JULIE RYCROFT

Yes you do, I was so lucky I was on holiday in Perth in 2012 when I got accepted. I jumped on the train the next day and signed my name, fate or what. They give to a date to present by, its usually within 10-12 months 

Thanks for your advice guys I will try your ideas, one of my main worries about the quarantine was when I picked my mop up and my dog appeared to be frightened and cowered away from me, I would be really upset to think he has been hurt

Just wondering if anybody has had problems with their dog after coming out of quarantine. Our 4 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback arrived to Perth in mid September following 10 days in Eastern Creek in Sydney. Since he arrived he doesn't seem to be the same dog, he is nervous of people and does not want to interact with other dogs. He has been aggressive towards people and very unpredictable, I am worried sick that he has not been treated well by somebody and is traumatised, I am worried he may hurt somebody too. We have spent a fortune on to help him like thunder jackets, collars ect He had lost 6kg while he was apart from us and his skin around his bottom and balls were excoriated and sore. I would be interested to hear if anyone else had this problem and if their dog overcome it and settled, I just want my dog back but I feel that his spirit has been broken, any advice would be welcome

Thanks Cal

The calendars sound like a good idea, I have been sending birthday ect cards via moonpig UK , they get the practically the next day. Ill have a look at the hamper company, cheers

Hi we finally arrived in Perth in September , have a lovely home and we are settling in well. I would like some advice on what people do about sending xmas gifts over to the UK. Can I order things form UK sites such as Argos and have them delivered to the UK address. What does everyone else do

Julie

Thanks for the responses. Can I just ask do we just get them straight back when we go the airport or do they have to check them again

OK so here we go, we have dropped our Rhodesian Ridgeback (Mason) off at the shipping company Golden Arrow today, he will spend 4 days there and will leave for Sydney quarantine on Monday night. We are worried sick about him, he was howling before we left (so was my OH). We will see him in 16 days when he is flown back to us in Perth on the 12th of September. Please give us some good endings to help us through this

I cant believe my 457 visa approval took just 12 days, no more stress:wink:

Hi thanks for all you advice, hopefully the visa will be approved by the end of August/beginning of September, I dont start my job till October, its in a hospital so Im not too worried about the possability of it going bust. I have all my documentation ect ready just waiting to apply hopefully Monday

Hi, my dog leaves the country on the 31st of August, he wont come out of quarantine till sep 12th, we had to book that date due to the fact that sydney is closing and the quarantine was booked up, were just hoping we get the approval before that, I have been told that they are being processed quite quickly at the moment, we were also told that we wuold be lodging our visas the first week of July and that never happened, the company I have my job with dont seem to be in a rush at getting things done, I have friends in Perth who will be helping us, but thanks for the offer, fingers crossed we will get there asap, I still feel that my question has not been answered, a lot of conflicting answers, Ill contact the people dealing with my visa

I am just about to lodge my 457 visa, but me and my partner need to get over to Perth at the beginning of September as our dog comes out of quarantine on the 12th. Are we allowed to go over on a tourist visa while we wait approval of the visa. This is so stressful as the company have really dragged their feet with this lodgement.

You just scan the passport page, no need to send it with your application.

Thanks , thats a weight lifted off my mind, I wanna get it sent of ASAP

I am just waiting to apply for my 457 visa and was wondering if you have to physically send your passport off to get the visa or do you just scan the page. Its just that I am going away for a few days and need my passport so I would have to wait till I come back before I can lodge my visa. Its either that or cancel my trip coz I dont want to stall the visa. Sorry if it sounds like a stupid question

Im just looking into NIB coz I need to get cover for my 457 for next month, how do you go about paying for it via direct debit with a UK bank account ???...or is this a really stupid question ?

Thanks guys, my things went on the 7th of July so I am currently sitting on deckchairs I didnt need proof of the visa to send it by the way

Hi thanks for the reply. We're going to Perth so won't be able to see him till he flies to us. Do they bring them to our door or do we have to collect him ourselves

...well, ive been here 2 weeks now but wanted to wait until our pets arrived so I could share as much experience as possible!

e

 

So, after a VERY long wait I finally arrived on the Gold Coast on September 8th! We are on 457 visas following my partner being offered a job over here last July and the company sponsoring us. He has been here since the end of February this year while I stayed in the UK to sell up. We got our visa's waaaay back in October of last year and a lot has happened in between - there were more than a few times we thought it was game over. First, after putting our house on the market in early November we had the worst winter ever and in addition to some serious leaks in the house, not a single person came to view until March! My mum got seriously ill over Christmas with pneumonia and just as she was starting to recover, my OH's dad got it too. We thought he would get over it as my mum had, but he wasn't so lucky and unfortunately passed away 2 days before my OH was due to fly out here in February. At that point we really had to take stock of what we were planning to do - after a lot of soul searching and positive support from our family we decided we would still go ahead. The OH rebooked his flight for later on in the month and we carried on as planned. Finally in June, we sold the house. Unfortunately the buyers employed the worlds most pedantic solicitor who had no empathy whatsoever to my situation and we didn't even exchange until the day before I was due to leave! We completed on the sale last Friday so that's that chapter of our lives officially closed and we are free to enjoy the start of the next chapter!

 

I flew out with Singapore air - 23 hours travel time total with just over a 2 hour stop at Singapore. Everyone is different but I found the flight ok - managed to sleep pretty much the entire first leg so arrived in Brisbane refreshed and with my body clock pretty much reset. Ive not had any jet lag (lucky me!) and fell straight back into my usual routine of up at 5:30am and bed before 10pm, which suits the lifestyle here pretty well.

 

My OH found us a rental in the insanely beautiful Springbrook National Park. 3 beds, 3 baths with just under an acre of land unfurnished for $450/wk. More than a few teething problems - first off the place clearly hadn't been cleaned despite this being a requirement for tenants on exit. The carpets are stained to the point where no amount of cleaning will save them. There was a gas cooker provided for us which leaks and we are still waiting for a replacement to arrive 2 weeks later and ive had to resentfully resort to microwave cooking. We were told there were heaters provided - there were none and it gets bloody cold up here in the mountains at night! Finally, after 2 weeks of being bitten to death by what I assumed were midges or mozzies, whilst sitting in the lounge last Thursday morning a flea decided to hop up on to my leg!! This was 2 days before our animals were due to arrive (who ironically had been meticulously kept free of every insect and parasite under the sun for the past year just to comply with ozzie quarantine rules!). This was the last straw for me and I played holy hell with the estate agent. Pest control came out the following morning, we have a gas heater and we have been promised a new electric cooker this week. You have to be really firm with the agents out here - know what your rights are and don't let them push you around or they will walk all over you. Other than that, it is a nice house - really big, the garden is great for the dog, gorgeous views....but once our 6 month lease is up I don't think we will be staying. We were struggling to secure a rental so literally just had to get what we could in the end. It is a good 20min from civilisation (there is only a very small convenience store here and a couple of tourist focused restaurants), we cant walk the dog anywhere locally as its illegal to do so (as its a national park), the farmer next door sets poison baits for the wild dogs regularly, which worries me if the cat or dog managed to get out one day, and because its so remote the chances of making friends are pretty limited. Oh, and ive had 2 huntsmen in the house and saw an eastern brown snake on the drive home the other day!!

 

We had a $10k relocation fund from my partners employer which we kept for our flights and then to furnish the house. We got our furniture from SuperAmart, electricals from JB Hifi and homewares from KMart and Target and managed to get enough for the 2 of us within budget (we managed to get discounts everywhere as we were spending big bucks so its definitely worth asking) - we just bought enough for the 1 bedroom and no dining furniture. Cant see us having visitors for a while so pointless spending money on rooms which are going to be unused in the short term.

 

We do the grocery shop at Coles and I can get to within £50 of what my shop used to be at Tesco but that's only by buying own brand stuff which I never used to do back in the UK - theres no question its a lot more expensive out here. I have seen signs for a few markets nearby though on a Sunday so will try them out over the next couple of weeks as im sure meat, fruit and veg etc will be cheaper. You cant buy booze at the supermarket in QLD so you have to go to the off licence which they call a bottle shop. I think ill be going tee total here or im risking bankruptcy! Everything I normally drink is anything up to double the price. So special occasions and treats only! Weve been to a couple of restaurants, some expensive, some reasonable, all pretty good, so if you take a proper look around you can find a decent place to eat out for not too much money. Its fairly obvious that the further away you stay from the tourist hotspots, the cheaper things get.

 

Loving the lifestyle out here. Not been overally lucky with the weather and have had a fair bit of rain since ive been here but ive been for plenty of walks (I can recommend doing the twin falls circuit up here - pretty spectacular), paddle boarding, bought some fishing kayaks and took them out on hinze dam for the first time yesterday afternoon - its everything I wanted and more. Everyone is really friendly and helpful too which is refreshing.

 

So far ive applied for 40+ jobs. Ive heard nothing. One asked for more info but ive heard nothing since, one rejected me within about 4 seconds of my application. I did get offered some casual work as a bikini waitress which was pretty good money but don't think the OH will be too supportive of that one lol.

 

Now...to my pets! I have an 18 month old chocolate Labrador and an 8 year old moggy. I used Golden Arrow Shippers and I cannot sing their praises enough. Not only were they one of the cheapest but they kept me informed every step of the way and no question was too ridiculous for them. They gave me step by step instructions of what needed to be done and when and even my vet commented on how easy they made the process for everyone involved. Taking into account the initial expense over a year ago for the rabies vacs and blood tests, pet passports, then subsequent shipping costs, vet bills for insecticide treatments etc etc it cost in total just under £7k. The nearest quarantine facility for us was Eastern Creek in Sydney, so I then had to organise domestic transport to get them from there to here. I used Pet Carriers. I wasn't overly impressed with their customer service but they were the cheapest and my babies arrived safe and sound at the end of it all which is the main thing. Ideally we would have got a door to door service but as it was a Saturday, there was a massive surcharge for this which took the price to over $1200, so we decided to pick them up from the airport ourselves. The cost for the domestic shipping was just over $400. We collected them from the toll air express building which is separate to the main airport and pretty easy to find. They were out within 30min of the flight landing. Now, not to scare anyone but I want to be completely honest about my experience and everyones experience will be different but I have to say that when I saw the state of my dog I broke down. She had lost A LOT of weight and condition, she was moulting like crazy, covered in dandruff, dull coat and could barely manage a half assed tail wag - not the over excited jumping around like a banshee greeting we were both expecting. I can only assume this was a mix of travel stress, poor quality food and no human interaction in quarantine. My cat, on the other hand seemed to have come through it all unscathed. In case anyone was wondering, as I did, you can either keep their travel crates or the guys there will dispose of them for you. We kept the cats crate but would never have fitted the dogs in the car. We got them home and have given them non stop love and attention for the past 2 days. Ive been feeding them good quality beef and kangaroo steak in addition to their regular diets and can see their condition improving already which is a relief. They are both more or less settled in already. My only concern is that my once bomb proof confident dog now suffers from some pretty serious separation anxiety to the point where if both of us so much as leave the room she's yelping, which is going to cause a serious issue when I start work and she has to be left alone. Hopefully some back to basics training over the next few weeks will improve matters.

 

Sorry if ive rambled!! Ive really valued the advice and support ive had on here over the past year and just wanted to give back :wink:

 

If anyone out there is about to embark on their journey, im happy to help in any way I can - feel free to drop me a message.

 

Its early days yet but im so glad we stuck it out and can see us being really happy out here, its pretty awesome :cool:

Juli

Im due to start a job at Hollywood Private Hospital in October, is anyone else starting at the same time. If so where are you up to with your visa application.

We are shippshipped our things over next week and had to fill in a form and list items less than 12 months old. We have some new items. Bed fridge freezer being the newest. Will we have to pay tax on these things. Are we looking at a lot of money

I am supposed to be starting a job in perth in October and will apply for the 457 visa in July. Can I ship my stuff before I apply for the visa coz it takes 3 months to ship over.

One of the best bits advice i can think of is to decide if your vets are any good at the export work. No-one can expect vets to be good at everything. If they are good at the export work and they are reasonable then using one of the shippers who just offer the flight ticket and crate is fine, but if you cant manage the vet work between you and your vets, then you would be better to use a company who manages the vet work for you as well. There really are no "bad" pet shippers in UK, we all just offer something slightly different in terms of backup and assistance in UK preparing your pets for emigration

Can I just ask, who sorts out the passport, the vet or the shippers, I have just been told to take my dog the vet for flea and worming treatment and then to take him to the shippers ??

I have been quoted 2,500 by Golden Arrow for my Rhodesian Ridgeback, but that doesnt include quarantine fees, you have to pay seperate for that, were looking at around £5000, as we have to fly him to Sydney first, then to Perth after 10 days

Iv got a jo in a hospital. Iv not applied for my visa yet they said first week in July. Let me know what happens and how long your's takes

I have been told that they are being processed quite quickly at the moment

hi, i'm also having my visa application lodged at the beginning of july. they have told me 3-4 months turnaround. does anyone know if the IELTS test is required for this visa? i've had conflicting responses...

I didn't need the ielts. I think that's for the PR visa. Have you got a job sponsor. If so who with