Shigella

Seriously? That was her name? I literally laughed out loud when I read that. My DH is looking at me very strangely!

Yes, when I did my degree I specialised in infectious diseases. I am particularly fond of Shigella. She is so pretty but can give you a real pain in the .... I thought it was apt. :biglaugh:

We plan to stay with my Mum until we find jobs and a permanent rental. She has a tiny one bedroom granny flat under her house and we will squash our little family of 4 into it for however long it takes. It's in a little touristy coastal town. A lovely spot but sadly not somewhere we will be able to find work.

I was just about to point out that house prices in the London are still being propped up by scared money from Europe but FOC said it for me. If Europe manages to sort out their problems then look out. They can't, of course, but they might convince people they have for a while, with the same outcome for the UK market. The Australian housing market is ridiculously overpriced and if a correction is needed it will occur despite government meddling. Government meddling will postpone the correction but make it longer and more painful when it does happen. Japan knows this. They are still paying the price and their real crash has yet to happen due to government meddling. The bad debt must be cleaned out and written off before you can pick up the pieces and rebuild. It really is that simple.

What did you do with old paperwork and records when you left the UK? I understand this kind of stuff should officially be kept for 5 years but do you really need to cart this stuff all the way to Oz? Or do you just shred it and hope for the best?

We might have to move before DH's visa comes through and this is what we plan to do.

We do a lot of camping and want to take all our camping kit. Then I wondered if we could take our trailer as it all fits pretty neatly in the trailer. Could we just stick our trailer in the container along with other belongings? How difficult would it be to register it for Australian roads once we get there?

We're thinking about our timings. If we lodge DH's 309 application in January, current processing times are 8-9 months so we could expect his visa to come through by September. He has to give a month's notice to leave work, but we'd like to leave as soon as possible after that. When did you put your house on the market? How long did it take to find a buyer and complete sale? When did you book your tickets? When did you ship your goods? Did you wait for all your paperwork to come through then start on all this stuff or are you an optimist? Or do you have to already have your visa before you can book your one way fare?

I used to live a few hours up the coast so I've passed through a few times on the way to Melbourne. Maffra itself is pretty banal but it is close to the Gippsland lakes (marine recreation area), close to Bairnsdale and Traralgon if you need bigger shopping centres and facilities and close enough to the snowfields if you like skiing. The house prices should be reasonable compared to surrounding districts. I'd live there if I was given a job offer but you may not like it if you are planning to live in a thriving metropolis.

Then it might be worth MIL disputing it. I thought about it when I was charged duty for a gift but research showed it's a hopeless cause if the green sticker shows a value >£35. However, if your DH put a lower value then they might just be trying it on. The UK govt does need every penny it can get

When you sent it you would have had to fill out a little green sticker which goes on the package. It is this that they use to determine the value. So try putting something like $10 or $20 and you should be safe. I agree it is petty and it is wrong.

Yes, that has happened to us. My Mum sent me a gift once and I had to pay duty and fees on it. If the value of the gift is over around £35 or so the recipient will have to pay. Of course it's just protectionism of local markets - the argument being that goods should be bought locally. Mum has learnt to state a value that works out less than £35 (even if the true value is much higher) so that we don't have to pay duty.

We have a whole host of reasons. On the lighter side, DH is British, I am Australian but we have both always wanted to experience life in another country. I've been here for 7 years so I've had my turn and now it's DH's turn (he told his Mum when he was 11 that he would move abroad one day). I had a charmed childhood in Australia, holidays on the beach learning to sail & running free with friends, learning to ride a pony and freedom to roam - we both want our children to have the opportunity to enjoy the freedom of the outdoors (not that we don't here, of course). On the darker side we feel that there are no opportunities here for our family or our children's future. Their generation will be expected to pay off the massive debts that the current and past governments have racked up. Britain is no longer truly a sovereign democracy and between the EU and Britain's own government, coupled with a crippling welfare state, there is no sign of the country's economic prospects improving. We will not leave our children saddled with that mess. Lastly, we are at the point where we can no longer really afford to live here anymore. The cost of childcare for two children in this area is almost as much as I make, such that I would be working for about £100 per month, and yet we cannot afford not to without eating into savings. We are quite realistic that Australia is not perfect, that some of these problems exist in Australia as well and that life will not necessarily be a lot easier. But something has to change drastically, or we will quickly sink into debt. At least by moving to Australia we can change the way we live and change our situation for the better and improve our lifestyle. We can also give our children better prospects for the future. And anyway, if we're going to be poor, we'd much rather be poor in the sun and sea, than poor huddled in frosty park in England

Thanks KT. We are in a similar situation, being able to live with my Mum until we find jobs and living on savings in the meantime so I think we will do as you have done. Thanks for the benefit of your experience and good luck with your move

We are currently living in the UK but are planning to move to Australia (back to Australia for me) in August next year and are trying to figure out our timings. Does the spouse visa have to be activated within 12mo of issue in the same way as other types of visa? How critical are the sponsor's financial requirements and how is this expected to work? It seems I have to prove that I can support DH (two kids will be Australian citizens by the time we move so shouldn't be included on the application?). I am currently employed full time but on maternity leave. I am due back to work in November but considering not going back because the cost of childcare is about the same as my take-home pay so I'll be a stay at home mum (SAHM) with no income at the time we lodge the application. Will this be an issue? If applying to sponsor spouse as a SAHM is going to be a problem then we have two alternatives: 1. apply before I leave work in November (so I can demonstrate an income, regardless of the fact that it'll all go on childcare). But if visa is granted before we are ready to leave then does DH have to fly to Oz to activate the visa by some particular date? 2. I to go back to work for a couple of months to satisfy income requirements then quit after the visa is granted. It all seems a bit silly because regardless of my current income and employment status, we have to leave our jobs here to go to Australia anyway so will have no income until we find new jobs downunder. I do have some savings and investments back in Oz, which we plan to live on while looking for work and then hopefully use for a deposit on a house eventually. Would these be enough to satisfy the requirement to be able to support my sponsored spouse? Totally confusing! :arghh:

Thanks! Don't know how I missed that thread!

Does anyone know what current Spouse Visa timelines out of London embassy are? There don't seem to have been any updates from London embassy for aaaages.

Congrats on rear facing your son this long! Well done! It'll be interesting to see what Britax come up with. We use a Britax ERF seat but it's a 25kg, long seat shell so I expect it to last the little man until around 6 so I think we'll be sticking with it.

I was encouraged to see that Australia is finally accepting Isofix. I hoped it might pave the way for manufacturers to introduce their international seats just by submitting them to Australian testing. However it looks like they're going to continue to insist on the top tether rather than accepting other mechanisms that perform the same function. So while it's definitely a step in the right direction, it is only a step. I doubt manufacturers will want to make costly modifications to their seats for a share of the tiny market Australia offers.

Kind of OT but does anyone know whether you have to travel within a certain timeframe after your spouse visa is granted? Just thinking about logistics with selling houses etc.

As snifter says, there is plenty of evidence out there concerning ERF seats in non-frontal collisions and for us the decision was also a no-brainer after extensive research. We also use ERF seats with a long seat shell and high (25kg) weight limit to allow ERF for as long as possible. We use seats tested under the new Swedish T Plus test which measures the actual forces on the crash test dummy, rather than how well the seat survives an accident - there doesn't seem to be much value in ending up with a perfectly preserved seat containing a child with a broken neck so it's these results that interest me the most. It's not worth reposting all the links and research since it's all easily searchable, however, I will link this story as it is a recent and graphic demonstration of the merits of ERF even in a rear-end collision. As to whether insurance in Australia might be invalidated due to a non-Australian seat, this is obviously a very personal decision for any parent. However, given that a child in a forward facing seat is 5 times more likely to suffer serious or fatal injury than in a rear facing seat, I'd rather go with the seat that will reduce the chances of requiring high level medical treatment and take my chances on the insurance. Another parent may reach a different decision and fair play to them. Hopefully by the time we are ready to move in a few years time there will be an option of a local ERF seat.

For anyone who is passionate about Extended Rear Facing: http://www.cadoges.com/auto-quotes/2010/10/17/safe-child-restraint-in-modern-cars-australia-v-europe.html Watch it all and send it to your friends with children or grandchildren under 5, too. Then write to your Aussie MP.

My problem is that I cannot "un-know" about the risks of forward facing and so I must rear face my children in good conscience. I couldn't live with myself if I turned them forward and the worst happened. "But it's the law" would be cold comfort. I could, however, live with a fine or even a court case and would consider it a golden opportunity to publicise the merits of ERF and the risks to Australian children under current legislation. But yes, it's a cruel dilemma - break the law or endanger your child. :err:

Yes, I already support a couple of ERF for Aus groups on Facebook (am I allowed to say that?). However, I don't think the responsibility lies with the manufacturers. There's no need to reinvent the wheel when a good number of manufacturers already make ERF seats tested to the highest standards. All that is needed is for the law to be changed to drop the ridiculous top tether requirement and (ideally) to accept good international standards (such as the European ones). The manufacturers would quickly bring their existing products to Aus then, particularly if they didn't have the cost of retesting their seats to the Australian standard. Better for Australian parents and, above all, better for the safety of Australian kids. But then, I am sure it never was about the safety of children but more about the lining of pockets.

I've just stumbled across this thread because we're planning to bring our Swedish rear facing car seats over when we move in about 2 years time. I'm a bit startled that Australian car seat laws are so primitive. However, I'm going to use our Swedish seats anyway. The idea that some jumped up little bureaucrat can dictate that I should use a less safe configuration than the one I already possess is ludicrous. The safety of my children is paramount and the law be damned.