Kirstyj

As I said it doesn’t matter if you have a British passport or not if you need extra points you have to take the English test, a British passport does not make any difference 

You only need to do the English test if you need extra points, it does not matter if you have a British passport or not 

7 minutes ago, Ken said:

That makes no sense Steve. PTE and Pearson Test (of English) are one and the same thing. There are five different tests you can take. The alternatives to PTE are IELTS, OET, TOEFL iBT and CAE.

7 minutes ago, Ken said:

That makes no sense Steve. PTE and Pearson Test (of English) are one and the same thing. There are five different tests you can take. The alternatives to PTE are IELTS, OET, TOEFL iBT and CAE.

And it must have cost you a fortune!! But PTE & Pearson are Deffo one of the same thing as ken says

Perth is amazing xx

Hi, we have been out here 2 years now, it was my 1st time but not my hubbys, we live in Perth, such a beautiful city, we still have our home in the uk we rent it out, we will probably use this towards our pension.  The 1st six months were really hard with training and everything ( electrician) but we both now have great jobs and couldn’t be any happier, good luck x

3 hours ago, laevans said:

Woooooooo we just got our visa grants!!!!!! I can’t believe it!!!!!!!! It’s actually happening!!!!!! X 

How good does that feel ? xx

Same here, you work hard so you can play hard, enjoy x

On 9/12/2017 at 03:41, Nemesis said:

When did you do the meds and polcie checks? Its usually - though nopt always - dated from them. I've not come acorss one dated from the date of lodgement, unless the meds and pcc were front-loaded. Its not impossible, but very unusual, if only because it would leave the majority of applicants with only a couple of weeks to validate. A lot of visas take more than 12 months to process too!

On 9/12/2017 at 09:49, VicViP said:

Hi guys, just an update on my case. I've just got my visa granted today.

Wish you all best of luck on your visa grants!

fun times!

On 9/12/2017 at 03:41, Nemesis said:

When did you do the meds and polcie checks? Its usually - though nopt always - dated from them. I've not come acorss one dated from the date of lodgement, unless the meds and pcc were front-loaded. Its not impossible, but very unusual, if only because it would leave the majority of applicants with only a couple of weeks to validate. A lot of visas take more than 12 months to process too!

hi nemesis, we thought it strange to we lodged 9th sept 2015, had our medicals a month later, received our visa grant 10th dec 2015, then we had to make out 1st entry before august 2016, so to me that makes 9 months, I have attached a copy of our visa notice

3 minutes ago, Nemesis said:

Its not from when its lodged. that would be impossible as many visas takle more than a year to process.

Usually the validation date - the date on which you must enter oz - is 12 months from either the medical or the police check, whichever is earlier. 

The visa itself then has the right of mulitple entries for 5 years from the date of the Visa grant. After that you need a RRV or citizenship to elave and re-enter, though if you don't ever travel you can just stay permanently. 

Well nemesis we lodged ours in September and when we received it in December it was dated from September 

15 hours ago, lhumphreys said:

For anybody who has been approved- once approved did you have to migrate in a certain period of time in order for it to remain valid? Thanks everyone!

Hi, ours was we had to visit within 12 months and then move over within 5 years, but your visa is dated from when you lodged, not from when you receive it, hope this helps

Hi I am just at work over looking the Indian Ocean at Cottesloe Beach, Perth, the sun is shining and life is great xx

4 hours ago, Beffers said:

So arrived Melbourne mid June via a 4 day layover in Singapore which was lush. Our Aussie dream started in 2006 when we got married in Barossa. Fast forward 11 years and we've arrived! 

Within three weeks, we had a car, house, Medicare, Centrelink set up, school place. Week four saw my daughter start school, week five was our week for starting work, husband full time permanent and me on a temp to perm whilst I suss them out! Also added bonus of working school hours only!

In a nutshell, it's great. It's been an eye opener, going to view rental properties was very up and down and the way they do things out here in that respect is very different but we have a home and that's that! We will buy a house next year!! 

We opened accounts with Westpac over a year ago and they opened a GBP account for us before we left the UK so transferring money is a breeze and without any kind of transaction fees! We also get a preferential exchange rate. They are partners with our UK bank Barclays and so it's all made just that bit easier. 

People were whinging at me about high cost of living but I haven't seen that. Wages are high (I'm in a bog standard project Admin job and if I was full time, my equivalent salary in GBP would be £45000!) , and many activities are free at weekends so we are spending less anyway. Yes if you want British branded this and that, you will pay higher but there are equally good alternatives within Australia so if you wanna pay extra, that's your choice! Quality of food here is amazing and the choice never ceases to amaze me.

I've met a few whinging poms since I've been here, who moan about lack of decent gravy and tea. I truly believe such individuals should've stayed in the UK ??

Yes you are far away from family. In our case tho, we were already living in a different country within UK from our folks anyway so it really isn't any big deal, and Skype is just as easy here.

Australia so far (8 weeks today I think) is awesome and hopefully it will continue to be so. It's definitely been the right decision for us!!! ??????????

Hey  those winging poms can still buy tetley or pg tips and bistro gravy, they will moan wherever they are, glad you are settling in well xx

Aww that's great, good luck for the future xx

13 hours ago, Dragonflygecko said:

Ok understood. It's just extreme that's all. I've seen many people naming & linking to other sites across different forums and that's why people do it- to help others. This site is better for more in depth info and "chatting" / visa talk. The one that was mentioned was just a tracker ... 

 

Good of luck to all of you waiting everytime I'm getting a notification in clicking in to see if any of you have been successful. Hang in there once you get that magical email somehow all the stress and anxiety just vanishes and you'll never remember how difficult it was. It's 5 weeks until we fly and I'm still in disbelief that we have been given the visa. ?

13 hours ago, Dragonflygecko said:

Ok understood. It's just extreme that's all. I've seen many people naming & linking to other sites across different forums and that's why people do it- to help others. This site is better for more in depth info and "chatting" / visa talk. The one that was mentioned was just a tracker ... 

 

Good of luck to all of you waiting everytime I'm getting a notification in clicking in to see if any of you have been successful. Hang in there once you get that magical email somehow all the stress and anxiety just vanishes and you'll never remember how difficult it was. It's 5 weeks until we fly and I'm still in disbelief that we have been given the visa. ?

I bet you can't wait, where are you off to x

People are applying from all over the world not just the Uk, you just have to be very patient, we have all been through it but it's worth the wait x

Me neither 

And it's half term here for the next few weeks x

2 hours ago, RobynLines said:

So I've given them a call. They have recommended waiting a year to gain that extra year experience for skills assessment test. However we're going to do a consultation to ensure this as we qualify even without the work experience. Fingers crossed but we don't mind waiting a year anyway as we're not in a massive rush.


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Hey 12 months is nothing it took us 2 years to get here because I Iived in Spain and had to come back to live in the uk for 12 months before I could apply, it soon passes x

1 hour ago, RobynLines said:

 

Do you have any advice for us? Did he have his NVQ? What qualifications does he have and what other further studies did he need to do? Did he have a job there before or did he get it after you arrived. Where do you guys live?


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Hi, yes he had his NVQ3, then you sit the vetassess test to prove you can do the job, he also had to sit the English test because we were 5 points short (he was 35 when we applied), we also used a agent so they handle everything and know what they are talking about, we live in Perth, we both came out with no jobs, but we had savings so we were lucky, and you have to train as an electrician to gain your Australian licence which can be tricky to get someone to employ you as you have to do 1000 hours on the job (750 before you can apply for your test), and the pay is not great while you are training, we still have our house in the uk but that is because we have a really great Tennent, renting here is fairly reasonable we pay $360 a week for a 2 bed apartment on a great complex fully furnished with a pool, but we will be buying next year.  I also have a great job as a hotel receptionist down at Cottesloe beach, so all in all we were very lucky and absolutely love it, anything else you want to ask just send me a private message, hope this helps xx

2 hours ago, VERYSTORMY said:

You need to check your occupation is still eligible for a 189 after the changes yesterday. 

Yep valuer is still on the list

On 01/07/2017 at 02:03, VERYSTORMY said:

The visa costs are one of the tiny amounts. 

Add:

shipping, flights, temporary accomodation, buying a car, buying things like mobiles and the million other things you need on arrival, add short term accomodation, add first months rent and bond needed to secure a rental, add paying all your household bills, rent, food, running a car and everything else you need to live on while you look for a job - on the forum, we recomend you budget for this for a bare minimum of 3 months but preferably six months. You easy get to 30k. Though for electricians, you need to budget you will need to pay for courses - can be several grand and spend a year gaining a license while working, and being paid as a trade assistant. 

Yep £30,000 is a fair figure, my partner is an Electrician to and we have been here for 16 months now and we probably spent this much until he gained his wa licence x

41 minutes ago, Melby said:

I Have the same feeling of leaving Australia.....  the UK or anywhere else must be better then here.

Not bagging Australia out, it's not all its cracked up to be. Yes we have some nice weather. Crime is high and wages are not the best for the average house price is like 900K and that is way out of the city. 

 

That's why we live in Perth, lovely all year weather, wages are good, average 4 bed with pool $500.000, just a 20 min drive from the city, low crime rate, we love it xx

Yes joe anytime now, ours was 3 calendar months exactly x

Hi, no we didn't upload 1221 because it's not always necessary, luckily they never asked us for that 

6 minutes ago, Lali said:

That's was very smart of you . Guess this demand for extra documents might have slowed my processing . Nevertheless keeping my fingers crossed .


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We went through an agent so they advised us x