RobertaSparrow

WOOOOAAAHHHHHHH! Our MA has just called us - VISA GRANTED 2 months yesterday from application to grant - mind blowing! We're IT, Paramatta DIAC office. Front loaded with medicals and police checks. ​Application and Nom in 4th March 2013, acknowledged 5th March, no notification that case had been allocated, granted TODAY!! Our MA was Sanja janjic at Fragoman.

I found this which might answer some questions about whether particular employers or occupations are being processed faster: http://www.immiexperts.com.au/2013/03/11/ens-rsms-processing-times-and-decision-ready-applications/ Grouping of cases In an attempt to better manage the caseload, applications are being grouped by occupation (to enable case officers to develop expertise and experience in those areas), by employers and also by agents (whose reliability in providing good applications is recognised).

Afternoon peeps Just thought I'd throw our application into the mix. We've been here 6 mths on a 457 ENS and have just applied for 186 through MA, decision ready, front loaded with medicals and police checks. So... Visa & nomination applications placed : 4th March 2013 Office : Parramatta Acknowledgment : 5th March 2013 Now for the long wait......

Lol at Hawaythelads - we've been living here for 6 months and we've never seen security once, other than in their little hut near the entrance. Also, about a week after we moved in the kids set the smoke alarms off whilst making pancakes. We didn't have the code for the alarm and the letting agent didn't answer the phone so the smoke alarm was going off from 9pm until 8am! We had to take a mattress off the bed and wedge it up again the box to drown the noise so we could get some sleep. But security didn't turn up at all. We live right at the other end of the lake so maybe they just can't be arsed to come all the way round here..... Good to know about the lack of break-ins though.

Agree with gwolst about Saltwater Coast. We stayed there for the first 2 weeks we were here. The first day we had no car and were utterly stranded because it was a 2 hour walk to the nearest shop and the mobile phone signal was so bad we couldn't even order pizza. There is a cafe on site but it closed at 5pm (we didn't realise) so we drank water for a day and then salivated outside the cafe door just before opening time the next day. There are a couple of small play areas on SL - one off Sth Boulevard. I can't comment on what they're like as my kids are past that age. I would think Point Cook - in the area between Caranballac College and Point Cook Senior - would be best placed if you don't have a car. Reasonable walking distance to those 2 schools as well as the other ones in the area and close enough to both Point Cook and Sancuary Lakes shopping centres (to shop or a few beers). We had the same thoughts about being close to other Brits who understood where we were from and the difficulties we might have when we got here. But it really makes no difference whatsoever. The Aussies are very friendly and everyone just gets on. It's totally different from the UK where each culture tends to live in their own area.

Hi Craig Welcome to Oz! Try the estate agents online at domain.co.au and realestate.com.au as well. Also, if you drive round on a Saturday they often have 'open houses' so you can just go in and have a chat with the agent. We provided the letting agent with visas, passports, driving licences, proof of job. I know a lot of people said that getting a rental was really difficult and to offer x months upfront - we did that but didn't need to. They just took the usual bond and the first month. Our letting agents are Structured Properties but there seems to be a few around. We arrived one day, saw the house the next and filled out the form, got a yes from the landlord on the next day and moved in 2 days later. Our kids are 14 and 17 and go to Carranballac (pre to yr 9) and Point Cook Senior. There doesn't seem to be a bus around the lake so you're better off at the top end if you don't have cars. Closer to walk to school too. We live at the far end and it takes about 50 mins to walk to Carranballac and another 15 mins to Point Cook Snr. My kids both like their schools and have settled in well. There's a nice Chinese (restaurant and takeaway) at Sanctuary Lakes Shopping Centre as well as the bar in the hotel. So a wander home after a beer will be quicker if you locate yourself at the top end. There's also some good places for food, etc over at Point Cook too. As a resident, you'll get free access to the gym and pool (think teeny weeny pool). There's also a place to take your cardboard and garden waste at the golf course maintenance shed too (we only found this out last week). You have to pay to take rubbish to the tip here. At the far end of the lake there's a path that takes you through the wetlands (we go on our bikes but it's a nice walk too) that takes you all the way to Altona Beach - about 1.5 hrs walk or 40 mins on the bike. Great on Sunday afternoons - fish & chips on the beach and then wander home again. We haven't found a single thing that we dislike about living here. Oh...except the dog that barks at pigeon farts all night long. But apart from that....

Just to add....if you're on a temp visa (which your posts suggests you might be) then your foreign rental income/rebates don't count in Australia and you won't include them on your Oz tax returns.

From what I've seen and read so far, I'm ASSUMING that if they find out if you don't tell them then what the mortgage company are within their right to recall the debt, as the condition of the mortgage would be in breach. You would then have to get an ex-pat mortgage from Oz to repay the debt. The banks are more likely to automatically move you to a higher rate mortgage than to recall the loan. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5d2fd34-1c34-11e1-9b41-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2HuNdlBiW

What industry does hubby work in? OH's is IT and we thought the paperwork would be horrendous. In the end, the migration agent submitted his degree, the Uni prospectus (because a transcript wasn't available), a copy of his CV, and one page references from his last 6 clients (spanning 10 years) which just really noted the length of the contract, in what capacity, and a brief description of the projects he worked on.

Morning all We're here on a temp visa and I started up a business (ACN and ABN) when we arrived so I could do some freelance web design work. I've worked though an Ltd in the UK so I'm OK on requirements for UK businesses. It cost $800 to set the business up here though (compared to zero in the UK!). Which was a bit of a shock. Has anyone else got experience of the differences between AU accounting/returns/etc requirements compared to the UK. And average accounting costs? Also, the accountant who set up the business said that I didn't need to set up a Super fund because we're 457, unless I wanted to. Any view on this - I thought it was a legal requirement. I've been saving the Super payment just in case.

Also ask your accountant about something called the Overseas Landlord Scheme. Or something like that. I've read somewhere that if you haven't applied to HMRC to pay your own tax on your UK rental income then your tenant or agent has to take 20% off what they pay you and they have to account for it and pay it to HMRC instead. How do other people work this?

We used HiFX. They were suggested to us by WestPac when we went down to London to get our identities verified. We found the joining process and website easier than MoneyCorp. And a much better rate than we could've got with the banks.

If you're on a temp visa then you don't declare foreign rental income in Australia but, obviously, you do decalre it in the UK. You should've told HMRC that you're no longer resident (temp or otherwise) via a P85 so that you no longer have to do tax returns, etc. I assume this means that you'll get taxed on all of your rental income because you'll no longer have a personal allowance. But not sure about this having not done it yet.

Eh? HMRC don't care about consent to let - you just need to put the right numbers in the right box and pay the right amount.

A pedophile is generally acknowledged as being anyone 16 or over who has sex with someone under 16 unless there is less than 5 years difference. A 16 year old having consentual sex with a 14 year would not be a pedophile. A lot of teenagers have sex under the age of consent - I guess we all know that - but it would be wrong to change the law and make that OK. 14 is far too young.

Oh yes, and school uniform is horrendously expensive - no more 3-for-1 at Tesco for a tenner. You're talking $40 for a shirt, $125 for a blazer, $60 for a gingham dress. Eye-watering! And even in the free state schools you will have to pay fees. We've just paid $200 for the one at Carranballac and $600 for the one at Point Cook Snr plus another $600 in school books.

My daughter did the same thing as yours, Claire. We arrived 3 months ago and she had just finished year 9 and about to start her year 10 doing all her options, etc. She has to go back to do 2 months in Year 8 and then moves up to year 9 whne they start back after Summer. And it's in a primary school! She's settled in well and enjoying it but she found it a bit weird that she's wearing gingham summer dresses and lining up outside again, after spending 3 years at Secondary school....

There's nothing in our tenancy agreement that says that the agent or contractors can turn up whenever they want and let themselves in. There's nothing about taking a video - in fact she's left me a form which we have to sign to give our consent (which we won't be doing!). There's nothing about giving the agent the alarm code. It wouldn't be a pretty site on YouTube - apart from the wobbly and warty bits, being a new arrival, I still have the Daz-bluey-whiteness body bits to dazzle any unsuspecting viewer. Possibly a niche market on the late night entertainment front....

We'd never been to Oz before either. But LOVING it! Did have jobs to come to though.

We arrived 3 months ago. We spent about 20k getting 4 people and our container here. And then enough to rent a house and live on for a month.

The OP has already landed but thought I'd add a comment as we live on Sanctuary Lakes. We've found it a very nice place to live. Don't know any Brits living here but then we don't know any anyone! We've only been here 3 months ourselves. There are a lot of orientals but an equal amount of Ozzies but we've found that everyone is far more friendly than strangers you'd meet in the UK. People we only have a passing acquaintance with have asked us over to BBQs. Even our teenage kids have commented on how the kids over here are desperate to be their friends - my son said that in the UK a new kid would be ridiculed and villified so he found it all a bit weird :-) In general though, there appears to be a lot of Brits on the West side anyway - if you go in K-Mart every other accent is Scottish or English. We went out on the lake in our Yaks the other day and the only person we've ever met doing the same thing was a guy in his 60s from Manchester. The streets and communal areas are kept clean and tidy, I'm not aware of any crime, there's no-one tear-arsing around in cars and no drunks being chucked out of pubs. Beats where we used to live in the UK.

You know that state schools accept catholics, right?? :ssign2: Anyway, there are a couple of state schools too - Carranballac College and Point Cook College - up to Yr 9, and then Point Cook Senior which is years 9 to 12. I have kids at Carranballac (age 14) and Point Cook Senior (age 17) so can't speak for Point Cook College. But, in our experience, Point Cook Senior is very good and Carranballac is terrible (don't seem to do any actual school work).

We live at Sanctuary Lakes over at the far end. Broadband in Oz isn't a patch on what you get in UK, and you're both upload and download metered - bit of a struggle for a work-from-home web designer. Point Cook has a couple of places where you can just go for drinks and there are bars at the Sanctuary Lakes Hotel. Too much of a trek to walk home for us though. Greg Norman ought to make the golf course walkways a right-of-way - it'd cut 20 minutes off our journey!

Only if he was wearing those trackpants.... :jiggy:

@noworriesmate - what happens if we put our alarm on? If the agent tries to access and sets the alarm off? Would they have permission to get the alarm company to override it?