trusted her and the consultation was very interesting.

She was very confident on what she was saying.

She showed me pathways and that was really possible to apply for the visa through my talents in Judo.

Therefore, I decided to stay and do what I love to do.

Over here I got more opportunities like competitions and jobs.

I also have a chance to go to the Olympic Games representing Australia.

Just need to get my Citizenship now and to prove that I’m good enough to compete so I can represent this country in 2016.

Fingers crossed!

The whole processing of my visa was filled with anxiety.

Erica asked me for certain documents and I was running around after all these documents in Brazil and here,

getting them translated, all in a short period of time, I couldn’t even sleep.

But thank God I managed to get all documentation together,

and sent it to Erica.

She was always there pushing me, sending me emails and following things up, keeping me on track.

On the last day she said: “I’m going to lodge your visa. It’s good to go”.

I had an unlucky thing happen to me - I suffered a serious knee injury.

I was training hard for competitions here in Australia while also waiting for the outcome of the visa application.

I had to have surgery for the second time on the same knee.

Which was very tough for me.

But again thank God I recovered from it, with some support from my Judo friends and from the Bravo team.

They kept telling me: “you will be ok, this will pass, we will get there together. You meet the requirements of the visa”

I will never forget the moment when Erica gave me the good news.

My phone rang when I was on my way to work. I thought:

“It’s Erica! Is it bad news? What do I need to provide now? What does she need?”

Then I answered the phone and she said: “Are you training?”

I said: “Training? I’m taking it easy because of my knee”.

And she said: “You better start train hard because your visa was approved!”.

Then I almost fainted. I cried a lot.

Everybody who was passing by me was asking: “What is happening, why is she crying?”.

And now I am a proud Permanent Resident because of the Judo.