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Hi, We got our 176 Visas and there is no specific condition mentioned in our visas. The visa does not says that we should stay in the sponsored state for the first 2 years etc etc... I was just wondering whether anybody landed and settled in a city other than the sponsored state??? I know that there is no legal commitment to stay in the sponsored state and the applicant is having a moral commitment to the state. If the applicant gets a job offer in other state, whether he can move there?? If we can move, what we should do.. like just inform the State and go?? We plan to land during Nov this year and would like to get views of our members... ( We applied during Sept 09 and got our 176 visa during March ''11. My friend applied during same time during Sept '09 also got his 175 visa during April '11. Which means no benefit for applying under State Sponsorship!!!) Satish

After a rollercoaster few weeks, the stress of packing up our house and all the other stuff, we have now landed in Sydney. Husband started his new job on Monday and I am just taking a week out to recover from it all. Just enjoying being a tourist for a little while! We shall start the fun of looking for a rental shortly, really looking forward to that one!!!:wacko: I must admit, I did feel a little adrift when we first got here and little lost and very scared! I assume that this is a normal reaction for most people? Overall, the city seems nice and generally the people friendly so hoping it is the start of a positive experience. :biggrin:

Just woke up to the most fantastic news ever our 176 visa has been granted! Don't know what else to say other than my life long ambition has been realized. Thank you so much to everyone on this forum over the last 3 years. However I will stay on here and share the little knowledge I have picked up doing the process myself. Waiting for my referred meds!

Hi all when you had your visa granted and you had booked your flights what was the next thing you did. Did you open oz bank accounts before you left the Uk, did you find somewhere to live before arrival etc. When you landed in oz what was the first things you bought eg cars? dont no where to start if we get our visa granted so any help would be great thanks jason,cheryl and daniel

Hi all, Our (me & my wife) 457 visa has arrived & we are booked to land in Sydney the 29th September! We are going to be living in Canberra which is where my new job is based, and I have living arrangements & car over there sorted through my new job. We are still keeping our house in the UK but renting it to a close relative just incase... Here is my checklist, is there anything else I need to consider for when we start our new life! Australian NAB acct setup. Moneycorp acct setup for free money transfers. Pickfords booked to move furniture. Health insurance payed for first month (as part of my 457 app) although im gonna look for a cheaper version once Im over. UK driving licence. (im assuming you need this to validate driving in Oz) Am I missing something? :eek: Cheers Ben

We have been here for 2 weeks now and sooo confused! We are here on a 457 and don't know what to do regarding cover, we have asked someone in a Medicare office but to be honest the person was rude and treated us as if we were just here for the benefits............erm yeah right?! Anyway, what cover should we get and where from? Dentist cover? Health cover for any injuries (we have 2 toddlers so accidents could happen)? Ambulance cover or something I have heard you need otherwise an ambulance costs are dear? Someone help please as our kids love to climb EVERYTHING and the last thing we want is a broken bone and having to pay thousands (which we dont have). John

I've spent the last couple of weeks disheartened by the lack of carpenter's jobs advertised on seek, careerone etc. bored of waiting at the computer for new jobs to be added all day i decided to get more proactive. while touring around buderim and moloolaba this weeken, i stopped at any building sites taking the main contractors details off sign boards, later at home i sent nice emails that i was looking for work and was wanting to settle my family on the sunshine coast etc, and attached my resume. Yesterday I coldcalled construction companies out of yellow pages. nobody was pissed off with this and a couple asked for my resume, and i mailed it straight away. After a nice long phone call today i've accepted a nice job for a great looking company (going from their website) and start on monday. Im stoked. I started out too timid, 2 weeks waiting for people to contact me after applying through jobsites. I got pissed off this weekend and went for it, got 2 job offers and an interview in the space of 3 days. Not sure if this approach would work for all but if you're in construction. It seems you have to go to them, the good companies often dont need to advertise for staff.

Hi All, I know this has probably been asked so many times. We have been in Perth for two weeks now. My hubby has got a job at Osbourne Park and we do not know where to move to. We are staying with relatives in Parkwood, but dont think we will live there as need to be near the highway so he can get to work easily. Any suggestions at all to rent? There are just so many suburbs we have a 2 and a half year old and both 30 years old.. I will be trying to find a little part time job but mainly need a nice family area and to meet people if we can. (Not too much to ask is it? he he) Any help would be great on where to move to, Much appreciated Jo xxxx

Hi all! Well it won't be long now until we touch down in Oz:spinny:. We intend to sell everything and just take our suitcases ( very full of course ) . The cost of shipping just doesn't seem worth the hassle , so we intend to buy new once in Oz. Has anyone else done this or did you ship out and was it worth it ? Thanks,

We have finally landed in Perth and enjoying it so far.... we left Glasgow on 18th and flew with Emirates, had a good flight and couldn't fault anything. Got a free meal in Emirates restaurant in Dubai airport- just had to show boarding card. Also got a shower which was fantastic and set us up for the last part of the journey. Staying at a B&B for 2 weeks and the couple have been great, really friendly and very helpful with areas. We have been here 4 days and have bought a car, changed driving licence, opened bank accounts all with ease and hubby has an interview tommorrow - its been non stop :chatterbox:. Hoping next week will be a bit calmer and will have time to chill. Managed to narrow down areas that we would like to live in. So far so good :biggrin:.

Well the wait is finally over. We have landed in Brisbane. Just a quick update for now. Flew Emirates business class. Treated ourselves for our one way trip. Absolutely fantastic. Left Manchester at 14.10. Arrived Dubai 7 hours later. Stopped for 2 hours. Plane was a little late taking off. Then left Dubai not realising we had a stop in Singapore. Great for the kids because we left Dubai at about midnight English time so kids were naturally ready for sleep. Finally landed in Brisbane at 00.50 Oz time. Booked into airport novotel, kids bathed and then slept until 9.30. Fantastic. Got through immigration in 5 minutes. If in doubt tick yes on immigration forms. Saves a load of time at the airport. Passports now stamped. Permanent visas.....Gotta go now pick car hire up and head off for our hotel stop for 11 days.... Will update officially soon.\ xx helen:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

We have been in Brisbane for nearly three weeks now and thought it must be about time for an arrival report! I thought that I will put into words our journey how we got here as well as it may help someone. Its going to be along one so grab a coffee, sit down and lets crack on. I have always wanted to live in Oz but my then wife was not having it so I put it on the back burner. We got divorced 8 years ago and the first thing I did with the bit of money that I had, was to book a 3 week trip for myself and my new girlfriend to oz to have a look. We loved it and it once again rekindled my love to move to oz. My brother left to live in Sydney that year as well. Roll on 6 years and that girlfriend was now my wife and she had just fulfilled a life long dream of being a nurse. In her last year as a student, we managed to sort out a placement in an Australian hospital. We stayed near my brother and then travelled the East coast a bit. I am a firefighter and was not sure as to what trade I was going to do once there but was willing to give it a go. However I contacted all the State fire services and WA came back and said that they were trying to sort out a lateral policy so that UK firefighters could transfer straight in. Excellent I thought but the missus was not prepared to go somewhere where we had not been so we did a reccie to Brisbane and Perth later that year. It's horses for courses and we did not like Perth. It was not for us but we loved Queensland.So we decided Queensland was our destination.Whilst in Brisbane I attended a Queendsland police information evening as I fancied a career change so found out what I needed to do to apply. Lisa finished training on January 6th 2009 and we knew we had to wait a year to apply. Due to our ages,we decided to go State sponsored as we needed less points. I read all the websites and could not find any reasons why I could not apply for the skills assessment and State sponsorship before Lisa had completed a year so that as soon as she done a year as a nurse we could apply. So we cracked on. The skills assessment was done in May 2009 and once we had that, we registered Lisa as a nurse in Queensland as I predicted ( and I was right) that there was going to be an almighty cock up of nurse registrations when AHPRA took over. We were about to apply for SS when the dreaded IELTS for nurses raised its head. We had a look at what everyone was saying and we decided that Lisa would take the test 3 times and see what happens and then we would reassess. I downloaded loads of practice tests off the net and was really strict with Lisa and using her words "I made her do the tests everyday"! The result was that she came out of the test centre and said that it was not as bad as she thought and if she had to do it again it would not be a problem. However 10 days she got her results and she had got a minimum of 7 in each part first time round and so we were able to apply to Queensland for state sponsorship.We had to borrow £20k from Lisa's parents to show Queensland that we had the funds and then we gave it back to them once we had the required bank statement. State sponsorship was granted in September 2009 so we were now waiting till January 7th 2010 to apply for the visa. In October I got a phone call from an estate agent who asked us were we still thinking of selling our house. We had discussed it before and had decided that we would put the house up for sale as soon as we had the visa but we said yes to the EA coming round to give us a quote. We were surprised when he said that our house was worth £20k more than what we thought so decided to test the market. We put it up for sale and we had an open afternoon and one couple turned up!However that couple paid the asking price and 6 weeks later we had moved out into rented. As I did not have a degree, I needed to do an Australian diploma in Justice just to be able to apply for the police. I was going to do the 10 week course when we got to oz but I managed to find an online provider that the police would accept despite me being in the UK. I had to have 4 months off work due to a shoulder operation so I cracked on with the course whilst off work and passed it. On January 7th 2010 we applied for our 176 visa and I had set the goal of flying out by the end of the year so I went ahead and booked flights for flying out on christmas day. Then I panicked a bit as there was the big shake ups in the visa process and I thought that our grant may not happen in 2010 so we had a discussion and we decided to go for our medicals as we thought it might speed up our visa grant. So we booked medicals and when we got home from doing them there was an email from DIAC saying we had a CO and to go for our medicals! We then sent off for our police checks and our visa was granted. I think ours is a record: from applying for the 176 visa to being grant was 6 weeks and 3 days! So we were waiting all of 2010 to emigrate. We saw as much as we could of our friends. Then I had a thought....If I had my visa and I had the diploma, why cant I apply to the police now? So I contacted the police and they said as long as I was prepared to travel to Brisbane, they would let me do all my tests and interviews in a week. So I sent off my application form and three weeks later I was on a plane to Brisbane. My idea behind all this was that applications were taking 6 months to process. If it cost us a grand to go to oz and sit the tests and I passed and managed to get on a recruits intake in January or February 2011, then I would be earning as soon as we got to oz. It was a gamble that we were willing to take. Whilst waiting for my Police interview, I started to talk to the bloke next to me who had just come out of the NZ army and was looking to join the police. He asked me about our plans for work and then told me that his brother was head of nursing at Nambour hospital. As the Sunshine coast was one of our possible destinations, he said that he would take my email address and give it to his brother.Well two weeks later, his brother emailed us and the following week Lisa had an interview and then got a FT job in Nambour Hospital. In September I heard from the Police. They score you in each stage of the process and then give you an overall score at the end. The higher the score, the higher chance you have of getting an intake. I scored an A-! Could not believe it. In December I got the official email inviting me to the January 31st intake in December so now we were both sorted. In fact this morning I have received my joining instructions. We decided that it was going to be easier to beg, borrow and steal furniture etc in the UK than OZ so we sent our stuff over early. We used PSS and they came on the 19th November. PSS sub out their operations in the South east to another company. The lads who turned up were brilliant. Everything was packed and everything that we told them not to pack was still there when they left so no complaints.We did not use their insurance as we used insure your move (who advertise on here) as they were a lot cheaper.I have just had an email from PSS's agents in oz who have told me that our stuff has cleared AQIS with no problems at all and should be with us the day after we move into our rental. Bloody hell....my timing is good! We used Zoflora to clean everything so that it was spotless and smelt lovely. We also did not take any garden furniture as we thought this might have caused us problems. We bought a washing machine and tumble dryer from Hughes Electrical and an imac from PCworld and had them all delivered to the PSS warehouse so that we could claim the VAT back. Pss charge you £25 to process the first claim and then £10 each claim after that. Bit steep if you ask me as all they do is write to the companies and confirm that it was shipped off. Hughes were brilliant and came back to me straight away and said that they had not done this before but will look into it and get back to me. They did and we got the VAT back. However Pcworld were a different matter. I got a letter point blank refusing to pay the VAT back as "is against their policy". However after a few phone calls to them and a warning that I would be taking them to a small claims court and would be claiming a return flight from Australia and a hotel for a week, the money turned up in our account. So to the arrival report.Despite sending most of our stuff over by ship, our cases weighed 28K and 27K so well over the 20K limit. the girl in Heathrow did not say anything however when we checked in at Hong kong it was a different matter. We blagged it and said that we were migrating (he then checked for our visa stamp) and we thought that we were allowed to bring that much. A little porker I know! But he let us go with a stern telling off so we got away with it. We flew with Catahy Pacific and they were good. We had 2 nights in Hong Kong as Lisa's parents were coming out with us for three months and we felt that a 2 day stopover would do them good. We landed in Brisbane on the 29th December and picked up the hire car from East Coast Car rentals who I have used three times before. I would definitely recommend them. We drove to Lorikeet Lodge which is owned by Rudi on PIO.A very central spot and it has all your needs except a masher as we found out lastnight (hope you are reading this Catherine LOL). I had met Nurse sue from PIO and her family as they had kindly put me up when I come over in June and Sue had come to the house and decorated it with Aussie flags and posters and had put a lovely hamper in an Eskie on the back patio. She is an absolute diamond and has a lovely down to earth family.Thank you very much Sue. We had a well deserved sleep and went out the next day looking at cars. We decided that as second hand cars we so much money, we would buy new. We had a budget of $28 but ended falling in love with a Kia Sorrento with loads of bells and whistles. After a bit of haggling we got the car for $34K with loads of extras.However we have not got it yet due to the floods.The same day we went to the NAB bank and validated the bank account that we had opened in the UK. We asked them to send a statement to our house ASAP as we would need this for ID to get our driving licences. The next day we went to get our medicare cards but the lady said that we were not probably on the system (although she did not even check!) and told us to come back in two days. We did and we got the temp cards then. For all these things we used our temp address and we will change everything when we move into our rental. As soon as the bank statement came, we got ourdriving licences. The whole process took 30 mins and was painless. Rentals: we looked at a few houses and applied for 2. We got accepted on both of them! The reason why is this: Before I left the UK, I got in contact with everyone that we had had finacial dealings with, Council tax, loans, mortgage company, HP companies etc and asked them to send me a statement or a letter confirming that we had been excellent payers. I also got a personal reference from our line managers and a couple of friends who were a chartered accountant and a social worker. I then scanned everything and put it on a data stick. I also got a scan of the ozzie bank statement before we had started using it. We finally chose the house on Peregian Springs and move in next Monday. As I said earlier our container has arrived and I have booked it in to be delivered next Tuesday. I will let you know whether this happens and whether we had any breakages. Lisa went to visit her hospital ward. It is only 4 months old and where she was looking after up to 19 patients in the UK, she will only be looking after 8 here. She is really looking forward to starting work on the 31st January. Nurses over here get paid a lot more than UK nurses. We have found food shopping quite expensive. So we are not converting back to sterling anymore as we live here now. We live in Australia now and this is not the UK.Having said that,meat is a lot cheaper though. Also, after talking to some people it seems like its swings and roundabouts: somethings are move expensive, some things are cheaper. At the end of the day, we decided to come here, no one made us do it so what right have we to complain about things. Too many people come over here and expect it to be England without the sun.Its not, its Australia.If you are not prepared to try and fit and fit in, then you might as well go back to the UK as you will never be happy. We managed to get contracts on Mobile phones with Vodafone but cancelled them after 3 days as the Vodafone coverage is shocking. We will probably be going with Teslstra as the coverage is a lot better however they are more expensive. Everyone here seems really friendly and everyone seems to say hello and have time for you. If you are going to make it here, you need to put yourself out there and try to strike up conversations and gain friends. Its no good moaning and saying you are lonely if you are not trying. The ozzies are not going to come to you, you have to go to them.Its your fault if you cant find friends. The weather was great the first few days and then the floods came. We got turned back 5 times trying to get somewhere but have not been affected where we are. Everyone is really concerned about everyone else and there is a blitz like spirit amongst people. Its lovely to see. The weather has changed and today it is expected to reach 32 degrees and there is not a cloud in the sky. So, so far so good. My advice to anyone thinking of coming over is RESEARCH,RESEARCH,RESEARCH. Our three children (aged 21,21 and 23) did not want to come to oz and stayed in the UK. Although we miss them, this is our time in life to do what we want. Australia has so much to offer us as a couple and we are looking forward to enjoying it. We know that we are going to have ups and downs over the next year or so butr we are strong enough as a couple to find a way through it. At the moment its not a good time to come over due to the exchange rate and many people on here are contemplating the move. My advice to you is to ask yourself why you are doing the move. Wealth can be measured in more ways than money. Someone asked me last week why I came to Australia and my answer was "because I can". My wifes brother Lee walked into a room 6 years ago and collapsed. According to the coroner he was dead before he hit the floor.Lee loved life and would have totally approved of what we are doing now. This terrible experience has taught us that you never know what is round the corner so grab your opportunities and hang on. I am in contact with some school friends on Facebook and they are still in our home town 30 years on and have not challenged themselves whilst me.....I'm living the dream! I wont be on here much over the next few months due to my police training but if I can help anyone and give back to PIO what it has given me I will. JOHN

Arrived in Sydney on Mon.. luckly to be staying with my sister, I am the last of the sisters to arrive.... my body is here not sure were the head is! prob still in the plane. Well all new life ahead .... 1st catch up with friends over here.then ....job......house..... I know the weather will get better????? hope to meet lots of new friends as really miss the ones I have left behind xxxxxxKaren:jiggy:

Hi all, Just bellyflopped into the forum. I'm hoping to erase my POMM status and seek my fortune in Oz soon. Would really appreciate some help and advice as I'll be landing blind and ready to rock and roll

Today ends our first week in Sydney. We were one of the lucky ones our flight wasn't delayed etc and we arrived on 23/4 around 6.30am only 45mins late. Luckily we had a big taxi waiting for us needed to with 7 suitcases, 3 lots of hand luggage and my wheelchair. Our flight with Emirates was great, their service was first classand even though we had forgotten to order a childs meals they found one for Ross each time. We have been put up by hubbys company for first 3 weeks so straight to Neutral Bay we are in a 2 bed duplex, everything we need is here. We went to hire a car from www.nowings.com.au check them out if you are coming to Sydney we have a Toyota Corolla sedan brand new for $315 dollara a week including, unlimited kilometers, top insurance cover and a Tom Tom Sat Nav, which we have been greatful for, its all one way systems round here. We went to Westpac to confirm our ID for bank accounts and were offered a credit card straight away, service was impressive by staff(speaking to someone who owned a Mystery Shopping company thats high praise). Cards would be here within 7 days we were told, pin numbers arrived yesterday for both cards. Must admit we went to Coles for ease and the price of bread amazed us more than anything else, we found most items were around same price, shampoo etc more expensive, but meat we have found is cheaper. Poor Ross, jet lag hit him badly he was asleep in the bank, in the car, in the supermarket trolly you name it. It did take a few days for us all to get back to normal. We drove round many areas (watch out for toll system) looking for somewhere we liked and settled on Castle Hill area 26kms from CBD, went to view a few houses and yesterday went back to see another which our application has been accepted on. So far we have been on the ferries to Manly and thoroughly enjoyed it and hopefully this weekend may go and look at Bondi. Managed to get a dongle for laptops and a Aussie sim card. Been a busy week but with lovely weather one can't complain!!:biggrin: Thanks to everyone for their advice on here and I wont go away I will log in to check everyones status etc.

Not much to report yet but am currently sitting in the hotel near Melbourne airport wide awake and the reality of what we have to do in the next few weeks is sinking in fast. Having left behind the snow and ice then arriving to 23 degrees late at night, we could be in for a shock when we wake up tommorrow. Looking forward to settling into our caravan for a few days whilst recovering from the jetlag - then the hunt for a house begins in earnest. That will closely be followed by the hunt for a good school. I think I am still in shock as to how far we have come along the migration road, and how much further we have to go. It is really weird to think we have no close friends or family for miles and miles... I have a feeling that will sink in as the weeks go by, but hopefully we can link up with some new friends soon to share a beer with. It looks like we will be setting up in the Mount Waverley area so if anyone is around there and has good advice re schools/best and worst places to be with a young family??? Right need some sleep now so that the adventures can begin tommorrow!!! Karen x

HI ALL,WE ARE HERE AND WOT CAN I SAY,WELL NO ONE REALLY TELLS YOU HOW MUCH HEART ACHE YOU HAVE LEAVING LOVED ONES BEHIND:cry: AND WHEN YOU ARRIVE YOU GET JE LAG(I FOUND IT HARD TO SLEEP ON PLANE).WE ARRIVED IN HOL LET LOVELY ON THE RIVER ,BUT THEN YOU GET BITTEN AT NIGHT BY THE MOSIES,THEN YOU TRALL AROUND LOOKING FOR A RENTAL,2 DAYS LATER WE FOUND ONE IN SEASCAPES HALLSHEAD MANDURAH BEAUTIFULL!!!!. AND KIDS WELL THE 18YR OLD ,WE HAVE BENT OVER BACKWARDS FOR HIM .BUT IT IS VERY HARD BECAUSE HE CARNT DRIVE AND LEFT ALL MATES BEHIND DOESNT KNOW WOT TO DO SO WE ARE ARGUING IT IS SO STRESSFULL.THE 10YR OLD NO PROBLEM.14YR OLD WE ARE ON THE BOARDER LINE WITH HER SHE LISTENS TO OLDER BROTHER ABIT TO MUCH!!!!. STRESSED WITH WOT CAR TO BUY . YOU NEED SAT NAV IS A MUST OVER HERE .THEN THE JOB HUBBY IS NOT WORRIED ABOUT THIS AT MOMENT ANYWAY LETS SEE HOW THE NEXT FEW WEEKS PAN OUT FROM PAULA,IAN :hug:

well as the title says, I cant beleive a whole 12 months has passed since we made the move. There has been many ups and downs, 3 months in plaster for M with his achillies over last Xmas, bumps in the car, illnesses with the kids, and I trip back to the UK. All the normal things that happens is normal family life. Life here on the gold Coast is great, its so "for us". The kids are thriving here, now 4 & nearly 2. We are moving to a new rental in 2 weeks which we are very excited about, we still have our house rented in the UK so we will be renting here for the time being. One Monday I was so proud of Ella my 4 year old, she got a certificate for good swimming at her lesson and on the afternoon she get a trophy for best dancing in her little physie class she was so happy and I was one proud mammy. Strangly after being here for about 6 months we found out that the M's 2nd cousin had come out here about 6 months earlier, we got a number for them as we were told they were in Brisbane, the number seemed local and when we rang them they only lived about 3 minutes walk from us!!! That has been great to connect with them and spend time with them. We were both 99.9% behind this move and I think for us that has been the key to settling so quickly, and the fact that we put ourselves out there and made friends. I would just liek to also mention that I have made lots of friends on here that I met up with when we arrived in oz, Thanks to Linz for all her help with the kids during M's hospital visits and to Nat for just being her lol and to everyone that has given us a fab social life hehe. For us we came here for a better life for our family and we feel that we have got that, not financially by any means. My saying is in the UK financially we were richer in Oz as a family we are much richer. Good Luck to anyone making the move. Em x

Hi all, well just thought i would post to say i am now in the heart of wonderful Sydney, flight was good and not too jet lagged, had an emotional part saying goodbye to Tony and kids :cry: but will see them in a month when they make the journey too. I have got photos of me in my PIO T-Shirt so will post them on here when i get chance, i wore it with pride the whole journey. Hope your processes are going well to any of you still waiting and congratulations to all of those who have got them during me journey etc as it is well worth it. Wont be on here as much at mo as i have a busy few days sorting out bits at work to get me started up, buying a car and trying to get a rental property before Tony and kids come out. Thankyou once again guys for everything you have done to support us through it all and i can tell you for sure it was well worth the fight the last 14 months. It felt horrible saying goodbye to Tony and kids at airport as i didnt want to leave them and couldnt stop crying all way to plane and on first part of journey but now i am here i know we have done right thing and i know they are going to be with me in just over 4 weeks. Muahhhhhhh to you all and will keep you updated, oh and i would highly recommend Malaysia Airlines as they were fantastic the whole time, well night night all before i fall asleep on my laptop :twitcy::jiggy::jiggy:XXX

Hi All Just to let you know that Billy & my elder son (17) arrived in perth today (lucky buggers) Said the flights were excellent flew with Emirates. Such a relief that my son actually went as he didnt want to go, was glad when Billy texted me to say they were boarding I just had a feeling he would run at the last minute but he didn't :notworthy: He is booked in to see Cassie in quarantine on tuesday so that will be fun she will flatten him :biglaugh: I have been left to get organised for the shippers coming on monday :arghh:. Then its off to sis-in-laws & me & younger son (12) we fly out the 23rd August can't wait. To all the people still waiting for the golden ticket stay positive you WILL get it I was ready to give up the week our visa came through so hang in there. Janette

Hi Peeps Well we are all here in sunny brisbane it is so unreal, first off when we left singapore airport and checked in they said we can only have 20kgs of luggage weight and we were over, after telling them that we were emigrating and hadn't validated our visa and was told by singapore airlines helpdesk before we left the uk that we were entitled to 40kgs at manchester there wasn,t a problem but different over there, we asked to speak to the manager and he said that singapore airport is there head office and we can only have 20kgs after much ado he upped it to 30kgs each but would not budge to 40kgs he said this was for 1st class only therefor we have to pay a supplement as we had nothing in writing (we asked for this in writing in the uk but they told us we didn't need anything i strongly recommend you get it in writing) as this cost us 1,210 singapore dollars we were not happy at all:mad: :mad: It rained continually at singapore but very humid. We have not suffered from jetlag as we accustomed our selves in singapore, the flights with them i can highly reccommend. Well Brisbane is lovely we are staying in an area called Bellbowerie been to the gold coast and was on the beach we thought we were dreaming after a year looking on the webcam and there we were actually walking on the sand abs fab. Been around housing estates Upper Coomera, oxenford, and others there is so much to choose from the houses are all so different looking at a rental on thursday which is available now but rentals are like gold dust. Went for a walk and the sounds of all the different birds parrots in the trees pelicans on the beach it was like something out of Jurasic park. Oh gone for a hire car today then we can do some more looking, the sunshine is really lovely but the poor ground is so parched the grass has all died off its such a shame but they say as soon as the rain comes it will all turn lush again. Shopping all the people are very friendly and someone heard my english accent and wanted to no where we were from she had stayed in manchester for 5years. not much else at the moment. We are here and made it happen:wink: and so can you just hang in there. Karen Nigel Gareth and Adam xxxx

Hy I am assuming that the majority of people who move to Oz rent first before buying a house. But where did you stay when you first got off the plane ? Was it a hotel friends or some other form ? For how long ?