Kellex

Foolhardy yes for anyone not seeing a property first but this is not our intention! Thanks Kellex

Hi just wondering if anyone has bought a house in Australia before arriving? we have been looking in to buying an investment property, we will be moving to Victoria at the end of next year as my husband has 1 year left to work on his contract. it seems we can get a mortgage on our visa and as we have sold our house now in the UK we thought it would be wise to invest the money in another property, which we could rent out whilst my husband is still working and then we could move in when we arrive in Australia. any thoughts or suggestions I would be grateful. Thanks Kellex

Hi gwolst77 just been reading this thread and was wondering if you managed to get your daughter in to school early? We will be in the same situation when we move next year as our daughter turns 5 on the 1st may. we have just returned from our reccie trip and loved point cook especially the alamanda estate so I would be very interested in what you think of the school there? Is it open now? It sounds like you have settled very well and enjoying life there! Do you work in IT & Telecoms? ​Thanks Kellex

Hi All Just back from our 2 week trip to Melbourne and we had such an amazing time I just want to share our experiences as I have found these posts the most helpful. Myself, my husband & our 4 year old daughter flew on the 1st May with Malaysian Airlines to Melbourne, we decided to stay in Kuala Lumpur for a night to break the journey up and because it was our daughters birthday the day we flew. overall the flights were pretty good as we got a very good fare when we booked them in January so didn't expect too much, the leg room was good with seat back tv's e.t.c both flights were pretty full and I would Definately recommend booking seats and childrens meals in advance if you are travelling with children. The food was good but I have to say the service/crew on the first leg was pretty poor but the second leg totally different and the crew couldn't do enough for you, I have flown alot and unfortunately this does seem to be the case with most airlines that I have flown with which is a shame as it can make a real difference to the comfort and experience. We stayed for 1 night at the Sama Sama hotel at KL airport and I have to say it was fantastic and would highly recommend this hotel especially if you are travelling with children, we landed in KL at 0600 and got the buggy service straight to check in, we were in our room by 0700 and round the pool by 0730 lol This was the perfect time to arrive as we managed to swim for an hour or so then went back to the room for a sleep mid morning and set our alarm to wake up for some lunch, we were then all refreshed for the afternoon/evening and all had an excellent nights sleep in the most comfy bed ever!! We then left on the 1030 flight the next morning and KL is only 2 hours behind Melbourne so we didn't experience any jet lag. Also KL airport is probably the best airport I have ever experienced, very family friendly and very efficient. We arrived in Melbourne around 8pm and was met by my brother and mum which was lovely, we had a slight delay at immigration but this was only to check our visa details on the system and to get the validation stamp. My brother lives in Werribbee and we were staying with them for most of the time but had plans to visit Geelong and some other surrounding suburbs, we have been to Melbourne a couple of times already so knew the area where my brother lives pretty well so we wanted to explore a bit further afield. We had booked a hire car with Europcar in Werribbee at a very reasonable rate which we picked up on the Monday and had for about 10 days in total, we headed down to Geelong for a few days and had booked in to the BIG 4 Riverview tourist park which was lovely. It's located in Belmont about 5 mins drive to the centre of Geelong on the Barwon river. we liked Geelong especially down at the waterfront where they have some lovely restaurants, landscaped gardens, wide walking paths and lovely play areas for children. We walked up to Eastern beach where they have the botanical gardens and also the large enclosed pool which in summer I'm sure is an excellent place to spend time. We also spent time exploring some of the suburbs such as Belmont, Highton, Newtown & Waurn ponds. We visited estate agents to get some info on rental property but most of the houses tend to be older here although on bigger plots (than around where my brother lives) price wise similar although I think Internet can be a problem in some of the older suburbs which will be a big consideration for us when we move. If we secured work in Geelong then we would be more than happy to move here but probably some of the newer areas such as Waurn ponds mainly because we like the newer modern houses and would want a good Internet connection, if you want to live near the sea and have access to a city it is a good option. Back at my brothers we spent lots of time exploring suburbs in and around Werribbee such as Altona, Hoppers Crossing, Williams Landing and Point Cook and ended up spending lots of time in Point Cook. It has a lovely town centre and everything there you could possibly need, we spoke to Point Cook real estate who couldn't have been any more helpful, they gave us lots of info on the different estates, Internet access and also a really useful guide on the schools and the strict zoned areas to where you live. I think this is somewhere we would probably spend the first 6 months to settle in and look for work but ultimately it will depend on where my husbands job will be as we understand the traffic in and out can be difficult if you are commuting to the city. I don't think either of us will be working in the city but if we did then we would probably look at Williams Landing which is slightly nearer and a new train station has just opened here, they are also now starting to build a new town centre so I think this will be similar to point cook in a couple of years. Another area we spent 1 night is Caroline Springs and this was also nice, I hadn't heard about this area but my sister in law who is Aussie said we should visit and it had a really nice feel with some lovely houses and apparently good schools. my only slight concern is the schools as our daughter will be starting soon after we plan to move next year and there seems such a mix it will be hard choosing the right one I think. Overall though it definately confirmed that Australia is for us and we are excited about the move next year, we spoke to some lovely people and got lots of information, we also managed to open a bank account using my brothers address so we can start saving and transferring some money over the next year. Good luck to everyone making the move x

Thanks lebourvellec, That was really helpful, so basically if we move in 2017 and not leave the country for 2 years we could apply for a 5 year RRV or 3 years + we could apply for citizenship? thanks again

Thanks for the reply, so you have to apply for a RRV after the five years if you wanted to leave Australia for a holiday or any other reason?

Hi We have a 176 SS visa granted on the 29th November 2012, we have to validate the visa before the 17th August 2103 so have our validation trip booked for May this year. At the moment we are not sure when we will make the final move but will hopefully have a better idea after our trip in May. Our visa expiry date is the 29th November 2017, so if we were to move sometime in 2017 what happens when the visa expires? Has anyone left it this late to move and had any issues staying in Australia? Thanks Kellex

Hi Sams Family I have just emailed this company for a quote as we have already sold our house and have everything packed and currently in Storage, I am also going to email other companies so I will see how they compare.

Hi Craig Thanks for that We are moving from UK to Melbourne, we are currently living in Kosovo (husbands job) so have everything in storage in England as we sold our house last year. I am assuming our quotes will be less as everything is already packed up but just about to email companies for quotes so we will see Thanks Kellex

Hi I have read a lot of posts re shipping and a lot of people seem to have hidden prices or extras to pay that they were not aware of. is there a company that offers a fully inclusive price? I am just about to email a few shipping companies so any recommendations would be helpful Thanks Kellex

Hi Cheekymonkey We are also moving to Melbourne and have been looking in to moving costs e.t.c and I would say you have estimated well, we have budgeted approximately £20,000 but we are shipping our car along with the contents of our 3 bedroom house, we also have our visa so this doesn't include this outlay. we are travelling to Melbourne in May to validate our visa so will be looking in to different areas, child care, schools e.t.c I have family in Werribbee but the areas we like the look of so far are Geelong, Parkdale and some other eastern suburbs but it will really depend on where my husband secures work. good luck with everything Regards Kellex

Hi Stephanie the first date (November 2013) is when you have to validate the visa by - so you could do a reccie trip for 10 days or so before this date, the second date (Jan 2017) is when you have to have moved to Australia. we are validating our visa in May this year (we have to do this before August) then we have to be in Australia 2017 sometime I think, we are planning on saving more money this year then moving over next year. Regards Kellex

Hi There we have our 176 visa finally after waiting nearly 18 months!! We are planning our reccie trip for May and really like the look of Geelong and the surrounding suburbs I have family in Werribee so do know the area a little bit but only now starting to look at jobs e.t.c my husband is in telecommunications and I am a travel agent, I have seen many travel jobs in this area but not so many telecom jobs. Would be great to hear from anyone that has recently moved to this area and has a better insight in to the job market or know of any local companies my husband could email? Is he more likely to get work in this field in Melbourne? Thanks Kellex

Hi There we have our 176 visa finally after waiting nearly 18 months!! We are planning our reccie trip for May and really like the look of Geelong and the surrounding suburbs I have family in Werribee so do know the area a little bit but only now starting to look at jobs e.t.c my husband is in telecommunications and I am a travel agent, I have seen many travel jobs in this area but not so many telecom jobs. Would be great to hear from anyone that has recently moved to this area and has a better insight in to the job market or know of any local companies my husband could email? Is he more likely to get work in this field in Melbourne? Thanks Kellex

Thanks for the reply Dazz We are both British, my husband has worked in some high risk countries which maybe why it's taking so long! We have provided lots of evidence and information on his work in those places so it should not be too hard to confirm, he is also ex military so not sure if this has any bearing? My husband is going to call them on Monday though so hopefully we may get answers Thanks again Btw were you instructed to do police checks and mess before you got a CO?