Going home soon (Personal Diary?)

[Amber Snowball]

10 hours ago, AliQ said:

I totally understand your sheer frustration.

However, save some patience, you will need bucket loads when you get back here.
Dealing with energy suppliers and my internet provider here in the UK have at times reduced me to tears, literally.

Oh, now I have found them quite straight forward! Must admit have only set them up when I returned, I haven’t tried swapping providers yet.....

[Vickie78]

15 hours ago, AliQ said:

I totally understand your sheer frustration.

However, save some patience, you will need bucket loads when you get back here.
Dealing with energy suppliers and my internet provider here in the UK have at times reduced me to tears, literally.

I'm pretty patient by nature, it takes a lot to piss me off, BUT simple things that shouldn't be complicated do my head in. 

[Vickie78]

So I lodged the kids Australian Passport applications today. Remembering back to the photo saga pre British Application lodgEment and the APO Staff members "Gee you British make things difficult" Oh the Irony.. Well I make an appointment online, get there at my allocated time 9am. Wait 5 mins and I didn't get either of the grumble butt females who dealt with me last time. Hooray! Today is going to be a good day! 

But is it?

I got a lovely Gentleman instead. Anyhoo, I hand over the forms and he starts checking them, all good until section 13, My FIRST name on Birth certificates for the kids doesn't match my actual name. (I was already prepared for this as per British application who advised me to do a Stat Dec explaining I inadvertently used abbreviated name- all good, basically way back then I used Vickie which I call myself daily, instead of Victoria, why? Who knows, habit/baby brain dunno TBH I can't even remember that far back and filling in forms) anyhoo fully prepared I had a Stat dec in hand, not the same one for British, obviously a new one addressed to APO. 

Oh no, can't use that and APO won't accept that, you will have to get a name change (Me thinking FFS Seriously) .. I'm like but It's not a different name per se, just the short version of my actual name. Off he goes to check with one of the grumpy butt ladies.. She's says no need for name change that's fine, but we can't use Stat Dec, you will have to fill in a B11 Form..(Me thinking what the hell is that)  Off he goes again, prints them out, comes back. Just write what you did in your stat dec, one for each application... 

Yep, I had to fill in two pieces of paper, which stated exactly what my Stat Dec did, which by the way was certified by a JP. Which was then signed by Mr Post Office.

Stat Decs are legal documents, and that just seems awfully nit picky? Brits make things hard/complicated? /shrug LOL

But they are lodged, so fingers crossed. 


 

[Vickie78]

Well I have not had any calls or emails related to the Kids Applications, So fingers crossed that means they are ok. Well they should be right? They were checked off by Australia Post interviewer. I can't check progress as Kids applications only have two statuses. Created/Passport issued. To say I'm anxious is understatement, what if they don't get approved? Does that mean we can't leave Australia? I have read if there were an issue they would contact me and that it would be within a week of lodging /shrug. I have also read it is quite common especially for migrant folk to have a westernised name in use but birth name on BC, Which is 'fixed' by the infamous B11 form. So I guess my situation is somewhat similar Vickie vs Victoria. 

Why is this so stressful  

I also still can't work out when to sell stuff(the things we are still using for now), when to tell Real Estate, paid until 18th Jan(renting paid a year up front), When to book move cube, when to sell car (still need it right now) I have started packing and itemising/list for ToR so that's something I guess. I did also throw out a heap of stuff in Hard rubbish last week, but will have beds/couch and one table to get rid off. Everything else will hopefully be sold. Might have to hire a skip except I'm not sure if it will fit here, it's a block owned by a Body corp that has "private" roads which are ridiculously narrow with tiny strips of nature strips. Gah.... Hmm maybe there is someone who can collect such items, will have to google. 

I keep waking up in the stupid hours thinking about random stuff, this is my brain right now a rambled mess. 

 

[Toots]

It's a fairly stressful time for you Vickie but by the sound of it you are well organised.  You'll get there!  

[Vickie78]

Woo hoo! Kids Australian Passports approved. I can stop stressing now /Happydance 

[Vickie78]

We have decided to postpone until February, Mum had a week in Hospital nothing too serious, but needs to recover plus the Xmas Rush, things closing etc it was getting a bit to stressful, so we decided to give ourselves another month, rather than rushing. We have also decided on an area finally, which will be Newcastle to start with. I'm also going to start applying for Jobs just after Xmas, and contact some agencies, hopefully I can secure something before we go, or at least get my name out there etc and maybe something will come from it, as I don't want to be out of work too long if it can be helped. 

 

Oh and found out I can get an 'address' before moving via a company called Mail Boxes etc. Can use that to open a Bank account/get a rental as it reads as a proper address rather than a P.O box, and of course get my actual mail sent there in the interim, Mum can too as it allows for two personal names. pretty cool  One less headache! 

Oh and I applied for ToR a few days ago, so fingers crossed that gets accepted. So yeah that's us for now  

[Marisawright]

On 13/11/2019 at 07:59, Vickie78 said:

I also still can't work out ....when to tell Real Estate, paid until 18th Jan(renting paid a year up front)

In Australia, if your lease expires on 18th January, you still have to give notice to the real estate agent that you're going.  If you don't, the lease automatically renews on a month-to-month basis. 

Check your lease document to find out how much notice you have to give. It may be two weeks or it may be a month. 

[Marisawright]

1 hour ago, Vickie78 said:

Oh and found out I can get an 'address' before moving via a company called Mail Boxes etc. Can use that to open a Bank account/get a rental as it reads as a proper address rather than a P.O box, and of course get my actual mail sent there in the interim

The bank will want an actual bank statement (it can be an  Australian one) or a utility bill that has been sent to that address.  

[Vickie78]

17 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

In Australia, if your lease expires on 18th January, you still have to give notice to the real estate agent that you're going.  If you don't, the lease automatically renews on a month-to-month basis. 

Check your lease document to find out how much notice you have to give. It may be two weeks or it may be a month. 


Already done and on periodic (from 18th jan) which is 28 days notice to vacate.  Will be sending bank stmts etc to the mail address too, I remember you telling me that ages ago  

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by Vickie78

[Paul1Perth]

A personal diary?

It's out there so everyone can see. That's not exactly personal.

Guess it's the way of the world where everyone is looking for, well I don't know, I was trying to think of what people ARE looking for when they put this stuff out there, but TBH  I don't know.

[Franklin05]

2 hours ago, Vickie78 said:

Oh and found out I can get an 'address' before moving via a company called Mail Boxes etc. Can use that to open a Bank account/get a rental as it reads as a proper address rather than a P.O box, and of course get my actual mail sent there in the interim, Mum can too as it allows for two personal names. pretty cool  One less headache! 
 

We had a hell of a time trying to open a bank account because of needing current proof of address, most banks are very particular about what evidence you need for this. Nationwide Building Society let me open and account, with online banking and DD capabilities with just my passport. I have a HSBC global account and HSBC UK wouldn't help me at all, they cannot link the Australian International Account to anything in the UK. 

 

[Vickie78]

On 18/12/2019 at 22:15, Franklin05 said:

 

That sucks! Glad you found a work around though. I just happened to read about mail box etc. On another forum as luck would have it.

P.S You would think they would make the requirements a little different for new arrivals. We are not all in the same bucket. 

Edited December 20, 2019 by Vickie78

[Vickie78]

My ToR has been approved! 5 days Wow! /Happydance  


Eta: All I sent was a cover letter explaining my stuff was all used, had no receipts because it's all over 2 years old. A homemade excel sheet with a list of boxes, not too specfic, eg 20 dvds, towels x 3, linen, assorted ornaments etc, a copy of my current lease and my passport copy. So nothing fancy   Oh I did value some of it as required, but those were just guesses aside from my PC which I did look up the value to replace over there. I did also explain had been in Aus since 93 and wasn't sure if I had a NI number and that I would look for work on arrival. 

Hope that helps someone else in the future.  

Edited December 20, 2019 by Vickie78

[Home and Happy]

We had a garage sale. The Aussies came and stripped the place bare the lot was sold in one day including all the garish hideous heavy wood furniture they all love down there.

[Tulip1]

On 18/12/2019 at 09:58, Marisawright said:

The bank will want an actual bank statement (it can be an  Australian one) or a utility bill that has been sent to that address.  

Exactly right. You can request the bank send your correspondence to an address of your choice but you will need to provide them with evidence of your actual address. It’s not just a box ticking exercise in that a ‘mail box address’ will suffice, the bank needs to know where their customers are actually residing, it’s all part of due diligence. 

[Vickie78]

19 hours ago, Tulip1 said:

Exactly right. You can request the bank send your correspondence to an address of your choice but you will need to provide them with evidence of your actual address. It’s not just a box ticking exercise in that a ‘mail box address’ will suffice, the bank needs to know where their customers are actually residing, it’s all part of due diligence. 

So how on earth do you get a rental without a british bank account and a bank account without a rental? Seems like we'll be going around in circles then? 

[Tulip1]

47 minutes ago, Vickie78 said:

So how on earth do you get a rental without a british bank account and a bank account without a rental? Seems like we'll be going around in circles then? 

You will probably be expected to pay 6 months rent in advance, especially if you have no job to start. It’s not a mandatory requirement of renting to have a UK bank account. You can pay the upfront rent from your Oz account. A tenancy agreement is usually sufficient to use as proof of address, although from an estate agent not a private landlord. Offer to pay a certain amount as agreed by transfer from your Oz account, get your tenancy agreement which will get you your bank account. Other option, assume you will be staying with family for the first few weeks. Change your address to where you are residing with your Oz bank. You can change address through online banking and then request a statement be sent to you. Within a few weeks you have your proof of address. 

[Marisawright]

6 hours ago, Vickie78 said:

So how on earth do you get a rental without a british bank account and a bank account without a rental? Seems like we'll be going around in circles then? 

Why would the rental place want to see your bank account?

[Vickie78]

On 23/12/2019 at 14:07, Marisawright said:

Why would the rental place want to see your bank account?

I was thinking more the other way around, when in the past you have said I would need to open a UK bank account asap, but to do that you need an address, which is fine, as you said just get aus bank address changed and a statement sent to said address(for us this will be a temporary accommodation initially) , but upon emailing a few Real Estates over there, they said they would need a bank account, proof of employment etc blah, now obviously I may not have those bar an Aussie account/HSBC Global account in the mean time, I did reply questioning this for those coming from overseas, but never got a response) so was just getting in a flap about it all I guess.  I am well aware I will need to pay upfront but if Landlord/R.E whatever can accept Aussie account in the interim I guess that will do then? I think I'm just reading peoples responses and getting myself stressed out to be fair. My brain right now is all over the place with stress and anxiety, Worried about arriving and everything going wrong. 

 

[Marisawright]

Sorry, the only reason I said to get the UK bank account process started ASAP is that it can take ages for the account to be fully activated, so the earlier you start the better. 

It wont be an issue for real estate agents

[Vickie78]

4 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Sorry, the only reason I said to get the UK bank account process started ASAP is that it can take ages for the account to be fully activated, so the earlier you start the better. 

It wont be an issue for real estate agents

All good, my brain is mush. I need to stop over thinking things... some how  

[Tulip1]

7 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Sorry, the only reason I said to get the UK bank account process started ASAP is that it can take ages for the account to be fully activated, so the earlier you start the better. 

It wont be an issue for real estate agents

As long as someone has the correct identification document and correct proof of address the account would be opened and active immediately. The only other thing that would put a stop to that would be if someone had poor/negative credit history. I’ve never heard of accounts that take ages to be activated, they are either opened or they’re not. An application could be done and held waiting for the necessary documents to be bought in, maybe that’s what you mean but usually an application wouldn’t be started without the correct documentation in hand. 

[AliQ]

1 hour ago, Tulip1 said:

As long as someone has the correct identification document and correct proof of address the account would be opened and active immediately. The only other thing that would put a stop to that would be if someone had poor/negative credit history. I’ve never heard of accounts that take ages to be activated, they are either opened or they’re not. An application could be done and held waiting for the necessary documents to be bought in, maybe that’s what you mean but usually an application wouldn’t be started without the correct documentation in hand. 

When we returned last year, we went to the bank with our documents, our account was set up within thirty minutes or so, and the account was active there and then. Just had to wait for the cards to be posted though, but they arrived within the week.

[Marisawright]

1 hour ago, Tulip1 said:

usually an application wouldn’t be started without the correct documentation in hand. 

Oh yes it would.    In the UK, you can walk into the bank and open the account with just your passport, BUT the account cannot be activated until you present for a face-to-face interview with a bank officer and provide proof that you are a resident of the UK.  At that point, the account is "activated", but that doesn't mean a lot because you have to wait for the cards to be posted to the address you provided, which takes about a week.

In my case, I had an address but there was a week's wait to get an interview with a bank official.  Then another week and a half for the cards to arrive.  

In my husband's case, he had to wait until we had a utility bill but when he presented it, it didn't show his full name only his first initial, so it got rejected.  So we had to get the bill reissued - another week - then organise another interview - another few days' delay - and then finally they activated the account and then it was another week to receive the cards.