spamjam

OK thanks Eera, that's good to know - I didn't realise that the slabs were similar for these different classes so I'll watch out for that if we do go along the building route. Went to see a few homes on Saturday and quite liked them but seem to always find some downside to each one - new developments overlooking backgarden etc. Oh well, maybe we will consider building after all... at least then you can get what you want. :-) Cheers!

Thanks Pom Queen for your advice and the links, I'll check them out. We're still considering our options - unfortunately it seems the land we were looking at might be in a flood risk area so we putting it hold for now and having a think about it. it's useful to hear your experience with conveyancers and solicitors, it's something we haven't really looked into too much as yet but I think we will have to start getting these things in place soon so we're all ready to go when we find the perfect plot of land or house! :-) Thanks :-)

Hi, We are interested in a plot of land that has planning approval for a house in Melbourne. We've been to see the land and have copies of the plans, section 32 and soil tests etc. and are looking into the mortgage side for building your own home (previously we were looking at just buying an established home). We are currently trying to get estimated build/site costs so we can figure out the finances but it's proving a little difficult to get anyone to give us a ball park figure. We are not familiar with the system here for buying land/houses and so I just wanted to ask a little advice on a few things :unsure: 1. What other research should we be doing on the land before making an offer? Any pitfalls we should lookout for? The site is fairly flat, has some trees that require protection during construction and is classified as 'M' class soil. 2. What is the best way to go through the negotiation process with the real estate agent? Do we have to make our offer in writing and when does it become legally binding? Should we get our conveyancing solicitor to draw up the offer with any conditions etc? Although we've bought and sold houses in the UK before it's a little daunting looking at doing it here with a different system and also looking to buy and build rather than an established home, so any advice would be gratefully received :smile:

Well I've posted on this thread a few times along the way and I guess this will be my last post on this one... today I arrived in Melbourne! :biggrin: It was a tough journey alone (meeting my OH who has been in Melbourne for 2 months already), the flight from Heathrow was delayed 6 hours meaning I missed my connecting flight in Kuala Lumpur and was booked onto the next one 12 hours later. The airline were great though, gave passnegers who'd missed their connecting flights hotel accommodation and meals in KL which was actually a great opportunity to have a shower and eat some real food before boarding the ongoing flight. Still, after leaving home on monday morning at 6.30am uk time, I was VERY glad to land in Melbourne this morning 8am Melbourne time! Feels a bit unreal at the moment, (and it's raining so feels a lot like the uk!) but excited to start looking for a new home here and starting new job next week. So thanks everyone, and to everybody still working towards making the move I hope it all goes smoothly and works out. The list of things to do is daunting and the goodbyes are sad, but hopefully it'll be worth it! :biggrin:

Tandcmum I know exactly how you feel! Just about managing to keep it together saying goodbye to friends at work and leaving our home yesterday after the packers left, but I'm dreading the airport trip on Monday and having to say goodbye to my parents, it is really hard. I feel sorry for whoever I have to sit next to on the plane, I dread to think what I'll be like for most of the trip and feel quite tearful just thinking about it. Keep going chuck, it'll be ok and I think once you're on your way and landed in Australia it'll be exciting, at least thats what I keep telling myself so I hope it's true!

Shippers have been here packing our house up today, ready to load into container with the car tomorrow - they were very efficient!! Now sitting in my living room looking at all the boxes and furniture all packed up and feeling a bit wobblyI have to admit! Excited about going and meeting up again with my OH who has been in australia for almost 2 months now, but very sad to be leaving our home and family behind. And terrified about it all too! It's all starting to seem a bit real now! Flying out next monday to Melbourne, not long now! I have to say this thread has been really useful in keeping me going, seeing the little things that everyone is doing to get closer to making the big move, and adding in each little step we have made really helps to keep it in perspective - great stuff! :-) Keep going everyone!

Me too! I'm flying on 23rd April as well, getting pretty scared now - mixed feelings really it's weird, feel excited one minute about the move and being back with my OH who is already there, then sad at leaving my family and job, then terrified about stepping into the unknown!! A bit of a roller coaster, although PIO helps... I'm lucky enough to have the fairies here right now, in the shape of my parents who've come down to visit and have been working nonstop today helping me with the house and garden and are waiting in for the boiler to be serviced tomorrow while I have to work - my last 4 days at work - oh my god! Really couldn't do it without my parents, can't think of a good enough way the thank them. :-) Good luck everyone, hope the fairies come your way soon! :-)

Hi ScotsLass, Thanks thats really helpful, and great to hear someone else who has the 461 - it doesn't seem to be a very common one! We went for the 461 for exactly the same reasons - the nature of my job is such that fixed term contracts of 2-3 years are common and there is a chance there could be a gap between contracts so I wasn't too keen on having a visa tied to a position in case I had to leave the country when my job ended, especially if my partner was in the middle of his contract at that point! Interesting what you say about the Private health insurance - have you taken out any provate health insurance of just using the Medicare Reciprocal agreement at the moment? I had thought we would just take out a policy if we felt we wanted more cover and if we wanted to have kids and things but I hadn't thought that there might be restrictions on access to private services. Hopefully the driving licence won't be a problem as I read that in VIC you can just exchange your UK one for a Vic one, but having read your post I'll check up on this in case there are other requirements. So much to think about! How are you enjoying Aus so far? I'm coming over to Melbourne in about 3-4 weeks time, and can't decide whether to be excited or terrified!! My partner is already there (he went about a month ago) so I'm sorting all the house and things out which is keeping me busy and focused at least, just got a few more weeks of shipping our stuff, packing up the house and saying sad goodbyes then I'm on my way! ADAWN - any news on your 461 application yet?

Just received the import approval for our car :biggrin: Also put our house up for rent this week so am hoping that someone nice will want to rent it just at the same time I am leaving... 6 days left at work - sad but excited! I think this is going to be a tough month of goodbyes... but then the adventure begins!

Shippers booked for mid-April, and flight leaving the UK booked for 23rd April- oh my god I can't believe it's really happening! feeling a weird mix of excitement sand sadness at leaving my family behind, not looking forward to that last tearful day going to the airport that's for sure. i know how you feel TheGrahams, I seem to have done the exciting bits, got visa sorted, sorted a job in Melbourne and things, now juc need to paint the hallway, sort out selling things and taking stuff to charity shop. all the boring jobs i didn't want to do but now have left until last! I might go check out the magazines too for some inspiration!!!

Hi ADAWN, sorry not been on PIO for a few days, my parents were visiting and helping me to overhaul the garden and sort out garden pond ready for putting the house to rent so been a busy week! Any news on your visa yet? I really hope you get some good news soon! Yes we're letting our house out, it's making me quite sad as we've only been here a couple of years and bought the house as our kind of 'settling down house' with room enough for us to have kids maybe, we absolutely love it and it's sad to leave. But we're renting it so we can come back if we need to, or sell it when the market is better (and when I've already moved out so won't be so upset at selling!). We live in Bedfordshire, whereabouts are you? It is all a bit daunting but it feels good to get things sorted out piece by piece, booked the shippers in for mid-April, and have had the photos and things taken for putting the house up for rent so just got a few painting jobs and finishing tidying the garden then I think it'll all be ready. Hope so anyway!! Any news on the jobs front? I really hope you manage to get something sorted soon and get your visa soon, then you can be on your way :biggrin:

I'm a bit confused on this, hopefully someone will be able to enlighten me! I have a job offer and it states that it is a condition of my employment to join the Superannuation scheme, which is fine but I don't really understand how it all works. It says that my employer pays superannuation contributions of 9% of my relevant earnings to the scheme. Does this mean that each month 9% of my gross salary will be diverted into the superannuation scheme, or does it mean that the employer will contribute the equivalent of 9% of my salary each month into the scheme? My salary is just listed as the gross amount with no mention of 'including' or 'plus' superannuation, so I'm a little confused. I think it says that the employee can make voluntary contributions in addition to the 9%. I was going to ask them but thought maybe it was a standard thing and someone here might know (hence saving me looking clueless with my future employers!) Sorry if I'm being a bit dim, never been very good at understanding pension scheme at the best of times! :confused:

Resigned from my job! :sad::eek:

We're in the same boat but my partner has already gone and I am going end of April so now in a mad rush to get the house let, organise shipping and so on - eek! Regarding letting your house out, it depends I think on your situation and whether you have somewhere to stay in the UK before you go if your house lets out early, or conversely whether you can afford to cover mortgage etc if you don't rent it out before you have to leave. We're putting it on in the next few weeks once I've decided which agent to use, and hoping the timing works out that we find a tenant who wants to move in when I move out! Not sure how likely that is... You will need to change your insurance to landlords insurance, I haven't looked into this much yet so not sure of the implications of not changing your insurance but I imagine that if you don't have landlords insurance then your existing buildings and contents may not be valid if the house is rented out without the proper insurance, and you may not be covered in the event of a claim. I think you will need to tell you mortgage company as if you don't you are in breach of your mortgage contract - if they find out you may lose your house entirely. I don't know how they would find out as I don't have that experience, but if the house is tenanted there is potentially lots of evidence pointing towards that such as changes to the electoral role, utility bills, council tax and inland revenue records and so on (not sure how they would check this though). Plus where will you have the mortgage statements sent to? If you change this address they might wonder why...I don't know but I wouldn't be happy about lying to the mortgage company when such an enormous thing as your house is at stake, better to bite the bullet and get it sorted I think. It depends who your mortgage is with, we're with HSBC and they were very helpful and agreed to give us a consent to let for a period of time without having to change our mortgage interest rate or switch to buy to let. But it does depend on your circumstances, how much of the house you own and whether you are meeting all your payments etc. I guess different banks have different criteria and ways of dealing with it, some banks may make you switch mortgages, some you can pay a small consent to let fee. I'm not an expert in this field though. There is a form from the inland revenue that you need to fill in before you leave the UK, I think it's form P85 and can be downloaded from the HMRC website. I haven't done it yet so not sure what's involved but I think maybe you need some info from your P45 for some bits of it. Sorry can't help with the pensions and GP/hospital side, I'm interested in finding those things out too and have a massive list of things to do and things to find out and forms to fill in. Hope it's all worth it!! Good luck,

Hi ADAWN, It seems that our application must have just landed on the right persons desk and the right time, so sorry you're having to wait and hope I didn't give you false hope! Like you say we must have just been lucky with ours in terms of timing. My OH is from Wellington, he has lived in the UK for about 11 years and we've been together for 9. He was lucky to be offered a job in Melbourne and as his contract here was ending (bloomin' fixed term contracts!) and my job was changing location to involved a long commute, it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss! NZ would be lovely and I think we'd both like to live there one day, but we both work in science research and the job opportunities are a little more limited there than in Australia. Still I'm really looking forward to the adventure of going to Melbourne and living somewhere new, although now OH has gone already and I have to sort out shipping, letting the house and so on it's all a bit daunting! I hope your OH manages to get some work, I was under the impression there were quite a few opportunities in construction but I have to admit I don't know much about it! Are you looking for work as well? At least you've still got some time before you plan to go in August to get things sorted out, and hopefully your visa will come through soon! :-)

We're both scientists so have both luckily managed to secure jobs working at research institutes/universities in Melbourne which is great, after a few years of working in different places and commuting in opposite directions reach day I'm looking forward to us both working near each other and hopefully neither of us having to travel too much to get to work. Have you guys got work lined up? I can't actually remember how I found the 461 visa, I think we were looking at partner sponsored/spouse visas but he can't sponsor me as he's not an eligible new zealand citizen, so had to look at other options. I could have probably gone for a 457 business one now I have a job lined up, but at the time I didn't have a job to go to and thought having the 461 would be more flexible and not tied to a job, especially as research/academic positions are generally on a fixed-term basis. I know I don't have the same rights as a permanent resident but I felt that the fact that my visa is not tied to my job might be useful if we still wanted to stay in Australia when my contract ends. I think I found the visa on the Australian immigration site, maybe by doing the visa wizard, although I can't quite remember I'm afraid, I found the whole visa process a bit confusing in trying to figure out what I was eligible for, so was glad to have found stumbled upon 461 visa! How did you find out about it? It seems to be that it's not a very common one for people to have, not many people seem to have heard of it. I hope your application goes through OK and you have the visa soon for your OH, when are you planning to head to Australia?

Just taken my other-half to the airport for him to go to Melbourne, not really getting myself to Oz I suppose but part of the journey to get us both there. Thought I was prepared for the sad goodbyes but very surprised by how hard it has hit me (and him). Feeling heartbroken right now :-( but I know it's just for a few months and a step closer to us both being there. Also on a happier note got another survey to quote for shipping our furniture over, just waiting for the quotes to roll in... Good luck to everyone in their quest to get down under!

Thanks Snifter, and apologies for not thanking you sooner - I feel like my feet have hardly touched the ground this week with all the rushing about! My partner is off to Melbourne tomorrow and we're feeling very unprepared and a bit panicky about it all - seems to have come round too quickly! I am feeling positive about going, although a bit..ok very... nervous about it all. But overall I'm really excited about it and see it as an adventure, I've moved around quite a bit (albeit in one country so far) and so hoping that I am quite adaptable in such situations! I'm seeing now that my partner is actually quite nervous too (normally he's so relaxed about these things!) and so am trying to support him and keep it together. I was feeling upset about having to go after he does but he's reassured me he'll be at the airport when I get there and will be able to help me settle in with all the things he's learnt by going first, so i think it will be fine. We're both a bit scared now we realise it's actually happening and is such a big move, but I'm looking forward to the adventure of it all! Thanks for the support, I may well PM you at some point! Thanks for your words of wisdom, very much appreciated. :biggrin:

We're off to Melbourne - my partner is going first on Thursday (eek! so soon) and then I'm going in late April, haven't booked flights yet but starting a job on 1st May. Where are you going? No I didn't have to have ny x-rays or medicals or anything, I just included the police check certificate with my application along with a whole bunch of evidence that we are in a genuine relationship (joint mortgage, joint bills, statements from friends and family, photos of us a family parties and so on). I got certified copies of the passports, birth certificate and my driving licence (as proof of address) but just sent in normal copies or everything else and I sent the original police certificate. I included a stamped addressed envelope and they returned the photographs, christmas cards etc along with the visa. I'm not sure how much evidence they needed but I figured as we've been together 9 years and we had all this stuff it wouldn't hurt to send it all as extra proof! Good luck with your application, I hope it goes though smoothly!

Today I agreed a start date for my new job in Melbourne - 1st May!! Woohoo! Looking at flights now....

Hi all, I'm British and my partner (future hubbie) is a New Zealander, he's been in the UK for about 10 years now and we're just about to move to Melbourne, so I guess a 'neutral' country! I feel that as he's already moved across the world once before from NZ to UK, he is less worried about the move to Australia than I am. I am excited and we both have jobs to go to which is great and does relieve the worry a little from a financial point of view but I am feeling a little concerned that I will be quite isolated once over there away from my family. He is going soon (next week) and I am going in about 2 months so I guess I am also worried that he will be all settled and I'll be the outsider by the time I arrive, whereas if we went together it would be our adventure together. Ah well, just the way life works out I guess... I guess I've been lucky to be able to see my family so easily all these years whilst he's been away from his, but now I'm worrying about the situation being reversed! Excited but getting scared now it's all becoming a bit real! Never lived overseas before... eek!

Hi all, New to the site since my partner was offered a position in Melbourne, he's off next week and I'm off hopefully end of April - feeling daunted by all there is too do and also deciding when to finish work. Anyway since I got my visa last week (woohoo!!) have now started making plans and today had the first of 4 shipping companies in to quote for our furniture and car shipping. I have to say, talking through with them about shipping our stuff made it feel much more real, exciting but very very scary!!! And we haven't got the quote back yet, so it might get even more scary... :-) Good luck everyone making the move!

hi ADAWN, I am new to the site too and we are also planning our move to Melbourne on a 461 visa, my partner is a NZ citizen and I have the 461. We applied just a couple of weeks ago and it took literally 2 days to be approved! I was so shocked, sent the application in on the Thursday lunchtime, received approved visa on the following Tuesday morning in the mail! My understanding is that although it allows you to live and work in Australia 461 visa holders are not eligible for some social benefits like unemployment etc (or Australian equivalent) but other than that it seems ok. good luck with your visa application :-)