flindemp

Thanks everyone for the info here - we're in exactly the same position as cartertucker - just on the brink of buying a Grand Carnival and then saw the post re the Hyundai Imax from nikkidel - can anyone offer any comments about the pros and cons of the IMAX over the Grand Carnival?

Hi Iron Chef, what an invaluable help you are! Read through the posts and come to the conclusion that the family car, a 2006 Vauxhall Zafira 1.9 Turbo Diesel with 37,000 miles and worth approx £5000 over here, might not be worth bringing as per previous posts, but I also have a Volvo C70 Convertible 2002 2.0 litre model with approcx 70,000 miles. It's been without MOT and insurance since March and SORN, sitting on my drive. Values to sell over here are approx £3,900 and more of a sentimental reason for import rather than commercial. - would you recommend bringing it over? Thanks Martin

Hi, ours took 19 months, but we had a baby following our application, which delayed us somewhat due to medicals and general life and new supporting documentation that was required. We lodged the 175 in August 2009, went through the freeze just after that and were priority 2 on my wife's application as an accountant but then I also got a job offer which came with a 457 visa option, so we ran with both in parallel and decided we would go with whichever came first. We'd initially been told 18 months timeframe for the 175 and when we hadn't heard anything after 18 months, we started pushing, got a case worker and within 4 weeks, we'd had our 175 approved and were able to drop the 457 application. Good luck with your application :biggrin:

Thanks again Shel and good luck with your child visa application. Can anyone else advise on whether we could travel with ther baby on a holiday visa and apply for a visa for him/her whilst in Oz?

Thanks Shel, do you know whether Medicare would cover the whole cost of the birth, as I've heard that not everything is covered?

Hi, I'm new to this site and looking for some advice please? My wife, our 3 kids and I have recently been awarded our 175 Skilled Independent visa and have received our visa grant notice. My wife is 7 months pregnant and we informed the DIAC of this and were informed that we would either have to come to Oz to validate our visa and have the baby in Oz, which means leaving in 3 weeks - a stretch for us all but not impossible - or we would have to have the baby in the UK and then apply for child migration sponsorship, which could take up to 8 months in the UK. However, we need to be in Oz by September as I start a new job and in any case we would have to be in Oz by the end of October at the latest to validate our visa before medicals expire. Does anyone know whether we could have the baby in the UK, then travel to Oz to validate our visas in September, have the baby come in on a normal 12 month e-visa and then apply on-shore to add the baby to our visa or do the child sponsorship submission whilst we all remain in Oz? Or would we have to take the baby out of Oz under the terms of the e-Visa? It all seems confusing and I'm not sure if there are any special cases or fast track routes that we can use - we're not trying to frig the system or do anything intentionally to bypass the rules, but it seems odd that you can't add a new addition onto an existing visa award? Has anyone got any experience of this or know if we can bring the baby in and then apply whilst staying in Oz? We're not averse to having the baby in Oz, but are fairly clueless at the moment as to the set up with hospitals, midwives, costs, what's covered and what's not under Medicare and whether we could get private insurance at this late stage that would cover pregnancy, as I know a lot of insurers won't cover it unles you have cover 12 months before the birth date - Initially we would go to Sydney as we have friends there to help out, but will need to be in Brisbane for work by the end of August after the baby is born. Thanks in advance Martin