ItchyFeet76

My parents are visiting and I've asked them to bring some things that we either can't get and miss, or can get but pay a lot for. I've looked on the boarding card and it doesn't specifically mention any of the things they're bringing but some forums have suggested you have to declare ALL food, even if admissable (ie not on the prohibited list). What they're bringing (amongst other things) is:- * Calpol * Teetha granules (camomile teething powder) * UK lollies (sweets) * UK potato chips * UK chocolate * UK biscuits When I came back from visiting I didn't declare anything and am now wondering if I should have done - and what might happen if you're stopped randomly and haven't declared something?? They say if unsure then tick 'yes' and go through the 'declaration' line, but what if you ARE sure but are just wrong in your assumption?! Thanks for reading, and please scroll past if you're just going to question why we want this :-)

Try Living Corporate - they do serviced apartments in the CBD. We had a 2-bed sub-penthouse apartment with them on the 46th floor on Collins St. it was spacious and all three kids fitted in one room (ok for a month but not ideal for longer!). Weekly cleaning was included, and you had access to the building's gymn and pool. We paid $1100 a week.

Sure. My husband applied under 262112 - ICT Security Specialist. He's a penetration tester / security consultant (ethical hacker).

We got our visa grant today! I've been checking every day (sometimes several times a day ?) for the past couple weeks and then, today - the one day I've been too busy to check - I suddenly had 5 emails in my ((new, visa-related only!) inbox!! Our timeline is as follows:- 26/06/16 - Arrived in Australia 04/07/17 - Husband started job 02/12/16 - Employer application in 15/12/16 - Our application in (I did it myself to save money, it was quite straight forward but time-consuming and lots of docs to collate and scan) 25/05/17 - Employer nomination approved 25/05/17 - Sent for medicals 30/05/17 - Medical cleared (I wasn't notified about this, I just happened to notice when I logged on, and if I hadn't clicked the "confirm" button we might still be waiting!) 16/06/17 - visa granted! Our UK police checks expired in March and I was worried they might ask us to do them again, but clearly not! Good luck to everyone else with their visas ?Now I have the nightmare task of sorting Medicare / Centrelink / MLS / LHC exemption etc! ?

Hi there, thanks for your reply. What is a stat dec and how do I do one? Thanks :-)

Hi guys, Employer got approved a couple weeks back, we got sent for our medicals couple days later and had them cleared last week and am just wondering how long it takes for approval from here? Cheers ?

Hi, my medicals were uploaded yesterday so I clicked on the "info provided" button and now it says "assessment in progress". What is the next stage - CO assigned or decision? They haven't asked us to redo our police checks (which expired in March) - presumably because we've not been back to the UK since doing them?

Thanks for your input, guys. The app would cover all of Australia - from city to beach to bush - and we know from searching that not all BB!s are listed on the internet, plus our app's data can be downloaded offline so you don't need the internet to search, whereas you do if you're driving around using Google. Good to have your opinions, though. I think we'll release it for $2.99 as that's only £1.50 so a paltry sum really, and then we can always introduce a free version with ads later on if necessary.

Hi, We applied for PR via the 186 Direct Entry route last December. My husband's employer nomination was approved the other day and, the next day, we were sent for our medicals (which we're doing on Tuesday). They didn't ask us to redo our UK police checks though and I'm wondering if they've forgotten and will ask at a later date (in which case should I redo them now, to save time, as they take around 4 weeks to come back?) or if they figure that, since we're now in Aus (on a 457) and haven't left the country since the police checks were done, there's no way we could have committed a crime in the UK since the checks were carried out....? Also, roughly how long after the medicals do people tend to get a decision made on their visa...? Thanks in advance :-)

Ah ok, no worries. Didn't want to clog up the forum as it's not really emigration-based, more a personal request for info. from fellow expats whom I believe to be our target market ;-)

How do I delete this topic now we've got the answers we need...?

Tried to delete topic as got the answers we need, but can't find any way of doing so (other than overwriting with something else)... perhaps it's just me!?!

Thanks for your input guys ?

Hi, I'd appreciate people's views on this please. We're soon going to be launching an app that will list all known public BBQs across Australia. It would also feature facilities (pram-friendly, playground, coffee, toilets) and show photos and a brief description of the location and / or surrounding area. Data would be downloadable so you could use in areas with no WiFi, and if you had 3G you could use the 'directions' feature which plans your route to the location. Would you be prepared to pay $4.99 as a one-off fee for this? Thanks in advance.

I thought that, for Direct Entry, you need to have a decision made (i.e. Visa granted) by March? This just says you have to APPLY by March... ?