Totally Gutted.................

[yvonne & paul]

Heather , I think I read that you had children, was it 2? What do you know about the school fees ?

yvonne

[brownfamily]

Yvonne,

Yes we do (Daughter 13 and Son will be 10). Rather than picking a school (as we haven't been over there yet) we have opted to do the 'school unknown' option (which is an extra $100 per child).

This just means that we do not have to choose a specific school before we get there. But the school fees are as follows for Queensland:

$8000 per year $4000 per semester $2000 per term

The only difference is at Year 11-12 it goes up to
$8800 per year $4400 per semester $2200 per term.

I haven't paid anything for this up front yet, but will be paying £3529 which includes the unknown school fee. I would think I have to pay this with the visa, but haven't been asked yet. Agent should have applied on line for our visa either today/tomorrow.

You do need to fill in a 'dependant children confirmation of enrolment' form for each child that goes with the visa, but these are a very straighforward form.

Heather

[yvonne & paul]

heather,

How much have you worked it out that it will cost you at the end of the 2 years. We have just roughly worked it out

Visa application and medicals - £1500.00
Shipping out house contents, 2 dogs, flights etc -£ 12000.00
Rent for 2 years at say £400.00 month - £10,000.00
schools fees for 3 children for 2 years - £20,000.00
Course fee for 2 years - £10,000.00

£53,500.00 give or take - thats before any living costs and food on the table!! Argh

The only money comming in would be 20 hours of paul being at that point an unskilled bricklayer so i assume he would end up just mixing up and hod carrying for peanuts.

I could also work but again only 20 hours around the children otherwise that would end up with more childcare fees.

Although we do have the equity in the house the £50,000.00 odd would be a large chunk out of it.

We could invest the money and get interest but not sure how much that would be.

We could also buy a property perhaps outright so we had no rent/mortgage which would save some money.

Sorry to be a real black cloud but what a risk especially if at the end it doesn't work out for us. What do you think , any money saving ideas????

Yvonne

[EM&M]

Hi Yvonne,

Wow thats looks really scary written down! I suppose we r lucky at the moment that our 2 girls are under school age and I know that their school starts later than hours so although Ella goes to nursery here this Sept she misses their school year by 6 days so doesnt start kindie until 2009!

We only have £50,000 equity in the house and by the time we pay off loans and selling fees etc would only have about £30,000. Which doesnt seem enough to live on for 2 years.

Let us know how you get on.

Em x

[yvonne & paul]

Hi, all me again ,
Had a couple of barcardi's , had a talk with oh as a cut his hair and talked ourselves into apllying agian . So just sent off to "This is Austalia" as per the Browns. Although when i got to the end of the form and had filled in a load of blurb it asked for the attached CV. Well we have not done one for paul yet so I sent someone else's - HA HA Not really , I sent it without the CV and hopefully they will ask me to send it later once it is done.

As to the above post i did regrding the costs we decided :
1. Our parents should pay out inheritance before they pop thier clogs !
2. Let our dogs loose to roam the streets so that would save alot.!
3. Make our children work instead of going to school.!
PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!!!! ha ha ha

No , we did think that our youngest is not 5 until 28th sept so we may save scool fees as i do not think they start until the year they are 6.
Also if we invested our Equity in a property that needed work/ doing up then we could be rent/mortgage free and make money on the sale of the property once it was done up.
Also it is still not as bad as I calculated incomparrison to a Skilled Visa(WHICH WE CAN NOT GET) as if we could get skilled we would be paying our mortgage for 18/24 months waiting for skilled visa , also we would still have to pay for us , the dogs and house contents getting there whatever visa.
There it is so easy to talk yourself around!!!
Another late night with information questions and answers and I have work in the morning!!!
Talk soon
yvonne

[brownfamily]

Hi Yvonne,

Blimey by the time I had time to post you had already talked yourself round !!

Yes the figures do look scarey, I agree and there is absolutely nothing I can say that chages that I am afraid!

The only thing that i would say is that we are investing the equity of our house and I have been told that the interest is between 5-6%. With this in mind it will virtually cover our rent (unless we get the house with the pool etc that the kids want - then I will need to add some to it!)

I have been told (rightly or wrongly- not sure) that you have to pay 10% tax on the interest, but even with this taken into account it still should virtually cover the rent. If we decide we like an area and want to buy/build then we will use some of the equity, but haven't decided on that yet. :)

All I can say is that as long as you go down the student visa route fully informed and eyes wide open then thats all we can ask.

Hope you enjoyed your bicardi's and you have my number, let me know how it goes.
Heather
xxxx

[EM&M]

Wow Yvonne, Its amazing what a couple of bacardi's can do. You go for it girl :biggrin:

Em x