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silverbobby

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  1. silverbobby
    cool thats good to know, hopefully it will be the only UK debt we have.
  2. silverbobby
    Cool i thought there wouldn't be, but it's always safe to double check. We were considering keeping 1 bank account open just in case anyway. Thanks for your response :biggrin:
  3. silverbobby
    Hi, We are moving to Oz at the end of Feb and we have a personal loan with a UK bank, ideally we would like to pay off all our UK debt but we are considering keeping the bank account open and continuing to pay the direct debit. Does anyone know if there is a problem with doing this? We were thinking that every 2-3 months we would transfer money from Oz to our UK account to make sure there was cash to cover the direct debit for the next couple of months. Long term we are thinking that after 12-18 months in Oz we would have enough just to pay the loan off outright. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Mark
  4. silverbobby
    Hi, We are due to move out to Oz, Victoria, at the end of Feb on a 175 PR visa, i don't have job lined up yet and plan to spend all of March settling in, finding a home and school for the kids. So the earliest i would look to start a job is early April. What we are trying to figure out is how long to have a hire car for, 2 weeks or 4 weeks? Will we have any trouble buying a car on finance if i do not have a job? We will have plenty of savings to cover rent and food etc for several months so we could actually buy a car outright but we want to keep a hold of this in case we fall on hard times. Saying that i am confident of finding work, we just don't want to rush into finding work before we have settled in. Do Australians buy cars on a lease like we can in UK? Cheers Mark
  5. silverbobby
    We have a PR 175 visa so we qualify for the extra baggage, good to hear they can actually check with DIACs systems but think we will still take a copy of our grant letter. Thanks both for putting our minds at rest. Cheers Mark
  6. silverbobby
    Hi RAS, Thanks for the advice. I assume we should be able to get our medicare card as soon as we arrive, we have a 175 PR visa so i think we qualify for medicare. Do you know if you need to sit a test to change your driving licence to an Oz one? Cheers Mark
  7. silverbobby
    I've heard before that when trying to secure a rental in Oz you need lots of documents to prove you are a good or reliable tenant. Is there some sort of points system for all the different documents you can show with your application? We are moving to Victoria, Geelong we think at the minute in Feb 2013, can someone list the main or essential documents or references you should have with you when you apply for a rental? I don't have a job yet so i know we will need to show a bank statement showing our savings. We rent a house in the UK at the minute so i should be able to get a reference from the landlord or letting agency about how we were as tenants. But other than this what else do we need? Thanks in advance, Mark
  8. silverbobby
    Hi All, We have our flights booked with Singapore airlines (flying 26th Feb 2013 from Manchester), i understand that they give you double baggage allowance (of 40kg) if you have an unvalidated visa for Oz. What i am wondering is if you applied for your visa online, then the visa grant and all other docs from DIAC are electronic and just emailed to you, so what do you have to show when checking in for your flight that to show you have an unstamped visa? Do you just bring a print out of the visa grant letter? Are they looking for a stamp in your passport? I'm sure other people must have come across this before as i would have thought most people apply online nowadays with DIAC? I have emailed singapore airlines to confirm but it would put our minds to rest knowing others have been through this even if it was with a different airline? Thanks Mark
  9. silverbobby
    Hi, Thanks for your reply. Your advice is pretty much what our migration agent said, although we have the visa he is willing to help with the filling the forms and contacting DIAC. My wife has already had to change her passport and we'll need to do a change of name for her with DIAC as well, so other than the wait it isn't anymore hassle i guess to change the childrens passports. As you say it is probably best to have passports and birth certificates matching. I know it will please our eldest son, he's 6 and in year 1 at school and used to complain how difficult it was writing his name (when it was a double barrel name) lol. Thanks again. Best be filling in them forms now. Cheers Mark
  10. silverbobby
    Hi, We were granted our PR visa back in April (i think it seems such a long time ago now), but were since married in September (my partner was on our visa under the defacto relationship). We have changed the names of our childrens birth certificates as they weren't originally registered with my surname. What we're not sure of is if it is compulsory that we change our childrens UK passports now their birth certificates have been updated? If we were to get new passports then we would need to update the visa with the new childrens passports. We fly to Melbourne on 26th Feb 2013, so we do have a few months yet but we're still a little concerned with the timescales. Once in Oz would we need the visa/passports for our kids for anything like school, because we do want them to use my surname from now on? Does anyoe have any experience with changing passports after their visa was granted? Thanks Mark
  11. silverbobby
    Ok. So we're moving to Oz at the end of Feb 2013. We're looking to move to Geelong Victoria and we need to sort out some short term accommodation for when we first land. We have 3 children, aged 6 & under so would be looking for a 3-4 bedroom house/apartment. What i'd like to know is how long did other people stay in a holiday let before renting long term/buying? Initially we thought 4 weeks would be enough time to get settled, do some research and find a long term rental. But with exchange rates renting a holiday home for 4 weeks is a lot more expensive than we had hoped, we have been quoted $6,000 for 2 different rentals in Geelong. I know people can have different budgets but do you think this is expensive? Should we look to rent only for 2 or 3 weeks rather than 4 what do you think??
  12. silverbobby
    Thanks Petals Yeah have just joined life in victoria so will post on there as well. Cheers
  13. silverbobby
    We're not in Geelong yet but when we do arrive next year we would definitely be up for a meet up. Hope everyone else has a great time though !
  14. silverbobby
    Hi, We are looking for a holiday let, preferably a house but would consider an apartment or townhouse, to sleep 2 adults and 3 children oh yeah and we are looking for one in the Geelong area. Can anyone recommend a nice but not too pricey holiday let? We have looked on stayz and airnb.com and although there are lots to choose from there are not many available when we consider that we would probably need a holiday let for up to 4 weeks. I guess most people use short term rental for about 3-4 weeks before finding a long term rental? Oh and we would be landing on Thurs Feb 28th 2013. Cheers Mark
  15. silverbobby
    Thanks for the advice Petals. I did just that a couple of years ago when we first started our application, listing suburbs on the various lines on the eastern side of Melbourne. It just seems the sort of house we would like is only affordable further out in places like Frankston and Berwick. Then we found some distant family out in Point Lonsdale and Geelong started looking more appealing. We got our visa back in April (i think - can't believe i can't remember) but we just got married 2 weeks ago so all thoughts/planning for Oz have been on hold until now. We fly to Oz in Feb next year.
  16. silverbobby
    At the minute we are considering Wandana Heights, Highton and Belmont in Geelong, so i think i'd probably use South Geelong station. So do a lot of people do the Geelong - Melbourne commute? I'm not being daft considering it am i?
  17. silverbobby
    Thanks for the reply. Funny, 3 years back when we first started thinking of emigrating we considered Berwick as somewhere to live. How long is the train in to Melbourne? I think it is roughly 1 hour on the train from Geelong and i currently get the train to Manchester (40 minutes) each day. I've heard driving in to Melbourne from any direction can be a nightmare, so am just trying to understand if i can count on the trains? Cheers
  18. silverbobby
    We are due to move to Oz in Feb 2013, at the minute we are thinking about moving to Geelong but are still consider other parts of Melbourne/Victoria. I would be working in Melbourne CBD and i was wondering what the train was like from Geelong to Melbourne, is it really as over crowded as i've heard? Why Geelong i hear you ask, well we have 3 kids and my wife won't be working immediately and although we don't want a huge house our budget doesn't go far in Melbourne. Yes we could squeeze into a small 3 bed house nearer Melbourne but we also like the idea of being part of a town/community like Geelong and it just seems hard to imagine living in the eastern suburbs when on the map they just seem to sprawl for miles and miles...... So back to my question, what is the daily commute from Geelong to Melbourne like? Is there anyone on here who does it everyday? What are the trains like in other parts of Melbourne into the CBD? Are all train routes really busy? I'm interested in hearing about other areas and the train as we are still thinking about areas to live in. I've heard the train from Frankston or Berwick are also really busy. Thanks Mark
  19. silverbobby
    Hi SHandGH, Thanks for updating our details and maintaining this thread. I see you got a CO on 20th March, i bet it won't be long now for you either!
  20. silverbobby
    Just checked again and our visa was granted yesterday 7th April, we must enter Oz before 26th March 2013. We still haven't told family yet, thought we might wait until i officially hear from our migration agent but don't know if i can wait that long! Thank you to everyone who has congratulated us :biggrin:
  21. silverbobby
    Hi All, I only just posted the other day about getting our case officer (although that did happen back on 5th March) and i have just checked our visa status online and i think our visa has been granted! The update page now has "applicant approved" for me and all of my family and it says an email has been sent to me. I don't have the email as this will have gone to my migration agent but i'm sure he will be in touch after the bank holiday weekend! It's really exciting but don't want to tell family until our agent confirms everything! :jiggy::jiggy::shocked:
  22. silverbobby
    Hi All, It's been a while since i have been on PomsinOz. We sold our house and moved into rented in December and then i started a new job in January so we have been pretty busy. We also decided to get married before going to Oz and then at the start of March we got our CO assigned, can you please update our details SHandGH. We did our medicals and police checks back on 17th March so have been waiting now for our visa grant for a couple of weeks, it's beginning to get unbearable! Details are - Name: Silverbobby (Mark) Date of Visa application: 30th June 2011 Nationality: British High/Low Risk: LR Trade/profession: Developer Programmer Visa type: 175 Onshore/offshore: offshore Pre-14th July 2010 Category (If applicable): n/a Post-14th July Category: Cat 4 Medicals submitted: Yes - 17th March 2012 Police check submitted: Yes Date CO assigned: 05/03/2012 Date of employment verification (If applicable): Date visa granted:
  23. silverbobby
    Thanks Tania, that makes sense. I hope you get some good news soon, you have been waiting such a long time but it must feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel now :biggrin:
  24. silverbobby
    Hi Tania, Great job with the thread, could you please add my details. Only just applied so a long wait i guess! Name: Silverbobby (Mark) Date of Visa application: 30th June 2011 Nationality: British High/Low Risk: LR Trade/profession: Developer Programmer Visa type: 175 Onshore/offshore: offshore Pre-14th July 2010 Category (If applicable): n/a Post-14th July Category: Cat 4 Medicals submitted: No Police check submitted: No Date CO assigned: Date of employment verification (If applicable): Date visa granted: I was also wondering if any knew how DIAC assigned applications to a CO? For example why have some people who have been waiting since 2008 not been assigned a CO but some people from 2010/2011 have a CO or even visa grant. I assume most people on this thread have applied for a 175 visa so are applications prioritised on skill/profession? Thanks Mark
  25. silverbobby
    We put our house on the market over 2 years ago when we first decided we wanted to emigrate. We have out grown our house, 3 storey town house does not suit 3 samll children, and we were of the opinion even if moving to Oz did not come off then we were happy to move house. 2 years on and now on to our 3rd estate agent and we still haven't sold! Admittedly we have only just changed to our current estate agent this week and the second estate agent was a purely internet estate agency that boasted selling houses within 1 to 2 months, needless to say they did not generate the interest we expected! In 2 years i think we have had only 3 viewings and i'm sure they were all in 2010! We really need the funds from the house sale to finance some of the move to Oz and i don't like the idea of renting our property out whilst we move to Oz, even though it does provide the comfort blanket of having a place to move back to should we not settle in Oz. I think the housing market is very slow at the minute and i don't think dropping the asking price has much of an impact in the current climate. i think people just need to be patient and wait for someone who can afford a new mortgage to come along. How is your house sale coming along??
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