The Pommy

That'll be about the time - but in seriousness I may move just a little and do it on a staggered basis - can't hit the bottom every time. Or maybe I can? I was hoping that Mrs May may get the Brexit plan together and inject a little confidence...

GBP will fall further. If the UK go for hard Brexit then it will be depressed for years.

We have Case Officer too BUT he says I may not be an Australian citizen!!!! I am the sponsor. I was born in Oz of Oz parents with Oz birthcertificate and passport. I became a British citizen in 1999. He says that invalidated my Aus citizenship. No one told me. My children are dual nationality so assumed I could. How wrong I was. Disaster

That doesn't add up, from what I read above. There are plenty of people with dual nationality - Australian and British. My wife is one. From what I remember, both countries allow multiple nationality providing any of the other citizenships held also allow that.

From what I understand (I no expert on this), you would need to have renounced your Australian citizenship not to be a citizen. I am also doubtful that you would hold a valid passport if you were not a citizen.

I think it's great that the next batch of visas are starting to trickle through.

 

Im quite a long way off, in terms of when it's hopefully my turn.

 

ive done a fair bit of research of this great forum, and can only assume that when a visa is granted, the case worker, picks up the next one!

 

So I'm glad that when people get approved, I'm one step nearer!!

 

Cheers

As Samon has mentioned, they are not issued in order it seems. You may find that no matter how much progress is being made on issuing other people's visas, your application may be held up. I am a case in point, having applied in Sept, having been married (in Aus) well over a decade, two children who are Australian citizens, medical and PC requested and submitted at the start of the year, and yet my visa has not been granted.

Likely to go lower on Brexit, recover a little if we stay in the EU.

Hi all, just an update to give those who submitted last year some hope of a grant soon. We applied 26th August 2015, by post for some reason. We didn't hear a thing for over 5 months although we knew they had received it as they took the money on the 27th!

 

Case officer then got in touch early Jan to tell us to go for medical and police check, these were done around 16th Jan. Hubbys company then wanted him to start his job in April so we decided we would sell up and go on evisitor visa to begin with. Sold house within a week, booked flights for 26th Feb via Dubai for a few days. We emailed the case officer a week before to ask if a grant was imminent, he responded straight away with a no he wasn't in a position to grant.

 

We have been here a few weeks now and are having a great time, it's made it easy as we have lots of family already here. So they are going to Bali the first week in April and asked if we wanted to join them, we need to be offshore to have the visa granted so what a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone! Emailed the case officer again and told him we were planning a holiday and did he think he would be ready to grant by then. Within 24 hours he replied told us to email flight details and itinerary and he would grant it for us! Straight to 100

 

Very happy and everything seems to have fallen in place nicely, good luck to all those who applied in the second half of 2015 hopefully it won't be long now.

Hi theBetty82,

How did you email your case officer? We had an email from a shared, general email address saying that they do t respond to emails, and have no other email address.

Cheers.

Our movecube arrives in 3 weeks but I was expecting as much detail as Snifter gave. Whilst I love a spreadsheet I didn't think I would need to give details for each item we are packing?!? Am I wrong?

As well as a spreadsheet I'd recommend taking a photo of the contents of any boxes before sealing. I did this last time we moved, and put the photos into Evernote. It's a quick way of looking for things without having to open things up at the other end.

Thanks for the advice on the furnishing etc., just wondering about what to aim for in sales commission negotiations - 1% seems to be coming up as standard rate, how low is a good agent likely to go - best to start negotiations with figures in mind...

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

We've been quoted 1%, and we're not far from where you are. I suspect that the higher the average price of property in the area, the lower they'll go.

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The pound will go down in the short term due to the uncertainty - but no one knows what Brexit will do to it in the long term.

Brexit will trigger more uncertainty. What will our relationship be with the EU, what can we negotiate, how will business react, etc. I predict that will be more damaging to Sterling than the uncertainty that we have now, which is, there is uncertainty about whether we'll have longer term uncertainty. Brexit will depress Sterling for a couple of years. And it will impact imports, which we rely upon as we've destroyed our manufacturing industry, and our service industry (the great Thatcherite hope) is being sent off to low cost economies.

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No, there is no correlation between meds/pcc and grant date. Some people do their meds when they first apply, they still have to wait months for the grant, same as everyone else.

It does appear though that some people are being asked to do them on or after a certain date, whilst others are not. I received a letter from a case officer about three months after submitting the application and the letter had instructions attached on how to arrange the medical and how to obtain the police check certificate. It didn't specifically say to get them done, but I read it as being implied as the instructions were attached. Given there is a time limit (12 months I think) on their validity, and advice on the immi site not to start the checks until told to do so, it's odd that there are such differences in time from instruction to complete them, and issuing of the visa.

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Would only apply if the Westminster politicians decide to put a tax on EU imports (being in the free trade area they're prohibited from doing that but they wouldn't have to do it merely because they could).

One of the benefits of being in the EU, that is often overlooked apart from when moaning about it, is the standardisation. A company can produce against the EU standard and that can be sold in all locations. The minute the UK diverges, companies importing the UK will need to create UK specific models, at cost, and that cost will be passed on to the consumer. The UK market is not as big or as important as people like to think. Compared to the rest of the EU, and India and China, the UK is chicken feed. So to mitigate the issue of diverging standards, the UK would need to continue to adopt EU standards to keep costs down on imports. But then that goes against the Brexitters wishes to "cut red tape from Brussels". Bit of a dilemma there...

Some examples of where we have benefitted in the past is: common EU voltage (230V, as opposed to 240V UK and 220V Europe - in practice this means products can operate 220-240V, but wasn't always the case), car specifications such as the fitting of fog lights, etc.

Also bear in mind that all of the trade administration in the EU is dealt with centrally. Subsidies come from the EU. Outside of the EU, there will still need to be administration in place for things that the EU deals with centrally, and farmers will still want their subsidies. Now given the government is always looking to cut costs, do people really believe that the government will take over grants and subsidies and pay these out instead of the EU doing it? What will be the cost of negotiating the managing all the new trade agreements that are currently held centrally at EU level? How will that all be paid from by the UK government? After all, we are being told that by leaving the EU there will be massive cost savings, and that we can have lots of new hospitals can be built. We can't have our cake and eat it.

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Hi there, I have an Australian passport though not originally Australian. From a visa perspective we would be fine on the back of the offer. I did look into the whole resident non-domicile thing while in the UK. For the moment, it shouldn't be an issue. If there are other things to consider, I'd appreciate hearing about them. Thanks

 

I've also been following the car talk with a mixture of detachment and amusement. I must admit I'm an A to B kind of person when it comes to cars. Between that and dealing with grubby little handprints everywhere, I try not to over-invest in them. I did however take a peek at car prices in Australia and UK. For some reason they seemed to convert to about the same price. This was looking at carsales.com.au vs autotrader.co.uk. Maybe just the location?--in the UK they ask for postcode before they show results.

On the subject of cars, when comparing second hand, and standard cars (Ford, GM, Toyota, etc.) they may well be similar. On new cars in the UK there is no LCT for the more expensive ones. Not sure about Aus, but cost of car insurance and fuel can be high in the UK. There is no bundled third party on a car here with the Rego (which is road fund license, or road tax over here). That can also be quite high, but is determined by CO2 output. Cars over three years old need an annual safety check, called an MOT, which I think is about £30. You need it to tax a car and insurance would be void without it. Oh, and you'll be fined if caught driving a car not roadworthy, whether with an MOT certificate or not.

For the more expensive European cars, the U.K. Is miles cheaper. In fact, there are models your can get here that are not on the Aus market. Europe, and the U.K. Are much bigger Diesel markets. So, for example, I drive a BMW 330d here, but I won't be able to get one when we move to Aus. 3.0L diesels in Aus (such as Toyota and Mitsubishi, which I have driven over in QLD) use some awful four cylinder tractor units, whereas here they pop a i6, v6 or five pot engine in, which is smoother and a better drive.

Anyway, I generally get the impression that car ownership overall is cheaper in Aus. However, in the South East of England at least, traffic levels are bordering on the ridiculous. A trip around the M25 at the wrong time is a nightmare. It's better away from the overcrowded South East, but can still be busy on major roads, such as around Birmingham, Manchester, parts of the M1 and the Edinburgh to Glasgow run.

Aside from cars, public transport here can be good in the cities. London is excellent (if not cheap) and cities such as Nottingham have excellent bus networks. Glasgow and Edinburgh also have good transport. Rural public transport is not that good, but based on my experience, better than Aus rural public transport (I'll never forget being caught on the Sunshine Coast in the evening rush hour, wanting a train back to Brisbane!!!!).

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Markets generally pick up in spring, but the brexit referendum could affect the pound.

It is already, unfortunately. In the short term it's the uncertainty. If we vote to remain in the EU then we can expect relative stability in FX and potentially a recovery, but if we vote to leave it will hammer sterling. Recent stories of a possible further rate cut, along with a raft of New Year signals of a cooling (and underperforming) economy, such as the chancellor's repetitive warnings along those lines would only amplify the damage to GBP that Brexit would have. All in all, not good news for sending GBP to AUD in the short term, and bad news for us.

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@stamples

We're more Chesham/Amersham way, so to sure about a good estate agent in Chinnor. Both agent and solicitor should be easy enough to work with via email. One thing not to get caught out with is the paperwork being signed and returned on time. We were caught out once, having forgotten to sign one page on the paperwork, and I had to run up into town (five minute drive) to the solicitor on the morning of completion. Had I been further away we'd have crashed the chain and been liable for a fair whack in interest payments to the buyer and to our vendor (we were I the middle of the chain). Also, if the UK are anything as awkward as the Australians any paperwork would need to be witnessed by someone at the British consulate in Aus. However, I suspect that we are not that anal!

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Definitely furnish if possible. Buyers really struggle to picture themselves in an empty house so having furniture in there will help as long as it is nice furniture and not cluttered.

Yes, I'd deffo agree with that. It's caused us problems both here in the UK and in Aus, when trying to sell a property.

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I would suggest 6x your current monthly expenditure as a minimum plus the cash to buy a second hand car ($2k minimum as they are quite a bit more expensive in Australia) and maybe $5k more for setup costs (including rental deposit, some basics whilst you are waiting for your container to arrive (or the cost of replacing everything if you're not shipping).

 

Hopefully you'll get work quickly but increasingly people don't or the wages are significantly less than expectation just to secure that first job.

 

We got through £70k in 12 months but were rather extravagant as we were used to being affluent in the UK and didn't adjust as quickly as we should have!

That's really useful to know. I'll be in a similar situation very soon, although we'll have the option to stay with family if we need to. I have to say, the work aspect of the move is worrying me.

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I always assume - but I may be mistaken :rolleyes:- that when Poms use the term central heating they mean a hydronic system in which heated water is pumped to wall radiators. We had one in an old farmhouse we used to live in and I'm seriously thinking of installing it in this house.

I think the term comes from the days where you had to individually heat rooms with a coal or gas fire, and most rooms were not heated. So a single heat source and a distribution system is central heating. I have seen the forced air/ducted type in the UK, and electric (including storage heaters) are also common in certain types of property. But most is hydronic, and it can work very well. But as has been mentioned, it's better suited to smaller rooms, and radiators need to have TRVs on them now in the UK.

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You see, ours in Melbourne didn't have individual room controls, so in the home theatre room it would get roasting but because the house was open plan the rest of the house would still be cold.

That is the one advantage with radiators in smaller rooms. You can have TRVs on the rads to stop a room overheating. I have seen zoned systems in Australia, and I suspect that's what a more modern house would have.

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Central heating is not a term we use here so I don't really know what it means.

But most systems are temperature controlled anyway. I don't switch it off.

I just set it to the desired temp usually about 23 degrees and leave it on all the time when home. It switches itself on and off to maintain the programmed temperature.

Although I can program it for different settings for different periods eg Wake, Leave, Home and Sleep.

 

But all computer controlled along with the Air con.

 

 

Radiators are only suitable for small rooms and take forever to heat up too.

That's exactly how it should be done. I never understood why people in the UK talk about turning their central heating on or off at different times of the year. Building regs require an interlock, and that would mean a thermostat in at least one room. Set it, and it should be turning things on and off, like you do.

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1.91...

 

Down down down

It will go lower in the short term, against all currencies - it's the Brexit uncertainty amongst other things (such as underperforming economy and talk of further rate cuts). And if there is a Brexit it will go lower still. And that is what the Brexit lobby will want because it's good for exports, and being outside of the EU, they'll need it! Of course, the vast majority of the population will suffer as prices go up as we import most of our goods. And mostly from the EU, which in turn may mean prices going up even further as we would no longer be in the free trade area. Good luck with that.

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Dear GW

 

May I ask your recommendation for a Bucks based agent if you have one, and what buyers think of the 'bidding' process in the UK these days? We're about to engage an estate agent, so just getting up to speed on what we need to be asking for etc. and if things still as 'hot' as they appeared a month ago

Where in Bucks? There is an excellent Estate Agent in South Bucks/Chiltern area, which we've used to buy and sell a couple of houses around here. However, as per the original post, house prices here have gone through the roof. In just over four years our four bed detached house here has gone up about 75% in value! (Or 60% up on the asking price when we bought it). Houses here seem to be selling in days, or at worst, a couple of weeks.

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Wouldnt be buying a BMW the indicators never seem to work

They are getting a lot better these days. It's now the Audi's that seem to have issue with the indicators, the brakes and some defect with the windscreens that seem to make the driver think he/she is further away from the car in from than they really are. Here in the South East of England they are a menace. Especially those 'Q' 4x4s. Incredibly aggressive and selfish. BMWs seem to have blended into the background here these days. Not sure what it's like in Aus.

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If you're used to those places then Harvey Norman, however look at appliancesdirect.com.au, a

so You can order from Amazon here too.

Thanks Que Sera. So given my experience over the years of UK retailers, especially around quality of service and value for money, putting Dixons/Curry's/PC World (and the former Commet) right at the bottom, the likes of Argos and Tesco Direct in the middle, and John Lewis at the top, which Aus companies would be classed as the Dixons, and which would be the JL? How do Harvey Norman compare, and what about JB HiFi or Myers?

[For completeness, my experiences of Dixons/Curry's has been staff who lie about consumer rights, trying to sell extended warranties and refusing to exchange faulty goods, compared to JL who will replace items over two years old and provide a 5 year warranty for free on items such as TVs]

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Here's some sites to get you going:

 

<snip>

 

 

 

Thanks Peach, that's very useful.

Quick question... I'd get most of my white goods, furnishings and electrical goods from John Lewis, and most other things from Amazon (like my gadgets and computer bits). Are there equivalents in Australia for quality of service and price?

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