dinkydoo

We were treated appallingly by the staff of the benefits office! We had to come back at short notice and used our last bit of money to ship our stuff back, we were told that we wound receive no help with anything, not even an emergency loan!! Luckily we had generous friends and parents who paid our bills and bought us food until we were able to find jobs. The reason they gave us was that the decision had been made on the amount of money my husband had earned four year previously and the fact that we had not paid any NI contributions in the 18 months we had been away! Despite the fact that we had paid NI for many many years before we left!!!! just my experience !!!!

Why are immigrants who enter the UK entitled to benefits??? When my husband and I had to return suddenly to the UK from Oz after having only been away for 18 months,( we are both from the UK and hold British passports) we were treated badly by the people in the benefits office, having to prove that we had British passports and relatives in the UK who we had kept in touch with while we were away. We were then told we were not entitled to any benefits, not even job seekers allowance. And as we are both in our forties we had been paying national insurance for many years! YET people coming into the country who have NEVER paid a penny in contributions are able to get all kinds of benefits and housing!!! Rant over!!

This is good to read as we are just about to start the process with Pet air, just waiting to hear back from Joanna regarding our revised quote! And I have to say Bob has been very helpful answering my many questions up to now. Im very nervous about the whole thing as my cat is quite a sensitive soul and I'm worried about how it will all affect him.

This is good to read as we are just about to start the process with Pet air, just waiting to hear back from Joanna regarding our revised quote! And I have to say Bob has been very helpful answering my many questions up to now. Im very nervous about the whole thing as my cat is quite a sensitive soul and I'm worried about how it will all affect him.

Thank you all for your help, my question about driving in UK was just if we went back for holiday, so I guess I would use Aussie one. And someone else I spoke to who used to live in Victoria told me I would have to take a theory type test to get my Aussie license but I hadn't seen anything on here about that I wonder whether they used to do that and its changed since she left??

We will be on PR visa

Could someone please explain to me the process of changing a UK driving license to an Australian driving license, do I have to do any sort of test to change over?? Is it different from state to state? Do you have a specific amount of time to do it and what happens to your UK one? Is it just void is Australia, ie if I needed to go back to UK and drive would UK one still be valid? sorry for all the questions??

Great news, will you going quite soon, my hubby has been offered a job and we hope to Go in April! Scary stuff!! What happens to your 190? Is that still ongoing?

We finally have our visas and my husband has a job offer, he will be working in Burwood. Some of the suburbs we have looked into are as follows :- Bentleigh East, Cheltenham, Heatherton, Dingley Village, Mentone, Mordialloc, Ferntree Gully, Rowville, and Burwrood itself. Please can anyone give me some idea of the types of ares these are, we are a couple in our 40's (no kids) we don't drink so don't need pubs, we do however like to ride our bikes and enjoy time outside. And like the idea of plenty of coffee shops to while away the hours when we're not at work. I myself work with children so am hoping that wherever we settle there maybe opportunities for me too. thanks in advance for your help.

Hi we have a vauxhall zafira reg 2005,( with air con) mileage 68,000, UK value approx £3,700, aus value $7,900 Is it worth bring it or not?

Excellent, it hasn't sunk in yet with us!!!!

I paid £46 for the jab and £87 for the blood test for one cat.

Im sure someone will soon tell us if I'm wrong!! Have you any idea when you are going to go??

I think you only pay the second instalment if you have dependants that are over 18 and don't have English language skills?? I'm sure I read this somewhere???

a great feeling isn't it x

Thanks everyone, we are not sure when we are heading over yet, it doesn't feel real yet! House up for sale and searching for jobs at the moment!!!

Yes my husband has his name with a few agencies, we also have a house to sell, we could go before it sells if the right job comes along!! We were thinking of Ferntree Gully area, but haven't been before so this could change. We spent 19 months in Sydney a few years back on a 457 so don't really know the areas of Melbourne that well.

we have SS for Victoria so probably Melbourne but not sure when yet, depends on work opportunities

Good luck, I hope you get answers soon.

Thank you, how close are you to getting yours?

At last we have our much longed for visa grant, it's been a very tense year and we couldn't of asked for a better end to the year and Christmas present :xmas16::xmas24::xmas16:

thank you

Thank you

We are an August applicant (but towards the end of the month) would just like to let you know we got our visa grant today !!!!!!

We got our visa grant today too! Feeling a mix of emotions at the moment!! Excited nervous all rolled into one. our medicals were at the beginning of October and referred a week later. what a great Xmas present