BTM

very true.. but those inner leafy areas require lots of leafy $$$$...

Hi - we are looking at rentals in Mount Eliza.... i know the commute is going to be long(ish) but I am lucky enough to work from home a couple of days a week and some flexibility in office hours. After talking about it for the last year we think it is worth the travel. I cycle or train into work from Newport to South Melbourne and it take approx 50 mins, so looking to keep up my middle aged cycling addiction :-) by biking to Frankston then getting off with around 10km-15km to go and cycling the rest of the way. I am trying to view it as a 1 hour bike ride with a train journey in between! I also work on customer sites a lot and most of these have been based around Monash, Camberwell, Chadstone so the commute from the West has been a long one. I don't know if we are just "old fashioned", but I don't fancy the idea of our kids (currently 6 & 9) having to get two trains across the CBD when they go to high school. Indeed i still have some difficulty with the obsession with going to the "right" high school, parents enrolling their kids before they start Kinder is bizarre!

Tbh I have been commuting all week ( 2 trains via Flinders); waiting an extra 10 mins, while being placated by very humourous Metro announcers, before getting on an air conditioned train isn't exactly torture.

Thanks guys!

Hi - I know this is going to be different for everyone based on their priorities, but was just wondering what the 'norm' would be for the % of net monthly income spent on a rental? We are a family of four (kids aged 8 and 5) and are hoping to move to Melbourne in November this year. We plan to be fairly near the CBD for work and looking around the West side - Williamstown / Newport / Yaraville / Seddon areas. We are aware that it is expensive for food, shopping, restaurants etc - but would also like to have a bit of cash left over for savings. My Mrs is hoping to work at some point but once the kids are settled in schools etc. so it would be based on my salary to start. Any thoughts are welcome! ​Brian

Hi - you can apply for State Sponsorship with or without submitting an EOI. If you were to submit an EOI I am pretty sure you have 60 days to lodge your Visa once DIAC invite you (rather than 60 days before it expires) hth

Hi toto10 - yes we just got our Visa yesterday, it actually felt a bit strange TBH; after all the effort in getting there, I was expecting the confirmation email to say CONGRATULATIONS!! and lots of smiley faces on it! Instead it was a couple of lines and an attachment from an automated mailer. The main thing is we were very lucky and got there without too many problems (compared to the pain some of the people in this forum are experiencing). All in it took about 12 months from researching and preparing docs so my timeline is a little deceiving :-) We went down the Victoria State Sponsorship (190) route as you will automatically receive an invite after lodging an Expression of Interest (EOI) and we were a little concerned about the potential for waiting to be invited with 65 points. In saying that, we had to wait 3 months for State Sponsorship so it may have been better to lodge our EOI and then amend it once SS was approved! The next step is getting the house on the market (hopefully in the next few weeks) and take it from there. Good luck!

Hi toto10 - we are also from Scotland (a few miles from Glasgow) and know how you feel about the weather, trying to arrange outdoor activities for the kids in this Bladerunner style weather is a real pain!

Hi Ishaan, it took 12 weeks to get my VIC SS. Did you do you have your skills assessed through ACS and IELTs before applying?

Hi Scott - we submitted our 190 application on 24/1/13 and have just been assigned our CO this morning! We have been asked for some additional docs (which I though we had already uploaded) and our meds (PCCs have been done). Cheers

Hi, i am pretty sure your wife's occupation would need to be on the list relevant to that state, this often contains SOL1 and 'some' SOL2 occupations. Are you looking at a particular state? hth

Hi, personally i applied for SS before submitting an EOI for a 190 Visa, though I am pretty sure you can do the EOI first. I was just very cautious about the EOI and wanted as much in place as possible as beforehand. Once you have SS you should receive an invitaion right away, though I just submitted mine tonight! hth

Hi - I'm becoming fairly obsessive about the EOI detail before I submit it! I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the Employment History section - I have had my skills assessed by the ACS based on 9 years in my current position. The EOI asks for 10 years worth of employment information, so I have included my previous employment (a position I had for 2 years). There is also the option to have this position marked as "related employment", which it is. Should I include this second position, even though it was not included in the ACS skills assessment? Another concern is that by including this position, I will be asked to provide information from the employer, which could prove to be difficult as they were taken over by another company about 5 years ago and it may take some time to gather this information if at all! Thanks again for your help Brian

Thanks Rupert, the 456 could do the trick. I was just a little concerend that having two visa apps in tandem would cause confusion. I will make a few calls tomorrow to clarify. Thanks again

Hi - I am sure it will be fine, I would say also they key thing for the listening is to concentrate, especially near the end, my mind wandered for a few seconds and lost track a little bit. As Rupert says, there isnt really any tricks, but in the reading there might be instances where the questions may seem a little strange to interpret and you need to dig a little deeper for the answers, especially if it is on a bizarre subject matter! Good luck!