vazagothic

Congratulations to all of you who recently got your visa :-) I've updated the spreadsheet accordingly (or so I think).

Actually SkyScanner isn't that much cheaper (only one option around $1k, the rest similar to Kayak.com) and the option for entire month doesn't seem to be working for flights between Seattle and Sydney (but does work for Seattle -> Los Angeles and Los Angeles -> Sydney). Prices are similar to Kayak though. But, I'll keep that site in mind :-)

With so many people already booking flights (to either validate their visa or fully relocate) I've started to scout prices on Kayak.com myself (a site I've used so many times before to successfully book flights). I've decided to look for tickets from Seattle to Sydney around February/March 2013 as to give myself extra time to save money and find possible job while still in the USA. To my surprise finding the cheapest flight turns out to be quite .. difficult. For example, a flight from Seattle (SEA) to Sydney (SYD) (one way): February 13th (Wednesday): (looking +/- 3 days around that day) Cheapest: $1103 (on 02/10) - takes whooping 39 hours with one 22h layover in Honolulu Shortest (and somewhat still cheap): $1251 (on 02/14) - 21h with two layovers in Vancouver, Canada and Auckland, NZ I've checked later dates, but the price oscilates around $1100 (+/- $50) for the months of March and April (and later). Anyway, I've decided to find an alternative, cheaper route by checking prices of individual flights between the following cities: 1. Seattle -> Los Angeles -> Sydney 2. Seattle -> Honolulu -> Sydney So I've checked Kayak again .. Option 1: Seattle -> Los Angeles -> Sydney 1a. Seattle -> Los Angeles : $109 on 02/15 - 2.5h long 1b. Los Angeles -> Sydney : $587 on 02/16 - 19h long (one 3h stop in Nadi, Fiji) Aside from paying for one night stay in Los Angeles a family of 4 could save a lot of money just by splitting the flight into two. Seattle -> Sydney * 4 = $1103 * 4 = $4412 Seattle -> Los Angeles -> Sydney = ($109 + $587) * 4 = $696 * 4 = $2784 Savings: $1628 (minus a $150 or so for a room) Option 2: Seattle -> Honolulu -> Sydney 2a: Seattle -> Honolulu : $197 on 02/12 - 6h long 2b: Honolulu -> Sydney: $528 on 02/13 - 10.5h long In this case savings over a "direct" flight are a little bit smaller. Seattle -> Honolulu -> Sydney : ($197 + $528 ) * 4 = $725 * 4 = $2900 Savings: $1512 (minus $150 or so for room) A little bit more expensive than the Option 1, but Hawaii is a bit more enjoyable than Los Angeles :-D I'm tempted to contact an agent to see what kind of prices would he/she find for me. Does anyone have similar experiences with trying to find cheap plane tickets?

Congratulations to all who recently got their visa grant :-) I've updated the spreadsheet to match those recent development - and it seems like 62% of June applicants got their visa already. In reality it's probably more like 70% but some people forget to post info about it :-)

Actually the majority of the people on the spreadsheet is in red (58%) - out of 85 applications, we have 49 grants. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtjmLt4bD4fJdGstYU9ZcHJJRUJHV05GSXRHUXdNY2c#gid=7

No need to apologize - spreadsheet updated :-D And congratulation on your visa grant :-) Judging by the stats on the spreadsheet, Team 7 is finally catching up with the rest of the group.

Mihaitza - I've added you to the spreadsheet :-) I assumed though that you haven't came from the future and the 176 visa was actually lodged on 25.06.2012 and not 25.08.2012 :-D Also, if you could provide the following information: Team # Destination Occupation DIY/Agent?

Hi Ali, I'd definitely be interested in that - I'll PM you my private email. I only caught a part of the conversation from last night on chat (still lingers there) and it seemed the price for a shipping a Tea Carton (48x44x61 inches) was 170 GBP and taking 10-14 days? I guess I could live with that (definitely better than paying 4k GBP for a container and waiting 8-12 weeks :-)

Not entirely sure yet - but hopefully soon, LOL. We aren't tied down by a house (we're renting and just recently switched to month-to-month payment) so theoretically we could make the move at any time. The entire content of our small abode would most likely fit in a 10-14 feet long truck. The plan is to sell most of the stuff and try to migrate with as little things as possible. Of course certain items will definitely be taken with us (scuba gear, photography gear, computers, gaming consoles, etc) - but the rest of big things (couch, TV, car, desks, etc) will be either sold or given away to families. The problem we're facing - we may be forced to pay for additional baggage or ship via post office as we won't have enough things to ship in a half/container/cube/whatever :-) I'll probably start poking in the Transport & Shipping forum looking for an answer. Aside from that - I'm applying for jobs in the Sydney/NSW area but getting a job without physically being in the country might be quite difficult - but one can't loose hope :-)

Visa granted today :-) I've sent an email yesterday to my CO asking her if everything was in order and today she granted us our visa. So a note to all - send an email to your CO if all documents are finalized and you're just waiting in limbo - ours was great :-)

Congratulations to both Paris Hipon and Carajg :-) Spreadsheet updated as well - so far we've got 27 visas which makes it almost 1/3 of the total # of applicants from June :-) (though frankly I believe this number to be a bit higher as some people most likely never bothered to inform us about their grant (and off to sleep I go again - it's 2am and it's scorching hot in Seattle (it was 95F/35C yesterday) and my little one keeps waking up and making lots of noises).

I think the apparent slowness of Team 7 might be that caused by people having their medicals referred or (as it was in our case) they were waiting for additional documents to arrive before processing the application further. We lodged the application on June 1st, and within two weeks we had a CO asking for PCCs, Medicals and Form 80. But most of it had to wait due to the fact my wife was pregnant at that time (we were given 70 days to provide all the documentation as my wife's due-date was July 4th). So we waited and didn't do much with the application - first, we waited for her to give birth, then for birth certificate, then for passport and finally for medicals for the newborn baby. Everything was finished last week and we got our medicals finalized on August 15th. Now the waiting game begins.

Linda - I've marked medicals as done on the spreadsheet Fultonclan - Put Medicals referred for you too. The spreadsheet can be found here.

I might be in a different time zone (8 hours behind UK), but I do check the forum at night as my 7-weeks-old son likes to wake up in the middle of the night. Otherwise I'm online during the day between 4PM and midnight UK time. As far as I can tell the document is up-to-date - please let me know if any changes are needed. Wendy, dazzmatazz, I've updated the spreadsheet with conditional formatting so it SHOULD automatically mark entire row with red/blue/white according to changes made to "CO Assigned" and "Visa Granted" columns.

Walvia, In 2009/2010 my wife and I traveled around the world and for over a year we didn't work nor had any house/car/etc. We put all countries with estimated dates (spilling over the to the additional blank page) and put "Traveling the world". It didn't cause any problems nor concerns/questions - both forms were marked as Met. It isn't that rare for a company to send their employees to a different country for several months as to help them coordinate things locally. Easier and cheaper than flying them back and forth :-) I'd put "Offshore work" or something in that matter. Just my two cents.