Hello to everyone.
we are a family of 3 from bournemouth and have just started the ball rolling for our oz visa. I am a fabricator/welder my wife is a book-keeper and my daughter has just started secondary school.We hope to live around the Brisbane area and would like to hear from anyone with regards to good schools,nice place to live and the all important part.. jobs, like is the credit crunch affecting jobs as bad over there.Any feedback would most appriecated.
Duncan, tracy and isy.

 

Hiya and welcome to brits in brissy, dont think we have been hit with the credit crunch as hard as the Uk ,,yet !!
Brisbane as lots of lovely family areas , choosing one is a tough job and you can only 'really' tell if its for you once you are here and can see what the area as to offer.
Cal x

 

Welcome to Brits in brizzy!

Good Luck with everything and remember to ask any questions!

 

Thanks

Thank you to everyone who has replied.
unfortunanly i have some more questions.........
Can anyone who has got their visa lately let me know how long it took,the visa company i have used have had my skills paperwork for about a month now and i have just sent in my visa application forms. I have heard that some have taken nearly a year.
My daughters schooling is extremely important to me and wondered if there are equivalent to grammar schools in Oz.
Do immigrant poms have to pay higher car insurance premiums.What are secondhand car prices like as importing my pride and joy is out of the question.
If there are any welder/plater members it would be good to hear your views or thoughts
thanks once again
Duncan

 

Hi Duncan
i can only really answer the visa thing..... by telling youabout ours.... we put in the finished application, skills assessment included, in feburary last year and found out in August that we were successful and we had to be here by the 4th jan '09..... so here we are!!!! The skills assessmnet paperwork didn't take long either.... but thats just our experince.... i have spoken to other people who said it took longer... hope this is helpful...
Sally

 

Heh Duncan , dont be sorry asking questions, lol, thats what make's a forum!
I will give you my views ,,
visa- we applied for a 136 skilled PR visa and it took 7 months start to finish, i believe on-line applications are now processed so hopefully you wouldnt be waiting any longer than that.
Schools - there are many more private schools here and with fees starting around $1500 pr year , i personally think they are better priced than the UK private schools.
We also have grammer schools in various suburbs in Brisbane, i know Ipswich Grammer carrys a very good reputation. My children are in the public system and i havnt yet found any major problems, my son is doing much better than he did in the UK and seems to 'enjoy' school more.
Insurance - Mine is cheaper than in the UK. Here i have a mitsubushi Lnacer, my Rego (like tax with a 3rd compulsary insurance included) is just over $500 pr year. I opt for extra fully comp insurance which again is just over $500 yr. My no claims from the UK was carried over and accepted here , no-one has ever asked me for proof.

Hope this helps you a bit, remember we have been where you are now and no matter how silly you might think your question is ,,, we have probably already asked it!lol, feel free to ask away with queries you may have,,
Cal x

 

Hello Duncan & Tracy
Just saw your thread & Hans is also a welder/fabricator, so thought I'd say hello! We took 2 attempts to get his skills passed through the TRA, & then 9 months to finally get visa, possibly because we didn't frontload meds (and I'm glad we didn't, or when we got our visa in October 08 we would have had to validate it by Jan 09! Now we have til Sept to validate - so am more chilled!) We are doing recky first at Easter, but are slightly concerned as have been looking for sheet metal jobs & there don't seem as many as there were 12 months ago - how are you finding it?

stay in touch

Kath and Hans