Why Oh Why

[Guest maryhall]

Hi all,

I've been watching this forum since its almost started and thinks its such a great idea, however I'm gonna be contraversial!

Why move to OZ? Ok the weathers better most of the time than England and the standard of living is better but...what makes you want to move?

 

You leave you friends and family and everything you know. Maybe I'm jst trying to convice myself!

 

AArgh having a dilema!!!

 

 

:shock: :shock:

[Guest mark78]

Phone calls and visits back home aren't too expensive these days.

 

Go for a year and check it out, of course you'll go through stages of home sickness, but that's just natural.

 

As they say, you'll never never know if you never never go.

 

At the very least, you'll have a great holiday, meet new people, appeciate a different culture and maybe even get a tan.

[Guest Bet]

I think I might be thinking along the same lines as yourself, me and boyfriend got confirmation of our approval to Auz and we are going to be leaving about Feb 06, doing as all you auzzies do earn the wonga and take it with us. When I heard that we had been accepted was over the moon as we thought "no way will we get it", there were only a couple of flys in my ointment brother, two sisters and mum and dad oh yeah and good friends I have made..... Then I actually sat down and drew up a list which listed pros and cons, pros as you say were weather, pretty classless society, young country, more opportunities for me and possibly family, friendly people all round, more outdoor life etc etc etc, the pros for Uk at the mo, with the state the country/goverment are pretty limited while the cons are Goverment is full of cr&p and they seem to be succking the life out of the county and unless you are on the dole with handlfull of kids (hey if you are just normal worked all your life and tried to get on in life forget it) is it worth actually getting up and doing a good days work etc etc. I am off the mind I am going to take the chance which has been given to me, hey whats the worse scenario, it all goes Pete Tong (nice eh) and I end up coming home?????? As far as I am concerned, don't want to end up with regrets, at the end of the day all you need is you flight back to sunny England and a floor to lay your head. If you have the idea already in your head you need to investigate instead of just disregarding. Good luck in whatever you do.

[Guest Mark]

Touché Bet. Did you use an agent to get your Visa?

[Guest Harry]

At least you are willing to give it a go. There are many people who I bet are living with the chance they had to go and passed it over. Truth is, if you don’t like it you can always come back to the land of rain!

[Guest Bet]

Yip we used the Migration Bureau, as we were a bit more complicated than the normal, not married, and boyfried, who is the main applicant had some minor driving offences and a further record. The steered us in the right direction as to what way we should apply, cost us about £2½K for them to do it for us, but thinking back there is no way i could have done it in my spare time. Go on girl get on and fill in one of there free assesments for and see if it really is an option for you!!!!

[Guest Katie]

Hi Bet

 

How did you find the Agent that you used? (sounds quite costly or is it about right?) I'm thinking of getting an Agent to deal with the issue myself too as I don't think I'll be able to cope (esp. my hubby is not certain that he really wants to move, he'll be the main applicant). I'm trying to find out how native English speakers prove their English to them without sitting a test (no way my hubby will sit for an English test :shock: , he would probably drop the whole idea if he had to). He said he's lost all his school reports. Can anyone out there give me some idea???

 

Katie

[Guest wunderlust]

If your a Native English Speaker you don't have to prove you English, Just specify on the application for that you a proficient english speaker. The rest will be obvious.

[Guest Katie]

Cheers for that. I read an Agent's website that we'll need to show them school reports in order to prove that you're a native speaker, otherwise would have to sit a test! :shock:

 

Katie

[Guest Bet]

My partner is a bit like you hubby tests of any kind a no no, even though he would probably fly through. Parntner had 3 GCSE allunder grade E, the main thing they were interested in is that he could prove his trade as a brickie as it is was appearing on there Trades in demand, so other than proving his apprenticeship, providing a copy of his City and Guilds Bricklayer Certificate, they only wanted proof that he has been doing is trade for past ten years. You can imagine nightmare we had as being a brickie he worked all over the show sometimes for cash in hand etc, took us quite a while to track people down etc etc, but was worth it in the end. I would confirm that unless you partner is 100% wanting to make the move you need to consider that any monies you pay out to have his trade recognised (about £500) and your DIMIA application (about £1100) is non refundable! so it is a big enough gamble to take that you might not get accepted without getting accepted and he doesn't want to go. I know that initially it was my partner who was driving our immigration, but now I am really looking forward to it, although we both work hard we don't seem to be able to get on in this country at the mo, with house prices etc, and personnally i don't want to spend my life work work working to attain a nice house and a nice car, which is what most Brits are obsessed with. Can't wait to get there and our lives to change forever, hopefully think about having our first baby in next 2 years, something we can't even consider here.

[Guest Mark]

Bet, roughly how long did it take for you to get your visa after beginning your application process?

 

My girlfriend and I are due to start applying in August and our agent has said it could take a year to 18 months which is fine, I just wondered how long it could take in practice?

[Guest Bet]

From us first contacting our Mig Agent till receipt of our approval it took approx 14 months, but it did take us a long time to get all the ifnromation they required together, as with Marks trade it was really hard get reference etc etc, our completed application including Marks trade recognition was put in on 20 December, they came back on 20 March requesting up to date police check and medical to be carried out, which were forwarded 15 April and we got confirmation of approval 14 May which by all accounts by Migration Bureau was very very quick, but then this may been down to our Sponsorship by the state of Vicotria who needs brickies and where we have to live for two years. So really appoval only took less than five months, it just took us a lot longer to get the ifnormation together.

[Guest Katie]

Hi Bet

 

I'd love to have a chat with you about how did you go about the whole application procedures. My hubby is also a builder (no qualification but have 20 odd yrs experience in the trade). He's a man with different skills -- plastering, carpentry, tiling, plumbing & a brikie too (a building job he dislikes most). I don't know whether it's a good thing or bad thing that he has all these skills and most of them are on their Demand list. He's been self-employed in the past few years, doing jobs here & there, cash in hand & spent a few months doing up our own house. I'm really not sure which trade he should pursue when it comes to it (oh he does agree to give oz a try, but he's not putting a lot of effort into it at the mo, so it's all down to me :? ). Did your partner have to show them all his incessant employment records in the past 10 years? Another thing is, he was also working in the Far East for 3-4 yrs in the mid 90's. I have no idea where he could find any references at all from those customers. Any idea or advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm pretty stuck at the mo, need to give him a kick in the xxx to give a call to an Agent (any good, helpful Agents can any suggest?). Would they check your tax records by any chance, anyone knows? (not devious, just curious!) :wink:

 

Thanks in advance! Bet, are you Irish?

Katie

[Guest Bet]

Hi Katie, yeah I am Irish (Northern Irish to be exact) how did you guess. I think the best thing to do is give a agency a call for an informal chat, they don't charge you for it or fill in one of there on line questionnaires, then they will be able to tell you if you have a chance of getting accepted. I know that a lot of our areas were covered by Statements of Declaration, which have to be made in front of solicitors and cost about £15 to have signed of, also Marks accountant did confirm that all his tax and NI contributions were up to date and that if they need to review his accounts this was easily accessible. Personnally we did d a lot of runing around to make sure the all was in order, picutres of extensions, garages which Mark had worked on over past 10 years with statments of Declaration from individuals (which we paid to have signed of by Solicitors £15 a go, we proabably paid for about 20, and then droping of a botle wine to collect and say thanks for their inconvenience) which all paid off but were in no ways easy to organise. Personally if I was you the first thing to do is to get you hubbies trade recognised, once you have this then you are in a position to make an application under specific visa reference. Look on the DIMIA website and it tell you what yo need to have to enable you to have trade recognised, generally City and Guilds certifcate to prove apprenticeship and I think, don't quote me, details of your parnter working in this trade for X amount of years in the past X amount of time. All I can say is that when I first looked at what we need to provide I was like "NO WAY I AM NEVER GOING TO GET THIS INFORAMTION AND MARK THOUGH ABLE TO WORK HARD WAS A USELESS AS A CHOCOLATE TEAPOT WHEN IT CAME TO PAPERWORK" but with the assistance of a good Mig Agent (Sharyn Mitchell at Migration Bureau) and perservariance, if you really want it you can give it your best hope of getting it to happen.

 

Do you work in the city, thats where I work if you fancied meeting for a coffee I will be happy to sit down and talk with you, not the information you would get from someone qualified but what I have learnt from making our application for a brikie, which was a long stressful time.

 

 

Bet

[Guest Penny]

Katie

Whats it like in Melbourne, ie weather, crime rate, sports? My husbands a plumber and has just been approved by Vic state - just waiting for our medicals and visa. We have 3 kids so want to make sure we are going to the best place for them also. Any feedback would be great. cheers.

[Guest Penny]

Sorry you can guess im new at this!

My message was for Bet!

[Guest Katie]

Katie

Whats it like in Melbourne, ie weather, crime rate, sports? My husbands a plumber and has just been approved by Vic state - just waiting for our medicals and visa. We have 3 kids so want to make sure we are going to the best place for them also. Any feedback would be great. cheers.

 

 

Hi Penny

 

Congrats and good luck with the move!!

 

I think you should be able to find some info if you log onto 'gomatildaforums.com' & enter their 'Discussion Forums', I'm sure you'll be able to find some info or feedback from other people. Good luck!

 

How long did it take you to go through the whole process? TRA etc...?

 

Katie

[Guest Katie]

Hi Katie, yeah I am Irish (Northern Irish to be exact) how did you guess. I think the best thing to do is give a agency a call for an informal chat, they don't charge you for it or fill in one of there on line questionnaires, then they will be able to tell you if you have a chance of getting accepted. I know that a lot of our areas were covered by Statements of Declaration, which have to be made in front of solicitors and cost about £15 to have signed of, also Marks accountant did confirm that all his tax and NI contributions were up to date and that if they need to review his accounts this was easily accessible. Personnally we did d a lot of runing around to make sure the all was in order, picutres of extensions, garages which Mark had worked on over past 10 years with statments of Declaration from individuals (which we paid to have signed of by Solicitors £15 a go, we proabably paid for about 20, and then droping of a botle wine to collect and say thanks for their inconvenience) which all paid off but were in no ways easy to organise. Personally if I was you the first thing to do is to get you hubbies trade recognised, once you have this then you are in a position to make an application under specific visa reference. Look on the DIMIA website and it tell you what yo need to have to enable you to have trade recognised, generally City and Guilds certifcate to prove apprenticeship and I think, don't quote me, details of your parnter working in this trade for X amount of years in the past X amount of time. All I can say is that when I first looked at what we need to provide I was like "NO WAY I AM NEVER GOING TO GET THIS INFORAMTION AND MARK THOUGH ABLE TO WORK HARD WAS A USELESS AS A CHOCOLATE TEAPOT WHEN IT CAME TO PAPERWORK" but with the assistance of a good Mig Agent (Sharyn Mitchell at Migration Bureau) and perservariance, if you really want it you can give it your best hope of getting it to happen.

 

Do you work in the city, thats where I work if you fancied meeting for a coffee I will be happy to sit down and talk with you, not the information you would get from someone qualified but what I have learnt from making our application for a brikie, which was a long stressful time.

 

 

Bet

 

 

Thanks for taking the time giving me all the info and advice Bet. That was great! Unfortunately I don't work in the city. I rarely go down there. :wink: Thanks for offering.

 

I'll give an agent a call. Cheers.

Katie

[Guest Penny]

Cheers Katie

 

We'll give it a look.

 

So far the process has taken 9 months and counting!

Still got our medicals and approval of visa to go.

TRA took 3 months inc getting all the paperwork together - glad thats over.

 

Thanks again

 

Penny

[Guest Katie]

Cheers Katie

 

We'll give it a look.

 

So far the process has taken 9 months and counting!

Still got our medicals and approval of visa to go.

TRA took 3 months inc getting all the paperwork together - glad thats over.

 

Thanks again

 

Penny

 

Hiya Penny

 

Was it easy-ish to get hold of all the paperwork? I think this is our major headache at the mo to go about getting them together and all these recent experience business. I must say, I'm spending a lot of time lately reading through the info in the Go Matilda Forum. I'm losing sleep on this..... :roll:

Katie

[Guest Karen]

Maybe because its there and its better to leave this life regretting what you did rather than what you didn't do!!

 

Having lived both in Oz and in the UK I can say from experience that neither is paradise and both have lots going for them; it just depends what you are looking for in life and what makes you happy. I had a wonderful 11 years in Sydney - brilliant job, earnt lots, made loads of good friends, loved the weather but England will always feel like home.

 

Its different for everyone I guess.

 

Karen