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Cerberus1

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Posts posted by Cerberus1

    Visa lodged...suggestions getting organised in advance?

    in Aussie Chat

    Posted

    3 hours ago, LAW said:

    Have no idea what to do with shipping at this stage! Though, we don't have loads of furniture to take as much of it is needing replaced. Just a new sofa, coffee table, computer table and storage chest. We thought it would be better to buy new beds/matresses for kids and ourselves on arrival rather than waiting for them to arrive via shipping and were thinking move cube might be an option given positive reviews I have seen on here.

    Any suggestions re. banks? Have had a number of e-mails from various companies looking for our business having now lodged. Commonwealth bank and John Mason international movers among them. 

     

     

     

     

    Quite a few members have used movecube, I'm sure they'll be happy to share their experiences.

    I think the big four banks - Commonwelath, ANZ, Westpac, NAB will all offer a similar level of service. We're personally with ANZ for everything but any should be fine.

    If you use a shipper, then John Mason do seem to have a good reputation, hardly ever see any complaints about them.

    Forum News - October

    in Forum Announcements, Q and A

    Posted

    A recap of forums news / changes from this month in case you've missed them.

     

     

    350x.jpgAustralia Visa Timelines Tracker

     

    If you’re applying (or about to apply) for an Australian visa, you want to know how long it’s going to take to be granted.
     
    This is understandable, as you’re eager to start your new life in Australia. Having such information will also allow you to get on with other crucial steps in the immigration process.
     
    This can include knowing when to put your house up for sale – too early and you may have to move into temporary rental accommodation if your house sells and your visa hasn’t been granted.
     
     Conversely, if you delay putting your house up for sale, you may end up with your visa being granted and not being able to move as your house hasn’t sold and your equity is tied up in the property.
     
     Other things to consider are knowing when to organise international removals – shipping your goods to Australia takes several weeks.
     
     Knowing when to start job hunting, arranging for your children to finish school etc.
     
     As you can see, being able to accurately predict when your visa will be granted is very important.
     
     With this in mind and following feedback from our members, we're happy to announce that our Australian Visa Timelines Immigration Tracker is now live at:

     www.australia-visa-timelines.com
     
     The tracker allows you to enter key dates about your visa application and compare them in tabular format with other applicants around the globe.
     
     You can look at who’s applied for the same visa as you, the same dates as you, from the same country, occupation etc.
     
     This will allow you obtain greater insight into the likely time is will take for your visa to be granted.

     

     

    Quickly unsubscribe from all followed content

    We've recently added an option so that you can unsubscribe yourself from all followed content with one click - as shown in the screenshot below ('Remove from All Content')

    2017-10-16_18-46-12.png

     

    visits.png

    Pomsinoz visitor numbers

    Following the move to a new software platform earlier this year - and the initial impact it had on our SERP's, visitor numbers are on an upwards trajectory. There's still a long way to go, but we're working hard behind the scenes to continue growing our community and maintaining its status as one of the pre-eminent  sources of information for people moving to and living in Australia.    

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    shutterstock_300.pngRead members real life migration stories in our articles section

    We've recently added a new section to our Articles area. Moving to Australia Real Life Stories

    I'd like to thank the members who have shared their migration stories with us and we'll be adding more stories as the weeks go by. 

    If any members would like their stories published, we're happy to publish them using pseudonyms if requested.

     

     

     

    Christmas is coming to www.pomsinoz.com

    xmas.png

    From the 01st December, forum members will be able to choose a Christmas theme. At the bottom of the page, there will be a dropdown option labeled 'Theme' where you can select the theme shown above.


     Also, we'll be running a Christmas themed quiz at some point in December, with prizes available. We're currently in the process of creating the quiz so keep an eye out for it next month.

    • Like 1

    Importing spices and grain foods

    in Shipping and Removals

    Posted

    http://www.agriculture.gov.au/travelling/bringing-mailing-goods#check

     

    Spices

    Dried, ground spices and spice mixes weighing no greater than 1 kilogram are allowed into Australia. Spices and spice mixes consist of dried, ground plant material only. This will be verified by:

    • checking the label on each package
    • inspection
    • information provided by the importer.

    All spice mixes must be in clean and new packaging.

    Spice mixes (including powdered herbs) may be released without inspection if the product is commercially prepared and in ready for sale retail packaging. All other consignments will be subject to an inspection to verify that it is free of seeds, live insects, soil and other biosecurity risk material.

    If an item does not meet all of the above conditions it must be treated, exported from Australia or destroyed. Treatment or export is at the importer’s expense.

    For individual items of each product type weighing more than 1 kilogram please refer to the commercial import requirements in BICON.

     

     

    If you're looking at fetching them in a container for example,  then have a look at the BICON link.

    • Like 1

    Aussie Broadband Worst in World

    in Household

    Posted

    23 minutes ago, Chicken66 said:

    Tbh i'm not looking forward to when we have to take up the nbn. We are rural and have adsl atm which we've had loads of issues with drop out constantly ever since they started the work on the nbn ten months ago. We've had several visits from tech people including one today who has assured me it's all fixed now. Well lets see how it is in a few weeks time, as going by previous so called fixes it usually takes few weeks before it's playing up again. I have resorted to having pre paid modem to be able to do our business work when the home connection is down. Simply not good enough imo.

    We're rural, so have had fixed Wireless NBN for the last year or so. Considering where we live, I've been very happy with it. Today's speed is below

    6735395546.png

     

    we often get faster than that and looking at my speed test figures over the year, several times the download figure has been 40+ Mb/s

    Drop outs - it maybe drops out once a week on average, I'd guess about 20 minutes downtime per week.

    We work from home, so internet is vital and it's been fine.

    For backup/redundancy purposes, I do pay $100 per month for a Netgear® Nighthawk® M1  with 40GB per month , but have never had the need to use it at home, so just tend to use it when travelling.

    Cost of living in Melbourne

    in Victoria

    Posted

    No bickering here and I'd class is as good info I'm happy to post some real world figures for us per month

    Mortgage               $1100 - based on a mortgage of $220,000  Scale up as appropriate - $2,600 ish for a $500,000 mortage etc.
    House Insurance  $130 (was more when I was in Melbourne)
    Car Insurance        $90
    Fuel                         $200
    Servicing&Tyres    $35
    Council Rates        $325 
    Electric                   $200  
    Telephone & internet $100
    2 Mobile phones on contract $180
    Food                      $800+ per month (family of 3)
    Health Insurance (Bupa)   $380
    School Fees (catholic, not private) $600 

    Other expenses:

    Entertainment
    Clothes
    School uniform 
    Medications / other medical not covered elsewhere
    vacations

    So around $4000+ per month without the items I haven't included figures for, or $5,500 if our mortgage was around $500,000

    These are real world figures for our family. Obviously ever family is different and there are so many variables.

    To get ideas of figures for you, Use mortgage repayment calculators on the banks sites, go on the coles or woolworth sites and do an online shop to estimate food shopping costs, look at council websites to get ideas of rates costs for that area, look at school websites for fees (if applicable) insurance websites to get sample quotes for cars you may get, houses etc.

     

    • Like 1

    Aussie Broadband Worst in World

    in Household

    Posted

    No complaints here, given we're in a rural location (by choice) and so have a wireless (nbn) connection, I'm more than happy with our connection. We can stream in HD without any issue. To be able to live rural yet still have fast internet is a win/win for me.

    I was equally happy with our FTTH NBN connection when living in a more populous area in Townsville.

     

    Which are the best performing states

    in Money & Finance

    Posted

    If you're moving to Australia and haven't decided where to want to live yet, it may be worthwhile keeping an eye on CommSec's  'State of the States' reports. 

    The quarterly report attempts to find out how Australia’s states and territories performing by analysing eight key indicators:

    • economic growth
    • retail spending
    • equipment investment
    • unemployment
    • construction work done
    • population growth
    • housing finance
    • dwelling commencements.

    Just as the Reserve Bank uses long-term averages to determine the level of “normal” interest rates; CommSec do the same with the economic indicators.

    For each state and territory, latest readings for the key indicators were compared with decade averages – that is, against the “normal” performance.

    The latest State of the States report also includes a section comparing annual growth rates for the eight key indicators across the states and territories as well as Australia as a whole. This enables another point of comparison – in terms of economic momentum.  

    sosoct17.png

     

    FIRST - New South Wales

    nsw.png

    SECOND - Victoria

    vic.png

    THIRD - Australian Capital Territory

    act.png

    FOURTH - South Australia

    sa.png

    FIFTH - Tasmania

    tas.png

    SIXTH - Queensland

    qld.png

    SEVENTH - Northern Territory

    nt.png

    EIGHTH - Western Australia

    wa.png

     

    adobe-pdf-icon.pngDownload the full report: CommSec_State_of_the_States_October2017.pdf

     

    187 Visa nomination advice

    in Working and Skilled Visas

    Posted

    From https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa/Usin/Using-a-migration-agent-in-Australia

     

    Withdrawing the appointment of your migration agent

    If you withdraw or terminate the appointment of your migration agent, they should advise the department in writing or using Form 956.

    If Form 956 is used to notify the department, your migration agent will ask you to sign and indicate at Q24 (Declaration by Client) that they are no longer acting on your behalf.

    If you appoint a new migration agent, they should notify the department using Form 956.

     

    Form 956 is available via the link above

    Power adapter/converter UK to AUS (?)

    in Travel

    Posted

    Hi

    If your laptop's from the UK then it's fine to use with a plug adapter as the UK & Australia use the same voltage - 240volts

    Your UK hair straighteners would have exploded as the UK uses 240Volts where as the US uses 110 volts, so they were being supplied with over twice the voltage they were designed for. In that case, you would have needed to use a step up/down voltage transformer to use your hair straighteners in the US.

     

    (Just to be strictly accurate, then I don't get pulled on it, The UK uses 230 V +10%/−6%., as does Australia (since 2000) As in the UK, 240 V is within the allowable limits and "240 volt" is a synonym for mains in Australian and British English)

    • Thanks 1

    Australian Wealth Gap

    in Money & Finance

    Posted

    https://www.smsfadviser.com/news/15935-bequests-a-low-priority-for-retirees-survey-shows  (03rd Oct 2017)

    Leaving an inheritance for children is no longer a top priority for older Australians, according to a recent report, with regular income rated as the most important instead.

    A report produced by National Seniors Australia and Challenger indicates that only 23 per cent of retirees consider leaving money for kids to be very important, and only 3 per cent intend to preserve all their savings for an inheritance.

    Having a constant stream of regular income to cover essential needs is the top priority for over 50s, with 84 per cent rating this as very important.

    Ensuring savings last throughout their lifetime is the second highest priority, with 77 per cent of respondents rating this as very important.

    Having enough funds to pay for medical costs and aged care is the third most important factor, with 71 per cent rating this as important.

    Chair of retirement income at Challenger, Jeremy Cooper, said these results debunk the myth that bequests are the top priority for retirees.

    “The need for regular income to avoid running out of money, and to pay for aged care and medical costs, is far more important for older Australians,” said Mr Cooper.

    National Seniors research director John McCallum said bequests are not central to planning for their retirement and senior Australians “are weighing these up against other trade-offs they must make to deal with longer lifespans”.

    Report_RetirementIncome.pdf

    • Like 1
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