seth

Thanks for the sound advice, I need to do some more homework to give it a fair comparison I guess. Much appreciated Seth

Hi, Have just been for an interview at a school in Perth(NOR) for my son whose in yr8 and is 13 this jan coming. He did well in the interview etc and was offered a place at the school Jul 13 when we return permanently. my only concern is that the school seem to want to put him in yr8 for the term and then decide if he's not ready for that yr to then start him the following year with those that are at present in yr7. ie he repeats yr8. The school are saying it is common for alot of UK kids to repeat the same year in oz as the curriculum is different to the UK and the kids struggle. Now i'm happy for him to stay longer in the education pieline and also for us to pay an extra years school fee's. However i'm not sure if this is common place or not, any advice or feedback would be much appreciated. I really don't want him to start at a new school and make new friends to be back coursed in a few months to then start making new friends again! it will be hard enough for him let alone him having to do it all again some 5 months later.

Fingers crossed for you all.

Lol we are in the same position except the boyfriend does work and is a good guy. Our daughter isn't to keen on coming over but I am sure once the rest of us leave and she has visited us she will want to emigrate aswell. Am not sure after emigrating how long it is before you can sponsor family members, as I think the rules have changed.

I am flying out with sa in dec to validate my visas and have 20kg standard baggage. Can I ask, when we as a family fly back out next year one way only to live in oz, can we have a 40kg baggage allowance even tho we have activated our visas? Not wanting to hijack the thread by the way. We booked sa as our friends flew with them last year to oz and said they where fantastic.

Ok thanks for that, may have to look at private schools day after we arrive then if they close that early. Haven't factored in jet lag tho lol.

To be honest we only got our visa granted 2days ago, booked flights yesterday and over the next few weeks will plan our trip etc. school wise our boy who is 12 at the moment and is in a private school, subsidised from my employers due to my work. Friends of ours are going to be introducing us to her sister who is a teacher in Perth so hopefully she can help out with some recommendations. But she isnt visiting till end of July. I have just emailed a distant cousin that I haven't seen for ages but she, along with her family live in Perth so hopefully she can help. My nana spoke to her the other day for me lol to break the ice:biggrin: So we haven't really got a list as yet, just hoping to get a head start from others on this forum.

When we have drawn up a short list of possible schools we will be trying to visit them on our first few days in Perth as I think most of the schools close around the 14/15 December, so we have a very small window of opportunity for him to see them.

Lol, thought I was on something myself them aswell, as I swore blind I had posted on this thread:eek:

We are in the same boat as yourselves, doing a trip over at Xmas to activate our visas and my wife has said she would prefer sor. This suites me aswell for possible future employment IMO. we are busy searching the net for accommodation at the moment, flights are booked so any advice on areas etc would be great.

Fingers crossed for u to meet the dead line.

I will be in the same position in July next year, am doing a recce this Xmas and any info as to schools and areas would be much appreciated. Our boys schooling is on a level par with location for us, however we are also not minted lol but would consider a slightly cheap independent school.

Congrats :biggrin:

Cheers everybody, house is buzzing and we are now knee deep in looking for flights etc:biggrin: Fingers crossed for everybody else to receive positive news soon aswel.

Just been granted our visas........OMG:biggrin: cannot believe it has happened so fast.

All signed up, seems wrong that after all those years of paying they freeze it.

Same for us, we just want the opportunity to try living in Perth:biggrin: Cant help with any of the online forms as I've pretty much left it all from day 1 to my agents, I just do as they ask and within the time frames.

Police checks took about 12 days from when we posted them. We are so close we have started to look at flights for Xmas to activate the visas lol, won't book anything until its all granted tho, don't want to jinx it:err:

Congrats to you both. Gtdave, I don't know the actual policy but like your self we are hoping that because we have police and meds all done and dusted with no issues, that now our CO has everything back its hopefully just a matter of time for being given a YES. I would be gutted if after all this time and financial input they said no at the last hurdle!!!

Congrats on getting your visa:biggrin:

Medicals done and ok, police checks cleared now as well. Form 80 all done everything is now back with the case officer. I hope this is the very last hurdle, me and the wife would like to talk about something other than getting our visas lol. The last 2 months things have happened really quickly for us, it's been unbelievable.

Of to do our medicals today, police checks sent yesterday and form 80's sent yesterday to our agents. Fingers crossed it all goes to plan today!!

Submitted 1st may, will do my timelines when I get home, am away fishing for the week at the moment LOL hard life!!

We got our co on Wednesday, and medicals are now booked for the 17th!! It's all happening so quick lol after all this time it seems to be moving vvv quickly. Only drama we have is that I can't move out to Perth until earliest Aug next year due to work commitments, so instead of doing the blind leap of faith LOL we will have to go out to activate the visas some time within the next 12 months otherwise my med checks etc will run out. Looks like an expensive Xmas recce then!

My agent did most of it for me, all I had to do was sign a couple of docs and send them back.