Mainy1129

Hello Anyone in Sydney who has teens starting at Macquarie University My daughter starts next week and has struggled a little and would be great to connect up with anyone whose kids are in the same situation C

As already said waiting lists are long but at your child's age pre school would be ideal they are usually 8-4 and are around 60-80 per day ,Daycare more expensive If you are PR you get half back non means tested up to a maximum of 7000 I live in Cherrybrook , castle hill area , kellyville a little cheaper but people put me off as closer to more unsavoury areas but I've not heard much and overall better than most UK towns My youngest is 2 and it has taken 12 months to find daycare C

We had been on a visit 3 months prior to coming we brought a huge chunk of cash but also brought over all our furniture , we live in Sydney, although I earn 120,000 and my husband works part time this does not go far in Sydney , we have 4 children, I just found that even without spending on luxuries and days out there has been very little money left over after bills food and high rent prices The chunk of cash soon ran out , not being negative as I love it here but I do feel its a lot more expensive than we anticipated C

How did you research the cost of living here? To us it was a huge shock and even being high earners has caught us out many times, we sacrificed the lovely luxuries we had at home and no one ever prepared us for this start from scratch life we felt we had How did you all prepare yourselves? We know of so many families returning home because of this which is so sad and why we are now helping people with this C :eek:

Hi Amanda Which part of Sydney? C

You don't need a migration agent the forms are very simple and straightforward C

Is it just yourself or have you family , depends where you are working but we live The Hills District , 40 mins by train , similar by car in non peak times If it's just yourself then you may be looking for something different Many in Australia seem happy to travel an hour to work even the youngsters on our local shopping centre go an hour to work which is usually unheard off back home C

One of my daughters finished year 11 and came here and did year 11 and 12 ( HSE)which is A level equivalent I would suggest doing this as HSE is the recognised standard for University here They also sadly don't count any of the GCSE results School year starts January so your daughter would have a few months off C

Totally agree it is very nerve racking and I didn't cry until the last day it's a very strange time It is hard and you all have very tough times , my mum in law suddenly passed away just 6 months after we arrived she was young and well when we left We never ever anticipated these things so early on in the journey and at first felt like there were just one thing after another being thrown at us It is all worth it in the end but we make so many sacrifices coming here people back home have this "it's alright for you" attitude but that's so far from the truth its about focusing on your long term goals and why you wanted it and believing in that during the hard times

Us too in Sydney ! Lovely and much warmer than the UK but ashamed to say I'm cold

It was heart for me , if we had gone with husbands head we would have never come It is hard and no one can ever prepare you for it there is so much involved including so many emotions as well as all the practical stuff That is the reason we started our business to help people find out the real honest truth and make sure they make the right decision to suit all the family , we ended up in Sydney but if we had known all the facts back then it would have been Melbourne , that would have been a better fit for our family C

You can apply for PR anytime on 189 but that depends on your occupation which list is your occupation on ? or would you be looking for sponsored visa (190) C

Must Score 8 on each , we've known a British nurse be caught out on this she got overall of 9 in "Academic" which is obviously a harder paper than general, when immigration got her case they deducted her 10 points from superior English to proficient. They could have cancelled visa but did a points discrepancy change Sadly if he needs the points he will have to re sit

Just an update and something that we have noticed for over 5 Nurse Visa applications over the last 3 months 189 Independent have been arriving in 4-5 weeks where as 190 ( Sponsored have taken over 10-12 weeks) Must add these are for onshore applications C :cool::cool:

Hi folks Myself and family live in Sydney on a 457 I've just lodged my EOI and believe in my occupation the invites are happening the day of the round however ....... I have a few queries Do you pay the visa fee on lodgment or when assigned CO? I plan to apply/pay for me first and add family members while the application is in process so that I can pay when CO allocated, has anyone else adding family members later it says on website you can as long as application still in progress For work experience will just references suffice or will they require pay slips too? Im holding back on medicals and police checks until CO allocated as I know they can expire after 6 months , is this what others did. Our eldest is 18 she was studying in UK and now not working until we are granted visa , I assume this will be classed as dependent Lastly as we will have been in Aus less than a year I'm assuming we won't need AU police checks ? Thanks in advance C