blue butterfly

Wow OK so quite a response to Logan! Thank you all for your posts, it is just so hard to choose where to start but I do appreciate the advise. Basically my brother and sister in law live in Lismore and my other half works in stack testing and there seem to be more job opportunities closer to Brisbane. Whilst exploring my brother drove through Logan and thought it seemed nice. Nothing is set in stone and we would like to travel for a month or so first. I would just like to start narrowing down to an area so we can look at jobs, housing, schools. May isn't that far away now. :unsure:

So we are narrowing down our search of places to start out in Australia and so far like the look of Logan and wondered if anyone has lived there or any general advise on the place. Anything from housing, schools, jobs etc just whatever. There is me my partner and two children 6, 10 we are looking at coming in May from Stoke, England.

We have a dog 7yr old collie but have made the heartbreaking decision to leave him behind (well we haven't even booked flights yet so nothing set in stone). We are very lucky to have fantastic neighbours who have children similar ages and agreed to have him, I know he will be looked after well. We did look into taking him and I agree that company seem really good. Goodluck

Hi, Donna and Adam (30) with our 2 kids age 6, 10. We received our visa last week and an offer has been accepted on our house so I'm hoping we could be moving in the next 2-3 months, needless to say that I am very excited at the moment. This move is something we have been talking about for almost 2 years so far! We are hoping to travel around a bit first starting around Sydney and heading north along the coast. This way we can get a better idea of what Australia is like before we settle in one area. My brother and wife to be have just moved from Tamworth NSW to Bellina so it will be nice to see them after so long too. Currently living in Stoke-on-Trent, I'm a teaching assistant and Adam is an emission engineer. We have both come to realise that we may have to look for other careers as my job doesn't seem to exist and Adam's would require him to work away for 2 weeks at a time! So that's us! Hi and good luck to everyone else

Yeah, that is probably worded better than mine :cute:

Thanks, I will give the 461 more thought and contact a migration agent too. I'll add a new message when I've done, cheers guys

Hi, me and my partner are beginning to look for jobs in Oz but I think we need to get some of our qualifications exchanged to the Oz equivalent first. Can anyone advise the best way to do this as I've been told it can cost anything between £20-£200 per qual but then I know others who have got jobs without needing to change quals first. We don't have skills list jobs either so I doubt a prospective employer would do it for us. Thanks in advance

Hi, so I'm at the stage of placing a visa application that will enable me and my family to live and work (and study for the kids) in Australia but which do I apply for? I've been advised to go with a 461 but then also been told different things too. There's me, I've recently been granted New Zealand citizenship and passport (dad's a kiwi), my partner and our 2 children (5 and 10). Neither of us have jobs on the skills jobs list but that doesn't worry me too much as we are both aware and willing to do other things. Also, how long does the process take and how soon do you need to move to Australia after been granted a visa? Do you have to have a job lined up before hand? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Thank you for the reply, I will look into the other threads as suggested. Much appreciated

Hi everyone, this is my first post but hoping to get the ball rolling a bit more on our ozzie dream, any advise would be great. So, it's me, my partner and our 2 kids (5 and 10), neither of us have jobs on the skills list but I have recently been granted a new zealand passport (dad's a kiwi). I'm currently a teaching assistant and my partner a stack emissions tester but I think we would both be willing to change jobs. Everything just seems like a mine field and as soon as I think I've got one thing sorted there is so much I still don't know. Even down to area, my brother is living in Tamworth NSW so it would be nice to be close to him but my partner has really got his heart set on the coast, any ideas? Then I need to consider schools for the kids as I wouldn't want to have to move them again in 6 months time and do I need student visas for them? Sorry, just realised that I've gone into question mode instead of just saying hi, so Hello x ps we are in staffordshire, uk

Hi, we are hoping to move to Oz early next year and are currently looking into schools in the Tamworth area (any recommendations or advise would be great). As another person said, the Australian schooling system will be different as yes, it is another country. Having worked in UK education for 5 years I must admit that I am quite excited about my children (5 and 10) going to school in Oz and I have come across numerous ways of teaching that have actually started in Oz and NZ. From what I have heard or read about the education system it is a forward thinking country will a much broader curriculum, focused on the individual learners needs. My advise, don't worry about it, it may be a daunting experience for your daughter so just allow her to find her feet, settle in and make friends before anything else.

Hi we are in a similar place, hoping to move early 2015. I have just looked into converting qualifications on the Australian Government website but if you follow the links it requires $450 for the conversion of 1-2 qualifications. Does anyone know of a cheaper way of doing this as both me and my partner have a degree, I also have a PGCE and my partner has MCERTS. https://aei.gov.au/Services-And-Resources/Services/Assessment-of-Overseas-Qualifications/Our-Assessments/Pages/default.aspx Hope this helps and if anyone else has advice it would be much appreciated. x