John and Alexa

It's one of the trip that we are looking forward to doing at some point when we finally get over to Oz. Seeing as we are going all the way by train from the Uk though it maybe a while before we do it as I can imagine we might be a little tired of trains by then

Just sent you a pm with some contacts - hope they might be of some help to you John

Hi Jonny After sacking our migration agent a few weeks ago Alexa was contacted directly from a company (via a Linkedin contact of mine) over in Sydney. She flys out this weekend to discuss face to face etc so fingers crossed that will all work out. I just decided to start adding more Australian contacts to my network and seems to have been quite successful so far with both agencies and companies making direct contact. I know Aecom are recruiting directly in at present but more than happy to send you details of the agents that have been in contact so far although mostly Sydney based if that helps.

I am an M&E co-ordinator/draughtsman and have been getting calls direct from Oz 3-4 times a week at the moment so there seems to be plenty of large building projects around.

i know Hays Montrose are based in both countries but not sure what they can offer from here to there - might be worth an ask. I have been adding quite a few Australian contacts via Linkedin of late and they seem more than happy to pick up the phone and call you. Far better response than the agents here that i have been dealing with of late. If it's Sydney that you are thinking of then more than happy to pass over a few names if that helps.

I left the Uk on an overland trip to Sydney back in 2010 using UKTOOZ. Although the experience was awesome there are far better companies out there if that interested you. We are planning the next trip to Oz by using the Trans Mongolian then train down to Singapore and hopefully a short cruise over to Oz from Bali. Some idea's there I hope Have an awesome trip

seems to be a lot of problems with certain agents of late. We are in the exact same boat as 15 months later and no further forward than the day we began. We have got the feeling from out agent that because we want to move and begin a new life that they can keep taking advantage. Just collating what we have etc to present to MARA, informed Vetassesss to deal with us and not agent and shall be instructing legal proceedings shortly. Also formally requested all paperwork be returned to us too especially after being told it wasn't to hand that it would take 14 days for them to get it let alone send it (how can you work on it if it ain't there) Wishing you all the best Che11 and hope that you get the outcome you wish for

I was at the ANZAC memorial in Gallipoli 2010 to pay my respects and was so moved and honoured by the event and the people with the will to remember those who fell. It is still something that I think about on nearly a daily basis and the pride and emotions I felt that day are just as strong now as then. The sense of pride I experienced has been a driving force for us not to give up in our venture to maybe one day live in a country where passion and pride remain at the forefront of all else.

Well the last few days with our so called agent have been eventful thats for sure. Agent see's our attempts at trying to resolve the shortcomings as a personal attack as she feels she is getting the blame - we blame the company and not the individual even though she is ultimately responsible for our case. She has stated that she is far too busy to read our messages etc and this was going around in circles with all concerns not being responded too. We sat up until 2:30am to call them and basically they refused any verbal communication. We have asked for the termination of our contract, return all paperwork and fee's not used as we have paid for lodging and will be lodging our complaint with MARA later today. Not sure if they are ready for over 100 pages of transcript mostly us asking what the hell is going on etc and being fobbed off. Nothing like the feeling of wasting 15 months and even if the dream is going to be delayed it surely has to be better than constantly arguing with an agent who has been paid to have our best interests.

Totally agree with the fact they have lives in their hands. We have our fingers crossed for you too

Thank you for your time this evening. It is really appreciated :biggrin: Thanks again

Thanks for the responses guys - just frustrating that all and the option to report to MARA has no bearing or aid to us for missing these deadlines so kind of seems like a waste of time Dib - IELTS was done 14 months ago lol - thats the point - the frustration is overwhelming as paid thousands to have to do al the work and chasing myself. Will be looking at various other options for sure but just wasted a hell of a time for no reason.

Well with our application looking dead in the water - I can defo tell you who to avoid

Hi Guys As some people already know we used the services of an agent 15months ago and have been more than useless from day one. They failed to meed the 1st of July deadline last year for some unknown reason stating they where busy working on other people applications etc (made us feel so great) then after what can only be describes a serious of cock-ups and us threatening them with MARA etc we seemed to but everything behind us and carry on. Well here we are 12 months to the week since they had all of our paperwork to submit to Vetassess and was only submitted 12 weeks ago and still no outcome other than they have messed up once again, in this time our ANZCO code has disappeared for all except ACT and noted that they are stating deadlines for 1st May to get applications in (leaving us just over a week) for or it will have to be resubmitted under the new July 2012 rules. We had to tell the agent this rather than the other way around. My question is with what can only be an awful service by our agents who have single handed screwed up our application from start to finish we hel accountable for anything. We are going to go down the route of MARAbut we cannot see how we can benefit in anyway. Looks like the dream might be over after 15months of hassle to get this on track. We thought we had done the right thing to employ an agent to take the hassle away and could not have been more wrong.

Brilliant - just looking at the ships details now Totally agree it seems like a great way to end the trip and begin the new adventure. We thought it would be an awesome treat for us especially after spending weeks on the trains etc.

Hiya Where are you guys hoping to get the boat from as we are looking onto this too as we are leaving the Uk by train all the way to Singapore but a nightmare finding one from Asia to Oz Alexa & john

All I know is that when we looked into it we could have the option to have the roots Chlorinated/Low Radiation Typically I cannot find the correct page as she has filed it away somewhere - but we are pinning our hopes on that as a possibility. I will try and dig out the correct info later when she finally gets home - could be that we are barking up the wrong tree.

http://www.aqis.gov.au/icon32/asp/ex_casecontent.asp?intNodeId=8764242&intCommodityId=1784&Types=none&WhichQuery=Go+to+full+text&intSearch=1&LogSessionID=0

We have some Roses that pose the same problem as they are for our dogs that we lost a little while ago. We have looked into it and there does seem to be a process for it as the supplier of one of the roses ships to Australia

Hi I was just wondering if anyone had ever been given their login details to Vetassess to view the progress of their application, the only reason i ask is that we did request this and this is the response we got in return. Just wondering if this is the norm as would have liked to have a look for ourselves and would have thought they would all be allocated to individual accounts. "Please feel free to request a status update from me directly for as your application is lodged under the same account as my other clients, I cannot give you direct access to the progress online"

I hope that they have finally realised and lodged the application as requested as this sounds like a very similar experience to the agent that we have been using. All paperwork received by them last March and only submitted 6 weeks ago - this was only done after telling them that we would be reporting them to MARA etc.

Thank you Ken Great bit of info knowing that I would not have to pay twice.

Hi All I was just wondering if anyone had an idea of the tax implications with regards to revenue earned from the licensing of intellectual properties. If a deal is done with a company in the Uk do I end up paying tax in both the Uk and Oz or does some kind of rebate exist once I move over to Australia Thank you in advance John

Hiya If you are only going temporarily then you will probably only be able to take them in on a Carnet & you will need to ship them home again when you leave. The RAC organise carnet's for vehicles leaving the UK temporarily http://media.rac.co.uk/pdf/carnet-de-passage-information.pdf A

Thank you for all your comments guys Well we have taken the plunge and told the agent that we wish to terminate our contract with them as the service they have provided is below sub standard, as yet there has been no reply from them but that just indicates business as usual as we never seem to get many replies anyway. The last contact we had from them was basically informing us that if we made contact with MARA in relation to our case and the treatment we have so far received that this would not be favourable to our case - this just felt more like a threat and cannot see why it would affect our case as nothing has happened with it in over 10 months (feels like a year totally wasted) We will be passing our case over to MARA as we feel that others wishing to use this agent need to tink carefully and that a wrist slap could be a good thing for possible future clients. Now all we need to do is search for a very good and reputable visa agent who indeed specialises in the I.T. industry and can make some headway in us both obtaining the visa we require. So if anyone has any recommendations we would be grateful if they could possibly pass their details on to us. Regards John & Alexa