ABL275

Two thoughts: - Get a spell-checker; Australians do like their immigrants to at last look educated! - Get a plan; you can't base your emigration and future life on a fraudulent visa (this isn't the UK!). Take a look at what other visa options are available (regional settlement visas perhaps) or which skill-sets are being sought and then develop your own plan to retrain or get better qualifications or whatever it takes to score enough points to qualify. It may take a couple of years or more but without a plan you'll never make it. Good luck!

There's a reason it's called the 'lucky country'...too many of the locals get paid far too much to churn out sub-standard work because no-one knows what 'good' actually looks like. I was recently on a large (400 staff) IT project for state government were the leadership team was exclusively British, Irish, South African and New Zealander which probably tells a story so I think you're doing the right thing; it can take a while to get settled but after 5 years I've now got citizenship, security clearances (job for life!) a couple of horses and a few acres to ride them on (not bad for a poor Scouse lad) so stick with it and I'm sure it will turn out well in the end.

I applied for an 820 visa and was granted an 801 straight away

Your wait for an 820 visa might not be as onerous as the online waiting times suggest. I moved from a 457 to an 820 visa after being let go - it took about 5 weeks to do all the paper work (mainly police checks which took around 3 weeks) but once I submitted my application is was granted in just 10 days despite warnings on the DIAC website that it could take up to 14 months. If your visa case is pretty clear cut (we'd been married for 10 years) and all the documents are in English then applications seem to go through much faster.

VPN work well and is reasonably priced

Ditto - an 820 visa has permanent residence attached to it (in the case of the 820 permanent means for as long as you remain with your partner stays and up to 2 years thereafter but best to check the details and small print). To obtain citizenship you normally have to have lived in Australia for 4 years and the last 2 years must be as a permanent resident (again check the details), so once you've received your 820 visa you'll normally have to wait another 2 years to qualify to apply for citizenship (assuming you've already been in Australia for at least 2 years prior to the grant of the 820 visa). Note that citizenship is not granted automatically, you have to apply, do the tests and provide references and documentation to be accepted. Merely committing a criminal offence in the UK is no longer enough :jiggy:

I'm with you - possibly one of the most unpleasant responses I've ever seen on PIO! Maybe he thinks you're trying to take his job? Anyway well done mate, glad to hear you finally got the 820. I went from 457 to 801 (I seemed to skip the 820 bit, but then we'd already been married 10 years and probably should have come out on that in the first place)

Phew! Missed that post and was worried I would be turning someone off Canberra. In which case the voluntary contribution would be the only thing payable at most state schools and I think that was only about $200-$300 at my daughter's last state school

Not sure about government schools being free. When I arrived in 2011 my daughter was 5 years old and I was required to pay $9,900 per year for her to be educated at a local state school, plus an 'administrative' fee of $440. As Canberra Girls Grammar were only charging $9,300 per year at that time, clearly it was $1,000 a year cheaper to send her to the best school in Canberra rather than take pot luck with the local state school. The background at the time was that each state could charge non-permanent residents a portion of the actual annual cost of educating a pupil (which was around $10,000 p.a.). For most states the recharge portion was 0%, for NSW with a high portion of overseas visitors it was 30% and the ACT, being tiny but with thousands of foreign diplomatic and military staff, it was 100%. I had negotiated this into my salary here but the real kicker was that they wanted the whole amount up front. The wording of the regulations have changed from what I remember but take a look at: http://www.education.act.gov.au/school_education/international_students ...which states..."The International Education Unit (IEU) is responsible for the enrolment of international students and the dependants of temporary residents from Pre School to Year 12 into all government schools in Canberra." [sic] Fees and charges for non-resident pupils can be found towards the bottom of this web page: http://www.education.act.gov.au/school_education/international_students/fees-and-charges Some visas will exempt you from school fees so best check first.

ACT schools are generally rated highly in nationwide comparisons so you'll be OK whether you go private or not, although inevitably private schools score best (my daughter's at Girls Grammar). Presumably you've explored whether or not you'd be required to contribute towards your child's education?

Bring anything that you particularly like or that's good quality. Australia will have pretty much everything you'll need in one form or another but the choice is more limited than in Britain and probably even more so than in the US. Australia is the lend of the great duopoly; just two main supermarket chains, two main department stores, two household store chains, two domestic car companies etc. so there's not the same choice, but people also tend to pretty much live outside more and are just not as interested in material things.

For a while we struggled to find Branston Pickle or Lime Pickle but have found even those now, so there's really nothing much that we can't get. We initially invested in a Kindle as books are more expensive and we kept our UK DVD player and got DVDs sent out by Amazon, but as we watch most films online through FoxTel even that's no longer an issue. If you're a fan of Church's English shoes I'd get an extra pair or two but otherwise everything's here.

We changed our address to a parent's address for most bank, insurance and other financial organisations because (we found) it was becoming too problematic to try use an Australian address. Most financial institution are required to guard against fraud and money laundering and have a raft of prohibitive rules that make it very difficult to change to an overseas address. I tried changing bank details but the website required proof that I'd informed HMRC of my new tax status etc. etc. Given the difficulties of even contacting anyone at HMRC (especially from overseas) I gave up. To be honest, the banks and insurers were becoming so 'difficult' I was starting to worry that just having an overseas address at some time was enough to get you branded as an "international money launderer" !

Bywong's pretty decent; an easy drive now that the Majura Parkway is complete and an easy run to Bungendore if you want something quieter. Our cats just stared and then ignored the roo's in the way that only cats can do :smile:

Good luck - where will you be staying?

Depends how soon the house is available but they tend to do things quite quickly. I've been in 3 rented houses and 1-2 weeks has been average for me. January might be quiet as everyone is away or out of town on their Christmas/summer holidays and typically December is when the host of diplomatic/political/military postings seem to change over so you may have to just take what's available. That said there's huge rental capacity here so plenty of stuff coming up all the time but it does move fast; you pretty much have to dress smart and go to inspections with the paperwork already filled in - ready to hand in if you like the house in order to get the better rentals.

Probably a jobsworth - I had problems sending my passport application because the signature the back of my photo was slightly smudged. I had three jobsworths swear blind it wouldn't be accepted but I percivered, they sent it and I got my passport 10 days later. AusPost staff are not that bright and totally risk averse - why didn't you just pop it in the post box?

Did you find anywhere in the end?

Great story - just got my citizenship 5 weeks ago too - well done to the both of you.

We've got a 14-year old XC90 in Canberra and wouldn't be without it. Just ordered a few new bits (rear reflector and windscreen wipers). The wipers came straight from stock and the reflector had to be ordered in - it arrived the following day but they'd ordered the wrong side so had to re-order - that came the following day. Needless to say, if it ain't in stock then they have it within 24 hours. For anything that doesn't need new parts we've always had Ike's Motors in Philip do small repairs/servicing. I also spent a year working in Sydney and had a fantastic dealership (Purnell Motors, 990 King Georges Rd, Blakehurst NSW 2221) and they went as far as storing my car for me (as the service was finished a day after I left the UK) until I returned 3 weeks later - unbelievable service

Same here!

Same here!

Ditto - ex-pat scouser here in the ACT but you've got to remember that if you get on a plane in Sydney to head home you have to fly for over 5 hours just to leave Australian air-space. Whereabouts are you thinking of heading?

A decent vacuum (Dyson) cleaner as some electricals can be significantly more expensive here. A few tools (screwdrivers, spanners, hammer) for fixing any minor bits and pieces (having moved here, then back to the UK and then back here I now have a huge set from all the times I've had to buy new ones while waiting for my toolbox to arrive). Also bring a few UK multi-plug boards (so you can just change the plug on the extension and don't have to put a new Australian plug on every electrical item) and a few UK-Australian adaptors for when you travel.

I just wonder how many of those Kiwis in Oz were originally British too :-)