Serendipity

Hi. We used Migrate me, and got our 189 visas March 2015. I also had some missing payslips and a P60. I asked my caseworker at migrate me what to do and she said not to worry too much at that stage. So I didn't, and was never asked for them. It wasn't a problem, but I'd just tell them what you're missing and take their advice.

Hey there. We validated in Feb this year. Our trip went something like this: Taxi got stuck in serious traffic on way to airport, daughter got car sick in taxi and threw up - I grabbed her coat (nearest thing to hand) and she was very very sick into it. Taxi driver gave us a carrier bag so all got shoved into that! So, arrived at Manchester Airport with NINE yes 9 minutes till check in desk closed!!And a six year old covered in sick. For some reason our visa's weren't apparent on the UK system when we check in, so a supervisor was called over and had to call Australian Immigration to check this, whilst I opened suitcases and changed sicky six year old at the check in desk!! With two minutes to spare till desk closed, our luggage went through (sicky coat was shoved into hand luggage - YUCK!!). Once we arrived in Sydney it was a breeze. Polite and straightforward and the guy at passport control confirmed that we had validated the visa's. We look back and laugh now but don't want to repeat that journey to Manchester airport again!! I even went through 'something to declare' channel as I was paranoid about the dogs sniffing around the sicky bag!! Best regards, enjoy your experiences xxxx

Hi, we used Migrate Me. They did exactly what they said they would do and got us (family of four) our PR visas. They advised me at each stage what to do: skills assessment, IELTS, police checks, medicals etc They asked for documents as required and even when I had stuff missing (P60's or P45's from a few years ago as I was self employed), our caseworker Erin just re-assured me not to worry at that stage. And it was not a problem. They kept in touch and responded to emails quickly. The process was smooth and I felt they were cheaper than other companies we'd had quotes from - and the outcome was that we were granted our 189's in March 2015. I did the first bit (IELTS and skills assessment) myself and forewarded the paperwork to Erin, then I think our EOI was submitted Oct/ nov 2014, visa application submitted mid December 2014 and grant March 31 2015. Good luck with your application. I can say that having them deal with all the admin/ paperwork was a massive help to me (busy working mum) and my time was better spent not stressing!

Wow, thanks so much for all these replies. We've been away for the weekend and had a really good chat about things. I'm going though all the replies now and making notes so we can look into everything that's been mentioned in more detail. I take on board all the possible problems that have been highlighted, and all the costs I hadn't thought about. We MAY be able to get a postal address which would make certain things a bit easier. However I can see that it may be a huge benefit to have a rental property and will start looking at that. Whilst we loved Newcastle, we can't be sure my husband will get work near enough to actually live there. He's in marketing so needing to be near major cities. He's been in discussions with a company based quite near Newcastle, but we can't pin our hopes on it. That's one of the issues, that we don't know where we may end up permanently. I think we've decided that IF we go for it, we'd buy a car and caravan rather than a campervan - just in terms of being practical. So, loads to look into with all the comments above. We know its a plan with many flaws at the moment, and needs some serious tweeking. But thank you all again.

Not really sure which forum this fits in, but here it is: We're now in the frustrating and anxious, but exiting and privileged position of being ready to make the move to Australia this year! Except we have a large and expensive house that just isn't selling and we don't have jobs yet!! But nothing is insurmountable as far as I'm concerned! We're going with open minds in every respect at the moment, and just feel lucky to be able to take this opportunity in our lives. In a quick summary. We (me and husband both mid 40's and two children aged 6 and 8), had PR visa's granted March 2015 WHILST we were in Oz on a three week trip. (We'd expected it to be granted before we went, therefore we'd validate when we went on our trip, however due to me being self employed, had to provide extra documents and the process took longer then expected!!). Anyway, we did a visa validation trip in Feb this year - had a great week in Newcastle NSW and would love to live there and are working toward that. Husband is the main earner and where we go will be dependent on where he gets work. He has a few things in the pipeline which could be either a job offer in the next few months or, come to nothing. I'm an Occupational Therapist and will start to look for work when we have settled somewhere (its a tricky process for OT's to get registered but I'll cross that bridge at a later date- I'm not desperate to work as an OT and am looking for a career change but that's another story). Kids are great travellers and well up for the adventure of emigrating. They even love the long flight! I'm in a temporary locum job at the moment and husband took voluntary redundancy a few months ago, as a bit of a shove in the right direction (a risk, but one we needed to take we felt at the time). I've had a massive de-clutter and am mentally packing all the time. It seems we are just waiting....for SOMETHING to happen! We have just sold a rental property we had, so in a few weeks will have a lump sum of cash. We had hoped to sell our own house but its very slow, and a difficult house to sell and in actual fact we love it so much, if we come back we would want to live in it. So renting it out is an option. We know it would rent out easily. I'm pretty fed up with waiting and feeling we're in limbo. IF our house sold we could go, or IF husband got a job, we could rent out our house and go. We've pretty much been saying whichever happened first would dictate what happened next. Then yesterday I had a 'brainwave'! We know that being in Australia makes it MUCH easier to get contacts for work in my husbands line of business. If we set a date to go, possibly October time, we can buy a used campervan/ caravan when we arrive and spend a few months travelling and exploring. Husband would be in the country to go for interviews and I could home school the kids. I have a few friends who do this, whilst I wouldn't want them home schooled for more that a few months, it could work for us. We'd hope that by Christmas my husband would have found work and we could rent a house, start school etc Am I mad? Has anyone done anything similar. I'm just itching to go and start our Australian adventure. As I said, we're going with open minds, we don't imagine the grass is greener just a different colour green, and it may not be forever, but at the moment we're going for the life experience. We'd probably aim to start somewhere up north and travel down toward Sydney. My husband would have to fly if he had interviews. I'd happily sit for the required hours each days to home-school my darling children, patiently! (said tongue in cheek). I know we'll have to look into everything carefully but would appreciate any thoughts/ comments. Thank you.

Hi, oops I meant short term ones not temporary. So I can see lots of people looking for holiday swaps rather than longer term swops. I suppose even a few months would be beneficial if we could make it work. I have a friend who did it (quite a few years ago, UK to Sydney) and said it was surprisingly straight forward. She was a single person and we are a family of four so needs a bit more planning.

Hi there, we're also looking into doing a house swap when we move from Yorkshire later in the year to..........(not sure yet!!). Any opinions or advice would be appreciated. We've had our house on the market once already last year with hardly any interest so looking up other avenues at the moment! We'd hope to do 6 months I think and heading for either Melbourne or North of Sydney.

Hi there, we really appreciate your opinion on the following 2 cars: First is a BMW 520d 2010 (E61), M-sport Touring estate 2L diesel Automatic Rear wheel drive 89,000 miles Has air-con UK private sale value about £10,000 Unable to find exact model in Oz but about $35,000 Second is a Mazda 5 (MPV) 2L sport, diesel 2009 Manual Front wheel drive Has aircon approx. £5- 5,500 in UK Unable to find anything similar in Australia. We are unsure which state we are heading for yet, depends on jobs, but possible Victoria. many thanks Iron Chef!