transferring from R.N to R.A.N royal navy to royal australian navy

[ErmintrudeMcMoo]

just a quick note for you all to keep in mind. We have been in aus with the r.a.n from rn for 4 months now, and it has been hard..we will settle , but be prepared for how hard it is. The RAN dont do leave, ie easter leave etc, you earn leave, for each month you get a set amount,1.4 days, something like that, get a little more when on a ship, but not much, so be prepared to work, 8-4..no make a mends here. Half day on fridays, and on wednesday afternoon, shore side is sports, but sometimes you work. They will send you on weeks of suck egg courses, and because you have to drop a rate, sometimes you will be spoken to like **** by a rank above you, who knows less then you. My hubby was taught how to do sunset rtc, 18 years he was in the rn for 18 years. not being negative...just be prepared to bite your tongue, and for the family, dont expect hubby to be home to help collect the kids, be at assemblys etc, he wont. Most dHA housing is at least an hours motor bike ride away from the base ( well in sydney it is, perth is a lot better)so early starts on workdays. keep as much proof of sea time, they will do everything to wriggle out of paying you your owed sea time.

 

buy a toll gizmo..otherwise you will get stung. you can easily end up on a tow road without knowing, until you have a $14 fine through . you can get them through the RTA.

 

Australia is expensive, food,cars schooling,etc, so when you first arrive, you will feel like all you are doing is spending money, and until you are on a ship..pay is crap( even though it is fortnightly)

 

 

please dont get me wrong, i am not being negative, australia is a lovely place, and eventually we will settle down, but we didnt realise it would be this hard to begin with. other laterals and their wives said to me it takes at least a year to adjust to the life, and that it was the hardest thing they have ever done.

 

just want you to realise, that everything will be good, lovely place to live, but be prepared for reality, not everything is going to be fantastic. And if any of you come to sydney, get in touch, and we will help you make friends, get your head around silly things etc, just make it easier.

 

good luck with your transfers...and when you get here. you will love it...just be prepared

 

Most DHA housing in Perth is within half an hour of Garden Island. It doesn`t matter whether you come on your own or via lateral transfer you still have to shell money out to get started - at least as lateral transfer you get a lot of stuff paid for (flights, removals etc). Setting up a new life can still be done on a budget if you are careful. We moved here 3 years ago - hubby left RN in the May we arrived here in the June hubby working as a sparky, he has just gone into RAN after having enough of the hassles of licensing and crappy employers. He went back in at same rate he left RN - though it took RAN a year from first applying to get it all sorted and give him the job offer. Personally I`d say don`t expect it to be the same - I know that sounds daft but a lot of people move over thinking it will be like the UK just because we speak the same language. Do not underestimate culture shock!!!

Nearly forgot - for the sea pay they won`t accept payslips - hubby wrote to RN and requested a print out showing all ships and bases etc - still waiting mind you to get it recognised by RAN but then some are still waiting 2 or 3 months later - they get there in the end.

[Guest guest25493]

i agree with what you just said, thankfully the RAN did pay for the entire move, and our rent is so cheap, but when i first started this thread back in Jan 09, not one person told me what to really expect, yet now i have met many laterals, who have all said how emotional,and stressful it was for the couple of months, and not just lateral families,but civilian families as well,more stressful for them. I love living in Australia, and at times i have wanted to go back to the UK so much, but then I have gone out, and realised i dont.

i never thought i would miss my family as much as i do....thank god for skype.

 

Just paid for my last major expense..my two cats came home today

 

Australia is fab....just be prepared for the stress and care free culture.

[Liz Steve R]

Thank you all for your honesty. Since coming onto this thread all I have read are positive accounts of life out there and have even said to Steve 'no-one's got anything bad to say about it!?'. Knew it couldn't be all roses though.

Steve lived and worked in Perth for a year in the late 90's so he has had some experience of what it's like (I've not been before). He has always said that it seemed to be the wives at home with the kids that found it the hardest, that men would come home from work at night and their wife would say 'that's it, I can't do this anymore, I need to go back to the UK'. We have lived in Plymouth for a year now, having moved here not knowing anyone and I haven't found it very friendly at all (except for a couple of people that are lovely). We'd not lived on a MQ estate before and people seem obsessed with what rank your husband is and when they find out he's a submariner. . . . !!!

I'm really hoping that people out in Aus. are friendly and we'll have the chance to make some friends and enjoy our time off. We do have a 2.5 year old, so hopefully she will be my link to getting out and meeting people.

Do you think if you knew what it would be like you wouldn't have done it? I'm worried we'll get there with a 6yr return of service in front of us and find that the RAN is worse than the UK. Although the RN isn't good for us at the mo', Steve is working all hours and has a 9 month deployment coming up!

At least everyone says their kids like it there. We just want to have fun as a family and enjoy the kids while they're still kids, without missing out on nearly a year of their lives on deployment.

Cheers

[Guest guest25493]

hi snowy ow, we must of been typing a reply at the same time then, lol..but agree with everything you said though . Our host was pants, but luckily we did know someone here, (ady) and she was a god send, helped out loads. Hope we haven't scared people off. ( maybe thats are plan, keep them all away so we can have it to ourselves, lol) my DH didnt think that dropping a rank would bother him that much, but it has, and sometimes he can be a right grump, i mean some of the courses he has had to do are unbelievable, and like I said earlier, when some jumped up scroat( especially at Ceberus) who probably still at primary school when he joined the navy, started shouting at his face, how he didnt lay him out is beyond me.When dh first went to cerberus, they didnt wear their rank badges or anything, and it was some fresh faced killick screaming at him, and even now at Watson, he has baby PO's taking the P***. Funny thing is, Watson cannot understand why he had to drop a rank with all his experience!!!! they cannot understand why the ran paid all this money to get his expertise over here, then spend ****e loads of dosh sending him away on suck egg courses, and he is still doing them now. DH went to ceberus two weeks after we arrived for 6 weeks, so I had to find schools, buy car etc, hard in a strange country, but thankfully, the hardest bit is over now, and we can all settle down and enjoy this country, whatever part we may settle, Sydeny or Perth .

[ErmintrudeMcMoo]

lol

Don't expect the Aussies to help you either in the RAN because they don't.

Dropping a rank.. no matter how much you say 'it'll be ok, it'll be fine'... it won't it, it will be hard... so don't kid yourself!

Fellow laterals... well... you'll be ok if any of them knew you back in the day in the RN... if they didn't well... you're on your own jack. It can be very very clicky!

Best advice I can give... do this move like any other migrant here... jump in at the deep end and hope you don't sink!

Another top tip... google the where the local shops are in relation to where you're staying, before you get here. Wish we had done this, then my hubby wouldn't have spent an hour walking around in the blistering heat of the hottest day of the decade trying to find a shop so he could get some food for our children who were very very hungry! Contrary to what the RAN officer said at the interview... 'don't worry... you'll have a host who will show you around... get you to the shops... etc.. ' load of rubbish! (or could it be that we were just unlucky!)

But looking on the positive side... the weather is lovely!!! lol

 

Having been here 3 years we`ve seen how it works (not just talking about RAN)and it doesn`t always make sense (try getting an electrical license - that is a headbanger!!).

We have friends (5 different couples) who have done the lateral transfer they did not get much help either with the host - they too were pretty much left to get on with it - luckily we`d all kept in touch and were able to help each other out.

[Guest Ironduke]

Hi All - just received my terms of service and have posted off my acceptance today. So the Visa part kicks in now which will be fun! I don't get the remark about crap pay though, I just converted their pay offer into pounds and its more than I was getting as a Chief! Am I missing something here? (exchange rate, cost of living?) With my RN pension on top I should be laughing kit bags. Looks like I'll be going to Sydney initially - I'll need to settle my eldest in quick as he is in the O Levels bracket (14 years old soon)

Any ideas where in Sydney they will stick me? I intend taking a quarter or rent until settled.

 

Cheers

[Liz Steve R]

Hi All - just received my terms of service and have posted off my acceptance today. So the Visa part kicks in now which will be fun! I don't get the remark about crap pay though, I just converted their pay offer into pounds and its more than I was getting as a Chief! Am I missing something here? (exchange rate, cost of living?) With my RN pension on top I should be laughing kit bags. Looks like I'll be going to Sydney initially - I'll need to settle my eldest in quick as he is in the O Levels bracket (14 years old soon)

Any ideas where in Sydney they will stick me? I intend taking a quarter or rent until settled.

 

Cheers

 

Great news, really pleased for you :biggrin: Good Luck with the next stage.

We're STILL waiting to hear back (11 weeks now) from our initial application/docs - doh! Fingers crossed for this week.

[Guest Ironduke]

Hi Liz - that was about 10 weeks for me but it may be someone else who does the submarine side of things, I hope it comes through for you both soon

[an1ta]

I think ypu will find that things r done a lot different to when u came out here, we have been here 18 month,s and like you the host was not very good. We know people that r coming out soon and there host are now brits, so they will be looked after. The navy is a different thing You r treated different to back in the uk, but you must remember ur not in the uk ur in Australia, and my husband hated it when he first got here, just take you time dont expeect it to be all a bed of roses, but do enjoy yourself and dont stress to much, its the best thing we ever did for us and the kids. We are having a feild day, just go with the flow Anita

[an1ta]

Hi its Anita well done on the tos glad you got it. We live in Sydney and wew love it here we live in the sutherland shires, its right on top of the beach, you can get the train into the city it takes abot 45 mins and that is the norm out here. Look it up its great for kids. There are other areas that are further out and not near the beach its each to there own but we love it her. You also said that your son will need to get into school soon as, most kids go back a year here as they dont leave school untill they are 18, my daughter where 15 and 16 when we came here and where glad to get back into school to make friends and they did quick. MY son who is 14 has still got 3 years at school so dont let that get you down.

And has for the money my husband is on more money as a PO then a chief out here so ur right the money is better, we dont touch our money in the uk we dont need to.

Anything you would like to know remember we r here to help.

Anita

[Liz Steve R]

Good news! :jiggy:Yesterday we received an email with medical forms attached. So thankfully we're now onto the next stage in the process. Hoping this means they have a job for Steve and they're not just asking for meds, etc for the hell of it. We really, really want to go now.

From receiving our application 'til now has been a 12 week wait. Just hope this stage doesn't take that long, although I'm sure it probably will! lol

 

Liz x

[Guest Ironduke]

Good news! :jiggy:Yesterday we received an email with medical forms attached. So thankfully we're now onto the next stage in the process. Hoping this means they have a job for Steve and they're not just asking for meds, etc for the hell of it. We really, really want to go now.

From receiving our application 'til now has been a 12 week wait. Just hope this stage doesn't take that long, although I'm sure it probably will! lol

 

Liz x

 

 

Nice one Liz!

 

You'll find they will hold their cards close to their chest though, but this is a positive step in the right direction. The meds are for free if you get the sickbay to do it but will have to spend a little on the eye test from specsavers (or similar)

 

Adam

[an1ta]

Hi all u will have to have medicals done nearer the time, blood test eye test, all my kids had to have them done and xrays, you will have to pay for them but RAN will give u all the money back when u get here. you even have to Hiv blood test, blood preasure, they want to know everything believe me, but its worth it

Anita

[Guest Ironduke]

Quite right Anita but these meds are just for the sailor before he gets his TOR's so that the RAN isn't wasting its time. Unfortunately you have to repeat these tests (and more) for the immigration (visas) part.

Cheers

Adam

[ellasdaddy]

Hi All - just received my terms of service and have posted off my acceptance today. So the Visa part kicks in now which will be fun! I don't get the remark about crap pay though, I just converted their pay offer into pounds and its more than I was getting as a Chief! Am I missing something here? (exchange rate, cost of living?) With my RN pension on top I should be laughing kit bags. Looks like I'll be going to Sydney initially - I'll need to settle my eldest in quick as he is in the O Levels bracket (14 years old soon)

Any ideas where in Sydney they will stick me? I intend taking a quarter or rent until settled.

 

Cheers

 

I think we may be at the same stage as you we recieved that via e-mail the other day then had another e-mail yesterday saying apply for your visa's gets your meds done etc, however i still have no idea whats going on. im prob gonna sounds really stupid now but on my hubbys labour agreement it says that his projected date of arrival is jan 2011 well that like 6 months away...... Im statrting to panic now :shocked: lol lol whats a host? how am i going to know where i will be living?

[Liz Steve R]

Well, Steve's been to Specsavers today and had the eye tests done, also dental form is completed. Just has to see his MA tomorrow and get chest X-ray/bloods booked, when they're back it'll be a RN doctors appointment. Then hopefully we'll have all the RN meds stuff done ready to DHL back and start round two of daily email checking in our wait for a TOR's :eek: When do you have an interview? Before the TOR's or after?

Cheers

Liz x

[ellasdaddy]

Well, Steve's been to Specsavers today and had the eye tests done, also dental form is completed. Just has to see his MA tomorrow and get chest X-ray/bloods booked, when they're back it'll be a RN doctors appointment. Then hopefully we'll have all the RN meds stuff done ready to DHL back and start round two of daily email checking in our wait for a TOR's :eek: When do you have an interview? Before the TOR's or after?

Cheers

Liz x

 

Liz we didnt have a interview terry george was supposed to come over a few months ago but somthing to do with funding they didnt come, thats when we thought that it was off but nope labour agreement arrived YAY

GOOD LUCK

p.s it took ages for us also we sent off the RAN medical back in dec only just got the labour agreement back this week

[Guest Ironduke]

My interview was last year in London and they did part of it on the phone to include my wife. If you've got as far as TOR's maybe you don't need one but they were pretty keen to make sure my wife was up for it, some wives just go along with it until they arrive then reallity sinks in...their words not mine! I sent off RN medicals about 12 weeks ago got the TOR's back in about 10. Haven't had a labour agreement yet which I believe is different from the TOR's, have started getting the visa paperwork together in advance which costs nothing but is worth doing.

I didn't need or get chest xrays with the initial meds so don't know what thats all about - getting his monies worth eh? lol

[ellasdaddy]

My interview was last year in London and they did part of it on the phone to include my wife. If you've got as far as TOR's maybe you don't need one but they were pretty keen to make sure my wife was up for it, some wives just go along with it until they arrive then reallity sinks in...their words not mine! I sent off RN medicals about 12 weeks ago got the TOR's back in about 10. Haven't had a labour agreement yet which I believe is different from the TOR's, have started getting the visa paperwork together in advance which costs nothing but is worth doing.

I didn't need or get chest xrays with the initial meds so don't know what thats all about - getting his monies worth eh? lol

 

 

lol lol lol i spoke to terry george on the phone he asked me a few questions but nothing major like what was your job here and as soon as i said i was in the navy he was like ok so you know what your letting yourself in for haha. the labour agreement is just so you can apply for your visa i think its from immigration :eek:

[meddy]

Hiya all,

 

Glad to hear that the application process is going swimmingly for most of you. I've got all my documention all together and just in the process of DHL'ing it out to Oz.

 

I too thought it was going to be a bed of roses for me. They've promised me that i'll keep my killicks in the CIS branch, how true that will be i'm not sure. I'm under no illusion though, that Mrs Meddy, is going to find it a big steep learning curve. She says she cant wait to get out there, but i've got a sneaky feeling that she'll miss home alot.

 

I've got most of my dads side of the family in Melbourne, so its not going to be that bad, but although im looking forward to getting out there, i'm still kacking it.

 

Anyway, mustn't count my chickens just yet, not even had the TOS yet. It could still go belly up.

 

If i am accepted I will be opting for Sydney. and BTW, if they teach me sunset, i'll just suck it in, as a killick CIS, im used to being talked S*** at!

 

meddy.

[ellasdaddy]

Im getting more and more confused by the second lol

Ive booked our meds at i think maidenhead???? got the visa forms in from of me now just about finished with them however still really not sure how much our fees are ARRGGGHHH im not reading that payment booklet again its just making it worse ...... I DONT UNDERSTAND IT lol....

Anyway also send of for police check apparently they should be back in about 10 days which is good because ive had to send my passport off with my marriegae certificate so still have a few blanks to fill in on the visa

Im sure im going to have a nervouse breakdown any second........... and where is my husband....... bust apparently my handwriting is more neat so i have to fill in all the forms ARRGGGHH

lol

 

Good Luck everyone

It would be nice to know if everyone else is getting as confused as me......... maybe it just all the excitement

[Liz Steve R]

bust apparently my handwriting is more neat so i have to fill in all the forms ARRGGGHH lol

 

 

Ha ha can't wait to get to the excited stage like you - we're still on the 'please God' stage! :unsure:

 

If you open up the pdf. form on your computer, you can fill in the spaces on your computer. It won't save though, so that page has to be printed off there and then - but it looks really neat.

 

Keep up the good work :biggrin:

[an1ta]

Hi I hope all is going well for u all. dont worry about the fees, you will get it all back once you get here, the Ran pay for everything, Thats one thing i didnt worry about. Keep smiling everything will come together in the end. Let me know if you want to know anything

Anita :biggrin:

[ellasdaddy]

thank you

 

im not too worried about getting the fees back im more worried about not sending enough lol i cant work out from the leaflet how much i have to pay lol

[an1ta]

We paid when we got to the Drs check on that one

Anita