shellyk666

I actually included on the forms a couple of minor items that was brand new and unused - a vacuum and a few kitchenware items, I didn't have to pay anything. I was under the impression they they were more concerned if there was a large number of the same thing incase you was going to sell it and that if it appeared to be just a few items personal use it wouldn't be a problem. It wasn't a problem for us as our MoveCube arrived in January and we didn't have to pay any additional fees etc. I thought it best to be honest and declare everything and thought that if they could see we were being honest about everything on the forms then hopefully they'd not feel the need to check everything in the container as much. Worked for us anyhow!

My hubby is a joiner. I was a compliance auditor for the Ministry of Justice in the UK, my new job is kind of along the same lines but isn't government. I feel really grateful that so far everything seems to be going to plan. I submitted loads of job applications over a couple of weeks using the STAR approach to answer the selection criteria, one of them was going to come through eventually lol The issue I had is that what I can do is often called a variety of different titles which made it difficult to search for, I'd have never come across the advert for the job I got had I not just looked through everything! My perseverance paid off quickly though on this occasion. It doesn't get too humid over in WA thankfully, I'm not sure I'd cope so well if it was so I understand why you still struggle. Good luck for your future xx

Hi everyone, It's been a while since I posted, I've been soo busy!! I made the move over to Perth from Nottingham at the end of October 2014 with my husband and 2 children (aged 7 and 4). The goodbyes were tough, especially my parents, but so far I haven't found it emotionally difficult at all. I can't say I'm really missing anything. I think this is probably what I'm most surprised about and I imagine you'll never know how you'll feel until you've actually done it. Everything I put in this post is of course my own personal opinion, your experiences and opinions may be very different to ours and that is ok. We arrived on a Friday afternoon, my sister collected us from the airport. She moved out here in March 2014 and our families are incredibly close. It was so lovely to see them again! The kids were really good throughout the plane journey even though they only had a few hours sleep. I arrive in Perth in a bit of a daze and the journey to my sisters home felt surreal, I couldn't quite believe we were finally here! My first impression was that I was surprised by how many trees there are and by how wide the roads are. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with my sister for as long as we needed to, in the end we were there nearly 8 weeks before getting the keys to our own rental. We enrolled our kids in the local school before leaving the UK, Ella secured the last kind place but for every other year from pre-primary upwards as long as you live within the boundary they have to take them. Compared to the primary school in England I personally prefer Winthrop Primary School so far. They appear very well organised and the teachers we've had so far have been great. Harry hasn't found that he's miles ahead or behind the rest of the class and the report we received for the last few weeks of last year suggested he was in a similar position to where he was deemed to be in the UK. The main difference for me is that there appears to be an awful lot of 'gifted and talented' programs. I'm still trying to get my head around it all but first impressions are good, they seem to recognise talented individuals and do something about it. This is an area I need to understand better though. Neither of us had a job to come out to. My husband, a joiner, responded to a few Seek adverts with his CV whilst we were still in the UK and secured some interviews for the week after we arrived. He was offered a job at the first interview and started work 3 weeks after landing. The work is not as high quality as he's used to and the people he works with don't appear to be particularly talented but he's happy to be bringing a wage in for now. We decided I would take a few months off, to settle the kids into school, find a house and get all the jobs ticked off. It also meant that I could have the kids throughout the school summer holidays and not have to worry about childcare and also I'd be off whilst my parents visited for 3 weeks in January. I had decided that I wanted to start work full time around the middle of February giving the kids a couple of weeks to settle back at school after the holidays. I starting actively applying for jobs in January, mainly government roles which often offer flexible working etc. As in the UK the government recruitment process is slow! I also applied for a couple of jobs advertised privately on Seek and following my first interview on Wednesday they called me on Friday to offer me the position. I start on Wednesday! For this job, and another government position that I wasn't shortlisted for, they commented on the large number of applicants having received over 50 applications. The role isn't for as much money as I think I ought to be on as I earned an above average salary in the UK but I'm happy to have gotten my foot in the door and it doesn't stop me continuing to look. Our combined salary will enable us to live comfortably and save a bit too. Leave Loading (where they pay you 17.5% more when you're on annual leave) and Salary Packaging (a salary sacrifice scheme where you are able to pay for some things directly from your salary before tax has been deducted) appear to be pretty common here. From my limited experience I'd say that 4 weeks annual leave plus public holidays seems to be normal (although I've got 5 weeks with my new job). I'd heard that daycare often get's booked up quickly and I have found this to be true. I visited 4 Daycare centres in November to secure a place from February and they had either no or very limited places left so this is definitely something people need to consider. If I had left it until I had secured a job to find a daycare place I'm not sure I could have found one. All public school students, including kindy, have a list of stationary and books to buy for each school year which adds up to a fair amount. I found it surprising that this stuff isn't provided by the school. At our school there is then 'voluntary contributions' of $100 per student and 'excursion fees' of $90 for each year. I was also surprised at the cost of school uniform. At our school you must wear the polo shirt with the school emblem and a particular type of shorts or trousers. They're pretty expensive when you're comparing it to Tesco or M&S. A school dress is $55/$60 and 1 polo shirt is $24 for example. Overall I don't find that cost of living in Perth is very different to that in Nottingham, with the exception of rental payments. For a family of 4 I spend around $250 - $300 on our weekly grocery shopping. I do a big shop at Spudshed and then a smaller shop at Woolworths or Coles. This isn't very much different to what I used to spend in the UK which was £130-£150. I've found that the range and cost of furniture to be pretty good to start us off. We bought a large Move Cube and decided to buy most thing again. Super Amart, Furniture Bizarre and Ikea are all pretty cheap and have started us off. The houses are so much bigger and are often more open plan. Apple products work out a bit cheaper over here too. I find most electrical items to be good value, the only thing I thought was expensive was fridge-freezers. I find entrance fees at attractions are generally good value when compared to those in the UK and there is plenty of free stuff going on. We've got solar panels and bore reticulation so hopefully our water and electricity bills will be ok. We pay $70 a month for an unlimited landline and broadband with TPG and they've been find so far, it's a lot cheaper than some of the others at the moment. We have a Pre-pay sim with Optus and pay $30 per month for 1G of data, 250 minutes and unlimited messages which is plenty for us, the cost of a months contract wasn't worth it for us. In the weeks after we arrived life was a bit like a whirlwind! We tried to find a balance most days of doing something for the kids and ticking something off the 'to do' list. We set up our Anz accounts from the UK and had to attend in branch to activate it and receive our cards etc. The service was good although the lady made a mistake on my debit card meaning I wasn't able to use it to pay for anything (that was embarrassing!) and I had to go back in branch, she'd checked the wrong box. I used TorFX to transfer our money. It felt wrong transferring such a large sum into their account following nothing more than a couple of phone calls but it was very easy and simple with no problems whatsoever. I was pleased with the exchange rate at the time. There was medicare, buying/registering cars, mobile phone contracts, centrelink and childcare. We've registered with a local GP practise although I need to read more about how medicare works cuz I don't really get it at the moment. If you're bringing a child under 7 be sure to get a copy of there immunisation records as it is needed to determine what catch-up program is needed and a copy is provided to the Immunisation Register. There were 2 that my daughter (4) hadn't received in the UK, Hepatitis B and Chicken Pox. She's already had chicken pox so the Dr was happy to confirm to the Immunisation Register that that one isn't needed due to a natural immunity but she's had to start a course of 3 injections for Hep B. Centrelink won't pay you any family assistance (including child care benefit or child care rebate) unless you are up to date with the Australian vaccinations or on a catch up program which is interesting. Moving into our rental made a big difference for us. Until then it kind of felt too much like a holiday. It wasn't as difficult to secure one as I thought it might be. It was the quality of the houses on offer that had me most worried! We were looking at a budget of up to $650 per week. A lot of them were in desperate need of an update (and a good clean!). On the odd day when the temperature approaches 40 degrees I'm grateful for the air conditioning in the evening and it can feel too hot to do very much at all unless it involves a pool. Although I am surprised by how quickly you become accustomed to the warmth. I love it that I now have day after day of sunshine, anything around 30 degrees is my fave. I'm not sure that the novelty will ever wear off for me. I very much prefer to apply suncream every day rather than getting wrapped up in coats, scarfs and gloves. I prefer sun hats to woolly hats lol. We're all really happy here so far and have no regrets. I can't believe we actually live in this beautiful place! Sorry this is so long, well done if you've made it this far! If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help

I'm sure that evidence provided must be of paid employment so proof of earnings is necessary. My hubby was a sub-contracted joiner for years. He had 'CIS25's to cover most of it, they were like a Statement of Earnings and were issued monthly, I'm sure they were required as part of the Construction Industry Scheme, have you got any of these? There was one period where he worked cash in hand and he submitted a statement/reference from the company he did the work for explaining what he did, how many hours he worked, start and end date, how much he was paid and that it was paid cash in hand etc, this was accepted without query. Just for info, Vetassess only require evidence of a few years (can't remember now whether it's 2 or 3 years). Will you be claiming points for 8 years work experience for your visa? If not you might not need to go that far back. Hope that helps

Hi My hubby is a joiner and we've recently been granted our 189 permanent visa. I would definitely suggest you investigate the 189 skilled visa over an employer sponsored temp visa. The school fees you have to pay if on a temp visa would be a lot and the risk of having to leave again at short notice is not ideal when children are involved. I would suggest your starting point should be to read as much as possible on http://www.immi.gov.uk and carry out a few searches on here to gain a basic understanding of the points test and what you need to do. IELTS is sometimes needed to bump the points up, then there's the skill assessment and lodging an expression of interest before receiving an invitation to apply for a visa. Once you've lodged your visa application its medicals and police checks. Once you feel like you have an idea of the process give an agent a call. I spoke to Go Matilda who talked through my personal circumstances and discussed strategies. My initial telephone consultation was free so it's well worth doing and it confirmed I hadn't missed anything important. Everyone's different but after reading lots of info and posting plenty of questions on here I felt more than able to do the entire process without an agent, saving us a few thousand pounds. Although my hubby had to re-sit the IELTS a couple of times we were able to get our visa within 6 months! It's daunting at times but as long as you're methodical and thorough I don't think it's too difficult. In my thinking even with an agent you still have to do the same tests and obtain the same evidence etc. If there's any questions I can help with feel free to ask Good luck xx

I don't mind at all We've got a large Move Cube (226x146x187cm) from Nottingham to Perth and its costing £890 (GBP) for shipping costs and $858 (AUD) for 'destination costs'. The weight restriction for a large cube is 1250kg. If you go to their website you can get a quote and there is more information about the different sizes available etc. The estimated transit time is 86 days door to door. Hope that helps x

Those photos a stunning, thank you for sharing. We've got a beautiful Lodge booked for a long weekend in January and I can't wait! Are there are other places around that region that you recommend visiting whilst we're there?

We've got a move cube booked too and will be cramming stuff into every space (including inside the tumble dryer etc) Good luck x

Surely your agent should have known a state level PCC would be required?? What's the point of paying for an agent who isn't able to guide you through the process without missing something like that? I've no idea whether a CO would automatically wait the 28 days following requesting further documents, but I'm sure I've seen people receiving a grant in less than 28 days. Is it always the case that if you're using an agent you can't have access to your immiaccount then? Or does that only apply to some?

Oh so the delay is because of a medical referral, I thought you were unsure whether they been uploaded in the first place, sorry for the misunderstanding. Where do medicals get referred to? Could you try contacting them directly to see what date they're dealing with maybe? When my sister's medical was referred late last year she was asked to get further x-rays done which they then agreed were fine but it did delay the process for them (I can't remember for how long though). How dare your agents be rude! This is likely to be the most stressful part for you and considering you've paid them a lot of money to provide a service I'd be extremely angry if that service wasn't top notch. If they're working a lot of hours each week then maybe they shouldn't take on so much work if they're unable to deal with the client's they have appropriately. What a rubbish situation. It's so frustrating when you're not given any idea how long it's going to take. I can't wait to see your update confirming you've received your grant. Let us know how you're getting on xx

Could you not get your HAP IDs from the medical centre and have a look at the emedical system online? That way you could see whether it's been uploaded or not x

Wow, that sounds like a complete whirlwind! What a great snap shot of your visit, thanks for taking the time to post your opinions on both Adelaide and Perth. I hope we love Perth as much as you did when we fly out in 3 weeks. In the grand scheme of things saving for another year isn't the end of the world and maybe the visit will spur you on. Ps. Hope you're feeling better soon!

We lodged in June. We're still in the UK but all the big stuff is done - house sold, cars sold, jobs finished this week, move cube booked, house clearance booked, accommodation and bank accounts on the other side sorted. My hubby has lined up 3 interviews in the week after we arrive so fingers crossed he can pull one of those off (he's a joiner). I've secured a Kindy place for our youngest and a school place for our oldest. Our flights are booked for 23rd October. I'm hoping to have a few months off to settle the kids and get a rental before I look for work. My emotions swing from being really excited to quite emotional and back again all within a few hours! I'm fine until anyone asks me how my mum is about it (she's very supportive but we're really close). That aside I can't wait to get to Perth!!!!

We put ours on the market before we started the visa process expecting it to take 6-12 months to sell and knowing that the visa process could be done in 6 months. We didn't want to be in the position where we had to accept a silly offer because we were running out of time. It was quite a surprise when it sold within 2 weeks! We moved into a rental and will have been here an entire year by the time we fly out next month. I think the housing market can vary quite a lot even within each region of the country with small pockets of houses doing better than the surrounding areas. We were lucky I suppose and managed to achieve about the same that we bought it for in 2007 (just months before the crash!).

:hug: Every day is another one closer to getting your grant. Hang in there xx

I was under the impression that Ventolin Salbutamol inhalers could be bought over the counter, or at least I thought that to be the case in Perth?? Can anyone clarify this for me?

Congratulations @mark26 :-D Enjoy your glass of bubbly, it's well earned after that process!! Good luck for your future xx

Numbers 1-4 look right to me although I can't help with 5 or 6, sorry. What's your occupation? Could you try and line something up work wise before you leave? Although that's not always easy in my husbands line of work (they seem to prefer seeing you in person) he's still been able to set up a number of interviews for the week after we land and I'm taking that as a positive sign. The only benefits I'm aware of (only because I haven't looked into it any further) is child care rebate and child care benefit which are available for 189 visa holders, have a look at the Centre Link website where there is an online calculator and further information. Hope that helps x

I think a congratulations are in order!! The waiting is a nightmare, it's such a relief to receive that grant. Good luck with the next chapter xx

That's really interesting, thank you for sharing. I'm not familiar with how legislation is passed in Australia, do you have any idea how long the window could be open for applications to be submitted under these subclasses if the Disallowance Motion is passed? Days?? Weeks?? Months perhaps?

You got it!!!! Wahoooooo! A direct grant as well, well done. You did so well with your positivity :-D Good luck planning for your future xx

Yey! Great news David. That feeling doesn't wear off you know Although a feeling of panic creeps in every now and again too lol

We are 5 weeks away from leaving and I am dreading it. Thankfully my parents have already booked flights to visit in January so when we say bye we will know it's only for a few months, I'm hoping this will help a bit. Everyone else I have told I am not saying bye but will say 'speak to you on Saturday' as we will be via FaceTime. I'm not under any illusions that this will not be the most difficult thing I've had to do. I feel for you. And it most certainly is not a rubbish post but is highlighting a very real part of the process.

Woohoo! Congrats Lisa, that's great news Now on the the next chapter! Good luck xx