k8bug79

Hi just had a letter with my case officer jc, she is leaving so we have been assigned kp. is she new or existing case officer? Anyoe else get the same thing? Hopefully be straight forward

I feel for you as we will end up doing a similar trip (we are in Helston) Although we are yet to get down to booking anything. I have already bought our suitcases. 1 each for us and the two older kids. They will have a trolley case and we will have hold all hand luggae. Then my youngest wioll have a holdall . I am thinking of lashing the holdall onto the larger suitcases so that tere will be less to carry. We will probably hire acar to the airport so we don't have to worry about the train (prob a bit late for you to think about doing that) most of the airportbits will be with a trolly or you'll have checked luggage in. How old are you kids? can they manage their own bags to an extent?

Good luck. Wish I oculd offer advice but Ihave never travelled very far with all of my kids either. It's just a few days then youll be there and can relax!

So we moved out of our rental home for 5 years yesterday and are now staying in a friends caravan for 10 days then we are off!. Finished most of the packing and it's stored at my parent's house and WOW it looks a lot!

 

We have 1 small suitcase, 1 medium suitcase, 2 rucksacks, 2 daybag rucksacks and the kids have a rucksack each. I know when we get it all checked in it will be fine, but until then, well all I can say is ARRRGGGHHHH!

 

We have a train to get from Cornwall to Paddington, then on to Heathrow. A stopover for the weekend in KL, then onto Brisbane.

 

We are just wondering how people managed when they got to Brissy, did you taxi to your accomodation or what? We are well travelled, but used to doing it on the cheap (even with the kids) but with minimal luggage.

 

Also, any tips on coping with little ones, long journey's, and ton's of luggage?

Hi, I will be asked to submit my police check shortly. I wasjust looking at the application form and it asks if I am-

a dependant or ex dependant of a serviceman or ex service man in the military (just part of the question) .

My Dad served in the Navy but is now retured but works with the Army as a civilian. I am no longer dependant on my Dad, have stood on my own feet financially for many years now. So am I classed as an ex dependant in this instance? Or am I missing somethimg? I don't want to tick the box and open up a can of worrms that doesn't need to be opned lol

Thanks

Thanks for your replies and apologies for not saying thanks a bit sooner. I think I'll prob do a mixture of the above. We have chosen a few areas and will also narrow those down based on how good the rep is of the schools. But it's good to know that its not hard to get them in. Unlike over here where you can research a nice area and a good school but your chance of getting anything above a failing school are miniscule.

I believe you can use it as part of your deposit but suspect you would need to put up some more. But maybe someone who has received it can tell you for sure

5 years ago we moved to Melbourne. I have always been honest and upfront with the tax people. I had a cheque through for 4000 pounds. I called them to say that I think a mistake has been made as I don't think that we are due this. She looked again and said yes we were entitled to it. To cut a long story short we spent the money and a few months down the line had a letter to say that it was a mistake and that we have to pay. I pay 10.00 pounds a week back to them. Really cheesed off but that's the way it is.

 

I even managed to get a recording of our conversation but still I need to pay it back .....

We are in exactly the same situation. We under estimated our wage by £370 and my husband got a bonus and a load of overtime which meant we broke the 10K rule. So we have been over paid by about £2K. Thankfully we are not going until August next year but I was honest with them and asked what would happen. Currently they have reduced our future payment by £20 a week. So by next tax year we will owe about £800. I told them that we would be moving a few months in and was worried we would be asked to pay it in one go. But she assured me that there was a specialist emigration team that would deal with closing the account and arrange any under/ over payments. She said that even if we owed something at the time we left they could still honour an agreed monthly payment.

It is worth noting that you must keep this payment as it is a government tax they can arrest you if you default and then re enter the country. We are going to ask them to take a bit more a week in the new year and then come to an agreement over the rest.

I have had many dealings with ctc and have to say that I don't trust them all tat much so I can't swear this will be the situation. But I did ask a couple of years back (with no payment owing) and they said something similar

$100 to have your house cleaned head to toe once a week in the Upper North Shore, Sydney. Needless to say, I get the kids to do ours. $2.50 each.

I wish I could persuade mine to do it, even with money on offer. It works once and then they get bored and would rather not have the money lol. Thanks for the answers Prob not going to be top of my list of spends but who knows after time lol

Hi,

I was going to try and say a comment about little time i have to clean and garden etc but tbh I just hate doing them :yes:. I a happy to clean the house but I do actually not have enough time as we both work full time and have 3 snail trail children so we end up chasing our tails all the time. And I HATE gardening. Plus the addition of the creepy crawlies means I either want a concrete yard with a few pots or a gardener. We can just about afford a cleaner once a week in the UK and we pay about £8 an hour. But I wondered f anyone can let me know the average cost for both of these roles out there.

Thanks

I am fairly sure that if you are 'in area' for a public (government) school, they have to take the children. My eldest is in a (very good) school here, and when she started this year (she is year one, so in her second year) the first week of term was spent shuffling the classes around because they had had loads of extra last minute admissions for kindy, year 1 and year 2. In the end they created an extra kinder class and an extra composite year 1/2 class and brought in extra teachers. That was in preference to increasing class sizes and means that our daughter is in a lovely small class of 20. I think that if you are out of area it is pretty much first come, first served. In our school newsletter this week it said that admissions letters were due out this week, and that it was especially important for out of area applications to be in ASAP. Our youngest is due to start, so we should be getting a letter.

Thanks, does that mean applications fo rthe new school year are soon? Is that for Feb 13 or Feb 14? My youngest starts Sept 13 here and Feb 14 there and we are about to apply in the UK. But if you are talking about applicatiosn for Feb 13 we may be there when we need to apply for he to start Feb 14 (sorry hope that makes sense!!!).

So as I understand it to be guaranteed a good school we have to live near it and if its full they'll still make room?

We have deffered our medical requests. We have asked for a long lead in time as we are in no rush to move. Howeve she said thatt it's not normal but would be willing to do it if we stick within their good practice guidelines. i.e they want to stick to processing times so we can't delay that. Therefore she has agreed to request after 3 months, and then we have 49 days to complete meaning we have in reality up to 4 1/2 months into the process to get them the medicals and pcs and they can still grant within the 5-6 month timeframe. We did this in our initial letter so whether they would do this now they have requested them I am unsure. It will make no difference to your grant date, so if you feel there may be an issue that may delay you then hold off a bit longer. If not then just get them out of the way

Hi we will probably be moving to Sydney (still not 100% decided) and we will have 3 kids of primary school age at that point. I know this question will be a bit of a"how long is a piece of string" but my experience in the UK with schooling is not good. My kids are in an outstanding school both mine and Ofsteds assessment lol. We wanted to move closer to my work so looked at getting them into a school over there and we could only get the 2 (currently in school) into a failing school with 4/4 in the ofsted reports and that has a really abd reputation. So we decide dto stay put and deal with the commute. I was then up for a job which woul dhave meant a complete relocation and we looked at what schools owuld be avaibale and we couldn't get them into the same schoola nd again the only ones we could had reallybad reports. I can understand why this happens but trying to get kids into the same school over here seems impossible. As I say by the time we go to Oz we'll have 3 of the school age, one who will be about to start and will have possibily have missed the school places, I am not sure hwo they do it out there? So I am after your experiences of approaching a school with a good reputationa nd getting multipple children schooled? Australia wide would be interesting but if anyone has any experience of Sydney that would be even better.

Thanks

I am not sur what section to pop this in but I am hoping this is roughly the right one. We are about to do our medicals and police checks which means we have up to 1 year to move to Oz. Realistically wewill go anywhere between Jan and Aug next year. Our contents insurance is due for reneal and therefore I am looking at the cancellation policies of comanies so we don't get stung with a huge canellation fee when the time comes. So far best seems to be Barclays which charges £25. Can anyone recommend an insurance company they ahve used who has been reasonable come emmigration. In my mind its houdl be illegal to charge it anyway. As far as I am concerned they can still cover me it is them that is unable to fulfill the contract but hey thats another rant!. Same rant goes for mobiles and telephones and gas and electricity etc.

I have been told by my co that I'll be straight on to the 100. The deciding factor seems to be if you ahve children becasue by Australian law they cannot force you to leaveand be seperated if your children can stay there (obv that presumes that the sponsor is the father). I also believe that long length of marriage can be a factor but not guaranteed. Of course I suspect that f the application looked a little shaky i.e. commtment they could warrent granting a temp. B

Sorry to be another one, but can I have a pm too? I must admit this is my biggest fear, we arenot shipping much but what we do is what is good and sentimental to us. I have moved around teh UK a lot and I am used to packingand the idea of someone doing it for me fills me with dread. I am a control freak so I think we are going to arrange for shipment ourselves through the assistance of a friend who does it for a living. Hope you get it sorted though and taht any damage isn't irrepairable. What an awful start.

Sorry very poor typing in that email

I emaile dmy case officer to day abpout the time frames. A perect job has come up in my ideal company and typica;;y I don't think they'll wiat for visa grant. I wante dto give realistic time frames so I askedgiven all the talk about extensions. This is what she said.

(case officer is jc)

For applications lodged in the previous financial year such as yours, we are trying our best to stick to the 5 to 6 month processing time originally quoted and for your planning this is currently looking closer to 6 months than 5. I believe the rumour you may be referring to is the increase in processing times but that is only affecting those who are lodging their applications now in this current financial year where applications are taking 8 to 9 months due to planning levels.

Realistically as you lodged at the end of June, you are looking at a decision time of the end of December unless there are any dramatic changes to our processing times.

I am trying to find out what that means for us as that will mean Boxing day grant date which obviously is not going to happen. But this may be useful to others.

Hi,

we applied for my 100 class visa at the end of June (27th I think check my signature lol) was told 5-6 month wait and most seemed to be nearer the 5 month mark at that point so I figured we'd get a grant at the end of November maybe early Dec at the latest. However now the time seems to have extended to nearer the 6 month wait which will put us slap bang over Christmas. Does anyone know what happens then? Do they shut for a few weeks and grant in the new year? In all honesty it won't effect us as we are not planning on going anywhere until Aug unless a job comes up and that is a bad time for job hunting so that is unlikely. but for my own sanity it would be good to know what to expect?

Thanks

Are you on a temp spouses visa? If so then you are def entitled to child benefits as this would be my situation, although 2 of my children are both of ours only one is a step child.

I personally plan to make use of space and fill the draws with bits. But I will prob put vac packed linen etc in it. I would have thought bits like you describe might fall out with the movement of the container. Maybe bag it up and put it in the draw??? Can't see why there would be any reason to prohibit it. Maybe someone else can tell me if thats the case?

Its those damn kids that do it to us. Likewise my 3 have knackered me out lol

My daughter is 9 and often says she doesn't want to go. I can see it from both sides as when I was 8 I went to Germany with my family and really didn't wnat to go, but know now it was a great opportunity. We counteract my daughters protests by demonstrating some of the things she'll be able to do. Lots of street view. We have said taht if anyone is unhappy we will come back. I reassure her that she will make friends. Point out that she has had a number of new people in her class at school and they all fit in and make friends very quickly. I don't sugar coat it, I tell her that I know what is best for us all and that I will listen to her but ultimately me and her Dad (also step dad) will make the decision. Slowly she is getting used to the idea. Her birthday is this weekend and she doesn't want to have a winter birthday, so I have put sydney into my weather app on my phone and I keep showing her what it will be really like. She is well chuffed that Santa will be visiting her first also!!

Little steps and reassurances.Good luck

Maybe take a copy of your last letter from breast clinic.

I haven't been to the breast clinic. But when I go back to docs I may insist on it due to the amount of discomfort. Either way I may take a letter. Whilst TB is on the topic. I have had pneumonia twice (asthmatic :-( ) and I am worried about scarring on my lungs. Am I worrying unecessarily? I know that the first time I had it there was no scarring because they did a chest x ray after it had cleared. But the 2nd time was much more severe and I was almost hospitalised. I am starting to think a quick letter from the gp re cyst, asthma and pneumonia may be worth while???

I'll revise my initial statement about being relatively healthy lol

Hello

 

That'll be me.

 

A breast cyst is highly unlikely to show up on a chest X ray.

 

Jon

Thank you :-) Is it worth taking a letter then or would I just be making problems for myself unecessarily

Maybe if you was to get a letter from your gp to take along to your medical with you may help.

Hi,

This is a bit sensitive for a public forum, so bear with me and sorry if I have to divulge a little too much information. We will be doing our medicals in a couple of months, now in myself I am, I hope, quite healthy, and can't foresee any major issues. However I am concerned about the chest x-ray. I have recently been told I have a cyclical breast cyst, the gp isn't concerned and hasn't even sent me for further tests because it gets very large and then disappears each cycle. The problem I am concerned about is that it will show on a chest x-ray and I'll be sent for further tests. It starts to get large at the time I ovulate and gets very large very quickly (between the size of a golf ball and tennis ball!!) Now obviously I know not to book my medical at the time of my period, but I am concerned that by ensuring I avoid this I will end up with costly extra tests.

I am going to go to the doc again soon as it's getting very uncomfortable now, but I am wondering how forceful to be with the GP to get it drained and hopefully gone for the medical. The only reason I am against this is it is likely to come back so no really point for the long run :-(