Nemesis

2 hours ago, Barry Harper said:

I was three years old when I went to Australia with mum and dad however I am now 21 and just returned with mum and family back to United Kingdom. I am living with my grandparents and now I find it hard to get passport. NHS number register for a doctor and leave my driving license as it is Australian passport authorities now saying because I am 21. My birth certificate doesn’t mean nothing so I know am I to register as a British citizen? I was born in this country. My mum and dad were born in this country. My grandparents are born in this country and yet I am up all the trouble , to access my Australian bank account as I cannot open a bank account in the UK 

2 hours ago, Barry Harper said:

I have worked paid all my taxes nhs in Australia why am I having all this trouble to even get work 

Paying your Australian taxes has nothing to do with getting a UK passport, and the NHS doesn't exist in Australia. 

Your birth certificate is still your birth certificate even if you are 21.  You can apply for a copy of it online

https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate

If you were born in the UK, and your parents were born in the UK, you are already a British citizen. You don't need to register to be ne. You can just apply for your passport.

13 hours ago, Toots said:

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced that A Levels and T Levels are being scrapped and will be integrated into a new baccalaureate style. 

oh excellent, thats me out of a job then.

12 hours ago, welljock said:

Except two years with her family!!

My daughter came over at 16, did a couple of months of year 10, then 11 and 12. She's now just finished a double degree so she was fine. 

PS. You don't do A levels in the UK, just parts of it.

Not sure what you mean by your last sentence? The UK still does A Levels. 

I actually think Quoll's suggestion is a valid one and worth considering. The girl could travel to Australia during school holidays if she wanted to. Speaking as one who went into digs at 16 while doing my A Levels and never lived at home again due to a family move, it was the best time of my life, and the best decision I ever made.

On 23/04/2024 at 02:58, rammygirl said:

I think the main issue is timing. Sometimes it can take longer for a container to fill with part loads thus delaying shipping. 

So does a Movecube get a container to itself? Or get loaded simply as it is with no outer protection? (serious question, would be interested to know!)

Personally I had lousy service from Sevenseas and wouldn't touch them but that wasn't Movecube related.

On 22/04/2024 at 22:53, Marisawright said:

 

On 22/04/2024 at 22:53, Marisawright said:

I'm sure you and @calNgary both had a good experience.  Most people do.  But just because most people drive on motorways and don't have an accident, doesn't change the fact that lots of accidents happen on motorways.   Same with shared containers.  The risk is higher than with a dedicated container or Movecube.   It's up to the individual to balance risk vs cost.

of course its up to the individual! I would never expect anyone to make a decision purely based on my experience. However, its a well-known fact that people who are happy are much less likely to review their experience than those who have a bad experience. Thats why I think its important for people like myself, and CalnGary to post on the thread!

14 hours ago, uktoaus said:

Hi, I know I'm jumping on an older thread here, but I'm wondering how the topic of an EHCP gets brought up?

My child was on an EHCP and after a review it's been decided he will no longer need the additional support, and SENco are going to provide the documents to support this. 

I'm just wondering, I guess, what the layout of the child's medical is? I assumed you just fill in a form and do any physical t3sts (I.e. urine samples) and that's it. So how are the drs aware of the existence on a EHCP? Do you just mention it? Sorry, long pist, hope someone can help!

You fill in a form before the medical and it asks you about all medical issues, including medical, learning issues etc.

19 hours ago, calNgary said:

We used shared containers twice and didn't have a single issue either time. I wouldn't hesitate to use one again if the need arose.

                Cal x

Same here. Shared container there and back, nothing missing, nothing damaged. And no hassle of having to try and juggle things to pack them in the movecube. 

5 hours ago, jimmyn17 said:

Apologies if thisbhas been heavily discussed elsewhere. I am currently exploring the possibiluty of a mkve to Australia and wanted to hear sime thoughts from those that have gone through the process. Ive got no fixed timelines currently so I guess I am at the very early stages and have done a bit of research.

Essentially I am curious to hear others stories who were in a similar position to myself.

I am 38 years old, UK national currently working for a major global university doing all things video - marketing, events, producing online learning programmes, resources for staff and students, live broadcasting etc. I have an Associate Fellowship in higher education and have a BA Hons in Video Production. I also have an MA and I am a fully qualified teacher with QTS and an additional qualification in adult teaching/learning. I have previously worked as a full time teacher for nearly 10 years and have line managed a faculty.

Ultimately, I am keen to continue working in the video sector ideally within education but I appreciate my role as a teacher is likely more appealing.

I guess I wanted to know from others experience, am I likely to be granted visa for work, what type of visa am I likely to be offered, how easy is it to find jobs in these sectors (higher education and/or teaching)...?

I am fairly flexible with regards to location but very interested to hear others thoughts/opinions at this stage.

Thanks everyone!

James

You talk about what visa you would be offered, doesn't quite work like that, you have to work out what visa(s) you are qualified for and then apply for that visa.

Start with a good read of the Immigration website  

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing

12 hours ago, Samanddave said:

My partner and I plan to marry at the end of the year in Australia. 

I have dual citizenship Australia and the UK 

My partner is a UK resident currently.

We plan to apply for partner visa next year.

We do not have shared bank account, shared mortgage or tenancy.

How can we show evidence of shared finances?

We have been trying to open a shared bank account as this is number one on the visa approval. However with us being in different countries this is proving most difficult because he does not have any Australian ID yet and when we look at UK bank accounts they all say must have been in UK (on the electoral register) for 12 months.

Does anyone know any banks UK or Australia that would allow this?

Can anyone give me examples of shared finances that are not shared bank account, mortgage or tenancy that could be used as evidence of shared finances?

One way of showing shared finances is to annotate your bank statements if one of you pays for something thats really a joint purchase. Say for example you buy a double bed, for when your partner arrives, you can show that as a joint purchase as its for you both. Or if you stay in a hotel together and one of you pays for it, just make a note on the statement. Or if one of you makes a regular payment to the other towards bills. 

11 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

I think there is certainly familiarity factor, and the fact that a lot of the suburbs when you get away from the city are pretty similar.  Also the land estate type development has meant a lot of people could buy / build in the same area at roughly the same time.  

The same was true of Brisbane back in the early 2000s when North Lakes was being developed, north of the city. It became known as "Little Britain" because of the large percentage of Brits who moved there, most of them being new to the country.

On 09/10/2022 at 12:02, northernmanc said:

Hi,

I've just returned from my first reccie to Australia since being granted a 190 Visa and my last stop was Perth after spending time in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and I left Perth until last as I thought it would be the most likely place that I'd want to live, but I really struggled to find anything to like in Perth and I just wondered am I missing something that makes so many people want to live there ?

I spent five days at The Ritz Carlton which was a great base and visited most of the main suburbs that I'd looked at from afar, from Mandurah in the South to Joondalup in the North and just couldn't find anything which came close to the other cities I visited.  Whilst there were some nice areas, I didn't feel like I was in Australia, at times it felt like I could be in any town in England with Nando's, Fish and Chip Shops, empty shops and scruffy in places.

I really wanted to like Perth, especially as I have a nice house budget and there are some beautiful houses where I could live, but there didn't seem to be anything to draw me there other than the lovely houses and I don't know whether it was that the other cities felt more Australian and had more wow factors, but I left Perth feeling disappointed and it would really help me to know why people move to Perth to help me understand if I did miss something.

I'm fortunate that I can work anywhere in Australia as my company has a presence in each City and they've given me the choice on where to live.  At the top of my list is Adelaide closely followed by Brisbane with Perth last and this is what I least expected.

Any comments would be helpful.  I'm due to visit again once more in January ahead of moving in June next year and it would be great to know that there is something about Perth that I should look at again,

Thanks

just wondering, and I'm sure you've looked into where you can live and work, but I just wanted to check - if you are on a 190, are you not sponsored by a specific State or Territory, in which you need to spend the first two years?

4 hours ago, rammygirl said:

Last time we left Aus as dual citizens I tried to check in with my Uk passport as we were going to Vietnam and didn’t need a visa with a Uk passport. 
The check in desk were confused. 
Turns out they need to know you can return to Aus so need to see a visa or Aus passport. Never happened before. 
Airline checkin is different I to passport control. 
I was told to use Uk Passport entering and leaving migration control at Vietnam airport but to show both passports to airline checkin. 
 

Never heard of that one before. Surely when you are checking in to depart its irrelevant when or even if you plan to return?!

9 hours ago, llessur said:

As someone who attended university in the UK and has worked in an Australian uni for the last decade I'd 100% take the UK university experience over an Australian one. Whilst I'm sure the level of education is comparable, the fact that in the UK pretty much everyone leaves home to go to uni makes the experience many times richer, more character-building and more fun than simply commuting to your local uni in Oz whilst living with your parents and not really changing your life in any other way.

I guess if they go back to Oz alone then they'll be more likely to go to a uni that isn't in their home city but, even then, it's just not the same as in the UK as all of their classmates will just disappear after lectures and go home. Plus, with a significant proportion of teaching still being done online these days, they might not have much of a university experience at all.

Even if they're not big party people, the experience of living in halls with hundreds of other people in the same boat is pretty special. Campus life in Australia is just tumbleweeds compared to in countries where people typically leave home for uni.

I've always been so glad I went to university in the UK for precisely that reason. We did have one person who lived at home and I remember her saying she wished she was in Halls as we seemed to have a much better social life. I couldn't imagine living at home while doing my degree, I would have missed out on so much due to pressure from parents to stay home and study, mind younger siblings in the evenings etc. Always found it odd that so many students were leaving college in Aus and starting jobs with no experience at all of being independent. We had some at work and had to explain the basics of living to them, even down to how to do supermarket shops and open bank accounts, parents had always done everything for them. 

2 hours ago, Toots said:

When I retired, the much younger than me person who replaced me lasted 6 weeks.  The next one lasted a couple of months.  In the end two people were employed to do my job.  The job was very varied and required attention to detail and could be stressful at times as strict time deadlines had to be met which meant working longer hours if necessary.  I had a lovely assistant who worked with me for years but even she couldn't handle working with her new co-workers and found another job.  

I was glad to get out of it as a new CEO arrived not long before I retired and the company merged with another in NZ.  The atmosphere was never the same after.

Sounds very similar to my experience. Bring in the newbies who last 5 minutes, whilst those with the knowledge and experience get sidelined 

2 hours ago, Dravest said:

"Thank you for your questions and concerns. To address your inquiries:

Yes, I am a Permanent Resident (PR) of Australia, which means I have the right to stay in the country permanently. However, my residency visa expired in 2019, and I am currently facing challenges in obtaining necessary identification documents.

To clarify, I am not on a Bridging Visa, nor am I in Australia illegally. My status as a PR allows me to stay in Australia permanently, but without valid identification documents, I am unable to access certain services and benefits.

The main issue I'm encountering is the difficulty in obtaining essential documents such as a passport or birth certificate, particularly due to disruptions in the documentation processes in my home country.

I am actively exploring alternative options and seeking advice on how to navigate this situation. Any suggestions or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your understanding and support as I work through these challenges."

Your PR visa does not expire. Only the travel facility expires. If you stay onshore it is valid for life.

My sister in law had a PR visa for 25 years before she decided to become a citizen. She never left the country so didn't need a RRV. She had a TFN and everything else that goes with being a permanent resident.

Where are the documents that you used to get PR in the first place?

5 hours ago, Dravest said:

Hello everyone, I'm facing a dilemma regarding my residency status in Australia.

I arrived in Australia in 2014 and have been living here continuously since then.

However, my residency visa expired on the 19th of March 2019, and I'm now unable to apply for a Resident Return 5 Year (subclass 155) visa.

My situation is complicated by the fact that I come from a third world country where civil war has disrupted documentation processes.

As a result, obtaining essential documents like a birth certificate or citizenship proof has been challenging.

Currently, I have limited forms of identification, such as a learner's permit, Medicare card, debit card, and bank statement.

Unfortunately, these are not sufficient to meet the requirements for obtaining a Tax File Number (TFN), leaving me taxed at a higher rate of 47% for my work  I'm seeking advice on how to navigate this situation.

Any suggestions on obtaining necessary identification documents or alternative solutions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your understanding and assistance!

Sorry but your post is a bit confusing. 

If your residency visa expired in 2019, what is your current status in Australia? Are you on a Bridging Visa?  Are you there illegally? You can't get a RRV if you don't have a current PR visa. What visa were you on in 2019?

Do you mean that the travel portion of your visa expired in 2019?

13 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

That's a very dated view, maybe if your skills are poor and therefore a younger person is as good as you then yes, but for those with actual skills and ability mid 60s is now the normal retirement age.

Your experience may have been different depending on your skills and abilities

The last place I worked in Australia had a team of people highly skilled in their field, we were all well-respected for our roles in a niche area of public service, but over the years several people moved on and younger ones joined, with a very different work ethic - usually just "do the job and do home" with no intention of going the extra mile like those of us who'd been there upwards of 10 years. In 2020 one of my colleagues decided to retire for personal reasons. Whilst the bosses were interviewing for a replacement, this statement was overheard by a colleague in another area - "Make sure you employ someone young, we've only got 3 dinosaurs to get rid of now and that shouldn't be too hard."

Said "dinosaurs" were me and 2 Aussies guys, all aged in our late 50s. We all kept our ears to the ground after that, and it soon became clear that the department was doing its best to edge us out by any means, fair or foul. 

Nothing to do with a lack of skills, we were the ones teaching the skills to the newbies. All to do with poorly-disguised ageism.

4 hours ago, Mrs T said:

I obtained Australian citizenship through descent in July 2021 and haven’t yet applied for an Australian passport.  I don’t need one for the time being but wondered is there a cut off for applying or can I wait for an indefinite period.

If you don't intend to ever leave/enter Australia, you don't need a passport. However if you plan to leave/return you definitely need an Aus passport

32 minutes ago, VicPom said:

Blue Manna..... I've noticed that the people who never really settle here and fully commit to Australia are the ones phoning home weekly and use their annual leave taking trips back. This leads to restlessness. I came out to Australia on a working holiday visa and i just never felt ready to go back. I knew it was a great place to succeed and I'm a better person for it. I will say the moment my son was born though helped, and I felt more Australian than British from then on

I never settled in Australia, but equally I never phoned home, rarely sent emails (this was in the days before smartphones. The family refused to spend time doing  phone calls, or Facetime etc when that became popular, so in between visits home I had so little contact with my family that it would take a couple of days to catch up on the major events when I did get to visit. 

It wasn't restlessness that drove me to spend my holidays back in the UK, it was the fact I didn't like living in Australia, that simple, and my escapes to the UK were the only way I could stay sane, with a failing marriage and nothing else going on except work. 

9 minutes ago, Cheery Thistle said:

I completely respect that you love where you live and that it suits you, but everyone is different. 
With respect, you are reading through a filter and taking it personally. 
If you read parts 1 and 2 I have lots of good things to say about Aus in general and QLD specifically. 
The incident with the bottle was unfortunate, isolated and hopefully rare. I’m really glad you’ve never experienced it. That doesn’t mean I’m lying or make my experience any less valid. It’s one thing I dislike about the forum, people saying ‘well that’s never happened to me’, as if that changes anything at all, it’s as if somehow we deserved it or were ‘asking’ for it. If you came to my home town and someone launched a bottle at you while driving past at very high speed I would sympathise and I would also forgive you for being a little wary/put off, even though this has never happened to me. Totally natural. 
If you read my last post again are we really suggesting that people in North Brisbane out for dinner on a Saturday night in an area where average house price is $1.5 million plus are choosing between food and clothing? Doubtful. It’s just an observation of a cultural difference which I will have to get used to, it’s not a personal insult. 
It could be the way I was brought up, I am from a council estate and there were a lot of children in my house. My parents worked in the casino and were always very dapper, appearance was important and a priority regardless of our lack of wealth. My dad is 78 and still wears a shirt most days. It was very much ‘get up, dress up, show up’ for everything you did. I won’t apologise for that and I don’t see it changing, regardless of where I reside! Appropriate is the key word I think. 

I had a lot of friends in the Logan area, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Lots of vests, grubby shorts, mullets, drugged up hoons. It used to amaze me when going to a pub down that way with friends - we would never have dreamt of going down the garden dressed like some of them, never mind the pub! I also had some Aussie mates in a couple of places up the Sunshine Coast near Gympie, and they were the same when it came to going out. "Dressing up" for one guy consisted of putting on a baseball cap  

I have to say that I've really enjoyed your reflections on your trip, and think that by doing them this way - the good, and the not-so-good, it does show quite a balanced outlook. No rose-tinted-specs on show here. Obviously everyone sees things differently, but as you say, the whole point of forums like this is to allow everyone to give an opinion. 

6 minutes ago, Lavers said:

Definitely don’t lie it’s really not worth it, and speaking to agent will help.

Just can’t remember what we filled in regarding my girls. Just remember the medicals on the day being basic, eye test, little chat and testing there response when being tapped with the hammer on there joints.

I can't remember the exact wording on the forms, but they ask about any treatment that the child may be receiving, any medication, any specialist reports that have been done, all that kind of thing.

29 minutes ago, Daniellequinn46 said:

I've not been to australia no. I figured wasting money on visiting that could go towards the move wouldn't be worth it. I can't imagine it will be worse than the UK and worst case I can just return. 

I understand that it's not as high paid in australia for lawyers and that doesn't bother me. Having a better quality of life is my main interest. The work life balance is way better there. I'd much rather sacrifice some or my salary to have balance than work work work here snd not enjoy it. I understand medicare isn't free and it's taken from wages just like national insurance here, although the percentage is less in Australia. You can get appointments and tests way quicker than the weeks, months and sometimes years it takes here. 

Having nice weather and lots to do outside for my children to roam is better in my eyes than them being huddled up indoors the majority of the year with both their parents working like crazy. 

I've don't a lot of research into family life and it's way better than we can have here. It was a move between America and Australia for us and Australia won the toss up with the information we have. 

It's just a case of finding how much experience I need to be able to apply for the move. If I could I'd pack my cases and leave today but it's obviously not that simple. We're aiming to arrive with £30k so that should cover the time it takes to do some exploring and find jobs for us both

Please be careful with the old chestnuts about "better work-life balance" and "better quality of life"- especially if you have never been to Australia, even on holiday.  Do yourself a favour and read recent threads on here and on similar websites - and make sure they are recent as many things about living in Australia are now very different from life there 10 or even 5 years ago. 

I was always glad I don't have a family, as my work-life balance was a work-work balance, and though I could have afforded to have kids I would have had no time to spend with them. I do hope you would be able to spend time with your kids instead of "working like crazy" but that not the experience of many families, with kids in long hours of childcare & after-school care - and often huddled indoors because the weather is simply too hot to lay outside. You can dress up in cold weather, not so easy when its hot.

Your comments on Medicare - its not all taken from your wages. Finding a bulk-billing doctor now is like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So even though you pay for it out of your wages, you are still paying to see doctors, paying gap fees for treatment, paying higher prescription fees. Its NOT the NHS. 

Good luck - just make sure you have your eyes open  

1 hour ago, InnerVoice said:

Given the crankiness of previous comments, it appears that some may have forgotten their daily dose of glucosamine!

Have you ever considered what may seem blatantly obvious to you with your lifetime's worth of experience, isn't even be a blip on the radar of someone half your age? Only yesterday I had a teenager ask me if I could show him how to tie his school tie. I asked him if he'd ever asked his parents, to which he replied he had but they didn't know either. There is actually no such thing as 'common sense'. It's just our understanding drawn from knowledge and experiences we are very familiar with. From the sounds of it the OP made a genuine mistaken by not realizing the significance of the Australian passport in terms of travel requirements, and I doubt they'll make the same mistake again.

 

I think you'll find that its not a case of people being cranky, some of us have actually tried to help by pointing out that you CAN get on a flight without a passport, but it can mean hassles and delays. I certainly appreciate that not everyone does as much research as I did before becoming a citizen - have to say the sole reason I did it was because research proved that for me a passport was cheaper than repeated RRVs. Personally speaking it wasn't so much a "privilege" as a necessary evil.

I've also answered the questions about other countries insisting on their own passport use, as I know that not known by everyone. It may well be when the UK introduces its e-visa system in the next couple of years that things will change for UK citizens and we will possibly have to leave and enter on UK passports, which will be info widely shared on here and similar forums, I'm sure.

Thats all help and info shared because many of us appreciate that not everyone is aware of info that some of us take for granted. If you call giving out info like that "crankiness" then maybe I'll just stop and let people go back to muddling their own way through.

1 hour ago, vegemight82 said:

"The onus has to be on the new citizen to look up their responsibilities - such as things like enrolling to vote, as well as getting a passport."

Don't mention the voting lol waiting 3 hours on weekend! 

I get it, just feel it could be explained better or even part of the vast amount spent on getting the visa/s could go towards the passport?

I'll probably get the Aussie one soon since we are heading to Europe in December again.

My memory is a little hazy as it was a few years ago, but I'm sure I was given a list of things that I needed to be aware of, like "responsibilities of a citizen" which included the passport issue, as well as being given a form to enrol to vote, when I went to the ceremony - even though I already knew about both of them from being on forums like this for many years

1 hour ago, Blue Manna said:

Tbh I've never understood why Australia insists on it. I've always wondered whether other countries are more like the UK, or more like Australia.

The USA is the same - and I believe enforces it even more strictly than Australia - no simply wave your citizenship certificate & make a phone call, its no Passport = No Entry.

Canada has gone down the same road in the last few years too. If you are a Canadian citizen, you need an  Canadian passport.