TraxFM

Bump

any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Bump

It does depend where you drink, we tend to go to see bands and the bar prices are cheap. This weekend we stayed in Newcastle, my OH ordered a pint and a G&T at the hotel bar and got a fiver out - it was just under £11!! We've not paid those sort of prices since we lived in Perth! We quickly moved on to seedier places

I live in newcastle! Which hotel were you in?

I was at a golden wedding anniversary party on Saturday night at a working men's club and a G&T was around £2.20 which is very cheap!!!

Me and my OH have 2 years left on a 175 PR visa but are currently facing a dilemma in the fact that my OH has started to doubt if we can afford to live in Australia. He is a maintenance Fitter and currently earns 30k but if we follow the 2.2 conversion rule it means he would need to earn roughly 66k AUD but all of the jobs we are seeing advertised in and around the Brisbane area aren't for that much.

I currently work for the local council on a part time basis but would be prepared to go full time if need be.

Any advice from any fitters or just any general advice with regards to the cost of living would be greatly appreciated. :wink:

Your licence doesn't expire until you are 70, only the photo card part (without fraudulently saying you live at a friend or relatives address it can't be renewed from overseas). In other threads it has been said that it can still be used to drive on in Australia.

Yes, if you check the date on the back of the card part in box no 11 it will have the full expiry date on, this should be the same as your paper part. It's only the photocard that expires as they like you to update your photo every 10 years. Unless you have a medical condition that restricts you. My husband is diabetic so he only gets a licence for 3 years at a time.

Hi my hubby is a machine tool fitter and we live on the Gold Coast .. He got a job within the first month of getting here working :twitcy:in Brisbane .. He commutes an hour each day to get to work as a field service engineer and have to say living in the Gold Coast is just fab for us . So depending on job availability you could still follow your dream of heading to the gold coast .Your hubby is more likely to get a job in the Brisbane area as the Gold Coast is very limited . you say your only an hour from Blackpool we are form West Yorkshire so probably not that far from our home town .

Hello, I have just been reading through old posts for some advice and stumbled across yours.

My husband is a maintenance fitter and we are looking to move to the Brisbane area but he is struggling to find work whilst we are here in the UK, did you have the same problem?

I noticed you said your husband secured work within a month, would you mind if I asked where and if he knows of any places that are recruiting at the moment? My OH currently is working in a hygiene factory making toilet rolls but has a lot of experience in the print and packaging industries fixing machines and doing routine maintenance, etc.

It would make my life so much easier if he could secure a job before we came out. We only have 2 years left on our PR 175 visa. :wubclub:

A couple of years ago the pound was so weak against the dollar that would have been expensive! If you are on 40k combined I would say you need to be on about 90k here for similar lifestyle

Again though, do you mean we would need to be earning the equivalent of 90k English for similar lifestyle or 90k once it's been converted into dollars?

Since from your status it says you are in Kent, providing your salary is going to be at least 2.2$ to the £, I would think you would find it okay. Again from your status it says Adelaide bound so that is in your favour too, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth are the most expensive cities.

 

We went to Perth from Scotland and struggled because working in Financial Services in Edinburgh I got higher wages than I got in Perth as well as the higher cost of living.

I know this seems complicated but I can't get my head around it!

When you say as long as your salary is 2.2$ to the £ do you mean once it's converted? ie 30k in £'s is converted into 49k$ If you use the the current rate or do mean that you would have to be earning 2.2 x your salary ie 2.2 x 30k so you would need to earn £66k and then convert it into $??

I have confused myself now!!

The reason I ask is that we have 2 years left on a PR visa and are thinking the exact same things with regards to the cost of living but we are thinking of Queensland areas possibly near Brisbane.

My hubby earns 30k here and me 10k working part time but he thinks we will struggle in Oz due to the high cost of living. We came over 2 years ago now for a reccie and did find things were expensive but we had earned our money as £'s and spending it as $ made it seem a lot more expensive. Even things people have mentioned already, such as bread and milk I thought were extortionate.

I feel we will manage but do we want to just manage after moving to the other side of the world and giving up your relatively safe job and selling your home (renting isn't an option for us) and all of your possessions??

So many questions, my head is rattling!!!:wacko:

I would be interested in this information also

Guys,

 

Quick question for anyone who has had to upload extra documents after getting a Case Officer.

 

My agent has forwarded me the details of what DIAC still require from me, its basically my payslips and some tax documents along with the kids birth certificates.

 

I have uploaded them to the same place as the previous documents, is that the correct thing to do, if so does the case officer get an 'alert' to say I have uploaded new documents or does my agent have to email him/her?

 

Thanks for any help/advice

 

Bharat

Congrats Bharat, great news!

I think you may have to tell your agent that you have uploaded the documents so he can tell the CO, I sent my evidence to my agent first and he uploaded it for me.

I hope this helps

Tracy

G'day guys,

 

Long time no post

 

took me a while to read through everything, BLECH - CONGRATULATIONS.

 

BPREMJI - was hoping to come on here to see you have a CO at least. I dont think it'll be long for you.

 

CONGRATULATIONS to all those who im not familiar with who have got COs and/or grants, its an amazing feeling eh

 

update from me:

House sold and completed on the 3rd January. We are currently residing at my mums and we have booked our ONE WAY TICKETS for the 20th September 2012. This is giving us time to save for the big move (have you seen the prices of cars in oz - OMG). lol.

 

For those who are still waiting, never give up hope, it will happen, sooner or later, patience is the name of the game (although I was probably one of the most impatient members on here).

 

Enough from me. Best of luck everyone

Hello

Nice to see everything is going well for you!

We are going to activate our visa in Aug so will just miss your arrival date of 20th Sept. I have just been looking on

PIA and we have been looking for a rental in the same places!

Keep in touch and good luck!!

Hi Everyone,

 

 

I've been in the torture chamber for a long time. I've been waiting for 14 months now. I've got a job offer in Australia. Can start as soon as I've got the visa. But it takes and takes and takes more time.

 

I got a CO on 2 sept. That one disappeared for some reason.

Then I got a new CO on 14 oktober. But now after waiting for 4 months still nothing.

 

My friends and familie are laughing behind my back. They ask me when I'm going to abandon my plans to go to Australia! They ask me: did you do everything right?...did you apply for the right visa?...do you know what you are doing? Well...I feel like an idiot. :mad:

Hello

Have you used an agent because if you have I would contact them and ask what is happening.

If not you should send an electronic update request to your CO to ask what is happening, that is a long time to wait for a 175 visa grant as they are issuing visas from April/May applicants of this year at the moment.

For 175 applicants, did the case officer ask for proof of financial capacity like savings or assets?

 

- John Paul

 

http://towardsaustralia.blogspot.com

Chronicles of my Independent Skilled Migration Application to Australia

Not from us!

Has anyone had their 175 been rejected by DIAC?? Pls share your experiences, if possible..

There was someone on part one of this thread called Dinkydoo who had their visa refused due to lack of work experience.

Im just curious, are there denied 175 applications? Or does anybody here know somebody denied of a 175 visa?

 

- John Paul

 

http://towardsaustralia.blogspot.com

Chronicles of my Independent Skilled Migration Application to Australia

If you look at some previous pages of this thread 'Dinkydoo' was refused a visa for not meeting the work experience criteria.

Also just to let you know that we have a part 2 of this thread now as the person who ran it had other things going on and it can't be transferred so we had to start a new one!

Hi All,

 

I noticed that some guys have already done their medicals and police clearance even before they were assigned Case Officers ? Is that normal and can i decide to go and do that pending the time my case officer is assigned ?

Yes you can do them before if you want too but your visa entry date will be 12 months from the earliest date of either your medical or police check. Also they are only valid for 12 months.

Or you can just wait for the CO to contact you and then get them. Depends on how quickly you plan on visiting Oz to activate the visa I suppose, everybody is different!! Good luck

Attended the medicals on 31st, and my status has being updated as below;

 

Mine

03/01/2012 Health requirements finalised

03/01/2012 Further medical results received

02/01/2012 Further medical results received

02/01/2012 Further medical results received

03/01/2012 HIV blood test received

 

Baby

03/01/2012 Health requirements finalised

31/12/2011 Further medical results received

 

Husband

25/06/2011 Health requirements outstanding

03/01/2012 Further medical results referred

03/01/2012 Further medical results referred

03/01/2012 Further medical results referred

03/01/2012 HIV blood test referred

 

Not sure why my spouse medical status is "referred". Hope it is nothing to worry about :unsure:. Any idea anyone?

(Please update the excel too)

 

@hmsmark: I think it will be around May 20th, due to the holidays..

There's a few people on the old thread -part 1 that this happened too especially if you don't have any obvious medical issues that is. My husband is diabetic so his got referred or tht but then he was cleared in a few days.

Have a look back at part 1 as I think they just refer some to keep the quotas up!:biggrin:

Happy new year everyone!!

Congrats to all those that had their visas granted recently and I'm sure it won't be long for everyone else!!:cute:

Good Morning Everyone!!!!!

 

What a fantastic day it is today - not only is it my first day off work for the Xmas Break (not back til the 4th) and I think we will get the missives on our house sale concluded this week, but woke up this morning to a

 

DIRECT VISA GRANT (22/12/11)!!!!!!! :chatterbox::chatterbox::chatterbox:

 

Even though I was hoping it would come through before Xmas, I'm still in shock - good shock might I add!!!

 

Just as a bit of additional info, e-mail came in from a senior CO from Team 2 and my first entry date is 04 November 2012, which was the date my front loaded meds were finalised. Also, on the 'Electronic Application Status Page' my application still says 'processing commenced' and all documents still show as required, however under each person it say 'Applicant approved' and the visa entitlement details are there - so guys, don't panic if you don't see any movement on this page, it means nothing!!

 

I want to thank everyone in this forum (and the last one Tania!) as it's been a real lifeline - I'm heading away to visit family over Xmas so won't be on, but will definitely pop back in when I'm back to see how everyone else is doing!!!!

 

GOOD LUCK ALL THOSE WHO WAITING - IT'S ONLY ROUND THE CORNER!!! :biggrin:

That's good news, what a brilliant Xmas present!

Have a good one, all the best!

Hello

I have been having trouble posting over the last few days so had to switch to an app to make it work!

Great idea for the new thread Bpremji, hope everyone migrates over!!

Traxfm

how did the phone interview go Anlopa? Good i hope!

Update from me, we have got a buyer!!! for our house I'm just in the process now of going through the deal so more stress over the next 6 weeks or so.

 

I wanted to know if anyone wanted to take over this thread as in the next couple of weeks I think things will start to get busy for, I will make sure who ever would like to take over get access some how to the front page, please let me know if you are interested.

 

Tania

thats brilliant news tania, been having a bit of trouble with my laptop so took me a while to reply!

I am over the moon for you, wish you all the best for the future and thanks for taking over this thread and keeping us all in check!!:xmas12:

Never thought I would ever say I like tapatalk, but listen to us all if we can't get used to the changes of a forum how will we cope in a new country. I say embrace the changes and from here on in I'm going to positively embrace them and enjoy the lack of familiarity of them. It is like a new start and we will get out of it what we put in. (yarr)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I too will embrace the changes but I don't like that when you press 'like' it takes you to the top of the page every time so you loose your place!! :arghh:

Well this gibbering jelly head:goofy: must have made a good impression during my first interview as I have been put forward for a 2nd on Tuesday with the “Big boss” :GEEK:so I have a dilemma now do i maintain the jelly head style that I turned the first interview in to or do I try a composed and organised approach for the second :wideeyed: Oh no. The email said that the interview will last for approx 1 hour oh boy :wub:at least I can have a load of post it notes and the laptop to hand to answer any awkward questions.:swoon: I’m not complaining though. A job would be fantastic. :jiggy::notworthy::hug:

That's brilliant news!, fingers crossed for your second interview!!!:wubclub: