Randon questions!!??

[Guest Mark & Rachel]

Since we stared this whole emigration malarky my mind has been going mad with all sorts of questions!!

 

So I thought I'd ask a couple...............

 

1, Do you get family allowance, or equivalent in Australia?

 

2, How much stuff do people generally take with them? Is it expensive to ship?

 

3, As British citizens do we have to sit the IELTS test to prove our English?

 

Thanks in anticipation!

[scooterdan]

Hey!

 

These are answers to best of my own knowledge....!!!

 

1. Affraid i cant answer properly as have no family/kids as such....!

 

2. People differ greatly here...some take their whole house....others, like us, just a few boxes. The prices vary greatly on size, quanity, method. Best to get lots of qoutes of different firms. Some of the ppl on here could probably give good recomendations.

 

3. I believe that from 1st Sept 2007 you can sit a test and u will get 5 extra points, 20 instead of 15.

 

Hope someone else will give u a little more help.

 

Dan and Steph

[Guest Tina]

Hi

 

1) it depends on the visa you are applying for i think, SIR495 you dont get any benefits but there are some allowances on the 136, as scooterdan, we have no children so never looked into it.

 

2) we are looking into a 20 foot container and have had quotes 3500-4500k and we have a normal 3 bed semi to take with us, plus we keep buying stupid things we think would be nice in oz ie chair lilo for the pool something we dont use that often in this country. so we need to stop spending or we will have to go to a 40ft container.

 

3) as far as i could make out this rule only applies if you need the extra 5 points i dont think it is compulsory to take the test as a british citizen, but i may be wrong.

 

how far through the process are you and are you using an agent?

[Lea]

Hi

 

1. You don't get family allowance or similar on SIR visa but I think you get it on the permanent visas 136 etc

 

2. We are paying £3600 for a 20 foot container including OH's motorbike - think its worth it as saves buying everything new when we arrive or paying loads for a furnished rental.

 

3. If you are a native English speaker you do not need to take the IELTS test, however from Sept as Tina said you can take the test to get extra points to meet the skilled independent passmark.

 

Hope this helps

 

Lea:)

[Guest Mark & Rachel]

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for your replies.

 

Tina - we're only at the TRA stage, I'm just thinking ahead!! We aren't using an agent, we had an initial assessment, but was put off by the cost. I think we'll be fine going it alone as we're a fairly straight forward case. My dh is a welder so we're applying for what used to be a Skilled Independant 136, and its on the MODL. What about you? How far along are you?

 

Lea - Glad about the IELTS - one less thing to organise! We're not desperate for points so that's ok. Can't make my mind up about what to take - def dh's bikes and Alex's toys and photos and things but not that fussed about other things.

 

Dan - Thanks - you're well under way with the process! Have you done it yourselves? When are you hoping to get out there?

[Guest jen&ian]

Hi Mark & Rachel

 

You do get equivalent of family allowance on a 136/ permanant residence visa. We are paying about 2 grand for our shipping thats personal belongings, toys( with 3 kids thats alot of toys!) and other miscellaneous stuff but no furniture or large appliances.

hope this helps.

 

Jen:)

[Guest Mark & Rachel]

Hi Jen,

Thanks for that. I know family allowance isn't a big deal here, in fact it goes straight into Alex's account but I just wondered. Is it means tested or a standard rate like here?

 

I'm thinking of taking the same stuff as you guys, glad I'm not taking 3 lots of toys tho! See you're off soon, bet you're getting excited

[scooterdan]

Hey!

 

We used an agent for our Visa app, they were priceless with the TRA!!!!

 

We are hoping to leave these shores March next year.....!

 

What are your plans?

 

Dan and Steph

[Guest Tina]

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for your replies.

 

Tina - we're only at the TRA stage, I'm just thinking ahead!! We aren't using an agent, we had an initial assessment, but was put off by the cost. I think we'll be fine going it alone as we're a fairly straight forward case. My dh is a welder so we're applying for what used to be a Skilled Independant 136, and its on the MODL. What about you? How far along are you?

 

Lea - Glad about the IELTS - one less thing to organise! We're not desperate for points so that's ok. Can't make my mind up about what to take - def dh's bikes and Alex's toys and photos and things but not that fussed about other things.

 

Dan - Thanks - you're well under way with the process! Have you done it yourselves? When are you hoping to get out there?

 

 

Hi Mark & Rachel

 

we are just waiting for a case officer to tell us to go for our medicals but as they have had our visa application for 3 months we have decided to go for them know and front load them so we will have to be in Adelaide by next august but we are hoping for the end of the year anyway. As soon as we have had the medicals the house will go on the market and oops! we will have to tell relatives what our plans are as they are completely in the dark at the moment, never been a right time to tell them yet.

[Guest jen&ian]

Hi again Mark & Rachel

 

I think the family allowance is similar system as here. Yes it's not long for us now, getting exciting now! I notice you are in Derbyshire, where abouts exactly we are just down the road in Staffs. Theres an east mids meet up in a couple of weeks always a good opportunity to chat about Australia without having to worry about boring anyone!

 

Jen:)

[Guest smit]

You are eligible for family allowance if you are a permanent resident.It is also means tested.......the more you earn, the less you get.

[Guest motlyman]

Hi,

You will get family allowance on a 136 permanent visa.

Family allowance is means tested here so the more you earn the less you get.

What you bring with you all depends on what its worth compared with shipping costs.

Dont forget warranties wont be worth anything out here for stuff you bring and the value of the dollar will get you loads more initialy when you arrive.

Personally we sold all our big stuff in fact, anything that did not fit in a tea chest sized box was sold. Its a good time to clear the junk out.

We bought 40 boxes with Excess Bagage with all our personal stuff and to be honest we still bought too much as some of it is still in boxes and we have been here 7 months now.

I had a Harley in the UK and i understand that imports are not good here for resale and import duties etc are expensive. They stamp a couple of letters on your chassis number to mark it as an import.

 

Colin

[Guest Mark & Rachel]

Hi Dan,

 

We're right at the beginning of the process - sending the TRA off on Friday but I want to get started on the visa form straightaway so we can get that off as soon as the TRA goes through. I'm already fretting big time!

 

Ideally, we'd like to be out there by this time next year - fingers crossed!!

 

It must be so frustrating waiting, waiting for everything to go through, I'm driving my DH mad already! Everything has to wait for something else doesn't it???

 

What will happen if you sell your house really quick? Will you move into a rented place until your visa comes through? We we're kind of thinking we'd wait until the visa was in place, although that will obviously delay our departure

 

Good luck with the meds - I read the form, am now wondering what a hernial orifice is?

 

Hello again,

 

We're in Derby, so within spitting distance of you guys in Burton.

[Guest Tina]

It must be so frustrating waiting, waiting for everything to go through, I'm driving my DH mad already! Everything has to wait for something else doesn't it???

 

What will happen if you sell your house really quick? Will you move into a rented place until your visa comes through? We we're kind of thinking we'd wait until the visa was in place, although that will obviously delay our departure

 

Good luck with the meds - I read the form, am now wondering what a hernial orifice is?

 

we will cross that bridge when we come to it, but if you think about it, selling a house in the uk takes anything from 3 months upwards and that is if you sell pretty much straight away with no chain complications, so hopefully we dont have to wait that long for visa approval and in an ideal world it all comes together at the same time, but we could move into relatives for short term.