those that have made the move....

[sophiesunny]

what did you do at the start?
did you pick somewhere to rent from the UK or fly out stay hotel/caravan park whislt looking? If you did the latter any stuff you shiped over does it stay in storage on Oz until you have an address?


Also how many of you have actually got the visa put in your passport even though we don't have to? Is that the best thing to do on the job front and showing people residency?

Sorry lots of questions we'vefinally sold our house so all systems go to move after christmas

Thanks

Sophie

[Perez]

Hey Sophie,

For the first week after arriving in Melbourne, we rented a private room from a hostel type place in South Yarra. Then we worked hard to find a rental to move into after that, and luckily were able to find one pretty quickly. You probably won't be able to rent somewhere without viewing as that was the general reply I got when asking for information before we moved - a lot of letting agencies won't let you apply unless you've viewed the place.

With regard to visa in passport - with a lot of visas now they are electronic so no need to have them in your passport unless you specifically request them to do so. I think you should be fine if you take visa grant letter with you when arriving, in case of any queries. With regard to employers, they can check your eligibility to work on an on online system called VEVO, so again no need to have visa in your passport.

All the best and good luck for your move!

Barry

[furkew]

generally most new arrivals book furnished accomodation/stay at holiday parks etc for about 3-5 weeks. you can try these sites to get an idea:

www.stayz.com.au This is Australias biggest holiday home site.

http://www.moving-to-melbourne.co.uk...ommodation.htm The site owner Kate is Mod on this site as well. She has a large number of properties specially orientated towards the expat market (including our own)

www.gumtree.com.au is another, but has been know to have scammers operating, so need to be a little wary

http://www.big4.com.au/ Is a major campsite group with furnished cabins available.


If you are looking at coming out after xmas, its our summer holiday season, and prices are high for that period, and good accomodation can get booked out quite early. Out of the holiday periods, longer term bookings (4 weeks or more) can normally be negotiable on price, but unfortunately very unlikely in December or January.

[furkew]

also, when looking for a more permanent rental, at the moment it only takes about 2 weeks to find something suitable I have noticed, and then maybe another 1-2 weeks max before moving in.

If you work on a 4 week window, you can probably calculate how long your container will take to arrive, and have it delivered around the same time as you move into your unfurnished rental.

[Skani]

what did you do at the start?
did you pick somewhere to rent from the UK or fly out stay hotel/caravan park whislt looking?
Sophie

It's almost impossible to rent from the UK as most letting agents insist you personally view the place before signing the rental contract.
However you can book a holiday apartment from overseas. That will give you several weeks to recover from jet lag, find your feet and have a look for something more permanent to rent.

[Love Shoes]

We waited as Skani has said it is virtually impossible to rent from overseas, plus personally I wouldn´t advise it, for obvious reasons.
We moved into temporary accommodation supplied by the sponsor, it wasn´t 5 star but it was OK, and gave me the chance to house hunt whilst my OH worked all day.
Our visa´s were electronically attached to our passport, I worried a bit about this, so took a covering confirmation with me too, just in case, but I did not need it.

Good luck.

[ComingDownUnder]

My husband's company put us up in a serviced apartment for a while which gave us chance to view the shortlist of properties we'd looked at from the UK. We expressed our interest in the properties via email and asked the agents to keep us posted in inspection dates and potential applications going in. We were fortunate that we managed to get our first choice as we went the day after we arrived with all of our ID, application pre-filled and a bank statement to show we were good for the bond and first few months rent. It worked in our favour as I say. I'd say definitely try and get a short list of either houses or suburbs to see and research, research, research. Good luck for when you arrive : )

[ComingDownUnder]

Oh and I wanted our visas evidenced in our passports for posterity, so sent them to the mailing address that was supplied by Australia House, with a cover note and our grant letters, and a pre-filled Special Delivery envelope and got them back in 3 days with pretty visa labels inside : )

[JoandJon]

We made use of family to stay when we first arrived (but I know most won't have that option!!), and I know Jon got his visa printed in his passport.

He didn't have to, but it can make it easier when you're applying for jobs (there's something about it being in your passport that makes prospective employers more comfortable). Besides - I wanted him to have some visa bling!

[sophiesunny]

Thank you all for responding. Really helpful and reassuring with what i've been thinking! Anyone of you guys have children as well of school age? I have made contact with a few schools but again until we can actually visit its hard to judge. Any recommendations on that front? Tar!