AMP
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You are very welcome - I will be interested to hear how you get on and what you eventually decide to do. In the meantime I am having a dither about the "will they or won't they ship" issue, given that I will only be on a 600 visa. I've sent an email to all the companies who quoted, posing the question. Watch this space!
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Ps, I went to a uk website called worldwidemoving. Just filled in all my details then had quotes and contact from 5 companies, really easy. All offered to do free, no obligation home visits to fully assess the volume, but I just got initial quotes for the 500 cubic feet as that enabled me to more readily do a comparison.
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The price includes export packing all everything, all paperwork, shipping, presentation to customs and unpacking on the other side. AQIS fees are on top (I think this is for checking the contents) and estimated to be 450AUD for this volume). Then there is marine shipping insurance of 3% of consignèrent value, not obligatory but highly recommended. Ive had several quotes, all currently around the same figure but can tell you more once I have had a visit. All the agents offer this free of charge with no obligation. As for shipping when I haven't got a permanent visa, well, other bloggers have got round this. Apparently some agents will do it anyway, paeticularly if there is an Oz address to ship to. I am advised that sometimes it needs to be in the name of a permanent resident, in which case I will give my daughter's details as I will be living in the same property. Will post again to this blog once the agent has been and I have more definitive info. Fingers crossed!! I was actually surprised at how low the cost was. It cost us much more than that to move back from France!
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Congratulations to everyone who has now suddenly seen positive progress in terms of their visas/moving plans. It feels much more positive to be reading this thread now that we see movement. I assume that this is because of us having entered a new allocation year now that we are into July. Just hope this year's allocation doesn't get used up too quickly!! As for me, well I'm keeping fingers crossed that my house sale will all go through smoothly. No moving date yet and I can't make any plans to actuallly move to Oz before I know that the house sale has definitely gone through. Then and only then can I apply for my 600 visa, book flights, arrange shipping, sell car etc etc - so much to think of it's all quite scary. I have started to get base line quotes for shipping of goods. Just for information, I am being quoted around £2200 for 500 cubic feet (14 cubic metres) which I am told is the volume of a Luton van. This is what they estimate for me moving a one bedroomed apartment equivalent. Next week I have a home visit to properly assess the volume I am taking. Looks as though I have a busy weekend of decisions now. I'm one of those who is taking virtually everything though excluding white goods. Basically I just hate shopping and and love what I have so it's the right decision for me. That said, I won't have room at the other end for everything, given that I'm moving from a 3 bedroomed house here, so that is where the decision making comes in. On top of that I have so many pictures (much more hanging space here than in a 1 bed apartment!) and will have to get rid of most of those. Oooh, some decisions, are so hard!!!
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Yes, we also loved the challenge of doing something different. For us it was France for 11 years and that was fabulous, though it took some time getting totally to grips with the language and both adapting to and integrating into the totally different French culture! We were in a non ex pat area where hardly anyone spoke English - at least we won't have that challenge to face when we finally move to Australia. That said, I'm conscious that there has already been quite a lot of Ozzy vocabulary I have had to learn, and the culture is also quite different! Good luck with getting a buyer for your home, I presume you have already put it on the market? In terms of the eventual 143s you and I are on exactly the same time frame so we will be closely watching each other's progress and comparing notes!
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Well Nanajan, it looks as though I will be joining you and many others on the "holiday route" as I have now accepted an offer on my house so will also soon be homeless. It's a bit scary, particularly whenever I consider the potential medical (who knows what could crop up in the time before I have to do the final stages for my 143). I'm going to go out on a 600 tourist visa as soon as my house is sold and whilst waiting for my 143 to be processed which is likely to be another 18 months or so. Trying to reason it all out, I'm reckoning like you that if something serious crops up in the interim then I will at least have spent as much time as I can with my family in Australia. Worst case scenario is that I will just have to come back and buy or rent another home in the UK. Life is full of risks, and I reckon that all of us who are planning to move to Oz have to be in that risk taker category - otherwise we wouldn't even be considering leaving the comfort and security of what is currently "home"! Good luck to those of you who are nearly there. I must admit that the forum has become more upbeat again lately since we have started to see a bit of movement again!
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Hi Sally and welcome to this forum where you will find absolutely masses of useful information and support. As for your specific questions, I think you are probably better going to the immi website, downloading the application form and looking at the guidance notes there re what documents are needed. Unless things have changed, I don't think you can do an online application, certainly not for the 143 visa. Supporting documentation, which all has to be certified, has to be included with the postal application. The Form 80 is only in the final stages. Not sure re your question about sponsor and "your account". As I understand it, the sponsorship has to be arranged and paid separately by them. Good luck. You may of course find it better to go through an agent. I know a lot of folks on this forum have preferred to do their application this way.
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Thanks Sue. Were you able to pay in £ sterling or did it have to be arranged with the Australian "branch" of BUPA and therefore with payment in AUD?
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Yes, it does help, thanks Lorraine. Your experience confirms what others have said, just that I keep needing reassurances! Just a further question about the insurance. You said you had to show it to immigration (presumably on arrival?) so did you set it all up and pay for it in the UK before you left? Which company did you use? Did you do arrange for 12 months initially and then have to renew for a further 12 months or were you able to do it on a rolling direct debit arrangement? Apologies for all the questions.
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Gosh that is really depressing. Now I'm going to have to open some wine as well and the trouble is that I have to drink it on my own. We will all become alcoholics at this rate and fail the medicals because of liver problems!!! Maybe we will end up having to turn to the new parent visa to tide us over.
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So presumably the family visa you are talking of is the 600 tourist visa which so many of us on this forum are now looking at. If you stayed 18months then did you have to leave at some point then go back in on the same visa? Did you encounter any problems with it? Is there any required gap before you are allowed to apply for another one? We keep getting so many mixed messages on this forum about this visa that we need as many positive reassurances about it as possible. I am one of those aiming to go down this route once my house is sold, which I'm hoping will be sooner rather than later!
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I also wonder what the processing time will be for these new visas, and whether there will be all the additional rigmarole of form 80, referees, medical and police clearance etc etc. It's pretty much an unknown for us all at the moment so hard to incorporate this option into our planning.
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Alternatively there is the visitor subclass 651 which is free and allows multiple entries for a 12 month period, albeit there is a max 3 month stay from the date of each arrival
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Thanks Bridgie, that helps to explain it all. Also it's really useful to hear about your actual experiences in terms of coming and going on the 600 visa. Sounds as though the August exit/ entry should be unproblematic (touch wood!) though it will be reassuring to have your post and confirmation of this when you have actually done it. Has anyone been through the experience of applying for a new 600 when out of the country and, if so, then what address did you use? Also wondering, as you are, whether there are any issues going to NZ at that point, particularly if, at the point of entry to NZ, you don't have a valid visa for the return trip.
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So, it sounds as though you are notifying banks etc of your OZ address. Is this correct and is this valid even though you are technically Tourists? I would be grateful if you can let me know, via this forum, of how you get on with your 600 renewal and which address you give. I've already separately consulted re tax issues and think I have that sussed now (many thanks Alan Collett). My only Oz income initially will just be from savings held there and this will be less than my personal allowance (which is currently 18,200 AUD) so I won't have to pay anything at all, though will have to file a "non lodgement advice". I also learned that it is possible to have up to 12k tax free income p.a. once I am formally resident in Oz, and this is in addition to the personal tax free allowance. It is a possibility for anyone under the age of 65 if you have capital to invest, this being invested in what is called a self managed superannuation fund. It's misleading because you don't have to self manage it!! It's an arrangement created by the Australian government to encourage people to save for their retirement. Each individual can invest up to 100k per year up to and including the year when you turn 65. I think you can only draw on it once you actually turn 65. You have to have a tax file number to open but you can get this once you arrive in Oz and it is available also for those on a 600 visa. The other good thing is that the investment can be in £sterling and simply converted to AUD as and when you wish, i.e. when conversion rates are better (we can continue to hope that pigs will fly!!). Hope this proves helpful. Alan Collett gave me contacts for this advice so I suggest you go via him if you want to investigate further.
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The thing that worries me is where I will stand on a 600 visa. I will be technically a tourist in Oz with no rights of residence but not actually living in the uk either as I am selling my house here. What address will I give to the "authorities", also banks in the UK? Also what do I do about my driving licence address? Plus, if and when I then have to apply for another 600 tourist visa then what will be my address then? Any advice please from those who have already been down this route?
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Yes, thanks for the info on this newsletter Kath. I also have just subscribed and didnt even know that it existed before I saw your post!
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Glad to see you back Alan, You are a very valuable source of information
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Please can you tell me how I get a Pomsinoz newsletter Kath? Your post is the first time that I have heard of it.
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I think we now need a "don't like" button! Depressing news. I can't help thinking that when the new short term parent visa is implemented in November that there will then be even fewer staff to deal with the 143/173 processing as more visa staff will then be diverted to deal with the new category.
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Many thanks Georf and Gill, that was what I thought but I just needed the reassurance - particularly as there have been so many recent references to 12 months in any 18 months!
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Just worth looking at the "what would you do differently" element of this PIO forum. There are numerous entries there from folks who have said the exact opposite - ie they wish they had taken more of their own things with them. However, as others have also very rightly commented, "each to his/her own". We are all different and what is right for one is not right for another. On another note, I do keep worrying about the 600 visitor visa. Some entries seem to say that it only allows you to stay 12 months in an 18 month period, whereas others say nearly 2 years if you leave then re-enter just before the 12 months is finished. My house is up for sale and I'm intending to move once it is sold, but don't want to find that I may then be totally homeless for 6months and belonging nowhere! At the ongoing snail's pace of the 143 visas I reckon I will need at least 2 years on a visitor visa..
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Also dont forget that you also have no valid guarantee once you move those goods to Australia. I did some research when I was last in Oz and found that, as in the UK, you can often find reasonably priced white goods if you shop around. My daughter picked up a dishwasher at Aldi! Worth doing a google.au search in advance. I tried this when looking for a fridge freezer ready for my apartment that I will be having there and I found a lot of reasonable options.
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Seems very wise to take as much as you can. My son moved over taking little but then wished he had taken everything including his Audi TT! My daughter then took everything and advises me to do likewise, because ultimately the cost of transporting extras is very little. Also, if in the end you find that items aren't needed over there then you can always sell them on Gumtree which is really big in Oz. You will be able to sell for more than you could sell for in the UK and you will also be paid in AUD. There is a separate forum on pominoz called "what would you do diffently", with numerous entries from folks who wished they had taken more over, particularly since the costs of rebuying are pretty high. All this said, it still makes total sense to get rid of stuff which you have simply accumulated and will definitely never need or use. Basically dejunk. I seem to have spent the last few weeks shredding paper. I have just put my house up for sale and the agents can't believe how tidy and uncluttered both the house and garage are!
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Thanks Alan, it really is great having your responses on this forum to help to guide us through everything. There are still tax issues where I need clarification though so I will contact you by PM (sorry, but I tried this before and didn't get a response so I don't know what the problem was.)
