After years talking about it, myself, my husband and baby son have decided to take the plunge and emigrate...I'm excited but also scared...are we doing the right thing? What about the family and friends we are leaving behind? etc etc. I'm sure you've all gone through the same thoughts and emotions. Some days I'm really positive about it all and others I'm not, mainly just because I think I will miss my mum so much and I feel guilty about leaving her as she is 73 (though very active) and on her own but as I keep reminding myself I only have 1 life and I do think that as a family, we will have a better quality of life in Australia.

Anyway just wanted to say Hi, it's good to read this site as at least you know you aren't on your own. We are thinking of emigrating to the Brisbane area and are going out to do a "rekkie" this Oct/Nov time to check out houses and nurseries/schools etc as we don't have a clue where to live...on the internet, all the houses look amazing. Can anyone recommend any good primary schools or nurseries, as that would be really helpful. Also if anyone has emigrated recently and can recommend any suburbs that would be good too.

As far as the Visa application goes I have a potential company that is interested in sponsoring me on a temporary, long term work visa and I figure we can apply for residency after 2 years. My only concern with this is what if it doesn't work out once I have started. I know there are options to move your visa if you can get another company willing to take it on, but it sounds a lot of hassle if that happens. Is anyone currently applying for the permanent visa option? How long is that currently taking to process? If it is less than a year it may be better if we do that and then I am not tied to anyone, however I have heard it can take upto 2 years to process and that is too long for us to wait.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has emigrated just to re-assure me that although there may be initial teething problems with starting afresh, life is good down under and worth this current stress and guilt!!

 

Hi Sharon

I know what you are going through but take my word keep strong and you will not regret it. My partner and I lived in Sydney for 3 years from 1997 to 2000 and then came back to England because we missed family and other things like Europe being close and seeing Brighton and Hove Albion FC. Once we moved back we lived in Norwich, so never saw BHAFC or went to Europe. Once we had kids though that changed everything. Stuck in doors with rain, etc, etc. We started looking at Aussie again and started to look at Brisbane as Sydney was too expensive. When we finally landed we were like "What the f*** are we doing here". "Why have we upset all our families". Two weeks later we were like "This is fab". We are never going back. The whole journey when you are waiting for your visas is a roller coaster. Up one minutes and down the next. Stick with it and when you finally get here you can say "F*** me dead (as they say round these parts) How fab is this?" We have been here about 7 months and the weather is unbelievable. I am on a roll as I have had a few vinos (4 litres for less than £5) There is a drought, and there are deadly snakes and spiders and cane toads but what a lifestyle. My eldest who is 4 hated water being splashed in his face back in June 06. You should see him now diving under the water, etc and all in a few months. The kids are out all the time.

Anyway I will stop rambling on. Need any info, etc give us a shout. Keep the faith you will not regret it!!!!

Boomer

 

Hi Boomer

So glad you're enjoying it there.
One thing that worries me is the word "drought"!!!!!
We are migrating in July to Narangba area.
How serious is the drought and what does the future hold? I've heard about some huge pipeline being installed by 2008, will this be the answer?

Sorry for all the questions but I'd appreciate your time.

Al.

 

Hey Tafftooz

I won't bullshit you it is pretty serious. We have just gone into level 5 water restrictions. No car washing, water usage being monitored, possibale fines. There is a pipeline being built that is 80kms long from Luggage Point Wastewater Treatment Plant near to the airport that goes back up to the Wivenhoe Dam. The idea is that business on the 80 kms of pipeline will use recycled water from the wastewater for business purposes and preserve the drinking water. This water is 100% safe to drink though and the plan is to feed it back into the dam as well. Some people are aghast. Bu the majority support it. The water in the dam is filthy anyway and goes through a treatment process that makes it drinkable. There is also a desalination plant being built on the Gold Coast and a water grid that can pump the water around the state. Although it sounds bad things are being done to preserve the water supply. Then again the drought could break and everything will be OK. I work for Brisbane Water so I can assure you things are being done. Hey the weather is great though. Better than rainy old Blighty!!!!

Boomer :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Keeping positive!

Thanks for your reply Boomer, as you say this waiting game is like a roller coaster but I am going to stick on it as I know in my heart it will be better over there. As you have children too, can I ask has it been easy for you to make friends. We will both need to work so our little one will need to go into a nursery for 4 days per week (which I have huge guilt trip over as he only goes 2 days per week here) but I am hoping I will be home from work earlier on an evening and will make up for it at the weekends. I assume I will meet other mums via the nursery, any other tips you can give for settling in?

I know you mentioned the water shortage - do most people buy/drink bottled water in QLD then?
Also do you actually gets snakes and spiders in your house...I can cope with the m in the bush and grassland areas but not in my house!

 

Hi

We are also in early stages of emigration, just signed up for skilled migrant permanent visa, currently filling in loads and loads of forms, know it will be worth it!!!!!

We where originally looking into moving to Adelaide but have now become interested in Brisbane and are completely confused - any suggestions welcome!!! Have heard theat southern areas are nice - bayside?

Have 2 girls, ages 6 and 3 who are completely looking forward to moving to Australia - as they want a pool in the garden

Keep in touch with any new info, will post anything we find out.

Sarah and Neil :shock: :? 8) :lol: :roll: :?:

 

Re: Keeping positive!

Hi Sharon

Sorry for delay in responding. You will make friends really easily over here. When you have kids it is even easier. We have met an English couple through our 4 year old who made friends with their son. They have 2 boys roughly the same age as ours. Generally I find people more friendly in Brisbane. Becasue you are outside a lot you see your nieghbours more and get invited round for drinks, etc. There are a hell of a lot of Brits over here. We went to our neighbours 40th last night and there were English, Scottish, Dutch & Austrians!!! On the nursery front it is a lot different over here but we find our eldest loves school/day care. He balls when he has to leave!!!! Other tips, just make the effort and go to as many things as possible and put yourself out there. Having your young one will open those doors with birthday party's, etc. The one tip i would recommend is try not to compare to many things here with the UK. The supermarkets are crap in comparision to the UK. Alcohol is not sold in them you have to go to a bottle shop. They do not have chemists in the supermarket. They don't have Boots. Australia is very different but you just learn to adapt. TV is really shite, but who cares. The weather is great. A 2 hour films on TV takes about 3 hours as they have adverts nearly every 10 minutes and every 5 when you get near the end.

On the water front people are the same as in the UK drinking bottled water. There are restrictions here and you are more water concsious. When it rains though it rains. Like sheets.
Snakes, depends where you live. If you are residential you won't see any. If you live near bush land you might. Don't leave windows or doors open. We have fly screens on the windows so you can enjoy the breezes and keep the bugs, etc out. Spiders you will get, and they are bigger than the UK but most are harmless. We had a red back the other day which is venemous but we squashed it and then sprayed the area. Basically no worries. No one dies here from snake or spider bites you just have to be sensible and educate your kids, etc,

Get yourselves over here you will not regret it.

Cheers
Nick

 

Ipswich

Hi my wife and 18yr old son are in the middle of emmigrating to oz. we have decided on Brisbane due to the weather, job prospects etc. we are visiting Brisbane in may 2007 to have a look around. After many hours on the internet we have decided to move to Ipswich. Can you offer any advice on the different areas of Ipswich?
We have also spent many hours researching the employment factor which does seem promising. I have got my skills visa approved in furniture upholsterer and my wife is a support worker in social care and jobs seem to be on offer. what is your advice on contacting employers when we visit in may? We hope to move to Brisbane in may 2008 is it too early to visit companies with info about ourselves?
If you have any other info you think might be useful we would be grateful to hear from you. Apologies if we,ve asked too much but the move can,t come quick enough.
Thanks for your time and hope to hear from you soon.
tony &shelley

 

Visa nightmare

I'm so glad you replied Boomer, you have made me feel a lot better about things so many thanks.

We are now in Visa hell, all these forms!!! Decisions Decisions...Ahhhh

We are 10 points short of an skilled independent 136 visa, I know I could submit my application and go in the reserve "pool" but I realistically doubt we will be accepted if we do that. The other options are to go for sponsorship via my hubby's Aunt on the 138 visa but there are potential problems with that, in that although she moved out to Australia 45+ years ago, she has actually been living in Bali for the last 10+ and I think the sponsor has to be a close relative that is actually a current resident in Australia. The other option is to go for a the 457 work sponsored visa but that is only temporary until the point we can apply for residency and the migration company that is potentially handling it wants a £1,400 fee + 7% of my annual salary p.a. as a continuing management fee, which is a lot of money when you are already going to go through a huge and costly re-location. AHHHHH! why are things never straight forward! :roll:

 

Hi

more newbees .We are also at the early stages. Not sure at this stage as to where we will end up. Adelaide was the top but there doesnt seem to be as many jobs as Brisbane and Perth my OH is a welder up to now he has applied for loads of jobs but it seems that if you are not in Aus they dont respond. Any one else found this. We have had a rsponse from a recruitment agency who are ringing this evening who are acting for a company who would pay for everything from visas to flights. We are lucky that we have no house to sell and that we are in rented acc that we only have to give a months notice. Does anybody now that if you get empolyer sponsership how long it can take? We have been told by several agents that we can apply for 136 having 120 points my OH trade is wanted everywhere. Also if we go with an agent and an employer wants to sponser us would we loose the money. Not sure how it works.

Cheers

Jen

 

Hi Jen

Someone else in the same situation as us! My husband is also a welder, in demand everywhere! We too where really keen on Adelaide but for every job that came up on the internet searches in Adelaide, there would be 15-20 in perth and Brisbane. Really liked Perth but it is very pricey and I felt it was quite isolated from the rest of the country! We really like the look of Brisbane but my husband is concerned about the heat with his trade!!!

Don't know anything about sponsered visas, we are applying through an agent on the skilled migration visa. As trade is in demand the visa will be fast tracked and could be through in 6-9 months.

from Sarah and Neil

 

visa nightmare

Hi Guys,
My hubby is a qualified welder too!! However unlike your husbands he has not worked in his trade for the last 10 years so we have lost points due to that.
Jen - As I have spent the last 2 weeks reading visa information and contacting various Aussie agencies and agents here is my advice for what its worth....
I would strongly advise that if you have 120 points to apply for the 136 visa as it is a permanent visa, you can come and go from Australia as much as you want and live and travel anywhere in the country, you also get the healthcare bens with it. I think it is currently taking about 9 months to process these visas.
If you are sponsored by a company on the 457 visa, you have to work for that company, regardless whether you like it or not, if you hate it so much you want to leave you would need to get another company to take up your sponsorship (and not everyone is equipped to do this). You cannot be out of work for more than 5 days otherwise you are deported, so switching between companies needs to be practically seamless if you do that. This visa is only a temporary visa so you would need to apply for residency after 2 years to make yourself permanent, and if you do get fed up with Brisbane and fancy a move elsewhere, you can't, unless you work for a company that has other branches in other states and is willing to let you move. However the plus side is that a 457 visa is currently being processed within 4 weeks and once completed you get 2 weeks in which to move out there!! If you do get a company to sponsor you they will handle all the admin side of it, and if they want you bad enough but are not equipped to do that, they will appoint a migration specialist that will deal directly with you. I am in the process of doing this just now, I work in recruitment, so I have contacted some agencies and they have put me in contact with a migration specialist as they don't have the facilities to hire someone from overseas themselves. The migration co. will process my visa for me & my family for about £2k but they are also acting as my employer and I will in effect "contract" to the company I want to work for. They will pay my wages and sort out all my taxes, you can get a good "living away from home allowance" but only if you go via this route, and if you do want to move companies for whatever reason then as they are your "employer" they can sort out any transfer of paperwork with the minimum of fuss for you or the new employer. However for all this hassle free, add on service they take approx. 7% of your yearly salary as a "continuing management fee" which is quite a chunk of your wages. If the employer is equipped to take you on himself on his own books then they would obviously not be charging you this, you'd just have to pay the initial £2k admin processing charge.
Personally I know the 136 method is longer but I would go for that route and if you do, don't be put off by the long form, it looks fairly easy to complete, just a lot of ticking boxes and sending off your various orginal documents...agents over here cost a fortune and try to scare you by saying that if your application is not absolutely perfect you will be rejected outright. However a few people have told me that this is not the case and they have had e-mails from the government dept that handles all this stuff asking for further infomation or clarification if something has been missed out or is not clear...remember they are desperate for skilled workers so they are unlikely to discount someone due to a couple of spelling mistakes!! Good luck...I know it is a nightmare trying to sort all this out, but I'm sure we'll look back in a few months and wonder what all the stress was about...but right now we all seem stressed!!

 

Re: Ipswich

Hi Tony & Shelley

I have visited a really good park in Ipswich a few times but not much else. Most people dis Ispwich, and that is people who have grown up there. What made you choose Ipswich? It is not easy picking suburbs but we got a book called "Where to live guides for Great Brisbane" on http://www.consylpublishing.co.uk/ These people also produce a monthly paper called Australian Outlook with lods of info on visa, jobs, the econcomy over here, lots of stuff, including various books. The book gives an overview on every suburb with demographic, parks, schools, etc. We found it really useful.

Jobs wise I looked at the Brsibane Courier mail website http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/?referrer=gbrand&247SEO=N that has a job search, real estate, etc on it. Another really good site.

Hope this helps. Need anymore info give me a shout.

Cheers
Boomer

 

Hi boomer

Thanks for replying i,ll look at those sites you sent me. We chose Ipswich due to the fact it seemed closer to Brissy were the jobs are according to the internet, we,ll find out more in may when we go for a look round. Did it take you long to find work?

Cheers

Tony

 

Hi Tony

I got work after a couple of weeks through a temping agency. I am an accountant so it is reasonably easy to pick up work in the City. Your line of work may be a bit harder, I don't know. On suburbs, anywhere round Brissie is pretty good. Avoid Goodna and Logan though as they can be a bit Rough.

Go for it. You will not regret it

Boomer

 

Hi Sharon

Thanks for your info. We are going to go the route of the 136 but if we get the chance we will take up the 457 as after speaking to our agent she said all the balls are in our court then and if a good job offer came along we could take it but we would have a permant visas running with it.

Sarah what type of welding does your husband do. O/H does off-shore, petro chemical and defence. Had 1 job but he was over qualified. Just waiting for one of his city & guild certificates to come through. hen the agent rang about the job they were only offering £8 a hour , says he needs at least £10 but he is on alot more here, said he will go backwards but not rockbottom. I have been off all week and spent 95% of time on the net researching

Jen

 

Hi Sharon

Can I ask you if you are using an agent or not? We have started to think after your last posting whether we would be able to do it ourselves and use the money for something else. Has any body else gone alone on this. My O/H has been with the same company for 17years and previous companies are well gone. We have all the relevant trade certificates. Also do you have to provide school certificates like o'levels that sort of thing I might have mine but know O/H hasn't.

Appreciate any answers

Jen :? :? :?

 

Hi jen

My O/H does mainly high care stainless steel TIG welding for the food industries (if that means anything to you!) :? :? Have found the same problem as you with the wages and level of work, O/H will probably have to take steps backwards and a drop in money as these seem to be the jobs in demand. :cry: He is only prepared to drop so far though, spoke to a few companies in the Adelaide Metro area, both said there is plenty of work and expect about $24-$27 per hour, some companies do 'Fly-in, Fly-out' work to the mining areas working 3 weeks on 3 weeks off where pay could be between $100 - $150 per annum. Think the pay is better in Brisbane but house prices are slightly higher. :?

Have gone through 'Go Matilda' agent and so far they have not asked us for any school certificates, which is lucky as although I have mine we cannot find Neils anywhere! They only seem interested in work related qualifications/certificates/references. The first company neil worked for has folded, the agent has asked Neil to 'Self-reference' this period of employment and also to prove the company is no longer established. He only has to prove 3 years of experience as he has City & guilds qualifications so your O/H should be ok with his present employer.

Nothing is easy and straight forward is it! :shock:

We keep searching areas and house prices etc but still no nearer to deciding where we want to go, all the feedback seems to be south of Brisbane but hard to tell when we've never been. :!:

Sarah and Neil

 

Hi Sarah

Like you have no idea about where to live. A good friend of mine has 2 friends that went to Brisbane last year the 1 she is in contact with has just had her house built at a cost of £130000 for a 4 bed and pool not sure where in bris though. He went over on a job offer for the elctricity board out there. The O/H and the kids passport runs out in July 09 do you know if we will have to renew before application is applied for. Need to look into pension transfer aswell any info on that.

Cheers

Jen

 

FYI - We are getting a house built. For $130k you will be getting sweet FA and it will be miles out of Brissie. We have bought 774m2 within 10kms Brisbane and that cost $420k that does not include building a house. Are you sure the $130k is correct?