LadyCroft

Thanks Katie. I definitely think I will regret it if we don't go and likely regret it if we do go and it doesn't work out... Better to have loved and lost and all that I suppose! That is a good thought. Let's meet up in Melbourne!!! Where we will all live happily ever after :twitcy: Best of luck to you too.

I go from day to day with the "I am soooo excited" and can't WAIT to be sitting in our old favourite cafe on Domain Road in the warm evening sunshine and then the next day "What the hell are we doing... This is MADNESS.... I am not going anywhere!". The thought of NOT going back and seeing the place again, actually living there day to day makes me very sad so I guess we will just give it a go. The problem is that it will be such an expensive mistake to make if things don't work out. I am a natural born worrier anyway. Maybe once we arrive and as long as we get work/rent long term in a decent area and get school place I will be able to look forwards to the future rather than this living in limbo not knowing what we are doing next. Good luck with it all to you too. I will be following your posts with interest as we are soooo in the same situation!

Only one house has sold in our street inthe past year and it was one of those "WeBuyAnyHouse" type of deals as the owner is property tycoon and was renting it out but it became too much of a hassle for him so he sold it for £20,000 under the valuation!!! :arghh: So now when people check sold house prices they will be unwilling to pay what the houses are actually worth or even close to it... Anyways, here's hoping things work out for us all. Best of luck to you too. I have read that house prices are due to rise by the end of 2013 so you never know. My Mum always used to say "What's for you won't go by you" and I HATED that expression but the older I get the truer it seems.

I inherited some old fashioned paper based shares a few years ago. I don't want to sell them all before heading to Australia but the fact they are paper based is causing me a headache as I need a UK address if I ever want to sell some. I have NO idea about shares apart from how to sell a few. I don't know how I would go about transferring them to crest (I have heard this is an option but don't really know what it means) and I am also worried about how to declare my shares in Australia and how I would pay tax on the dividend that is paid each year. Any advice????

I can happily answer my own question! We sent in the application 4th April special delivery and received word from our Case Officer 10th April. I don't know if this is standard or if we are just lucky this time but that is the visa application underway... Medicals next! Hope this might help someone else if they have the same question.

Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like it's a bit hit and miss with the short term accomm then. Especially on arrival since we don't want to jump into a long term until we find out where we will be working/schooling. Can't really afford to emigrate to be honest! Looks like we will be spending a fair chunk up front before we even get long term place to stay. Still, we've come this far...

Hi Britgrl That sounds too good to be true! Port Melbourne is lovely and still so close to the CBD. We are likely to be heading out October/November but haven't any dates as yet. It would be fantastic if you could give us some more info on the townhouse and an idea of how much it would cost. On a different note, I guess we are still lucky that our little ones are young enough that they will hopefully either not remember the initial chaos of emigrating or will take to life in Melbourne better than us "grown up"s... It must have been hard for your children at that age having settled at school with friends and all the added complications there. What are their accents like now?

Thanks for the link. I am one of those people who needs to know exactly what is happening and what the future is going to be before it happens so I can prepare LOL!!! Stressed!

You are sooooo lucky! That is some family you have there. I have cousins in the area we are headed to but I am not sure about asking them if we can stay - I suppose it would be different if it was just the 2 of us.

Hi there We have been on this forum before a few years back when we applied for our original visas and validated them in 2009. Since then we have been stuck in the UK as we need to sell our house and pay back the mortgage company before we go. We can't afford to rent it out as we would not make enough to pay back the mortgage (yes we were idiots and bought the house when they prices were out of the stratosphere) and we have been stuck, stuck, stuck for the last few years. One of the nicer things is that we decided not to put off having a baby until getting to Australia as we were not sure it was going to happen and then along came our little one recently so we have decided to get things back on track, apply for a Child Visa 101 and get to Australia before our visas expire at the end of this year rather than let them lapse and spend the rest of our lives wondering "What if"... :arghh: I am TERRIFIED!!!! Don't have a CLUE what I am doing and drowning in information. OH on the other hand is blase about it all and determined we will get there and make it work as it has been his life long dream to live in Australia. We lived in Melbourne and loved it back in 2005 when the financial side of things was much healthier. By the time we got our visas it was 2008 and the stock markets crashed and everything went **** up. We have been sitting here in the UK waiting for things to get better but nothing has changed and this is basically our chance to give it a go or give it up. Anyway, I hope I don't annoy you all with too many stupid questions and hope to be settled in Oz with a home and jobs by this time next year!!!!

Hi everyone. We are trying to work out how long we will need short term furnished accommodation (it is so expensive) until we manage to get jobs and long term rental sorted out. What did you do on arrival in Australia? We are going to Melbourne if that helps. We will need accommodation for 2 adults and 1 pre school child and a baby. We have looked at the Adina apartments for the first week or 2 which we are treating as a holiday although we will also need to use this time to get short term furnished accommodation for maybe 3 months to allow us to find work and long term rental in an area dependent on where the jobs are found. Any advice would be great thanks. It just seems this will eat well into the money we are taking over with us. Hubby still determined we will be ok but I am terrified!!!

We sent in our application last week with Police Checks and everything enclosed to try and speed things up. All we need now is a Case Officer and to get the bub's medicals done. Can anyone tell us how long it took you to get a Case Officer allocated? Just wondering as I am checking my emails every day obsessively since we only have til Dec 2013 to make the final move. Thanks :biggrin: