Amber Snowball

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!

No idea on your questions but yay you are finally coming back! Good luck!

Good point about the electoral register. I must admit I have a will for both countries as I have assets in both so thought I’d hedge my bets! They both say the same thing.

Cannabis, cocaine (which is as cheap as chips here), spice and laughing gas seem to be most prevalent here in my experience. I had more than average exposure to this when health visiting but have seen a couple of people off their faces on spice in Chester and there’s a little band of pot heads go past my place to have a smoke in the trees behind where I live. Police are aware but as they don’t cause any issues they leave them be as don’t want to shift the problem up into the town. Ice is almost unheard of here, compared to its prevalence in Australia. The police used to close roads off in my suburb every now and then whilst they raided some properties. Never saw or was affected by whatever they were doing as the properties were acreages so well away from each other. I don’t think I am any more or less affected by drugs here as there. Experiences will vary depending where you are in either country I suppose. Scourge of modern living wherever you are but I just don’t go looking for problems, like most normal people I would imagine.

It’s strange really. Our children get older but we barely age a day!

I re did my english gcse at a college, but this was years ago. There were all sorts of ages in that exam. I was 25. Some were teenages, others in their 50s, all doing different pathways at the college. I Did it as part of the access to nursing course.

@Yorkshirepom I bought evidence of my no claims back as some insurers recognise overseas years. I am insured with Admiral who were happy to accept it. A few others do too.

I’m currently trying to opt out of bowel and cervical screening without much luck via my gov. asking my son to have a go in case it’s because I am outside of Australia. It’s comforting to be able to access it.