jdad84

Hi, I just thought I'd share our experience so far after having recently flown to and spent the last 4 days here.

A little background for those who've not read any of my previous threads

My wife interviewed for a job in Sydney at the back end of 2013. After interviewing over skype and with a few informal phonecalls was offered a job with a major telecomms company in Macquarie Park. They offered a job and sponsorship and paid for the processing of a visa for my wife and myself. The visa process started on December 5th 2013 and was approved on January 7th 2014, taking a little over 4 weeks (expected to take 3-6 weeks). We booked flights for 20th January (going via dubai > adelaide > sydney...it was several hundred £ less than going direct from dubai to sydney), a hire car for 14 days and used 'airbnb' to book 5 nights stay in a granny flat in Lane Cove, Sydney. We were set.

Landing in Australia - Day 1

We touched down on Wednesday 22nd January after a rested flight with emirates, of whom I would praise them highly because:

1) their food is really good

2) the plane (the Boeing 777, has built in usb and plug charging points - can re-charge your tablet/ipad/psp etc)

3) they offered a free upgrade to business class for the second leg of the journey from dubai to adelaide (can't fathom why, didn't ask!) which we gladly accepted (and made use of the facilities )

We touched down in adelaide around 9pm. We declared in customs some prescription medication (the contraceptive pill and some codeine phosphate) to which the security lady said was unnecessary to do (better be safe than sorry ~and fined) and we cleared immigration without a baggage search (felt a bit disappointed after watching 'nothing to declare')

As the airport closes overnight (11pm-4am) we had to collect our luggage and stay in a hotel for the night. My wife booked us into a comfort inn, which was a few km from the airport and was cheap. The experience in the hotel was not the best (thin walls, noisy neighbours, wifi only worked in the lobby) but it was clean and we had a few hours sleep before getting back to the airport for 4:30am.

Arriving in Adelaide airport I took the opportunity to purchase a simcard for my phone ("Boost" network - they use telstra) which took all day to activate and required me to login online to do so, however once up and running I loaded with $20, which gained me 1GB internet and unlimited calls and texts for 15 days (bargain!).

The domestic flight took 1h30 and (with time difference, 1 hr) we arrived in Sydney at 8:30am. We picked up the hire car after being scared witless from the lady on the desk for not taking out 'excess insurance' meaning we'd be liable to pay out for the first $3500 of damage in an accident (irrespective of fault) and drove to our accommodation (she didnt scare us enough to part with $30 extra per day though ).

Finding the accommodation & Opening a bank account - Day 1

As my phone took all day to activate on the boost network I had no GPS/sat nav. A 40 minute journey to Lane Cove took us an hour and a half. We filled in this extra time with several arguments and at one point were both questioning whether we should drive back to the airport, and get the next flight home. Having eventually found the accommodation we both realised the melodrama was due to us being totally out of our element....and being on Sydney roads, which are seemingly ruled by crazy people who insist on trying to drive into the piece of road which is occupied by our car!

The accommodation itself was pretty nice, a granny flat set back in the garden of a lovely open plan house. We met the owner who gave us a warm welcome, wifi access details, bought us some milk and sugar (result!) and offered some advice on finding a rental.

Our next port of call was to collect our bank cards. We had an appointment to collect them from the NAB (having set up the account in the UK and nominating a branch to have them delivered to) and did so with little fuss, having only to provide our passports (though my wife did provide the visa - as proof of income for a credit card application so we can try build some credit).

Finding a Rental - Day 2

Jetlagged and still a bit out of our element we spent the morning of day 2 looking at properties to rent (http://www.domain.com.au, realestate.com.au, gumtree.com.au). Our previous experience in the UK had been using gumtree, with great success in finding good landlords (And avoiding pants letting agents). We arranged to view a couple of properties via gumtree and mailed about a dozen or so more people. We also approached Ray White's real estate in epping and found out they had several 'open houses' (10-15 min appointments where prospective tennants can view properties on set days. All in all the experiences of day 2 were a let down. We viewed places in the ryde & epping area and budgeted $400-500 per week. After viewing 6 properties we learned a few things:

1) The rental market works very fast in Sydney

2) Sydney is bloody expensive

3) Landlords have the upper hand because of 1+2, there is little incentive in modernising, and from the units we saw, few do!

4) when an advert says 'freshly painted walls and new carpet' - expect exactly that, and for everything else in the unit to be outdated

5) We were doing something wrong

6) tenants don't pay agency fees for rentals (landlords do)

Finding a Rental - Day 3

Having spent day 2 burning fuel, optimism and motivation my wife ended the day with a plea on the british expat forums to assist us with finding a place, after all our only strategy involved looking at where she was working, drawing around the map where we thought would be 'close enough' to her workplace and hoped the budget would work out (extremely naive in hindsight).

We recieved some valuable advice from the forums:

1) consider other areas

2) and/or increase budget

More specifically in addition to 1) someone advised to view the areas of Meadowbank and Rhodes. These areas are currently being developed as I type, and so supply of units is greater. We considered upping our budget however did find a couple of units (one a couple of years old, one just built) to view first.

The first unit in Meadowbank was nice, the living space was massive and the unit presented immaculately (its only a couple of years, to be expected I guess).

The second unit in Rhodes we fell in love with. It was just put onto the market. It's part of a block of 65 apartments, this was one of the last units free to let and had a real quality feel to it. Marble worktops, 5 hob cooker, double glazing, mirrored built-ins, 5 mins from train station, 10 mins from shopping centre, river view and all for the bargain (in context) price of $480 per week.

We applied for the apartment in Rhodes and within 5 hours had gained approval from the landlord, paid for it and had the keys (tip: go prepared with as many documents supporting your identity (passport, bank statements etc and proof of income, job letter, visa as possible to support your application).

Aside from the whole thing taking less than a day the agent also set our tenancy date to commence the next tuesday, several days after handing us the keys so effectively giving us a few days rent free.

We went from stressing out and being underwelmed on day 2 to being suitably impressed and calm within the space of a day.

Furnishing the flat - Day 4

Having received the keys on day 3, day 4 (today) we went out and bought some furnishings. I had a hellish nights sleep (I do not have work yet - I couldnt sleep thinking about it and the possibility of me being out of work and losing my skills, I didnt realise it would bother me this soon) I was up at 5am and looking at appliances to furnish our flat with.

We have no qualms with second hand, and I believe there are gems to be had so I spent a good hour on gumtree looking at washers, fridges, beds etc however due to the urgency at which we need stuff also googled a few places to look (http://www.appliancesonline.com.au, harvey norman, Dick Smith, JB Hifi, www.2ndsworld.com.au ).

Of all the places I looked I really liked the sound of 2nds world - basically they sell factory seconds, end of line, manufacturer repaired, ex-display models. I priced a few things online, but was hesitant to commit as the goods could turn out to be absolute lemons. I suggested to the wife that we take a drive out and have a look, as their website offers delivery same day and was quite reasonable ($65 first item, $5 each item thereafter).

We picked up:

1) front loading washer (Beko - $469)

2) fridge freezer (Whirlpool - 405l $645) and

3) TV (Samsung f8000 $1999)

Which were all delivered for $45 ($20 off australia day weekend promotion - also instore seemed flat price regardless of number of items). #

Additionally we also managed to get to Ikea and order a bed for delivery tomorrow, we did see a sofa-bed we liked (was only $300)...which we identified as the bed we're sleeping on in the granny flat right now, which is really comfortable, and debated whether we should buy that and when we get a sofa use it as a proper bed and replace with a queensize mattress, however in their infinite wisdom ikea make it 5cm narrower and 11cm shorter than a queen size bed...stopping bargain hunters like me from using it as a cheap bed base

All in all the day was a success. I just hope we have the bed delivered not too late on so we can join in the australia day celebrations at the harbour and spend some time relaxing before my wife starts work on tuesday.

J

No postal deliveries on a Saturday

 

JP's have a desk in the shopping centres for a couple of hours 2 days a week and all services free......costs a small fortune in UK

 

Cops keen on RBT's any time any where.......

 

If you're overcharged for an item in Coles they will give you your money back plus the item for free.......

JP service fore free?? You just saved me £60 in notary fees...may as well wait till we're out in Sydney and have it done for free.

Thank you very much

This thread delivers.

I'm Geordie however...so no matter how I pronounce it it will sound wrong

Who are you flying with??

 

flying with Singapore airlines, they give you double baggage allowance for an unvalidated pr visa.

 

BA you can pay for extra bags think its around £28 each 23kg bag

 

Booking flights through IOM, they will sort out double baggage allowance at the airport.

Thanks for the reply, we're flying with Emirates.

Singapore wouldn't double allowance for us as we're going on a 457 visa, BA weren't competitive for flights, neither were IOM as by the time the flights cleared availability was pretty low and the difference between what we could get going through a comparison site like momondo and what they were offering meant we were effectively paying over the odds.

Aside from our flight allowance of 30kg we have an excess of 45kg in baggage, we looked into what it would cost to ship the rest of our stuff at the same time i.e. excess baggage. Even with an online booking discount most airlines still came in at £25 per kg. This seeming rather exhorbitant I remembered we saw a shipping company at an emmigration expo we attended in edinburgh a couple of years back called Anglo Pacific (AP) http://www.anglopacific.co.uk/baggage_shipping.htm and I googled for companies and came up with Transglobal Express (TGE) https://www.transglobalexpress.co.uk/quote/

QUOTES

Anglo pacific price (for 45kg large luggage) at £130 (shipping by sea, 6-8 weeks)

Transglobal Express price £220 (by air, 4-7 days)

The TGE quote includes pickup from a UK address and insurance of £1000. The AP quote does not. I know for sure TGE does not include customs charges and I suspect the AP quote does not either (considering the TGE quote states $165 customs fees + GST).

Other companies seem to be quoting £300-500

Have I missed any options?

So, got the results on 9th January...I passed!

We fly out on January 20th and basically as soon as we land I'm going to go canvas for work, I'll write back here with my experience of the process.

Hi

 

Looking for some advice on the CAOP exam, Hospital pharmacist of 10 years plus. Planning on getting hold of the AMH and APF (BNF already my bed time reading......) do I need anything else.

 

Thanks Damien

damiendowling@hotmail.com

Hi Damien, good luck getting a hold of the AMH...as I'd got into the exam at a late stage I wasn't able to arrange to have one shipped over. It's not possible to buy from abroad and have it shipped so you need a contact or to buy one second hand from ebay etc, with that said if you have a contact who is willing to ship it on your behalf you're on to a winner.

I sat the exam without the AMH, it was challenging. I'd read the APF before going into the exam so was familiar with it (and would recommend giving it a thorough read - it's) but didn't take it into the exam and just chose to take the BNF in.

I'd recommend practicing doing the exam and timing yourself on similar questions as with less than 2 mins/question the biggest issue is time management, you'll also find out whether it's worth you taking in all of the books or whether, like me better to focus on whether you can answer the question and double checking it with your old friend (the BNF).

Calculations - you can take in your own calculator, I didn't find this very difficult....other than forcing myself to use the calculator...so perhaps practice getting comfortable using a calculator

I'm sure you'll be fine though...you've 9.5 years of hospital experience over me

I'm not heading into the country, money's not the most important thing though...when I qualified in the UK I joined the NHS Thanks for the heads up.

UPDATE:

I'm still awaiting results from the exam, however my wife offered an interesting perspective and that was to view this as 2 steps rather than the 1 step I was viewing it as:

1) Get registered

2) Get a job

Whereas I considered them both to be the same thing....

If I can work on a casual basis to gain registration this isn't so much of a commitment needed from a business... i.e. they'd basically have me working for a few months till I qualify, which thinking about it can be a great exchange of value as I'd happily take minimum wage whilst I work over the counter and get to grips with the pharmaceutical benefits scheme and gain registration at the end of it.

Will start firing emails out this weekend and report back here, will also update when I get my results.

It's a long shot here but wondering if there are any pharmacists lurking on the forums..

I just sat the CAOP exam and will find out in 10 days whether I've passed, should things go well I need to start looking for a job.

As I'm coming out on a 457 defacto visa I won't need sponsorship....so basically it's the supervised practise which I need to do before I can start a role.

Just wondering whether anyone has been in a similar situation and managed to get supervised practise from a hospital/community pharmacy when we're not on the skills shortage list?

Would appreciate any tips on finding work...

Thanks,

J

Hey, We're looking to bring with us our BMW 325i manual with us

2006 (06)

Mileage 95,000 miles

approx uk value £6500

Australian value = $25,000 - $28,000

I hope it's worthwhile despite our high mileage!

Jay