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Have arranged an appointment at the Consulate on Thursday for a 12 month extension on my current passport.

They stop the service on Friday the 10th! So sneaked that by the skin of my teeth. Lesson learned.

I've just done my kids passports..... a rough timeline

 

13th Feb filled in the online forms.

27th Feb actually sent the stuff to Liverpool.

10th Mar new passports created.

13th Mar txt from DHL to confirm delivery this end.

16th Mar passports in my hand.....

 

Hope that helps a little.

Yes that is quite helpful, there maybe hope yet!

Will call the consulate on Tuesday, then pending the outcome of that call, process the online app and send the documents ASAP.

I know people who have successfully used Priceline for hotel rooms and swear by it. If there is a British consulate in the city you are in, have you tried ringing them to see if there is an express service?

 

PS If your wife has already booked the trip, why are you trying to book again through Priceline?

I'll be calling the consulate on Tuesday, the ETD option may work. I was curious to see the lowest price for a single trip staying only a day or two.

HECs contributes a maximum of $112k per student, less if not medical/law. Currently roughly 1.3million students, of which 985,000 are local and 328,000 international (They pay full fees)

Simplifying things, not deducting payments made by students earning over the $50k, again assuming 4 year degree course = $28k per year. Each year $27,580,000,000 added to HECs debt.

However on average a graduate would earn $1,000,000 more in a lifetime. Normal tax revenue, even assuming a low rate of 20%, would generate an additional $200,000 per graduate. Not counting the repayments made to HECs debt.

Based on this, it would be reasonable to judge education funding as a viable investment. If that means a few older persons want to have a crack at bettering themselves, I fail to see why you take umbrage? Short of being dissatisfied with your current situation and venting your frustrations? Tad petty.

You know you can renew your passport from here? :wink:

Yes, however my wife booked a surprise trip away in 5 weeks time, current turn around on overseas passport renewals states "At least 6 weeks"

So I looking at options. Of course the "surprise" was done as Non-refundable/changeable, because I have zero luck.

Evening all,

Just curious if anyone used the name your own price feature on Priceline?

I am now trying to get a cheap flight back to the UK just to renew my passport.. I have entered a ludicrously low price I am willing to pay $100 for a return, but it asks for credit card details before it confirms if you can actually get that price. I assume it would be rejected and you then have to "offer" more.

So the 6 week turn around as a minimum is just to cover themselves?

I find myself in an awkward situation, my passport expires in August this year, my wife booked a "surprise" no refund EVER holiday for the 11th May. So if it's likely to be under 6 weeks, no worries. However if there is a backlog etc, I was looking at options. My wife is flying back to the UK next week, so I called the Passport office to see if she could pay the "Premium service" and get it done in a day if I filled out the forms/signed etc, but no as:

"3 I am, today, in the country of application and will be at the timeof issue."

So I guess it's time to complete the online application, print and sign the declaration, then give the documents to my wife so she can either drop it off at the passport office in Liverpool or post it from the UK...

Joys.

It's quite staggering how long this thread has gone on for, you'd have thought it a relatively straightforward problem to resolve.

UK diploma = ??

Feeling very lucky we slipped through just as all this took off. That said, my wife has since renewed her registration with no trouble at all.

Not sure if it's relevant to the thread, but for those wondering, once my wife got her registration she started working for WANA, based in Perth. We live in Mandurah/Dawesville so often a good hours drive. As we came over in Jan this year we timed it just right to hit the summer "lull" in terms of available agency shifts. One a week low. Also, the number of times she'd prepare for a night shift, only for it to be cancelled. Once after she drove the 90km to the hospital.

Things worked out out for us though, after I convinced her to register with a local agency down here and the lull passed, shifts were flying in. In the end, it she was offered a contract for the hours and shifts we needed through word of mouth and goodwill from other staff at the hospital.

Now it's "winter" out here admissions etc are peaking meaning more agency shifts are out there, but it's worth keeping in mind that employment agencies are the same the world over, get numbers on the books.

It was a horrible experience waiting for aphra, then the uncertainty of employment even once she had aphra. We are now able to look back and laugh, or I am at least.

Our list comprised of:

Birth Certificates,

UK Driving License,

UK Passports,

Bank Statement showing Australian address,

Letter of Employment (Australian Nursing Agency)

Evidence of hourly rate of pay (Proof of affordability)

Copy of Australian Visa,

UK Mortgage statement showing regular payments etc,

UK bank account statement showing funds,

"Tenant Pack" (Basic outline of who we are, what we are doing in Australia, pics of the house we own in the UK, blurb about how we understand the importance of finding reliable tenants etc)

And two personal references for EACH adult (I would recommend you get to know some Australians if you don't already, as it can delay the referencing process as it means UK residents are emailed etc and I would fully expect this to equal a negative on the application)

Probably missed something, but we went with the "shotgun to kill a fly" approach as we really did not want to be left on the street at the end of the short term rental. :laugh:

It worked however, first property we applied for we got so there has to be some merit to the madness.

For us, the villa's allowed us to use their address. They printed out an invoice listing our address. Then took this to the bank and updated our accounts.

Then asked for a printed statement. The rental agencies and Medicare etc seem happy enough with this as proof of address.

South Yunderuo whist lovely is very much out in the sticks so you will need a car just to warn you.. The Sandy Cove Tavern is lovely though :wink:

Is a bit removed yes, however we bought a Nissan patrol before we had to hand back the hire car.

And funny you should mention that tavern, I am holding a business card for just that establishment... Haha.

We found our current short term let via a lot of google searches. If I recall.

In South Yunderup just outside Mandurah, 3 bed holiday villa for $150 a night.

We just signed the lease on the first property we actually applied for. We did have to put three months rent down to off set the lack of rental history.

Moving in on the 15th Feb. Cannot wait to actually start life out here.

Well, we moved out about two weeks ago, averaging about $180-220 per week on the food shop for a family of 6, 4 under 6 year olds and that's in Coles, admittedly not buying steaks etc just the odd treat for me.

Really sounds like a bit of a shocker that!

Our journey has come to an end, my wife is now a fully registered nurse out here set to start shifts once the obligatory manual handling etc courses are done. All in all, the lack of actual information provided by their communications is massively frustrating. Turns out it appeared on the website before she was notified by APHRA...

How long on average does it take for the pin to be issued after you visit the office? We were told it can take 10days, I am going to assume this means 10 working days? Do they normally pop through in this time or can you end up waiting weeks...?

My wife has a diploma and we just popped into the Perth office last week to complete the registration process, she had applied when they changed the blurb on the site regarding international applications. I can't remember the exact timeline, however I know it was one of the more protracted aspects of the whole emigration process. It came within the stated 12 weeks from application however.

All done!

Quick question, to register at the AHPRA office it states:

If arrived in Australia within the previous 6 weeks:

Original foreign passport or travel document with current Australia visa and proof of date of arrival

Evidence of their current residential address, an original signed statement from a prospective employer/sponsor verifying the identity of the applicant OR an original offer of employment.

So to complete the registration process my wife would be required to show, Passport + Offer of employment? Or does it have to be proof of current residential address + Passport + Offer of employment?

Yes in total it took 9 weeks 5 days once the correctly notarised documents arrived with them.

Ours arrived this morning from the Perth office, final piece now in place!

From memory, my wife's application was "complete" in October.

Good to hear!

Aiming for Dawesville/Mandurah area at the moment, depends on how our house hunting goes in Janurary!

I got hit by a car on my bike last week so recovering from soft tissue damage, hoping to get back to fitness once out there and pop into a local club.

With our move out progressing well, it's given me time to think about the social and sport side of things.

I've played for about 18 years now, to a fairly high level, just wondered if there were any major clubs or leagues? Keen to keep at it and get the little ones playing too.

cheers

Another thing you need to know is that it is very rare for them to do house viewings. They have home opens on specific days, at specific times and everyone who is interested turns up and has a look round. The home opens are advertised on the real estate agents website and sites such as www.realestate.com.au and www.reiwa.com.au. If you have not already got an application pack, you can get one from the real estate agent who will be there. If it is a lunchtime viewing, you generally have until 5pm the following afternoon to get your application in. If it is at a weekend you generally have until 5pm the following Monday to get your application in.

 

In the majority of cases you also have to put down a bond at this point. The owner then has 3 days to make a decision as to who to rent the property to. If you are successful you are informed and the money you have put down (generally equivalent to 1 weeks rent) is held by the agent and used as your first weeks' rent. If you are unsuccessful you get the bond back. If you are successful and decide that you do not want the property, the property owner gets to keep the bond. This is done to try and dissuade people from putting in offers on multiple houses - thus saving the agent the annoyance of having to do multiple home opens.

 

We were amazed at how different renting was here compared to the UK. However I thought I would give you the heads up to save you a lot of wasted phonecalls in the days before you come out here.

Much appreciated.

I had a recon trip in June and managed to arrange about 6 viewings, one was an open day however some of the agents were happy enough to show me round the houses and talk about areas etc.

The weeks bond thing is a new one on me, I assumed you would only part money once accepted, I suppose it is a highly effective way of preventing mass spamming of applications.

I have read somewhere on here that it can sometimes work in your advantage if you were to compile a "Tenant pack", with an overview of who you as a tenant are, family etc and if you own a property in the UK, pictures of it etc to show you are not a complete non entity. Did anyone else do this or hear anyone else doing so?

I now want to be able to walk into a open day/viewing and be in the best possible position when they review the applications.

The difference is almost night and day compared to the UK rental market, we have just gone through marketing our property.

Thanks again for the replies, after a few calls last night and this morning, actually managed to get through to a few letting managers or some such. When I asked about the legal requirement to view a property before renting it, they had to put me on hold for a min while she went to ask... However yes, you are quite correct it is a requirement to view before renting.

As a result I am just going to extend our short term rental a few more weeks and take it from there once we land. A week or two before hand I will scour the market and narrow down options/arrange viewings for the day after we land so I can hit the ground running.

Just such a difference from the UK in terms of procedures, quite eye opening.

We recently secured a long term rental in melbourne so it may be slightly different to WA, we viewed the property at an open inspection along with 10-12 other people who I think all submitted application forms to the agent during the viewing. We found out the next day that we were sucessfull, paid the bond and signed paperwork 5 days later and then moved in a week later when the landlord hand competed some work on the house.

 

I suppose it depends on how sought after the area is and how busy the open inspection is but I wouldn't think that an agent would hold a property for you and wait for you to arrive and sign paperwork if there are other potential tenants who can sign and pay the bond within a couple of days and move straight in. Our landlord was non negotiable on the day the lease started as he wanted his rent paid.

Thanks for the reply, there are a few we are interested in that are available from Jan-mid Jan. Also the market seems fairly slow on some of the properties, there are still a few up from my visit in June.. Obviously a likely combination of rent too high/area etc