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Hi all, Any recent arrivals had good experience and preferably a cheap one with car rental firms? Arriving August and looking for 4-6 week car hire, 2 adults, 4 year old and 18 month old twins. We don't need people carrier, just bog standard vehicle, and 3 car seats. Any cheap places anyone knows of? thanks

I am wondering if, once our visa has be offered/granted, I (partner not lead applicant) can enter and activate my visa alone, before my wife (lead applicant)? Reasons for doing this would be to work and set up house, car etc before she and kids arrive. She may alsp have a longer notice period leaving work. Any thoughts or experience on this?

Hi All, My partner and I have now lodged our EOI and playing the waiting game. . We are hoiping for a move to Gold Coast in Novemeber 2015 (if all is well with our VISA [fingers crossed]). I am after a bit of advice on our arrival ect and hoping someone can guide me in the right direction. 1. Are they any short term rentals for arriving migrants? (dont want to sign up to a 6 month lease as not completely sure where in Gold Coast we want to live) 2. Can we set up a bank account before we go? If so can anyone reccomend a good one for Gold Coast (cash machines ect) 3. Does anyone know the roughy cost of half a container? The companies I have approached want to survey before qoting and we dont have the stuff packed or or even know exactly what we want to take yet? 4. Any other advice you can offer? Also, if any recent migrants live in the Gold Coast and want to meet up in November, hopefully we will be available . Thanks in Advance! Josh

Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum... I'm moving to Melbourne Australia in August. I'm just wondering if anyone has more information on arriving into Australia on a 417 working visa. I applied for it on the 30/08/14, and a year later, I'm starting to worry that everyone was all too easy... Can it really be so simple that all I need to do is fly into Australia, get a job and move into a house? I feel like most people I've spoken to have found the process much, much more difficult. Please could someone with experience of this VISA give me some extra info about what I'll need to do? I need to book flight tickets this month. Cheers!

I've seen loads of posts about people declaring their convictions for their visa apps etc, do they have to declare them again on the landing card? I ask because I'm travelling on my Oz passport so haven't had to declare my Drink Driving conviction at any point so far, do I just declare this on my landing card????

Hi folks!Me and my wife are planning a short trip on our way to OZ (about 3 months) so we think to send our stuff ahead before we leave (or ask someone to send it after we leave).I have few questions here: Since we have nothing in OZ at the moment, we also don't have an address to send the packages to.. So is it possible to send the packages without giving a destination address, but only the City? Melbourne or Perth for example? I guess that it will be impossible to guess the packages arrival exactly, so there are high chances that I will not be able to collect them the moment they arrive. Is it possible that the boxes will stay there for some time? If yes, could anyone give some approximate costs for leaving the boxes there? Where the boxes actually stay before being collected by the owner? Is it directly in a port where they arrive to? Or maybe there's some kind of sorting and storage facilities? NOTES: There are few boxes not heavier than 20kg We are probably will use a naval delivery which is the cheapest since it is the slowest It's not from UK I'll be grateful if someone could spill some light on these issues and share his own experience! Partial answers are also very welcome! Thanks a lot! Eugene

Hello all, We have finally received our PR visa and are ready to take the plunge! However, we are pretty much clueless on all of the stuff that needs to be in place before, during and after we get on the plane. Since this site is so massive I have struggled to find some sort of emigration checklist that gives us an idea of what's in front of us. I'm sure they exist so I am hoping that someone can point us at the threads that are most helpful for the following: 1. The Move - prep & pack, flight preferences, shipping prefs, etc... 2. Arrival - What to do first, second, third... 3. Settling In - Rental advice, bank accounts, tax numbers, etc... 4. Jobs - Scheduling interviews whilst still in the UK, finding a good recruiter, what goes in your pay package, etc... Any other links, suggestions, advice, warnings would be appreciated! Many thanks, - Kev

Haven't been on here for a while due to being very busy trying to sort ourselves out! We arrived in Kalgoorlie on the 1st of October to the bizarre smell of cabbage, and cold and rainy weather! My boyfriend's company who sponsored our relocation put us up in the Tower Hotel apartments, which is where we stayed on our first stint in Kal when we arrived as well. We started searching for a rental property straight away as friends had told us what a nightmare it is, and they were not wrong. many of the houses I went to see were in terrible states of repair and decor, and it got me really depressed for a few weeks. We need a garage or big shed for Andy's motorbike and tools, which made it extra hard. After 3 weeks of fruitless applications I happened to look on Gumtree and came across a private rental. It is just about perfect - 3 bed older house with polished floorboards, large living areas and 2 garages. We're paying $475 a week, would have been well over $500 if it had been through a rental agent. So we've been in the house nearly 3 weeks now, got all the utilities sorted just waiting on our iinet broadband to be connected. We've been using Telstra mobile broadband which has been really crap! Bought our car 4 weeks ago, a brand new Suzuki Jimny 4x4 which was cheaper than buying a year old one. People laugh at us as the car is so much smaller than the landcruisers and hilux's but we don't need any more space. We wiped the grins off our friends faces when we all went off-roading. The Jimny cruised through a deep washout and their hilux got well and truly stuck! Haven't said a word since! Things have certainly been made easier thanks to our friends here, some of whom we've known for nearly 10 years and who have lived here up to 6 years. That includes numerous BBQs, lifts, lending etc etc. Our shipping has been delayed significantly, now it won't even arrive in Freo until the 26th of December. Andy's company delayed paying the shipping company hence nothing happening for 6 weeks. We were pretty angry about that and nearly considered going back home because of it! Considering they're an international company they certainly don't know how to move people internationally. We've finally got driving licences, medicare and banks sorted out, but nothing seemed to be straight forward. So much has relied on us having proof of address which at one point we didn't think we would have for months thanks to the rental situation. Other than that all is going well. We were both pretty excited to see how much money landed in our accounts on payday, and started making plans to making extra payments on our mortgage in the UK (which is finally rented out after 8-10 weeks!). We're already getting bored out of our minds on weekends, which will hopefully be alleviated when our stuff arrives. Andy's planning on building a climbing wall in one of the garages, and I like crafty hobbies ideal for the hot summer months. And whatever anyone says, you don't generally spend any more time outside than in the UK. We don't anyway, due to the heat (particularly over the next few months) and mosquitos (seem to be more here this time due to the rain). In the UK we did rock climbing, surfing, horse-riding, walking, and hockey. We can only do these things here during the winter (well, surfing and climbing we can only do if we drive 4+ hrs to the beach or cliffs). So summer activities are limited to swimming at the local pool, BBQ's and indoor hobbies. But we knew that anyway, and for us this isn't really a lifestyle move, it's more about making some hay whilst the (hot) sun is shining. Sorry this is a bit long-winded! Will try and update in a few months or so.

Hi I'm fairly new to this but my family intend to arrive in Bunbury late January but have to find work so we are hoping to find a short term let until we know exactly where we are going to be living and working. We would like to know what others in the same situation have done, what other options we have, others experiences, any letting reccomendations whilst we wait for our personal effects to arrive etc etc. Any advise would be gratefully received, Thanks Kate

Hi all, I'm heading over to Perth (Northbridge) in 3 weeks and I'm in a hurry to finalise some accomodation before touch down. I've been reviewing my accomodation options and thought I'd try and get some guidance on how these things are generally done? Do people stay in Hotels for the first 2-4 weeks (about $1000/week) or arrange some form of rental from overseas? Ideally I'd like to view rentals when I am there rather than just take a stab at it from the UK. One short term solution could be a Hostel I have found in Northbridge that looks reasonable (4* status) and is $300/week which seems tempting, but I am concerned that hostels aren't really designed for those with a 9-5 job. Any feedback or guidance will be appreciated! Thanks Sean

Hi Everyone, As we've gotten so much from other people's arrival reports I thought I would give you my warts and all (there aren't really any warts by the way) view of our experience so far. We spent a week in Thailand on the way over and whilst we were there we received the excellent news that our 176 state sponsored visa had been granted (we were entering intially on the 457 business visa but luckily our permanent visa came before we landed) so we are now fully fledged residents of Canberra! When we arrived we spent 5 days in Sydney with friends who have just moved out here to. FYI they have a BEAUTIFUL apartment on Bondi Beach so naturally we were bowled over by our first few days in Oz and were starting to worry that we might regret a move to Canberra, especially when we drove down to Canberra, on a rainy day spending our first 4 nights in the Rydges Eagle Hawk "Resort!" Pah!!! Resort my a*s*! Avoid if you can!! Our very very first impressions weren't great. When we arrived (late Sunday afternoon), we came in from the North (driving down from Sydney) and the first thing we did was to do a reccie of my route to work (I was due to start work the next morning at the Canberra Times in Fyshwick), how long it would take etc and so the easiest route looked to be a road around the town called Majura something or other, which is basically a bypass (we now realise!). Now those of you already in or familiar with Canberra might appreciate why at this point we were thinking where is everything?!! Nevertheless, despite it getting dark by this point we then drove back going through the town, past the parliament buildings, and went to do a reccie of Braddon and surrounds which is where we had a rental booked for 12 weeks from the Thursday night. On that night we came across the shopping area at Dickson and cried halleleujah that we had found life (and a subway, McD's and a KFC!!!!). Anyway, over the course of the next few days (OH isn't working yet so spent most days just driving round and I have to get out and about as part of my job) we started to discover more suburbs, shopping areas and the Canberra Centre and started to appreciate what people say about it being such an easy city to live in and that you have to go and find the shops, bars, cafe's etc - and that is SO true! Every day we discover a new suburb, new shops, bars, restaurants etc, they just don't scream out at you like they do in Sydney and Melbourne and you can easily miss them. Already we have discovered Manuka (lovely cafe's, really quaint and cool), Kingston (same again) Barton, Braddon, Dickson etc, lots of inner city suburbs and we really like it. Where as Sydney has the instant wow factor (opera house, harbour bridge and a gazillion beaches) Canberra grows on you and it has really grown on us and already feels like home. We moved in to our short term apartment (booked through Canberra Furnished) in Braddon on Thursday and we love it! Very expensive but we would rather feel the pinch and be comfy than live somewhere we don't like but that's just our preference. Last saturday we had to go back to Sydney for the day (2.5 hours BTW) as a friend from the UK was in town so I couldn't miss the chance to catch up with her and despite LOVING Sydney, I found myself being grateful that I don't have to live there every day. The traffic is a nightmare and it took us an hour to get from the CBD to Manly whereas in Canberra it really doesn't take more than 20 minutes to get ANYWHERE! So whilst I know we'll probably head to Sydney once a month ish to see our friends there I will very happily head back to Canberra on a Sunday evening knowing that life here is much calmer, cleaner, and easier! I'm quite fortunate to have had a job lined up on arrival which for me has made a lot of difference. I haven't been able to get out and explore like the OH has but I'm getting the inside track on where to go from my new colleagues at the Canberra Times. This morning we went and sorted out our driving licenses ($289 for the two of us) ouch! No point complaining you just have to get on with it! General observations: People here are so friendly. Alan keeps finding people to stop and chat to and everyone asks you how you're doing, not just in a "I work here and I'm trained to ask that question" kind of way but just being genuinely friendly! You NEED a car! The best way to discover Canberra is just to drive around it. Go down all the little roads where traditionally back home you would think it would just be houses but then you come across shops, cafe's bars etc. Apart from the first few days we were here it is REALLY sunny and when the sun is shining Canberra is beautiful and I can't wait to see it in the Spring when the leaves start to grow back. When it starts to go dark it's a little dreary, especially at the moment as it's so cold. It's not as cold as everyone says though (I don't think) but that's because we're used to living in the UK. Canberrans think its freezing and don't leave the house if they can help it but it's all relative. The sun shines a lot so it doesn't matter to me. Besides, in a few months it will be nice and warm just when the UK is getting cold again!! Bottom line, we're really enjoying living here and are looking forward to making lots of friends in our new town! Anyway, I've rambled A LOT but just wanted to "give back!" We would love to meet up with anybody already here or soon to be arriving so please get in touch. x

Getting scarily close to arrival time now and still trying to plough through the endless to do list! Just wondered what others with young kids did (or are planning to do) about car seats when you arrived? We will be hiring a car ASAP after arrival (another on the to do list!) so not sure if we will pick that up from Perth airport or get a cab. Either way, I won't have car seats for our three kids (1, 4 and 5). Any ideas gratefully received!

Hi! I would appreciate any advice on what I need to be doing in the next 2 months before I arrive in WA. How long should i allow for health records to be available? Who do I need to contact for transferring my pensions, so that they arrive when I do? Any other tips would be most helpful Thanks, Penny

Hi, Can anybody recommend a good place to stay when i first arrive in Sydney - Looking for good hostels or Cheap Hotels/B&Bs central to town. Will probably be there of a couple of weeks whilst i locate somewhere to rent... Any recommendations would be appreciated. :biggrin:

I have just arrived in Oz sydney to be precise. i have forgotten what is expected of me regarding the immigration, am i supposed to inform somebody where i am? Also got word of a job, contract paying $40 per hour, no idea how much i will get net? Though i believe 9% is deducted at source then what else, as i am not sure it is worth working if my net is too little. I remember something about medicare so i will have to factor this in? :smile: suppose i should just be grateful.

Above is a holy cow, but HOLY COW we are moving to Brisbane!!! Sorry forum, I have just had a lightbulb moment sitting at work on the night shift and it has finally hit me. We are only moving to Brisbane!! I spend much of my night doing work........that is a lie. I spend 'much' of my night looking at this forum. We are ready to roll people, awaiting removals, awaiting work to finish, awaiting goodbyes to family, awaiting 10 days camping at home with no furniture before flying, awaiting lots of things really. However, the main thing we await is the awesome adventure that is ahead and the challenge it presents. Armed with research in hand, 100 points of ID we venture into the great unknown with 3 children, 4 suitcases and a whole heap of money....again, I am lying, not much money but a lot of excitement!!! This forum continues to be fantastic, informative, helpful and also a blooming good laugh. It feels like it has been a long journey to get to where we are today. All the information gathering, all the processing time, all the documents, the IELTS exam, the nursing board, the reccie, the removal quotes, and finally the goodbyes to family........all good things come to those who wait, scrap that.....those who bloody work for them!!! Mixed emotions, excitement, anxiety, fear, anticipation....all good, all natural and above all to be expected. To those on this journey, thank you for reading my drivel and to those planning, get on with the research and make it happen! Cheers forum, see some of ya'all real soon........peace, out :jiggy::notworthy::biglaugh::chatterbox:

Hi all, Well, we arrived in Brisbane on 20th April and feel we've done so much in the last week or so. Flight with Emirates was good but were surprised to stop at Singapore for half an hour as we'd booked the flight which only had one stop in Dubai from Glasgow. Should've been Dubai to Brisbane but stopped in Singapore just long enough to go to the toilet and board again but no complaiints as it broke the journey up to 3 7hr flights roughly. One annoying thing with the journey was we were charged excess baggage as we had an allowance of 120kg for the 4 of us, but had 127kg. There was no flexibility and we had to pay for the extra 7kg at £35 each - very annoying but we were over. We had tried the night before to shed some weight and got rid of 6kg but couldnt shed any more. Got here early hours of Wed am, got a maxi cab to my sister's house, and on Wed we picked up our hire car, booked through Holiday Autos UK (much cheaper than Aus co's we looked at), and my sis had arranged for us to see 3 rentals. We ended up liking the first on, but not too sure so didnt rule it out. It was a 3 bed house very close to my sister, walking distance to the school, lovely quiet leafy area, with a gorgeous garden and huge new kitchen. The only thing that put us off was the 70's style bathroom and smallish bedrooms. The next 2 were horrible, I didnt even go into the 3rd. After looking online and not seeing any we particularly liked, we decided to go back and look at the 1st. We decided we may not see a rental that ticked every box and this had the most important things for us - a nice garden and kitchen in a good area near the school so.....to make sure we didnt lose out, on Thu we informed the agent we liked it and put a deposit on it until they opened again on Wed. Everywhere was closed Fri-Wed for Easter. After putting in our application, we were advised on the wed that we got it, so we move in next week. Great, that was easy! On the first few days, we also got medicare sorted, as I am 30weeks pregnant, we also got an appt with the doctor and registered with a surgery, got referred to the Mater Hospital for having the baby, applied for TFN's, got PAYG sim cards, validated our bank accounts and called the contacts my OH had for jobs. Well, we got the few days of holidays over by visiting South Bank on Anzac Day which meant the City Cat was free, Australia Zoo where my daughter met Bindi and got her book signed, and the Rocks Park. We went out yesterday and ordered beds, tv, fridge and washing machine all to be delivered the day we move into our rental. We got some great buys in the sales, and would say that we've seen some lovely furniture here. Our shipping arrives in about 6 weeks for the rest of our stuff though. We got beds from Super A Mart, which we are very happy with. Not the cheapest of their range, but not the most expensive either but we got some lovely beds, a gorgeous queen size bed and cute bunk beds, and mattresses. We got the other stuff from The Good Guys, and managed to get it in the sale too. Only thing we havent done yet is change over our driving licences as the offices were so busy that we have left that for now. My OH now has 2 interviews early this week with another few employers he still has to contact. This week we will be busy trying to buy a car before our rental has to go back and stock up on bits for the house, ie toaster, kettle, crockery, to do us til our shipping comes. Schools - Got our 8yr old registered for the local state school which seems great. I had researched all the schools in the area, and narrowed it down to 2. We made sure our rental was in the catchment area for one of them, and after visiting the school are sure we got the best one for our daughter out of the 2. It is small like her last school, very friendly, but with great philosophies and lovely grounds. It was affected by the floods, so has just had a brand new huge library built, new tuckshop, and huge sports oval as well as new prep buildings. She's so excited about starting next week after the principal took her into her class and introduced her to the kids. They did do an assessment to determine what year to put her into but I said I'd rather she went into the class with her age peers as the year above may have been more like what she'd been doing work-wise, but with all the changes, I wanted her to feel settled and not worry about school work for now. Anyhow, some of the work is different, and with the NAPLAN testing is this week, I didnt want to put more pressure on her. They will assess her at the end of the school year to see if she can skip a year, but I think I'd rather she didnt. We will see how she gets on though. All in all, everyone has been so friendly and helpful so far. We are getting through the money we set aside very quickly, but did budget quite accurately and have stuck to it quite well. Hopefully OH will be working soon so once the last of it is gone we wont have to dip into the pot set aside for our house deposit for when we do eventually buy. We initially signed a 6 month lease but see us extending it for another 6 if all is ok. Dont want to be moving before xmas. Hopefully by next year, house prices will be better and the exchange rate too. We've not made it to a Brisbane get together yet but hopefully in the future. My other sister is here on holiday at the moment so busy spending time with her too. Shaz

Morning/Evening All. 'Generally' when we are planning for the big journey we do as much research as possible, we come on PIO, read books, watch TV, actually talk to real people, I imagine the vast majority of us do what we can to make our assimilation into Australia a little easier, but as with these things there always seems to be something that comes out of the blue and something we didn't think of, or take any real notice of. There are very few of us who are able to integrate into Australia without ANY hiccups unfortunately. So in the grand scheme of things what would you have done differently, maybe something really small, or maybe something really big. The only thing I regret ever so slightly was not researching housing properly when I first went to Australia, we were stuck in a dive for two months until I found better accommodation, but I have learned from that experience and now when we return that won't be a factor. But for those of you who have arrived what (if anything) would you have done differently, it may help those still in the UK, who look at a post and think, 'I wish I'd thought of that'. Cheers Tony.:wink:

Well it's not even been a week since we arrived but everything has been going so well thus far..... We arrived on Monday 25th direct into Adelaide, the flights were great, quick flight from Dublin to London, the A380 from London to Singapore (which was soooo good!), a swim in Changi Airport (thank you PIO i never would have known about this without u all!) then direct into Adelaide, skipped through customs and quarantine and the family collected us. Had a few days of house sitting and now sharing with the family. All going well but the house hunting has started in earnest. We've been to a few viewings, applied for 1 and awaiting word, a few more viewings this week so we'll see how we go! I'm starting work on May 16th, and the OH is still looking. Other than that we've been catching up with people, seeing a few sights and settling in. We're really enjoying it here and looking forward to getting our own spot to call home and beginning our lives here! Caz

Hi all I have been researching places to stay when we arrive in Canberra in May. I have quotes for loads of caravan parks and apartments all ranging from different prices. Obviously until we land jobs we cant rent a proper place to live. Can you let me know where you stayed and how much you paid. Can you also let me know how long you were there before you got jobs/moved into proper rented property? or is there any places i should avoid? Im basing it on 4 weeks until we get job/place to stay even tho i am sure it wont take me that long to get a job! Any help will be gratefully received!

We fly out next Sunday to Melbourne on our 176 visa do we just need the passport with the visa stamp in it and no other paperwork.I cant think of anything we would need out of the other paperwork we have from our application.

Dear fellow PIO users, Hope all is well for ya'all? Flights are booked: 10th August Brisbane bound. My question is that I have searched the forum and I haven't found the thread that i was looking for? Call me lazy, but I was looking for a comprehensive list that somebody may have drawn up regarding a 'to do list' when we arrive in Australia. As we tie up everything in the UK (got that sussed I think!), I find myself starting to worry about all the things we have to do when we arrive! So, if anyone can think of an exhaustive list or where there is a thread relating to this then I would be most grateful....... Cheers all! :eek: x

Hi All We are in a situation where we are trying to weigh up having a child in the UK and then having to apply for a Child Visa or leaving 2 months before birth and then having the child in aus and not having to do the visa. Does anyone have any advise? Costs of child birth in australia as we will only have been there for a few weeks potentially.. Thanks in advance Neil

Well we have been in Melbourne for 10 days now after a 5 day break in KL. So glad we had the stopover as we were able to chill a bit before diving into the rental and school search. Did lots of research before we left the UK as knew we would only have one week before the Easter hols to get things arranged. Had an area in mind (Berwick and surrounds). Viewed lots of properties on the internet and drove pass a few to get a feel of the area. Although there is quite a few properties advertised there are very few that are available to move into within a couple of weeks. Also, many of the agents didn’t even bother calling us back to confirm whether a house ws still available which was very frustrating. Anyway, this narrowed down the choice a lot, but we were accepted for a nice modern house on the Chase estate on our second day of looking and move in on the 20th of this month. Viewed the state school for our zone (Kambrya), looked OK and seemed very friendly, not sure why it’s got such a bad rap on here but obviously hard to tell too much from a quick tour. Had an interview (arranged from UK) and tour at St Francis Xavier for our eldest and have gone with this mainly due to the curriculum and pastoral care. Berwick Chase primary looked lovely too, very modern and new and would have happily enrolled our youngest. We chose to enrol him at St Catherine’s though due to the fact he will follow his sister onto St Francis next year along with most of the other kids in the class. So we managed to find a rental and have both kids enrolled in school in 4 days leaving us plenty of time to relax in the Easter hols before the OH starts work and the kids start school. :biggrin: We have lived in Australia (and visited Melbourne) before so had a general idea of what to expect and nothing has disappointed yet. We have experienced the famous four seasons already, but when the suns comes out it is still quite warm. Staying in South Yarra atm which is a great place to be based. Lots of cafes, restaurants and shopping to keep us busy, but have also ventured further out to a couple of the beaches. Overall looking forward to exploring more once we are settled and meeting some of the many other PIO'ozers in and around Berwick. :smile:

Its two weeks today when we will be moving to Melbourne so I thought it was about time I introduced myself and said hello :biggrin: We're a family of four from Warrington, Cheshire: myself and hubby Mike, daughter Ellie (10) and son Alex (7). We'll be staying with friends in the Point Cook area (Sanctuary Lakes) initially whilst we look for a rental and wait for the arrival of our container and find a school for the kids etc, so if anyone can offer any advice on securing a rental and schools in Point Cook as well as things you wish you'd brought with you and anything obvious we need to do before leaving it would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance Debbie