Lavers

Glad to see you are getting on with things best you can. Not many people would have been strong enough to do what you’ve done, although leaving your kids is the hardest thing anyone could do, you have had to do it too save yourself. Time to get on tinder and have some fun

All the best with making a decision but you have probably just answered your question there. We had never been to Aus before we moved here but it was always in my head for some reason to try living here. My biggest fear of moving here was not moving here (if that makes sense). I didn’t want to end up like most the guys I worked with in 20 years time saying I wish I had done that. Your only here once and our old life in the UK will always be there if ever we wanted to go back, but there will be no more “what ifs” as we will have at least tried living here. We came here (Me,Wife & 2 girls 10 & 5) with no job offers, nowhere to live and didn’t know anyone. We had a plan and luckily we nailed every step of it and soon settled in. Fast forward 3yrs we are all happy, have an extra addition to the the family who is 1 and also should have our house which we have had built finished in 6 weeks time. If you are struggling to find reasons to move here then there’s no point fighting it, if you stay in the UK I’m sure you will still have a good life, it will just be different that’s all.

Correct no different regarding mortgages but for paid May leave you have to be in the country for 2 yrs.

Hiya like you say only you can answer that really, it depends what is important to you and your family. I was earning a lot more money in the UK than I am in Aus, but I was also working 6/7 days a week where as in Aus I work 3 days and we can still live a comfortable enough life. For us as a family money isn’t that important it’s about having the time together in what I believe is a better environment for raising a family.

Hi Elaine Your 190 visa is valid for 5yrs from the date you receive it, so Sept 2027. I believe you are free to do as you wish in that time so i am fairly certain that you don’t need a RRV as long as you enter Australia before then. The RRV would be for when that 5 yrs passes and you haven’t got citizenship, so you would need an extension to your 190. Hopefully someone else can back this up for you.

Plenty of tattoos, cars I’ve noticed a few but not many. I read before we came that Australia is 20 yrs behind the rest of the world and Adelaide is 30. This could be true haha but in a good way

You will get it everywhere you go these days but I do find it a lot better in Adelaide compared to where I was in the UK. Apprentices at 17 would go out and get a Mercedes A class as there 1st car, couldn’t settle for a banger. At the end of it all though I personally couldn’t care what other people think anyway, I walk my own path and that’s it.

I’ve not been but I imagine similar to London.

See that’s a really good thing about Australia, even in the small villages in the UK (not all) it’s all about those things you listed. Especially in the young kids, my friends kids would ask for £500 jacket for Xmas at 14

I was into all the designer things in the UK but it’s refreshing here that most people aren’t bothered by it. (Or at least in Adelaide) Clothes get covered in sun cream here so not worth splashing the cash. As you say though the stores in the UK will post items at a fairly cheap price.

There’s nothing that jumps to mind regarding things we wish we brought. Things are very similar here so can find substitutes for most things.

Depends on how much sentimental things you have which you want to bring. We wanted to bring all the kids things so decided on getting a movecube, just packed in as much as we could. Dont make my mistake though, we brought our king size mattress with no frame, bought a king size frame here only to realise that a UK king is an Aus queen. I now sleep with a 6inch gap at the side of me

Hi Tom The main thing is to be honest, my wife had a caution over some family incident one Xmas and it happened nearly 10 yrs ago at the point of applying for our visa. It would depend on what your conviction was for and also how long ago it happened.

https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care-subsidy-calculator Have a look at this and see if you can put your details in roughly. we are just putting our 1yr old into kindy for 2 days a week, a normal day is 10hrs and the fees in South Aus are around $130 for that 10hr day. Heavily subsidised over here and I think they are due to increase more in July. You have your big day centres which cater from birth then you have local day centres which only cater for the year before they are due to start reception. We used this for our middle daughter and I think it only cost us around $20-30 a day, that was without any subsidy.

How much are you paying for childcare?

I suppose states wouldn’t want the info to easy to find as all people will do is get a 190 for the easiest state then move states the minute they land.

I never used an agent but those fees don’t seem high enough.

We ended up using my old boss, the owner of the airbnb we used when we first arrived and they also contacted the estate we used to sell our house in England before we came to Aus.

Hi I didn’t include step sisters or step mother on my visa application and didn’t have any issues, not sure if it’s the same for the citizenship though. I would have thought that it was more immediate family.

Here’s a page explaining the slips, can’t help that much as you don’t need these in SA. https://www.peninsulaautoclinic.com.au/what-is-the-difference-between-blue-pink-and-green-slips/

What was it that took so long Emma?

So Queensland are excepting applications for your husbands trade?

Or taken out of the back of the airport and shoved on a bus and taken straight into quarantine haha. I did get my first Tim Tam though in my goody bag whilst on the coach

The 189 visa allows you to live wherever you want whereas the 190 visa is state sponsored meaning that your occupation has to be on that states list then you stay in that state for atleast 2yrs. Your agent may mean that you need 80 points for the 189 visa but for the 190 it isn't showing minium points needed for an invite. If Brisbane is where you want to live and your husbands occupation is on the QLD list (which is it) then the 190 visa is probably your easiest option.

We are happy here but in another couple of years we may fancy a change. Winter isn't the best here and seems to drag on, I think because you get a decent summer and get used to the sun it hits you more when it's gone. Still decent compared to the UK though.