Amber Snowball

Oh dear. Well you’ve done your bit, no need to repeat that experiment then!

I agree with @welljock if you have the opportunity and want to do it. Do it. I really can’t understand the attitude of some people, particularly when they are supposed to be the ones who love you. Let’s be honest, neither your mum or children are more likely to die or be unsafe in Australia, what a bizarre thing to say. Maybe they think Australia is all Crocodile Dundee and wrestling crocs in the outback. Australia is a long way from the UK but not life threateningly so. Good luck!

It’s a struggle and I only got the no claims from aami for the years I was with them. Luckily I had always had at least one car with them for my time in Australia, so got 12 years at least. Shop around in the uk though as not all are as open to overseas no claims anyway. I’m with Admiral here who were the cheapest for me as they accepted my Australian no claims without issue.I can’t remember the others sorry. I couldn’t get any evidence of no claims for my house insurance, so have started from scratch again, but it’s so cheap compared to Australia it hasn’t been a problem. I have multicover. Good luck.

Also medicare wouldn’t cover them if something happens in transit. Like slipping over and breaking a leg in Singapore or something.

You could try ocean grove or torquay on the surf coast. I lived on the bellarine peninsula which was nice. Depends on where work is for travel times.

It’s called This is going to hurt.

Brutally honest post there. I think that make the best of where you are attitude is great and who knows where your children end up. Might not be uk or Australia, in which case you’ll be free to go anywhere yourself, finances allowing. It is very important that we don’t focus only on the good of then compared to the bad of now, in either country. Not sure where outside Liverpool you are but I worked in Knowsley for 3 years when I returned in 2018 and if that was my only observation of the uk I’d have been on the first flight back to Australia. I’m in Frodsham which is 25 minutes and light years away from Knowsley. I work in the nhs and without doubt it is a basket case and has been for years. As an aside have you been watching This Might Hurt on the bbc? It’s based on an ex doctors experience back in the early 90s and everything rang true. But 30 years on and not sure what has changed. Worth a watch, some of it is pretty hard going but an honest account, all of it. Anyhoo, I wish you all the best, a bit of peace and happiness. Who knows what the future holds. My son has been been sick, he’s 27 and still in Australia and this is the first time since leaving Australia that I really wobbled. Not that I could do anything even if I was there, but I really felt the distance. Only saving grace is there are more flights and easing restrictions so I could at least get there now. Sorry, went off track there, bit of therapy at the end.

The agents on here are worth a contact @Raul Senise @paulhand @Alan Collett or @wrussell the main thing is to check any agent is mara registered, these ones are and are frequently on the forum helping. Do a search to view their input, their details are in their signatures at the bottom of their posts. Good luck!

I can sign in and change lots of details without issue. It is the medicare part that won’t let me update the address. That’s it. There’s an option to update all associated records in one hit, tried that, didn’t work. Tried to update it directly on the medicare part, won’t accept it. You have to put an Australian state and postcode in for medicare online. You can probably ring them I can’t be arsed. Just saying this to alert people that it’s worth doing before you leave as you are in the same timezone.

Change your address on mygov before leaving as medicare won’t let you change online if outside of Australia. Use a relative or something, just easier. I’ve used Wise and found them good, if it’s a large amount of money check they are covered by the bank insurance thing so that if they go belly up your money is protected.

I think it’s a visa you apply for after you apply for the 143. It means people can’t come on a 10 year visa and then get a bridging visa. From memory it was created especially for parents who will have a long wait for a permanent offshore visa. There’s lots of discussion on here about them, so a quick search will bring up lots of solid information from people with greater knowledge than me!

Yes, I think in a lot of places now sponsorship is happening less and less. Australia produces a lot of nurses and I think those community roles in family and child health would be quite desirable. The sponsorship process is quite arduous for the employer as well now, so even less reason to do it I suppose. A few years ago new grads were coming to Scotland to get work as they couldn’t get jobs in Australia and the public got grumpy so things changed a bit to keep their home grown staff. Would you not go on a skilled visa like the 190 or if high points the 189?

Also, I thought you had to leave Australia for a certain number of months in between the 1st 870 ending and the 2nd one starting, so people might want /need somewhere to return to for that time. It might be 6 months so not an inconsiderable amount of time that you’d need possessions and a home.

Oh brilliant! Years ago they didn’t bother with mine even though I sent it in! So much has changed. Really good luck with the job hunt then.

Apply for a transfer of residence (TOR) if you are moving possessions or pets.

I think that would be fine as long as it’s all set up and agreed. Make sure the pet import agent in the uk has your TOR number so they don’t get charged vat to release them! Are you using a shipper? They should be able to sort this for you. Good luck.

Hi, I don’t know anything solid but I think the bottle neck might be getting a quarantine place and then possibly a place on a flight rather than the paperwork process. @BobPetairUK might be able to shine a light on what the timescales are looking like and then you might want to consider them to move your animals, you can choose how much or little they do so budget friendly, as much as it can be! Expensive moving animals! Depending on what visa you are applying for you usually have a year to validate the visa and then 5 years to move, so a bit of flexibility maybe? Anyway, good luck and hopefully Bob sees this.

I’ve only found things from Oct/Nov last year and then DWP saying they have caught up. There was a statement saying overseas claims take a bit longer but if you were SP age 3 months ago that still sounds too long. Did you apply before your birthday? There have been incidents of DWP closing/suspending claims saying they haven’t heard from claimants. I think you probably need to chase them. Good luck!

There was an article recently about the delays in processing the first payment. 6-8 weeks I think it said. I’ll try and find it. Hang on!

Chat to a few and get quotes, go with the one you feel best about. It will be fine.

Hi, yes it offered me that option and I thought the same but no. Medicare just won’t have it!

They vary between states is what I would say. Your experience with them was very different to mine.

Am I remembering correctly is it you thinking of Chester? If so Handbridge is nice and walkable to the city!

My son rents in Lindfield and loves it.

I lived and worked in Geelong for a few years and have a bit of a soft spot for the area. Definitely worse places to live. The trains are quicker into the city theses days I think. Driving, depending on time of day and where in Melbourne, was a ball ache. Don’t drive on the outer lanes of the westgate bridge, an engineer’s advice!