mummyoftwo

Just wondering if there is anyone on here who has children at either of these schools? Or do you know anyone with children at these schools? Many thanks

Hi sorry for late reply we have been out celebrating :ssign19:. It was extremely quick 2 weeks 4 days!!! I front loaded pcc and medicals. We are soo excited!1

Wow, that was fast.. congratulations! How exciting! We are now waiting to hear about our application after submitting a 189 with front loaded medicals and police checks, really hope ours is that quick too!

Just to second that. I live out at The Gap (not near a train line, but a western suburb) and I'm not sure why someone would consider the western suburbs as poor for schooling. The state schools (primary and secondary) do very well in the state assessments and we chose this suburb wiht schooling in mind. We have a very positive view of the place and would most likely stay here when upgrading from our first home.

Thanks Robfromdublin. The Gap is also on our shortlist, and I also like the leafy/hilly outlook of the area..

I have lived in the inner western suburbs for nearly 5 years. I love it here, very family orientated. There is always something going on, and it has some very good primary and secondary state schools - your research is right there. We've settled, bought a house after renting here initially, and have made good friends in the area. Definitely don't write it off based on the opinion of one person. There are lots of sports clubs for the kids in the surrounding area - from athletics to cricket or footy. Fair amount for the adults too if you want to get involved in that kind of thing.

 

My husband works very close to the CBD, we chose to buy within a short drive to a train line, therefore he has the choice of driving or train. He chooses to take the train almost all of the time as he says its easy, less stressful, he can read emails etc on the way in.

 

I do a fair amount of driving about for work. I find the Northside to be so much worse in terms of traffic volume, traffic lights etc than the Southside or Western suburbs.

Thanks tickled pink for your positive reply, I appreciate it:) We also like the look of a suburb in the west that would mean a short drive to a train line. You mention the secondary state schools, this is another reason we have set our sights on the west, as it is important that the primary school we get into will then feed into a good high school, and the ones we like the look of are all in the western suburbs we have shortlisted.

Thanks John. What great pictures, thank you for sharing! Thanks also for the link with info Bracken Ridge, very interesting/helpful. We had thought western suburbs for schooling, but think we will also check out the northern suburbs once we get there.

Bribie would be a horrible commute for hubby. No public transport, huge congestion. I would stay in KP for initial period. For a seven year old, you have to start thinking about schools too. There has been some recent traffic on this subject. Not sure why anyone would want western suburbs....If you live on the northern side, you can be in Caloundra for weekends in not much over an hour. Closest surf beaches to Brisbane, very good for kids.

Thanks Roberta, like I said it was just a thought. We will carry on with our plan to stay in Kangaroo Point after reading the replies. Can I ask why do you state you're not sure why anyone would want western suburbs? We have been researching this move including suburbs and schools for a very long time, and it was the schools we've looked into that has made us think we want to settle in the west. We do realise we won't really know for sure until we are there and have got a feel for different suburbs and visited some schools, so all this could change. We won't be moving until mid/end of November with a view to our children joining a school once they start back at the end of January. Unless husband manages to secure a job before we go or very quickly after arrival.

Hi all, we have a provisional booking for an apartment with a pool in Kangaroo Point. We booked this thinking it would be ideal and good location for CBD and close to Southbank, parks etc (my husband will be looking for work in and around the cbd area). We have two children (7 & 4) and wondering would staying further out work out better for us, seeing as it will be for a month/6 weeks or so, and rather than an apartment, rent a house where we can have some outdoor space, maybe Bribie Island so we can have some beach days. Or maybe a house in the western suburbs where we plan to find our first long term rental before buying... Just a thought I've had over the past couple of days, so would be good to hear what others experience of where they stayed and any advice/tips to pass on? Many thanks

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Hi everyone. We got an invitation to apply for a 189 and are just waiting on some forms to come back before we lodge our visa application . Can we book our police checks and Medicals now so that we upload them with the applications im thinking maybe this will speed up visa process. ?? Any advice would be appreciated thanks

Hi there, I recently spoke to Spire Healthcare (approved by the Australian Government's Department of Immigration) and was advised you cannot go ahead and book your medicals until you receive notification from the Department of Immigration - after you have submitted your visa application (we are also 189). You will be assigned a case number and will need this to book your medical and then the results are electronically uploaded by the hospital onto your application.

Hope this helps.. there will be others who are more in the know than me, but thought I'd share with you what I know..

We are moving to Rockhampton, an hour flight north of Brisbane. I managed to get a teaching job in a private school there which looks absolutely lovely. Really excited about it. Its just me and the hubby which I imagine makes it much easier than having little ones in tow. Good luck with it all Laura (I assume thats your name). Do let me know how you get on.

Ah yes, sorry, you did say that in your original post didn't you.. I then looked up Rockhampton as hadn't heard of it before. That's great you have got a teaching job lined up.. You're spot on there about it being easier without kids in tow, it was so much easier when I moved to Cyprus and then moved back to settle in England, now I've got a daughter who doesn't want to move to Australia!! Good luck to you too and will keep an eye out on here for how you get on.. and yes, my name is Laura:)

Thank you. Cyprus is fantastic isn't it, so laid back. I adore it here but career wise there is no progression...or start for that matter and I'm just not ready to return to the UK. When will you make the move? Where are you moving to?

it sure is, if the banking crisis happened I might have considered moving back, but like you say there's no career opportunities. Last time I was there the barman in our hotel was actually a pilot for Cyprus airways, but couldn't get enough hours to make ends meet!

I'm not moving until November, will be going to Brisbane with hubby and our two little ones. What about you, where in Cyprus are you leaving and where in Oz are you going to?

I can understand how you are feeling..we are not moving for months yet and sometimes feel overwhelmed about everything we have to do, but I know it will all come together in the end, everything always does in life! I used to live in Cyprus, it will always have a place in my heart. Good luck for the next few weeks!

Hi @wattsy1982 wow, first visit back in 3 years.. that is a long time! I hope it is cure for you! Sorry it's another slow reply, just had the school half term break and things been hectic! I know where Woolpit is.. so do message on here if you find you have some spare time.. Stowmarket would be a good half way mark, but completely understand if it doesn't happen - your first visit back, I'm sure you're going to have so many people to catch up with rather than some complete strangers lol.

We have been living here (Gold Coast) for 3 years now @mummylauraoftwo and this will be our first trip back, kill or cure for me!

 

We used ti live in Woolpit, half way between Bury and Ipswich, great part of the country.

 

I will message you on here if I have some spare time and can meet halfway in Stowmarket maybe.

Hi @wattsy1982

Thanks for posting and apologies for the delayed reply.. I have been unwell for a few days! We live in Ipswich. I can understand you missing where you are from lots, Bury St Edmunds is such a quaint little town, I prefer it to Ipswich. How long have you been in Brisbane? I can imagine you will have a busy 5 weeks catching up with family and friends, so it's very kind of you to offer to meet up. We can just see once you're back here if easier :-)

Hi @mummylauraoftwo.

 

Where abouts in Suffolk are you? I am from Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding villages, lovely place, miss it lots. Anyway, i am back for 5 weeks end of june/all of july so happy to meet up if you want to chat and have any questions etc....or just ask away on here.

 

Look forward to your reply.

I sold my previous car on gumtree last year, I was amazed it sold within a couple of days.. I'd previously never thought of putting it on there and got several enquiries before it sold.

That price sounds around about the right money for your shipping quote (without including costs for registration). If you're going to ship it, put it in your container with your household goods as it's pretty small and will give you plenty of additional space to pack other stuff if you need it. The problem you have is that the i10 isn't sold in Australia, so it's going to hold little appeal to anyone here when the time comes to sell.

Thanks for your prompt reply.. I hadn't looked into resale in Australia so wasn't yet aware the i10 isn't out there.. maybe I'd be better off selling here and buying a car over there instead as wouldn't want to get stuck with it!

Hi Iron Chef.. just wondering what your thoughts are on whether or not I should ship my car. I have a Hyundai i10, '12 reg with 19K miles and air con. To date I have been in contact with one other removal/shipping firm and have an appointment arranged in a couple of weeks time to find out more about costs of shipping my small car in a container with household items (at the moment am not sure what we will do). Before I arranged this I received a quote of £2.2K to ship it on it's own, and believe I would be looking at import duties of approx £600-700.

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts and what ironladyimports could offer?

Many thanks

Hello Laura & family

Friends of ours have been here about 2 years and they're from Suffolk. We're ex London & Banbury. We do migrant get-togethers ('cos we know how stressful it can be in the first year or 3) and the next will be Saturday 2 July at Aurora Boulevard Park, Aurora Boulevard, North Lakes (about 30 mins' drive north of the city). From 2pm til you have to go. BYO food, drinks, etc. About 15 families come, who have been here between 5 months & 3 years. Whoever's here by 2 July, you'd be very welcome. (It'll also be on the calendar on this site.) PM me if you have questions/queries. And WELCOME!

Hi Pat, thanks for your reply and info on the migrant get togethers. Unfortunately we won't be able to join you at the July one, but would certainly be interested in future dates as we will be arriving into Brisbane without knowing anyone there! Thanks again

You might want to catch up with Wattsy1982 when he's back in Suffolk next month on holiday from Qld. He will fill you in

From just down the road in Colcheter and been in Brisbane for almost 2.5 years. My daughter was 6 when we moved and we had the same worries. Luckily she has adapted really well

Hope it will be the same for us too Hoffer.. How are you finding life in Bulimba compared to Colchester? I've been bigging up Australia Zoo amongst other things to my daughter at the moment as she loves Colchester Zoo, and keeps on saying she doesn't want to move to Australia and miss the things she likes in England. Thankfully she does now seem to be coming round the idea.

We have a 3 year old boy (4 in November) and a 2 year old girl, looking to land in October in Brisbane and then rent in Kangaroo Point for 6 months while we work out where we want to buy (assuming that we can get jobs!!!)

same birthday month as our boy, and husband, and our girl is december.. such an expensive few months in our house! Kangaroo Point seems like a perfect place for a base whilst deciding where you want to buy. Can imagine we'll start off somewhere fairly central too! Yes, slightly nerve racking about wondering how long it will take to find work!!

Hi I'm moving the 30th of August to Brisbane! I have a girl age 7 and twin boys age 5. Do you know where you are hoping to move in Brisbane? We have a 4 week rental booked near the city then hoping to go Thornlands/Cleveland area. We went on a reccie September last year and loved it x

Hi ya chan8180, very similar ages to my two :-) How are they feeling about the move? Not long to go now! We are not sure yet where we will move to..we haven't done a reccie, just lots of research online, so won't really know how we feel about the different suburbs until we get there and have a look around! I do like the look of the Thornlands/Clevelands area, and some of other suburbs in the bay area, and had thought it would be nice to be near the sea for the breezes.. However, we do also like the look of the suburbs to the west of the cbd like Chapel Hill/Kenmore/The Gap to name a few. x

I often tell people they need an agent, but I honestly cannot think of any reason why you need an agent based on what you have said so far. You don't even need an initial eligibility call, you know you are eligible as your occupation is on the list and you have enough points. That is all you will be told during such an assessment. You would be asked about health or character issues I expect too, if you don't have any issues then that would also be a pass.

 

Applying as an accountant is about as easy as it gets, it is certainly the easiest skills assessment by a mile. Although you will need to sit academic IELTS before you apply. Being CIMA qualified, you will pass CPA skills assessment almost by default as they have a reciprocal arrangement in place.

 

Do not go anywhere near the immigration system to start your EOI before you have your positive skills assessment in your hands and before you apply for that you would need IELTS which you can also use for points on the application. An EOI that predates the skills assessment is a visa denial. It is important to get information correct on the EOI, you would need to be careful with dates if you are claiming work experience points for example, but I don't think it requires an agent to ensure you type your dates in properly.

 

I am also an accountant. I stupidly used an agent at first because I also thought it was a sensible thing to do. It created more work for me, was slower, they got it wrong and my first skills assessment was refused (and I was a fully qualified accountant with 15 years experience and it would not have been refused had I dbe it myself because I would have followed the instructions properly). I sacked the agent after that and did the visa application myself. Although only after having to involve MARA as the agent refused to give me my skills assessment after I sacked them. It was far, far less stressful once I was in control and didn't have to deal with a third party. And it is really not that hard to fill a form in!

 

I wasted £1000 on an agent, I might as well have thrown it in the bin. It is indeed a small figure in the grand scheme, I am not a penny pincher, I moved three cats, a 40 foot container and flew out in business class. But I don't think that means I should waste money on something that is easily done by myself.

Thanks Bungo. IELTS was done in April so that's not going to hold anything up. All in my hands to gather the docs to get them over to the CPA, which I should be able to do in the next few days.

Interesting to hear about your experience as our thought process was around not spending money on something we could do ourselves - we didn't even consider the possibility of wasting our money on something the agent couldn't actually get right. I can only imagine how pleased you were about that one and can see the benefits about having it all in your own control. Risks too, yes, but hopefully we'll end up ok.

As Pommie says, you should move quickly to get your CPA Assessment completed. It should be straightforward because of the MRA, but the more time consuming piece is pulling together your record of skilled employment.

 

CPA Australia will recognise your ACMA as equivalent to an Australian bachelor degree (15 points), so if you are confident in your post qualification experience then push ahead quickly with the assessment. CPA took 10 working days for my assessment, so you should be assuming similar.

 

It's worth contacting your Uni in parallel, but for me whilst I managed to get a copy of my transcripts I needed to make a statutory declaration for the syllabi. This was sufficient to get my degree(s) recognised, and then skilled employment recognised from that date (I needed the points).

 

I knew I needed 5 years, and so focussed on the roles that covered this period. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has some excellent job descriptions that will allow you to tailor your skilled experience accordingly, which will also point you towards which ANZSCO code you should apply for your migration assessment under;

 

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Product+Lookup/1220.0~2006~Chapter~UNIT+GROUP+2211+Accountants

 

Good luck and get going with the paperwork. It should be possible to get an invite in June but you will need to move quickly. Theresa O'Reilly is massively helpful as well at the CPA Australia office at Australia House in London and is worth getting in touch with early.

 

Looks like we will land between October and December, TBC at the moment - looking forward to a Christmas Barbie already :wink:

Thanks for the comments, and the link. I have my experience drafted up already and it seems to tick the boxes (I think my employer would be disappointed if I had been doing something else for the last 11 years!). Maybe a couple of tweaks to just give a little more emphasis on a few areas and can then get work to sign it off. Actions for tomorrow, call CPA to have a check up on a couple of things, get the experience finished off and under someone's nose to sign off and then hopefully by the middle of the week we should be in good shape to get all the docs over to the CPA.

If they can turnaround within the same sort of timescale as others have experienced, we can get the EOI in pretty quick when they come back and hopefully we get that invite in June.

Sorry not from Suffolk, over in Surrey. We are moving to Brisbane soon with a 3 and 2 yr old and also looking at best ways get involved.

 

When are you planning to go?

We're not quite sure yet..ideally we'd like to go as soon as possible, and have our eldest start the new school year at the end of January, but we have an awful lot of things to sort out between now and then so will have to see how it all comes together. How about you?

Thanks Ferrets. As it stands I'm on 65 points without any experience (30 age, 20 English, 15 CIMA or degree) so as long as CPA think at least some of my experience is ok I'm pretty relaxed about how much. Post qualification is 6 years so assuming CPA don't take any issue with that then we should end up at 75 without having to bother about the degree syllabus. Might just go that way to save having to wait on the university and speed it up a little bit.

Beers sound good, when are you heading over?