maidensarah

4 hours ago, tina2018 said:

Sure! We applied with 75 points (category: general accountant) and it took around 6 weeks from submitting an EOI to getting an invitation. This would have been last summer, so I'm not sure if things have changed since then. Good luck!

Thanks!  That’s what we will hopefully be applying with and same category. So when are you planning to move over and where abouts? Are you moving with children?

23 minutes ago, tina2018 said:

Hi guys, just to update everyone, we had our visas granted on the 21st Feb!! So from initial application (September) to grant (February) it was 5 months. We're so excited, now the real planning can begin! Good luck everyone, hope you get your grants soon  

Congratulations! Can I just ask how long it took your from your EOI to an invite to apply? Thanks 

6 minutes ago, JetBlast said:

I wish you all the best. If I managed to get the superior English score anyone can!

Haha, I have full confidence in my husband 

5 minutes ago, JetBlast said:

Best of luck! What job are you applying under?

Thanks! My husband’s the main applicant and will be applying under accountant (general) with 75 points assuming the top points for the English test. I realise this occupation is currently an ‘iffy’ one therefore felt it best to proceed now rather than umming and ahhing any more. There’s no guarantees so I won’t be getting my hopes up, just see what happens. And get my husband studying for the English test as will need the 75 points 

So we’ve made the first steps today towards the possibility of getting a visa. That is, paying some money to a migration agent for the first part that needs to be done - the skills assessment.  We decided to go with Alan Collett at Go Matilda as per recommendations on here. 

Scary! 

Okay thanks all. My son likes the hot dinners but if it was one of the other I’d choose packed lunch as both will be happy with that. 

This may be a random question but I was wondering what most primary schools do for children’s lunches. Do they have the option of hot dinner or packed lunch? Do most take packed lunches or the other way round? Here all children in Reception, Year 1 and 2 are entitled to receive free hot dinners and I wondered if there’s anything like that there? My son (year 2) has the hot dinners as he loves them however my daughter (Reception) gets sent with a packed lunch as she wouldn’t eat the hot dinners. Just sort of checking they don’t all have to have hot dinners as she would go hungry. Thanks! 

2 hours ago, LKC said:

This was sadly the case with our eldest, who was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of six.  She got no help, aside from what we paid for.  School really offered her very little support, and as she is a polite and quiet girl she pretty much went unnoticed, until she developed anxiety problems (due to being bullied in part) at which point it was easier for the school to phone and have me fetch her home, than encourage her to use the coping strategies that her psychologist had taught her.  Basically she fell into the 'Too Hard' basket, and as she wasn't disruptive it didn't really matter.  Her paperwork didn't even get passed on when starting a new year.  Her year 5 teacher called me in to ask why she was doing certain things in class and had no idea about her diagnosis.  I asked if she knew that DD had been diagnosed with autism, and she was like 'Yes, that makes sense now'.  To be fair, she was the best teacher she had though, once she knew.

Her school here in the UK has been the complete opposite.  Within a few weeks of her starting school I had had meetings with the school's SEN teacher, had met with the head of the SEN team at the high school she will be going to in August to discuss her transition to high school and see how they can best support her, and she had been referred by school to an OT.  She has since seen the OT for an assessment at the hospital, and they have arranged for an OT to attend school and help her with some things.

Yes this would be my worry that something like this would happen. However as she’s so young it’s hard to know how she’ll be in the future as she’s made so much progress I’m hopeful that in a while the gap won’t be very wide. She’s only a year or so delayed, I’m just hoping the gap closes rather than gets bigger. She’s also ‘summer born’ and apparently summer born children don’t catch up until they’re about 13 anyway. She would have started school  later in Aus too so she would be a couple of terms ahead at least 

2 hours ago, Quoll said:

Migrating with a child with disabilities can be a tad tricky. If you haven’t yet applied for your visa then going through an agent who specialises in medical conditions will be important (George Lombard and Peter Bollard are the two usually mentioned in this regard).

Theres a catch 22 situation for kids with disabilities - if they get a visa they are unlikely to get educational support and if they need support in education they’re unlikely to get a visa. 

It would be a wise move to get her a full psychoeducational assessment as that could be requested following the medical as I’m guessing she is statemented. Cognitive assessment, receptive and expressive language, adaptive behaviour, current skill levels and with, sensory processing issues, probably a paediatric assessment as well. 

In general, Australia doesn’t do kids with special needs as well as U.K. from all reports. Getting specific support requires quite significant deficits and if the child doesn’t have an impairment which is assessed as significant then they’re pretty much on their own and it’s in the lap of the Gods how they are dealt with in class. Nice little girls often slip through the cracks.

No she’s not statemented, doesn’t have a disability and has recently been discharged by her paediatrician so I don’t think getting a visa for her would be a problem. She’s just had some development delays 

13 hours ago, Sandgroper said:

I think it's completely normal to change your mind a lot in the early stages you haven't even completed an EOI yet, even at the later stages of the process most people have doubts.

We made the move with 3 kids in that age range trust me they will be the least of the stress for you,kids that age are very adaptable, i'd say get the ball rolling sooner rather than later it is easier the younger they are, my 3 are doing really well and the out of school activities available to them is far greater than in the UK, my eldest has just started high school on a GAT stream which would not have been available to her in the UK. When we first visited the kids primary school to enquire about enrollment the principal gave us a guided tour visiting each of the year groups our kids would be going into, that would have never have happened in the UK! Sport isn't rammed down there throats they do more here in school such as every morning as soon as the bell goes they go on to the school oval for some form of exercise either a couple of laps or some races. Apart from being a great swimmer my eldest isn't sporty at all I wouldn't worry about that at all.

We had decent jobs and that was always a concern leaving them, however we are both in similar jobs now just better paid.

You mention holidays we were the same an all inclusive to the med once a year costing a fortune and the odd weekend trip to Europe for the wife and I when the grandparents had the kids. Because of the location we chose we no longer need beach holidays we live it everyday, we love camping so get away doing that as often as we can, we have our first trip booked outside Australia for latter in the year 12 days in Japan visiting 3 different cities, we would never have been able to do a trip like that from the UK.

Just up to you and hubby to decide if it's right for you, we were the same but believe we made the correct choice it hasn't been plane sailing by any means but so glad we made the right decision(for us)

Thanks. I suppose I should elaborate a bit more on the school worries. My oldest (son) is very good academically. My youngest (daughter), who’s 4 (5 in May) and in Reception year, has been developmentally delayed since birth for unknown reasons. She was late reaching all milestones such as crawling at 15m, walked at 21m, had a moderate speech delay and was only really saying 2 words sentences at age 3. Over the last 1 year in particular, her speech has improved massively and I would say she’s almost caught up in that area, however sometimes she needs extra visual information or smaller steps due to a slower auditory memory/processing. However she is making excellent progress, she’s reading first books and is writing, she’s just not quite at the same level as most other children. She doesn’t need 1:1 a lot in school, she doesn’t need it as her behaviour is outstanding and she’s good at following routines, just sometimes need a bit of pre-teaching. Her school is excellent and supportive and she’s used to it and I would feel guilty changing that for the unknown. Mainly because of her sensory processing difficulties. I’m not worried about the friendship side for her as she still prefers to play alongside and do her own thing. 

13 hours ago, bristolman said:

I'll be honest the temperate usually mild climate suits me more and certainly don't find it grey most of the time, not at all. 

I think it is grey most of the time. It was the thing I noticed most after coming back from a year in Australia. It must be grey as whenever it’s a sunny day it’s always a bit ’ooh what a lovely sunny day we’ve had’ kind of reaction. 

Saying that, one of the things that does put me off moving to Aus is how hot the weather could be in the future. I could cope with it now but what’s it going to be like for our children’s children etc.  

5 hours ago, bristolman said:

https://www.citybaseapartments.com/blog/50-reasons-why-britain-is-great/

When you look through that list it really is impressive, I know those of us living here realise it but so many things are just taken for granted. 

Love the  UK, just wish it were a bit warmer and less grey most of the time 

53 minutes ago, Bobj said:

Bugga!! I thought that plus 8 C was cold enough...I think that snow fell on the Eungella Range, some 70 km west of Mackay, in 1963

 

Cheers, Bobj.

Was about 8 degrees with the sun shining today where I’m from in U.K. (Midlands) and all the kids at the school I work at were running around with their coats off at breaktime.. felt like summer after the -6 last week 

33 minutes ago, themaccas said:

What is your budget and I can tell you if it’s possible to buy a place. We looked at so many suburbs. You won’t get a free standing house for under $1 million within an hours commute unless it’s a pretty dodgy area. You may get an apartment just under $1 million closer to the city centre though. Even in my new suburb which is an hour on an extremely good day and not in rush hour traffic, homes are going for over $1million. Sydney is one of the most expensive places to live in the world.

Budget is definitely not a million. Our house here is 2 years old, 4 bed detached in nice area and worth around £320k. So around $560k AUD so no where near the Sydney budget! Could prob afford more as husband’s salary in Sydney could likely be around $160k possibly more however I don’t think that would be able to afford us a million pound house. Obviously I could be earning but any job I do has to fit around children’s school hours and holidays so wouldn’t be much in comparison.  In Brisbane he could earn around $120k however that is a lot less than he earns here in U.K. but obvs houses more affordable around Brisbane than Sydney within a similar commute. You can see my dilemma!  All this assuming he could find a job too but he has a good C.V. 

2 hours ago, aconcannon said:

We live on Sydney’s northern beaches. We absolutely love it & wouldn’t live anywhere else in Sydney. It’s such a beautiful area with all the beaches & lakes & coastal walks. What’s on your wish list for the perfect suburb? Sydney is such a big place & prices vary massively it’s difficult to recommend without knowing a bit more...I.e. how close to the beach do you want to be? Do you want to commute by bus, train or car?

Hubby would probably prefer to commute by train or a bit of both. He currently drives to a train station and parks there and then gets the train into London. 2 tube stops and a 10 min walk. Takes him about 1hr45 min ish each way. So anything under that would be great! It would be nice to be near a beach but the main property would be somewhere that makes it easy to get a train to commute into the CBD and good schools. I’m just not sure we could afford to live in Sydney. Even with what he could earn. 

Is the Northern Beaches the name of the suburbs or can you advise of the suburb names? Thanks 

13 hours ago, LucyHose said:

Hi,

We've just arrived, we've talked about it for 10 years and in the last 4 made a concerted effort to get a visa.   Our kids are 8 and 10.  They started school on Tuesday and immediately loved it and have made friends.  My eldest, who previously described school as "torture" in the UK has come out beaming for the last few days. They have a great library and ICT suite at their school as well as all the sporty stuff - they are taking part in the school swimming gala Friday.   I only wish we'd moved years ago!  We came here 3 weeks ago with nowhere to live, no jobs and no school for the kids.  In 3 weeks I've secured a job (start Monday), my kids are in a lovely school and we're just agreeing a move date for our rental property.  It's been stressful at points, but we've made it this far and I can't tell you what a difference the heat and sun makes

Just go for it, what's the worst that can happen - you decide to come back? Least you went for it.  In the month before we left the UK I was an emotional wreck, I'm pretty sure the last week before we left nearly killed me with all our goodbyes and tears, but I focused on my reasons for coming here and won't look back now.

We've been welcomed with open arms, everyone so friendly and helpful - I think because so many people are not born here their attitude is a lot different to other places I've been. So far my daughter has played with French, Chinese, Finnish, and of course Aussie girls and is loving every moment.

Life isn't for regrets, if you don't go for it, you'll never know x

Sounds great. Where abouts have have you settled? My ideal area would be around Brisbane just hoping it wouldn’t be too hot for my husband all of the time. 

3 hours ago, calNgary said:

I think i could have wrote that post myself, we enjoy the beaches, fishing, boating, camping etc so love the variety here and love exploring different areas. We had a great life in the UK , holiday home in Spain, good jobs, good friends etc but wanted something different , a challenge and we are glad we made the jump. Not all succesful migrants here come from crappy areas and crappy jobs. Once established life can be just as settled here, if not better.

As for cheap holidays, we have been to Vanuatu quite a few times, Fiji, Cook islands, new zealand and Bali are quite common places to holiday too as well but heh the way Australia itself varies State to State, you could holiday in a different place for the rest of your life and not leave the country,lol and you can get some fab deals on interstate flights too.

 Cal x

Thanks. Where abouts have you settled? 

3 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

Well, if you invest that money today (or leave it in your house, if that's where it is), then it will continue to grow - so it should finance plenty of holidays.  Whereas if you spend it to move to Australia, it's gone.  

My main concern is that you've got a good life and the only reason you want to move to Oz is because life has become rather humdrum.  Maybe you're pining for the fancy-free life you had before you had kids.  But the truth is, after the initial novelty, life in Australia will probably become humdrum too - and then what will you do?

Oh no I don’t pine for a life before kids. They’re my world and everything I do is for them. When i think of Australia I think of all the places we could take them to that I went to and also they love beaches and the outdoor life. I like being outdoors but not in the cold or rain so much. 

8 minutes ago, rammygirl said:

Holidays don’t have to cost a lot.  We used to holiday regularly in Spain and Majorca, getting cheap flights and renting a villa or apartment and a car for much less than that, even in peak season.  And our relatives in the UK still do that for much less than 3k.  We have always travelled a lot on a modest budget and enjoyed it all the more by not staying in big hotels that could be anywhere.

Well yes we are in a hotel all inclusive, but generally holidays in these areas have gone up a lot in price due to more demand and people less likely to go to places where the terrorism risk is higher I.e. Tunisia. 

12 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

I wrote my first post before I read everyone else's, and realised that you'd answered the question of why you wanted to go.  Which seems to be, if I read it right, that you enjoyed your working holiday all those years ago, and you've got itchy feet.  It seems like a flimsy reason to uproot your children and your husband from a good life.  

The other thing to consider is that you like trying new things - so if you move to Australia, what then? What makes you think you won't get itchy feet again in ten years' time, by which time your children might be in the midst of important exams?   Or you may settle down till they've completed their education, but then want to go home - by which time they're Aussies, and won't want to follow Mum and Dad.  

IMO you could have quite a few holidays over the next few years with 40 grand, and satisfy your thirst for adventure that way.

I dunno about quite a few with the cost it takes to go on holidays on the school holidays. (I don’t know if people are ‘allowed’ to take their kids out for holidays in Aus?) But a week away in Majorca in August is costing 3.5k and that’s with a free child’s place. 

50 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

I hit the nail on the head and then I deleted my post, LOL.

Anyhow, I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

@maidensarah, my advice would be - don't even contemplate a move to Australia unless you're convinced you want to live there permanently.  Of course, you may change your mind once you're here - that's a different story, and something you'd have to deal with if it happened.   But IMO it's a bad idea to migrate with the idea that "I can always come home if it doesn't work out".  

If you're moving with kids, it will cost you around £40,000 to make the move.  Visa fees and air fares are the least of it - there's shipping (and/or buying new stuff when you arrive), buying a car (they're more expensive here), a month's AirBnB, not to mention several weeks out of work, when you still have to eat!  Once upon a time you'd be offered work as soon as you got off the plane, but nowadays the advice is you need about six month's living expenses up your sleeve, because that's how long the job hunt could take you.

If you were moving permanently, you might decide (as many do) that you'll be able to make up for that loss over the rest of your lives in Australia.  However, if you're thinking of it as an adventure, there's no way you could recoup that investment - and what's worse, you'll be up for another £40,000 to go home again.You could end up back where you started with a much much bigger mortgage or (worse case scenario) no home at all.  

So the question becomes, do I want an adventure in Australia badly enough to spend £80,000 on it?    Just think what you could do for your kids with that money - or more to the point, what you won't be able to do for them in the future, if you spend your equity now.  

Thanks, and I’m also interested to know what your first post was?! 

If we moved to Australia I would intend to live there permanently as we would be applying for a PR visa.  So unless we actually hated it after giving it a few years,  which I couldn’t see happening. There’s no way I would want to uproot us all twice. I wouldn’t go out if our only option was a temporary visa with an occupation on the short term skills list for example. For me it’s just that initial decision. It is quite a big one after all. 

11 minutes ago, Gbye grey sky said:

We are south of Brisbane in ‘The Redlands’.  We live a few miles inland in the village of Mount Cotton.

Around Brisbane is my first choice to move to as it was my fave. Hubby could earn more in Sydney/Melbourne though however looking at the house prices to buy (thinking longer term) even within an hour’s commute I don’t think we could afford so earning less but paying out less for a house may work out around the same or better around Brissie.  I know people who live in Bridgeman Downs and stayed with them a while. 

8 minutes ago, Gbye grey sky said:

Can’t tell you whether or not it is normal.  We left a good life with good jobs in the UK too.

Once we had done all the financial calculations I don’t remember any wobbles at all during the planning stage and waiting for the visa.  Nor any doubts at all since moving.

I suspect, because you have been here before (though in different circumstances) you are conscious that day to day life as a family may not be substantially different so......is it worth all the upheaval, expense and angst?  For us as a couple it was because, frankly, we both loathe UK winters.  I really had struggled all my life with S.A.D. which would kick in at the start of November and not pass until mid March.  So, in that sense my life has been transformed.

You have to weigh up what you are losing against what you are hoping or expecting to gain.

I also loathe the winters and feel the cold easily. I’m generally always cold unless the heating’s on. 

Where abouts have you settled in Aus? 

49 minutes ago, Tulip1 said:

The kids will be fine, will hardly remember it in a years time if asked. Think about when you take kids that age on holiday, within half an hour they're usually running around with new friends they've made.  That's the one thing not to worry about and it's your decision, they have to follow you wherever you go. 

Thanks. Is it normal to change my mind so often though? Sometimes every 5 mins haha. Or at night I think no we’re quite happy why change it then in the morning I think why not give it a go. Was anyone else like that? I think it would be an easier desicion if we were not happy with life where we are. I mean, I don’t live in the greatest place in the UK or anything but it’s okay and I’m used to it. Maybe we could just be happy anywhere? Within reason!

58 minutes ago, bristolman said:

You don't really mention why you are thinking of making the move ? You are really just swapping one 1st world country for another. Kids are very adaptable, ours moved the other direction and slipped right in. You just need to look at why you are planning on moving first. 

Well it wouldn’t be moving for a better job as my husband has a good one.. hopefully one on par. I know it’s another 1st world country.. I’ve been..  We have a nice life here and are happy. I just like trying new things. I have lots of fond memories of Australia and think we would all have a great time there, whether permanently or temporarily if after a few years we decided we would rather be back ‘home’.  But I don’t think you would know that until you’ve been there a while. I went there for a year. Probably more than most people who move out, some having never been.