Logistical issues with moving from Canada to Victoria

[Onward]

I’m moving to work in Geelong on a 482 visa in July.

We’ve sold our house in Canada and there are a few logistical challenges I had not anticipated.

First, we’re looking to rent and it seems that it’s very difficult to rent a house until we actually arrive for a variety of reasons. Even then, the rental process seems reasonably complicated compared to Canada.

Without being able to secure a long term rental, we have no physical address to ship our stuff too. We’ve sold or given away all of our furniture, but we still have some personal items to ship from Canada.

It seems that it’s not possible rent a storage unit remotely?

Also, I’m not accustomed as a professional to not even getting a response when sending property rental inquiries from realtors. Is there something I’m missing here?

We’d be fine with renting a house a month before we arrive, but that would create insurance issues as here in Canada, you have to have your property checked every 72hrs when you’re away.

Also, we can’t even seem to get a post office box prior to arrival as it seems you have to present in person and show id. This leaves us without an address to forward our mail.

Our current plan is to rent an Airbnb house for a month or two, but that still leaves us without a shipping address prior to leaving.

 

Any help with navigating these challenges would be greatly appreciated. :)

 

 

 

[Marisawright]

@Onward, talk to your shipping company. Most migrants don't have an address, so if the shippers have any experience at all, they should be used to this.   How it normally works is as follows:

They need an address to put on their paperwork, so you give them the address of the AirBnB.  Then when the goods arrive in Australia, they'll contact you to confirm your details (and there's usually some customs duties to pay).  You will then give them your correct address and they'll deliver it.  

Ask them if that's how they handle it.  If not, ask them what their solution is.  

As for storage units -- your shipping company should have the facility to store the goods when they arrive, if you can't take delivery.  Again, ask them. 

You cannot rent a house until you actually arrive.  Most agents won't even consider it, which is why they're not replying to you.   Even if you can find one that will allow it, it would be unwise.  The photos on real estate websites are extremely misleading and you could find yourself committed to living in a dreadful dump for a year. 

Mail forwarding -- from what I can see, you can do your mail forwarding online. Just set up your Canada Post account before you leave and then do it all online. I suggest researching it yourself carefully, to make sure that's possible. The other alternative is to set it up before you go, using the AirBnB address, then change it when you know your permanent address or have got a PO Box.  

Keep your Canadian mobile phone(s) live for a while so you can receive SMS for things like the mail forwarding, banks etc.  

Selling up everything in Canada seems like a brave thing to do when you've only got a temporary visa, but good luck with it.

[Ken]

5 hours ago, Onward said:

Also, we can’t even seem to get a post office box prior to arrival as it seems you have to present in person and show id. This leaves us without an address to forward our mail.

I was able to rent a post office box in Queensland while still living in Victoria. I only had to show id when I collected the keys. This allowed me to forward my mail from Victoria to Queensland even though I wasn't in possession of the keys (but then since I wasn't in Queensland to collect the mail why would I need the keys?).

[Ausvisitor]

6 hours ago, Onward said:

I’m moving to work in Geelong on a 482 visa in July.

We’ve sold our house in Canada and there are a few logistical challenges I had not anticipated.

First, we’re looking to rent and it seems that it’s very difficult to rent a house until we actually arrive for a variety of reasons. Even then, the rental process seems reasonably complicated compared to Canada.

Without being able to secure a long term rental, we have no physical address to ship our stuff too. We’ve sold or given away all of our furniture, but we still have some personal items to ship from Canada.

It seems that it’s not possible rent a storage unit remotely?

Also, I’m not accustomed as a professional to not even getting a response when sending property rental inquiries from realtors. Is there something I’m missing here?

We’d be fine with renting a house a month before we arrive, but that would create insurance issues as here in Canada, you have to have your property checked every 72hrs when you’re away.

Also, we can’t even seem to get a post office box prior to arrival as it seems you have to present in person and show id. This leaves us without an address to forward our mail.

Our current plan is to rent an Airbnb house for a month or two, but that still leaves us without a shipping address prior to leaving.

 

Any help with navigating these challenges would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

I'm interested to find out what you are going to be doing in Geelong. I go there a bit to visit clients, Geelong seems to have two industries.

Vineyards and Gov departments displaced from Melbourne to share employment out into the shires.

Its a lovely place, second biggest town in Victoria (but 18 times smaller than Melbourne), only an hour on the train to the big city though, and just 1.5 hours on a plane to a proper world class city in Sydney from Avalon airport.

I really liked Geelong, but it's too small for us, we are London/Toronto/Sydney CBD dwellers

[Marisawright]

28 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

I'm interested to find out what you are going to be doing in Geelong.

It's not going to be as easy to find work in Geelong (depending what the OP does for a living) as in a big city like Melbourne.  However if you live on the eastern side, it's a reasonable commute to Melbourne to get started, then they can take their time to find local employment on Geelong itself later on.  It's not a commute I would do long-term, mind you, but not everyone objects to an hour's commute. 

[Quoll]

1 hour ago, Marisawright said:

It's not going to be as easy to find work in Geelong (depending what the OP does for a living) as in a big city like Melbourne.  However if you live on the eastern side, it's a reasonable commute to Melbourne to get started, then they can take their time to find local employment on Geelong itself later on.  It's not a commute I would do long-term, mind you, but not everyone objects to an hour's commute. 

He's on a 482 so one assumes that comes with employment. 

You could ask your employer for an address - either a personal one or the business - to send your stuff. It'll arrive well after you do so that'll be plenty of time to change when you arrive and find a permanent address. Most people get an airbnb or stayz place for 4-6 weeks and that's generally enough time to find a rental.

[Onward]

15 hours ago, Marisawright said:

They need an address to put on their paperwork, so you give them the address of the AirBnB.  Then when the goods arrive in Australia, they'll contact you to confirm your details (and there's usually some customs duties to pay).  You will then give them your correct address and they'll deliver it.  

You cannot rent a house until you actually arrive.  Most agents won't even consider it, which is why they're not replying to you.   Even if you can find one that will allow it, it would be unwise.  The photos on real estate websites are extremely misleading and you could find yourself committed to living in a dreadful dump for a year. 

Selling up everything in Canada seems like a brave thing to do when you've only got a temporary visa, but good luck with it.

Thanks for all of that info! 

We were very fortunate with our timing. Even weird things like there's actually a furniture shortage in North America at the moment. Same with cars. 

 

[Onward]

9 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

I'm interested to find out what you are going to be doing in Geelong. I go there a bit to visit clients, Geelong seems to have two industries.

Vineyards and Gov departments displaced from Melbourne to share employment out into the shires.

Its a lovely place, second biggest town in Victoria (but 18 times smaller than Melbourne), only an hour on the train to the big city though, and just 1.5 hours on a plane to a proper world class city in Sydney from Avalon airport.

I really liked Geelong, but it's too small for us, we are London/Toronto/Sydney CBD dwellers

We're not really big city people. I lived in Toronto for a few years when I was a young man and it was a lot of fun at the time. Even then the traffic was absolutely dreadful, now it's even worse. Big cities come with a substantial cost of living. I remember having to pay to park multiple times per day, even just to the grocery store or to pick up dry cleaning. Basically, there was only time during the weekdays to work and commute. Depending on your line of work, the frenetic pace in Toronto can be really motivating, however.

Sydney is absolutely a fantastic world-class city, so I'm not going to say that I wouldn't want to live there, only that I can't. 

My family and I absolutely love the beach and ocean. Living in Canada, I'd work 48 or 49 weeks out the year and the rest of the time, in the winter, we'd travel to a warm locale like Hawaii with a beautiful beach to recharge. 

Moving to Australia is a little bit of flipping that ratio around. Why not live in a place that has what you really want rather than visiting the beach a few weeks per year? :)

We're lucky to be going on this adventure and will appreciate and enjoy it as long as it lasts.

[Ken]

14 hours ago, Onward said:

We're not really big city people. I lived in Toronto for a few years when I was a young man and it was a lot of fun at the time. Even then the traffic was absolutely dreadful, now it's even worse. Big cities come with a substantial cost of living. I remember having to pay to park multiple times per day, even just to the grocery store or to pick up dry cleaning. Basically, there was only time during the weekdays to work and commute. Depending on your line of work, the frenetic pace in Toronto can be really motivating, however.

Sydney is absolutely a fantastic world-class city, so I'm not going to say that I wouldn't want to live there, only that I can't. 

My family and I absolutely love the beach and ocean. Living in Canada, I'd work 48 or 49 weeks out the year and the rest of the time, in the winter, we'd travel to a warm locale like Hawaii with a beautiful beach to recharge. 

Moving to Australia is a little bit of flipping that ratio around. Why not live in a place that has what you really want rather than visiting the beach a few weeks per year?

We're lucky to be going on this adventure and will appreciate and enjoy it as long as it lasts.

Even though a Geelong winter is nothing like a Canadian winter you'll probably find you'll want to spend a couple of weeks in Queensland in mid winter. Most Victorians seem to.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Ken

[Jenki75]

Hi Onward,

We moved from Canada in October 2019. I'm sure you've figured it how to send your items by now, but as a last resort leave them with someone and have them mail them to you when you have a place to stay.

We did mail forwarding with Canada post, set it up before we left and managed it online.

We shipped our furniture over and because it takes months to arrive you just update your address once it arrives onshore in Australia. Our items were picked up in Calgary mid September and arrived beginning of January.  Tippet-Richardson handles international moves and you can add your boxes to help fill another persons container. Initially,  just use your airbnb address and update before delivery.

We brought our Canadian Cell phones and just went into Aldi (the grocery store) bought a family plan on day 1 and swapped out the SIM card - this was the best decision ever. (We still have a Canadian cell phone provider Rogers and can check messages here and there). Aldi family plan is awesome $80 for 4 people with 88GB shared data and data rollover. I know Canadian cell phone are supposed to be unlocked but check this before you leave! One of ours wasn't but caught it before we left Canada. 

Getting a rental can be a nightmare, make sure you have people in Canada that will provide references via email and ask your employer when you arrive. We found getting a rental easier out of the city (this suited us fine) but even that has become difficult. You cant rent anything until you arrive but take a look at the websites and create a applicant account and start uploading details before you arrive.  The majority of rental showings are Monday to Friday 9-5 so try and do most of the viewings before you start work. We had jobs before we arrived so had a tight timeline.

 

Best of luck with the move, if you have further questions don't hesitate to ask

 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by Jenki75

[Marisawright]

34 minutes ago, Jenki75 said:

.  The majority of rental showings are Monday to Friday 9-5

That surprises me. Where in Australia are you?  In Melbourne and Sydney, nearly all rental viewings are on Saturdays.

[Jenki75]

7 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

That surprises me. Where in Australia are you?  In Melbourne and Sydney, nearly all rental viewings are on Saturdays.

That was Adelaide and area. We rented 2 homes while we were waiting on our new home being built. Both times showing in Adelaide and Adelaide hills were mostly weekdays and over 30 people lined up to see the property in 2019 and 2020.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by Jenki75

[Mcguinnessp1968]

To the OP I live in geelong and we have just secured a rental while we build a new house
Rental market here is bonkers right now.
You will do well to secure one when you are here let alone trying to secure one while you are in Canada

[Amber Snowball]

1 hour ago, Mcguinnessp1968 said:

To the OP I live in geelong and we have just secured a rental while we build a new house
Rental market here is bonkers right now.
You will do well to secure one when you are here let alone trying to secure one while you are in Canada

Just being nosey now, but where are you building? I have a soft spot for Geelong.

[jimmyay1]

i guess the winters in Canada are brutal and long and people are snowbirds that fly for warmth in the winter as you mentioned. 

coming from the uk, which is much more temperate admittedly i felt the same....... however unless you're a huge beach or water sports fan,  you may actually spend less time there than you think,  as you do tend to adjust and get rather fussy with regard to what conditions you think are "beach weather" . Nice to have that luxury i guess

In Vic you generally don't see many people on the beaches much outside of December to March, as it's perceived as being too cold ;  the water isnt warm ( bay water is currently sat at 10 degrees - gets to around 19/ 20 in the summer) . The ocean itself south of Aus  near Geelong and Melb is around 18 degrees in  summer - it's refreshing.  

 Sure, it's all relative -  you do acclimatise.   We actually tend to take our summer holidays away from Victoria to enjoy warmer water and more reliable weather.   

Edited July 11, 2022 by jimmyay1