karabumble

We have just flown our jack Russell back to the UK with All Care Pet Transport. They were very helpful and it was far easier than bringing him here with no quarantine in the UK. They charges $2670 for everything.

Hi Louise I have found one of our relatives to be so much like this. Unfortunately we have only been here for 20 months and my husband had an accident at work resulting in him having to have his pelvis rebuilt. After all the stress of him being in hospital and recovering we have decided we want the support of our family and friends to get us through this difficult time. Our new lives here were very much based on an active social life, which at the moment seems like a dim and distant memory. Both our sets of parents have been very supportive, my mum has even had my daughter home so that she can go back to school in September in the UK. However my aunt, when I visited when I took my daughter home, almost repeated word for word what you said above. It is hard enough to decide to cut your losses and return to the UK, with all of the stress involved but when someone give you a hard time about the decision you have made - it certainly doesn't help. We were lucky in the sense that we have only rented while we have been here in WA so packing up and going is relatively easy but it is certainly not stress free. I wish you lots of luck in your return to the UK and have confidence in knowing that the decision you have made for your family is right. Best wishes, Kara.

Hi there everyone. I posted a little while ago to say that we were at the very beginning of our visa application process. My hubby was offered a sponsorship at the beginning of September. We received our visa grant e-mail on Friday last week, after only submitting the application a week before. It has all been very surreal and something that we never thought we would have the chance of doing. My husband is flying out to Perth on 27th December to stay with a colleague and find us somewhere to live and myself and my daughter fly out on 14th February to join him. At the moment my emotions jump between absolute excitement and total fear at what we are about to do!!! I would like to thank those on here whom have offered advice at various times - many people seem to have so much more experience and knowledge that I could ever dream of having. We are coming on a 457 visa but hope that all goes well and we can apply for a PR visa to make things more permanent further down the line. Thanks again to all those who have help us. Cheers, Kara.:jiggy:

Thank you all so much for the advice - very much appreciated. We will certainly leave it until we get there (hoping that we do soooooo much!!!!) For the sake of $100 it does seem the more sensible option. I don't want to delay things if I can help it!!! Once again, thanks all for all of your help.

Thanks for your advice - as our application is due to go in this week and has already had several hold-ups - would you suggest that we wait until (if!!!!) our visa's are granted and then contact the DIAC to advise them we are going to apply for new passports? My husband is planning on leaving the UK quite quickly after the visa being issued, with me staying in the UK to tie up all our loose ends - so we wouldn't want any delays at that point either??

Hi there, I have been following this thread as myself and my hubby are in a similar situation. Our visa application is due to submitted by our migration agent this week. When we sent all of our supporting documents in we sent copies of our current passports, which expire in July 2013 and are not electronic passports. A colleague of my husband's who is also going out to the same employer has just has his visa issued and has told us that his passport has been electronically 'visa'd' so to speak!! This put us in a bit of a panic as to whether we should update our passports now ready. I note however that you say that you need to contact the DIAC with the new passport details. This is going to sound really stupid, but what is the best way to do this - by phone, email etc etc and also is this going to be the best course of action or just cause confusion???? Sorry to sound really stupid - this whole process has come about so quickly and all of a sudden we are learning as we go!! In hindsight it would have been better to get new passports before we applied I guess but HO HUM!!!!! Many thanks for any advice you can offer. Kara.:biggrin:

Hi Gareth, we chose to go to a solicitor just out of preference really, as things were not always particularly amicable with my ex-husband and wanted the extra security of being able to go down a more legal route if needed be. As it turns out he was happy to sign for my daughter to go. All told is cost me £125.00 to have it drawn up and signed, along with the supporting documents. I hope it all goes well for you and your family.

Hi Gareth, I don't know whether this will be helpful or not as we are in the process of applying for our 457 visa - with my husband being sponsored by a company. To date, we have completed the form 1229, which I have signed and also my ex-husband has signed. We have also had drawn up a statutory declaration by a Solicitor which was worded in such as way as it declared my ex-husband gave his permission for my daughter to migrate with myself and her step-father and would reside in Australia for the foreseeable future. I have got a template with the wording if that would help. In addition to drawing up the document, we had a Solicitor witness my ex-husband signing and they also took and certified copies of his passport and driving licence. We are waiting now for our migration agent to put together our application and we haven't heard back from them as yet as to whether they require anything else. If/when we hear anything I will post and let you know.

Thanks everyone - your help and advice is very much appreciated. I have had a look at HBA and also will investigate MBF. Obviously if we need as part of our visa application then so be it, we will get some, however, will find out if we are obliged to continue it once we are settled as I think that Medicare will meet our needs adequately, as we are a healthy bunch currently and hopefully the change of lifestyle will only improve this further. Again, thanks a million for your advice and friendliness. Kara.

Hi Leon and Deena Thanks for your reply. We didn't know that about cars, it is little bits of info like that that help prevent unexpected surprises along the way!! We are still very early on in our investigations about where we want to live etc etc (heading for Perth as that's where Rich's job is based) and we are excited about finding out as much as we can. I'll make sure that I keep in touch on here so I can get to know people. Cheers, Kara.

Hi Karen Thanks for your reply. Could I ask, have you gone for full health insurance ie hospital, ambulance, extras etc? I had a brief look at HBA yesterday which gave me some idea. I have also read other posts which say that as we are from the UK were are eligible for Medicare and just need ambulance insurance - do you/anyone else know whether this is right?? Cheers for any help - Kara

Hi there, I'm pretty new to this, so if I get it wrong please bear with me :biggrin: We are in the process of applying for our 457 visa, using a migration agent employed by the company who are sponsoring my hubby. In our pack of info which has been emailed is information to say that we need proof of health insurance as part of our visa. Through this recruitment process we have been in touch with someone else who is also applying for his visa and he tells us that he has purchased a travel insurance policy to cover him for the short term period when he first arrives in Australia and that he will shop around for insurance when he is a bit more settled. Can anyone tell me if this is possible - as the travel insurance policies that we have looked at only cover you for between 31 and 60 days (I would want to sort something more permanent than this to be honest). I have seen people say about insurance through HBA which they have sorted from home (UK). Can anyone advise me as to what would be the best course of action. We want to try and get the paperwork right to ensure the process is as painless as possible. Cheers, Kara.

Hi all, I thought I would say hello here - I feel like everyone knows so much more than we do about this process - just when some of it seems to make sense, I read something else that just confuses me again!!!! Anyhow, I'm Kara, i'm 36 and am married to Richard who is 38. I have a daughter Hannah who is 11, and Richard has a son Mitchell who is 12. The final family member is Milo the dog - Jack Russell aged 7. This whole thing started following Richard seeing an advert on an industry website advertising vacancies in his line of work (access platforms) for the whole of Australia. We decided that it would be worth him sending his CV in to see if he heard anything back. Well....... 2 days later he got a telephone call which lead to a job offer to migrate and work in Perth. Prior to this, all dreams of working in another country were simply that - dreams !!! The company use a migration agent to assist us in applying for a 457 visa, with Richard being sponsored by the company. I will be able to work too I guess and Hannah go to school. Richard's son lives with his mum in Wales so won't be coming with us - but is already looking forward to some fantastic holidays. However, this all is hinged on the visa's I guess and if I am honest the process frightens me to death. We have now started to send info off to the migration agent and we are following their lead really. I feel so lost and am hoping that the process and knowledge of what to do will slowly become more clear. I have already found this site really useful and am looking forward to getting to know people on here who I am sure will be able to give me advice and pointers along the way. Looking forward to getting to know you all better. Cheers, Kara (oh and Richard and Hannah too :biggrin:)