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We had a great experience with John Mason in 2023. Delivery from England to Adelaide was around 50 days, the service both sides was really good. Cost was £8.5k for a 20ft container, no extra charges from what we were quoted.

@SophW I thought I would add that regardless of what we decide to do/ what happens in the future I will always be glad and grateful that we have had the opportunity to have this adventure and experience of living in Australia. I can wholeheartedly say it has been harder than I anticipated. Probably partly because when we fell in love with Australia and decided we wanted to try living there we were just the two of us, whereas we now have a little one so that brings different emotions. I lost a parent at a young age so have always had the (possibly slightly morbid) mindset that life can be so short for some people and that I should try and live it to the fullest as much as possible while I can. As hard as parts of this adventure have been so far it is also so wonderful and amazing in so many ways and I know that we could always go ‘home’ if we wanted to. Yes it would cost money etc but it will always be there whereas the opportunity for us to experience life in Australia may not have come again.

Hey @SophW thanks for asking yes I feel like it has. We’ve been here 8 months now and I feel like we’re (probably more me as my husband hasn’t had the same wobbles I have) finding our feet now. We’ve made some lovely friends & are starting to socialise more which has been really great. Adelaide is a beautiful place and a lovely place to live. I don’t know what the future holds long term with regards to where I’d want to live but I suppose it is still early days and time will tell.

My husband was sponsored and as Marisawright says the employer has to pay for all nomination/ sponsorship costs. Ours also paid for my husbands visa application which was at their discretion. We had already been using an agent however the employer instructed their own and we completed the process through them. Your employer will need to get the ball rolling to start the process as there will be a lot to do their end.

Congratulations @Cheery Thistle we are also with the DUC and had our visa granted really quickly too. We’ve been out here in SA for 7 months now, also have family in Sydney so it’s been great for us to visit them and them to visit us. It’s exciting that you’ve got a visit planned to explore & check out areas Sunshine Coast is one of my favourite places and we really enjoyed Gold Coast when we visited recently too.

Hi beanbear which suburb in Adelaide is the rental?

I was also going to suggest the same as InnerVoice. When we moved over this year to Australia it was actually cheaper for us to pay for extra bags as checked luggage than for us to use sendmybag etc. Obviously depends who you fly with and what they charge but it could be worth considering.

Hi RossMac. We are on a 494 visa and although the age situation isn’t relevant to us we have seen a lot of discussions about it for those on a 494 or 491. Everything we’ve read indicates that there is no age limit for the 191 visa (PR visa after 494/491) and you can apply for it providing you’ve held an eligible visa and met the conditions of that visa in order to apply for PR.

We shipped a container over a few months ago and brought our Samsung fridge freezer. It arrived in the same condition as when we shipped it so all good. We didn’t bring other white goods as they were integrated in our kitchen but have purchased a couple of items here and have found them to be around the same sort of price mark if you shop around.

Here in SA we contacted the Education board prior to coming over and they confirmed that ‘491 and 494 visa holders are treated as locals’ with regards to school fees, so no additional fees for being on a ‘temporary’ visa. We’ve seen comments from others who used the same migration agent and are in WA and it has been the same for them there.

I would recommend contacting Down Under Centre - they are brilliant with this sort of thing and determining what may need to be done. My husband obtained an Australian qualification through them and they were also really helpful with Recognition of Prior Learning.

We very recently used John Mason to ship a 20ft container and have been extremely pleased with the service received, from both the UK side and then their partner here in Australia. We had quotes from them, Doree Bonner and PSS. PSS came out slightly cheaper however the recent reviews at the time were not very good. We also sent a bag with sendmybag and again the service was great. There’s a bit of admin involved (whereas John Mason took care of all of that for the big shipment) but it was easy enough and the bag arrived here really quickly.

I was also going to suggest contacting the Down Under Centre. They have an employment hub so as Cheery Thistle suggested, you may be able to do something with them

Hey Jessica! Thankyou! That’s great to hear, how long have you been here now? What area did you settle in? I’m trying to pull myself out of the funk and change what I can, such as looking to join the gym which was a huge thing for me back in the UK and hopefully make some friends for my little boy too.

Hey Jem! We really like it so far, though I am struggling a bit at the moment which is frustrating as it’s something we wanted to do for so long. I think the reality of knowing no one has sunk in a bit. My husband loves it! We are in Brighton, what suburb are you in?

We just arrived in Adelaide from the UK 7 weeks ago so it’s all very new to us. One of the families who used the same migration agent as us arrived in Adelaide just a few weeks ago and had a similar feeling to you, it just wasn’t quite what they wanted from the move so they have already moved on and gone to Sunshine Coast. I’ve not seen any updates since they moved so I’m not sure how they’re finding it all so far. Perhaps it’s worth your husband reaching out to the company on the Gold Coast and seeing if that could be a possible option for you? Nothing to lose by having a conversation

Thank you! I hope Perth is amazing for you guys. We paid around £8500 for the shipment with John Mason.

Hey Lee and Elly. How exciting! We’ve just used John Mason for our move to Adelaide from the UK. Our container is currently on route so I can’t comment on the whole experience just yet but the communication and packing side of things were brilliant. The team that packed up our house were great!

No not at all. We recently emigrated and had two with us (among many other bags). Although they are really spacious we found we couldn’t quite get 20kg in them, both weighed around 18kg but we got plenty in them! They are so cheap so well worth it.

Eek! Our 494 visas were granted today, 7 weeks after lodging! Feeling a huge mixture of emotions - slightly shocked it happened so quickly but very happy and excited!

Hello Does anyone know what would happen in the below instance: Person holds provisional visa (eg 491), meets the criteria to then apply for PR (eg 191) after the 3 year period however the occupation has been removed from the skills list. Can they still apply for the PR visa? This is a hypothetical situation and I know the immigration website states the below however I just wondered what would happen *if* that scenario occurred. “Removed occupations Pending nomination and/or visa applications will not be adversely impacted by the subsequent removal of any occupation from the skilled occupation lists. If you already hold a skilled visa, you will not be impacted by these removed occupations unless there are changes in your circumstances which require the lodgement of a new nomination application – in which case you may then be impacted. This impact may occur if you are changing your occupation or employer, and your occupation is no longer on the combined list of eligible skilled occupations.”

Hiya! Oh brilliant that’s good to know, thanks very much. We had ours at Maidenhead, they’ve all been cleared through immigration which is great but I may ask them if we can view the results

Yes thanks Ali I may do that. I was curious whether anyone ever had (particularly as the clinic say not to contact them for results as they go straight to immigration ) so it’s interesting to know that you don’t tend to find anything out as Paul advised

Thanks Paul! A friend had said it was like getting ‘a mini mot’ so I was just curious really but I suppose we should just assume that all is “normal” on the basis that they are cleared.

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