SarahL

I just googled one way travel insurance and lots of options came up. This one specifically says it lasts for a while so you can get settled: https://www.go-walkabout.co.uk/one_way_travel_insurance.php

5 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

Hi Sarah, not yet no, fingers crossed we will find a buyer soon and still be on track for UK Autumn / Perth Spring move.

Good luck with it all. Doing viewings is stressful so I hope you don’t have to do too many more!

On 14/02/2019 at 12:18, Jon the Hat said:

Yes, the viewings all manage to be just far enough apart that the entire house has to be cleaned and tidied again!

Did you manage to sell your house? We have sold ours (subject to contract) for a second time as our first buyer pulled out very late in the process but luckily it sold again within a week of being back on the market, phew!

On 14/02/2019 at 10:45, TanC7 said:

You will love Perth! Good luck with the move

Thanks.  Have you moved over yet? 

8 hours ago, curious_abt85 said:

Hi,

I am in same situation

Got the ack from CO that baby has been added. But the citizenship for baby was not correct. uploaded form 1023 with correction.

Waiting for CO to ack the 1023 update and HAP id for baby. (its been 1 month already) anything we can do to check.

in case we need to mail which mail id we need to use. gsm.allocated -- seems that is auto e-mail nobody looks at it.

I don’t think anything we did made them respond any faster. Unfortunately you just have to wait! Have you uploaded a copy of the babies passport as they need that for the HAPID.

On 26/03/2019 at 06:13, Quoll said:

Flew to UK on my own with a 12 week old baby and back when he was 5 months - and with a 3 yr old in tow as well. Looking back I still  can't believe I did it but it wasn't that bad while I was doing it - apart from my altercation with a BA bimbo flight attendant who took 45 minutes to bring me a cup of tea in the middle of the night because she was chatting up a bloke further down the cabin and then tried to blame my sleeping 3 yr old for turning the call light on. 

My tips are to travel as light as possible, you don't need the kitchen sink. We never had a stroller for the kids anyway but the sling I used was invaluable on the plane - much better if you need to stand /walk to be able to pop them in the carrier and keep your hands free. If you're BF then it's a doddle (and don't be afraid to get up and demand a cup of tea before you start!), never used bottles so no idea how that works but if you take the basics the cabin crew are usually good at helping out. The loos have a pull  down  change table which works well and now that everyone uses disposable nappies is a hell of a lot easier than when we flew to Australia the very first time with DS1 at 6 months before they'd been invented! 

If there are two of you it's much easier to tag team so that one of you can sleep at a time but otherwise it's a case of "when baby sleeps we all sleep " but don't be afraid to walk the aisles, that's preferable to having a screaming kid for all concerned. 

Feed on take off and landing - swallowing equalises ear pressures otherwise you'll have a kid with hurting ears - and that's easy because the baby is strapped to your seat belt with an extension.

Bottom line though, have faith in your parenting, it's just like dealing with the bub on the ground. Book your bassinet ahead of time and with kids under 6 months you'll be prioritised and they're generally fine for the kids to sleep in but if your child is a co-sleeper you'll need to get them used to sleeping alone before you fly (one of my granddaughters struggled with that when she flew as my d-i-l was an earth mother kinda gal and thought co-sleep was the thing to do.)

Biggest problem you're likely to have is jet lag - theirs, not so much yours. They will have just got into some kind of waking/sleeping rhythm and you will totally screw that up and it took a long time for my son to change - we were still disrupted well over a week from memory. Then he got disrupted again on the way back to Aus poor kid.

Good luck, it'll be fine just don't  stress about it too much.

Excellent advice. Unless necessary I would avoid adding formula until you return home as that’s a whole load more stuff you would have to take! Travelling with an infant is easier than you think. Much easier than with a toddler anyway Enjoy your trip

6 hours ago, username303 said:

Did you mention in your application that you are actively taking medicine?

Also, thank you so much for all the response guys!

Yes I mentioned it. If you are concerned then call the medical practice where you will have the medical and ask if they will need to see any sort of letter from the specialist. We did ours in London and they just wanted to see my prescription. I was on 100 micro grams at the time so fairly high (for me). 

I have an underactive thyroid and have been on levothyroxine for 10 years. The doctor that carried out my medical didn’t seem the least bit concerned and it didn’t impact my visa in any way. If your wife’s condition is more complex then you may wish to follow the advice above and contact an agent. Good luck with the visa process

15 hours ago, JDJones said:

I'm seriously losing the will to live...

Right! I've got 65 points at the moment. Can't get any more until July when I get 5 more for experience. Tired of waiting. 189 will not happen anytime soon, and NSW are killing my soul with their inaction. What other options are there? I specialise in English and Media Studies but can teach any humanities subject. I'm all ears to suggestions!

Haven’t read your other posts so not sure if this is relevant to you but you could go over on a working holiday visa and work as a teacher.  Would get some more points for Australian experience and at least you would be waiting in the sunshine!! If you go this route then make sure you get your Australian (state specific) teachers registration done before you go as that takes months!! Good luck 

5 hours ago, ayus123 said:

Many congratulations. Do you mind sharing me what happened in the medical examination?

Did you do in the BUPA centre like for the adult or you can do anywhere?

 

Did they check for the vaccination history as well? I am afraid because I am avoiding to have any vaccination to my baby. 

What happened in the medical centre? What is the cost of medical?

The medical for the our children (toddler and baby) just involved a physical exam. The doctor felt their tummies and backs, looked in their ears and mouths and then measured their height and weight. No X-ray, urine or blood test but I believe children from some countries do require a blood test. 

Yes it has to be a panel physician so the same place you have the adult medicals. They will be able to tell you the cost as that is dependent on where you have it done. 

Unless a medical professional has told you not to vaccinate your baby I would urge you to do some serious research on the matter. It’s important that you are aware of the implications of your baby catching any of those life altering/ending diseases and whether you think it’s worth taking the risk. Added to that, the Australian government do not look kindly on those that choose not to vaccinate and withhold some benefits and restrict access to childcare and education during the event of an outbreak.

I am not judging you, trying to make the right choices for your child can be hard but in this case I hope you think long and hard about this as it could potentially impact your child for the rest of their lives. 

Good luck with the visa process

18 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

I wish you luck, we had a viewing this morning after a 10th birthday Party on Saturday - I have never cleaned and tidied so much in my life.

Good luck with selling your house

8 minutes ago, ayus123 said:

I was just wondering if you got the response and your visa is granted already? 

Yes we received our visa grant last week, 6th February.

19 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

We’re also moving to Perth around September, assuming we can sell the house!

We are putting ours on the market next week. Lots of decluttering, cleaning and tidying to be done! 

1 hour ago, Joesline said:

Just wondering.. will you guys travel to Australia and recce before you made the final move?

We visited during July/August 2017 as my husband had never been to Perth before and we wanted to be sure it was right for us.

On 07/02/2019 at 05:38, VERYSTORMY said:

If you are taking any animals, you need to commence this very soon. 

No pets so no problem there but good advice for anyone that refers to this later on. 

On 07/02/2019 at 10:02, Beffers said:

When you open a bank account in UK with an Aussie bank, ask the, to open a GBP foreign transaction account to sit alongside your Aussie one. We did and we pay zero transfer fees on international transfers, and it's so much easier than dealing with Transferwise, or wondering how family will send money to put into baby's bank acc etc.

where in Aus you headed?

Good to know thanks. Which bank did you go with? We are moving to Perth.  

2 minutes ago, Jenki75 said:

Some of the things I have done in preparation for the move are getting copies of all our immunization records. I got new prescription glasses and contact lenses, so I have a few years before I have to do it again. Open an Australian bank account before you go and deposit money.  Get your paper work together to help secure a rental, bank statements, references etc.  Then there's the obvious, decide when you want to leave and arrange any shipping and flights and a temporary place to stay. 

Congratulations on the grant!

Hadn’t thought of getting a record of our immunisations so I’ll add that one thanks  

6 minutes ago, Captain_Tor said:

Congratulations! I guess it's time to make lots of to do lists 

Out of interest what is it you and you other half do for jobs? 

Thanks. Yep, I’m hoping people can help me add to those lists as I don’t want to miss anything!

We are both secondary school teachers. Well I was before we had kids but I am hoping to return to it in a couple of years. 

22 minutes ago, VERYSTORMY said:

It is very much up to you. You all have to make first entry by the first entry date, but this doesn't have to be the date you move. You have five years from grant to make the permanent move. But, the later you leave it there are issues creeping in. 

I should have said that we are planning on going over in September so I was trying to think about all the things we need to get done by then eg open bank accounts etc. I like to be prepared so I know what we can sort out while we are still in the UK and what needs to be done when we arrive. 

18 minutes ago, JetBlast said:

What visa do you have? Also what nationality are you?

189 and British  If you are asking to get an idea of processing time then ours was a bit delayed due to having a newborn to add to our application. Visa lodged in May, co contact for medicals etc in August, baby born September and added to application, medicals and police checks completed in Dec. 

Our visas have finally been granted after a year and a half since starting the process! Wahoo!

Anyway I’m wondering if anyone has a list of things to do before and after arriving in Australia? Please feel free to direct me to another post as I’m guessing this has been covered before!!

Thanks in advance for your help. The advice given on this forum was a huge help and the reason I felt confident that I could complete our (relatively uncomplicated) visa application independently.

9 hours ago, Laurel said:

Hello have the medical been done, if yes how long did it finally take for them to provide the HAP id and did u contact them for that. Because am in the same situation.

They replied with the HAP ID in early December, about two months after I emailed them. We completed the medicals just before Christmas so now just waiting for the visa grant!

On 07/01/2019 at 00:42, unzippy said:

Don't forget to get a quote for separate insurance from someone like Letton Percival - works out cheaper and more comprehensive than the shippers insurance.

Good point. Have read a few horror stories on here so will definitely be getting insurance through a separate company! Thanks 

18 hours ago, Jsmull87 said:

I’ve had PSS give me a reasonable quote to ship household belongings which include treadmill, 3 tier rack of dumbells, power rack, bench and weights. They weren’t fussed as long as I dismantled it. They believe they can get in a shared container including sofa, two beds, 2 bikes and other household items. 

Contact them. They are quite well reviewed on the forum and someone will xome out and give you a free quote.

At the end of the day , all of the companies will be using the same ship.

Thanks for the recommendation, will get a quote from them. 

14 hours ago, ali said:

The only problem with a shared container is that you may have to wait for the other half to be filled which can cause delays.  

That's definitely something to keep in mind. We may be able to send our stuff ahead of us though so may not be an issue.

On 20/12/2018 at 13:08, Thom said:

Having returned to the UK from Canberra, we had to have all our personal belongings in storage for some time, due to house renovations. 

Our shipping was done by a Sydney based company

On receiving our goods, we have found that many items are broken, and several boxes missing. They have been particularly bad at communicating and seem to have washed their hands of us. 

 

Would NOT recommend them. PM for details

That sounds awful. Hope you manage to get it sorted. Could you pm the name of the company please. Thanks 

Does anyone have experience/advice with shipping gym equipment to Australia - we are moving to Perth.

We have the following (which we will disassemble):

a power cage (8ft), vertical leg press, lat pull down, two benches, a calf press, two olympic bars (8ft) and lots of weights.

Should be cheaper to ship than replacing it all in Australia.

Other than that we have very little else apart from the children's toys that we want to ship. Obviously if there is space left over we will then look at taking other stuff. We have looked at a 20ft container. Does this sound reasonable? Or do you think we would get away with something smaller?

Even if you haven't specifically shipped gym equipment please recommend any shippers that you have had a good experience with and send PMs with details of any companies to avoid.

Thanks :)