Moobobs

We are in SA - Yes, that is how it works in here, i'm not sure on other states. We took our UK licences and proof of our new address and that was it, they take your photo and you get your new licence in the post, you pay $57 or something like that there and then. Service Centres in SA are where you go to sort licences, rego, tests for licences etc.

Bank Accounts we applied for while we were in England, we got all documents through by email and just had to make a date with them for an appointment to pick up cards - all very straight forward.

TFN - Applied online when we got here

Licence - Just went to the local service centre and swapped all over

Bearing in mind we secured a rental before we got here so all really easy for us regarding addresses, but the actual process of sorting everything was really easy.

Yes you can, we went through an agent and we were advised not to get police certificate until requested - uploaded everything else and applied for Police Checks in the mean time, CO requested them and we had them to upload a few days later!

Not sure about WA but with SA once we activated our visas and 'settled' we had to inform SA migration of our arrival online then they send us 5 questionnaires via email over 2 years that we are required to fill out - we have had 2 so far, only 4 questions long. And that is it :-)

So 4 months on, all settled! Got a job a couple of weeks after being here, husbands business is going well and our little girl has settled into childcare! Already been on our first break away to Melbourne and we go to Sydney over Christmas! Really loving it here, feel really homesick today though for some reason but so far so good! :-)

We have one! They are great, we do smoothies, milkshakes, all sorts! Not sure what the cheaper versions are like but i can't imagine them to be that much different!

When i stop missing English chippy, Fish, chips and mushey peas!!!!!!!!!!

How did you get to the 1:8 nursery ratio? My 3 year old is at nursery here and it is brilliant, she loves it and the staff are fantastic and that is 1:6 but there are always additional staff around. A lot more expensive here than UK, Base rate is $430 a week for my daughters nursery but that includes all meals, sunscreen, hats, nappies if applicable which we think is great as we didn't have that in the UK - You get the CCR so not actually that bad in comparison.

Don't read too much into it, i think you can only truly decide once you have been to see a few schools yourself, I don't think you can make a sound judgement on what you read.

Hello,

We came over in June and sold everything via Gumtree and Ebay!

We brought some of our daughters toys but other than that regards household things we came empty handed! We bought everything new, Super A Mart, JB Hi-FI, Good Guys, Ikea etc and to be honest it was cheaper than what we were quoted to ship everything over. Also we were worried that we wouldn't have anything in the mean time until we waited for everything to arrive. We shopped around and got lots of special and just arranged for delivery on the date we moved into our rental.

I bought our daughter lots of toys on special from Target, Big W and any offers i saw on Groupon!

Each to their own though :-)

Yes as above, you can't change the initial entry date - it say's on the grant letter that this date cannot be changed.

Congratulations! It's exciting when you start the process!

We are on a 190 visa, we paid the initial applicant charge, plus secondary applicant and then another charge for our daughter! On top of that we paid migration agent fees, medical fees, police clearance certificate fees. We had SA sponsorship so there was no charge for that last year when we applied. We also avoided the surcharge as that came in after we applied. Very pricey but we are in Aus now and feel it all so worth the money and stress! lol

I agree on that it doesn't take 12 months in all cases. From appointing an agent for our 190 visa in June 2013 it took 7 months for us to get our visa which we got in January of this year, and that was including an 11 week wait on state sponsorship! We moved here June this year - so only took 12 months for us to get the visa and make the move! Good Luck

We went to a clinic in Manchester when we had ours done, our daughters was uploaded by physician there and then, ours around 2 days later, that was at the beginning of January and we got our visa on the 20th! Arrived in Aus in June! Good Luck!

We flew out in June with our 2 and a half year old with Singapore Airlines, we had a 1 hour stop over from Singapore to Australia - having done the journey i was glad to just get it all out of the way! Plus with the service you get with Singapore airlines, our little girl was very comfortable! x

I was the most emotional when it came to leaving work, I cried at the lunch, I sobbed in the car park with my friend and I was so upset that every time I tried to read my card I burst into tears again (took me literally about 4 days and even then I was still filling up).

 

This reaction totally shocked me and it was much worse than contemplating saying goodbye to family, I think on the day I suddenly realised that I would never see these people again, they'd been my friends and colleagues for years, we had a fantastic relationship and I was going to miss them, whereas, with family it was always in my mind that they'd never be entirely absent from my life.

 

Migrating has some very bitter sweet moments.

Hi guys!

Thanks for all your replies - well it's done,I'm

officially unemployed! My work friends made it so special for me, I couldn't of asked for a better day. Lots of tears but also lots of laughs - mainly at how shocking we all we're at bowling in the evening after a few glasses of wine! ;-)

i can totally relate to that! You don't realise how much you will miss them until it's time to leave! I spend more time with them in the week than I do my husband lol.

i got lots of nice gifts, particularly a kangaroo pandora charm which I thought was so thoughtful!

well as they say, onwards and upwards, I'm trying to keep positive - this is the just another part in the adventure xx

Hi all,

It is my last day at work today (we fly out to aus next Sunday on a PR visa) and I feel really sad and emotional! I absolutely love my job, but I think that combined with a bit of nervousness now it's all just around the corner and giving up a stable job is just adding to that. I have mixed feelings really! My husband finished work last week, and now he's had the week off sorting the house out etc he's fine now and ready to go so I'm hoping it's the same for me!

Anyone else felt felt like this after finishing work? X

Just to be clear, I don't have any doubts about going!

until you stop converting everything in your head from dollars into pounds! I ALWAYS do it! I annoy myself!

We had our meds done with Dr Million at Bridgewater, he was lovely! Staff were brilliant with our little girl. We too went with our HAP ID's, had meds on the 7th Jan and we had our visa by 20th!

Fees can be found here http://www.bridgewaterhospital.com/treatments/medmigration.html

Good Luck!

so just got off the phone i can get a 190 visa for me and full residential visa for my wofe and kids.

 

£11000 for all visa's my trade qualification. they will sort eberything find me a job and a home where i will be working.

 

what do you guys think.

That seems a lot, for 190 visa and skills test etc we paid around £2500 fees then around £3600 for visa fee with go Matilda, we only have 1 child but from memory children that age are around $800 to add on.

Would definitely recommend them both on service and price.

Thanks for the reply - we definitley want to do that, my husband is eligible to apply now but we want to wait so we can do it together! :-)

Hi Everyone,

Wondering if anyone can help!

I will be applying for jobs soon, we are on a PR 190 visa, it shows as a resident, and indefiniate leave on VEVO but also has the 5 year expiry date.

5 years after that date, what would happen when applying for jobs with regards the expiry date? Would we have to apply for a RRV?

Thanks

Everyone has different opinions but if you have got your visa by doing it yourself not sure why you are questioning what migration agents do?

To me that's a question you ask yourself before you start the visa process, certainly not after you have been granted your visa independently.

Let it go :-)

Congratulations!

Hi!

We used Go Matilda last year (got our PR visa in Jan) as a couple who knew nothing about the visa process and reading about horror stories of people going alone, making mistakes and getting it refused we decided to use an agent as we couldn't afford to mess it up!

We paid around £2200 + VAT (if my memory serves me right) but they were brilliant! This forum is a great help for questions but knowing you have an expert on hand to contact puts your mind at rest, and trust me, i asked looooooads! and they were also so nice and helpful both on the phone and email.

I'm not saving an agent is for everyone but for us it was :-)