Is Adelaide still the place to be???? HELP

[Guest Beccy72]

Hi all

We recieved SS from S Australia but after almost 4yrs we gave up on our application being granted and True Blue refunded our fees 6 months ago.

 

We have now just found out a case worker has been assigned to us and our medicals and police checks are to be requested! We have 28 days (well, 14 now!) to decide whether or not to reinstate our application through True Blue Migration.

 

However, we are now 40 and 44, with a 4 year old son who has already settled at school, (somehow being 36 with a child not even 1 seemed a much better time to consider migration!)

 

We are hearing that house prices and unemployment are rising in Adelaide and are concerned that it may not be the right thing to do. Hubby works in the automotive industry as a programme / project manager and I am a teaching assistant / office manager (depending on need!) although Paul would be the one trying to bring in the money at first.

 

Our parents are four years older and yes, I worry about their care as the years go by. I'd miss my Mum and Dad terribly, as would my 4 year old who now worships them, but would he adapt quicker than me?!

 

I've also read recent blogs where families are returning to the UK as they don't feel the Australian education system is keeiping up with the UK....is this true?

 

Really torn - would this move provide my son with a better life in the future than Northern England?!!

 

Any opinions good or otherwise would be welcome.....we've not long to decide!

 

Thanks so much...... I am losing sleep over this!!

Rebecca

[Diane]

Unless your OH is prepared to change his line of work, I'd say stay in the UK! My OH used to be an automotive project/prorgramme manager, was brought over here to work for an automotive component manufacturer, got made redundant and is now working in a completely different industry. I think in about the last three years I have hardly ever, if at all, seen an automotive engineering project manager job come up on Seek. Manufacturing of any kind is NOT doing well in Aus, partly because of the strong dollar. You might have a little more luck in Victoria/Melbourne but to be honest, I wouldn't hold out high hopes of finding something here in Adelaide.

[jim and adel]

Unless your OH is prepared to change his line of work, I'd say stay in the UK! My OH used to be an automotive project/prorgramme manager, was brought over here to work for an automotive component manufacturer, got made redundant and is now working in a completely different industry. I think in about the last three years I have hardly ever, if at all, seen an automotive engineering project manager job come up on Seek. Manufacturing of any kind is NOT doing well in Aus, partly because of the strong dollar. You might have a little more luck in Victoria/Melbourne but to be honest, I wouldn't hold out high hopes of finding something here in Adelaide.

 

Got to agree - all the signs suggest that as soon as GM feels it can't squeeze any more money out of federal and state govs it too will shut up shop here.

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

Hi Rebecca,

Very good and valid points from the previous posts. The economy is struggling here at the moment.

Have you thought about other states?

My OH has a school friend (also from Mirfield!) who moved here about 15 months ago. His partner is working but he's not. His daughters have ping ponged back to West Yorkshire. We had a phone call a couple of weeks ago from my OH's father...he lives in Batley...never heard him sound so despondent about the conditions in that part of the world.

What are your reasons for the move...are they still relevant...will they outweigh the difficulty in securing employment in your hubbies field etc?

It's a massive decision. Weigh everything up including work and possible visa success for other states. Maybe take a look at other areas on a reccie?

We moved here because of the children. My OH struggled to find work and abandoned a 25 year career. He still "wobbles" every now and again but he still tells me that moving here was the right decision...although maybe 10 years earlier would have been better!

 

I am sure that you will get many views. In influencing the Yorkshire school friend to apply for a visa here my OH used the line "you have a get out of jail free card that's valid for 5 years"

 

All the best with your difficult decision.

 

Tamara

[Guest ness 1962]

Hi

 

Have been here since 1997 and things where great, jobs at the moment are very few and far between but saying that it depends what you are looking for. We moved out for a better life and we have it no doubt, our children where 7 and 9. i'm not sure i would be worried about a 4 year old starting school they start at a slightly older age here so he would fit in. You still get a lot for your dollar but not as much as we use to, utilities have gone up heaps but still a much better lifestyle. i could not at the moment go back and live in the uk.

[Jessica Berry]

Is Adelaide the place YOU still want to be?

 

I personally still think living in Adelaide is a great choice and it has a lot to offer people, but if people think the minute they land in Adelaide they will be living the dream, they may be in for a shock, but then it depends what is your dream? There are many of us that make a success of it, but then there are also many that go back and are never heard from again. The people that can adapt to change and setbacks will do well.

 

The reality is people do not have jobs for life anymore. You need to ensure you are as employable and multi skilled as possible. Would your husband be willing to change careers/jobs and what would HE do to achieve this? I have wrote many times how people say they are prepared to do anything, but the reality is very different. If in the UK you are on a good salary with lots of perks and benefits and you come over and suddenly you are at the bottom of the pecking order and taking orders from a 20 year old, the feelings of 'have we done the right thing' will creep in very quickly.

 

I was talking to a colleague today and their son worked at Holden not that long ago. The advice they gave their son was to get as multi skilled as he could as quickly as possible (great advice), he lasted 4.5 years before he was made redundant, but he was one of the last ones to go on his shift because he was able to move to other areas. It is a dying industry.

[Guest lebour]

You have gone this far, you might as well get the visa granted, then make the decision.

 

It will be a 5 year visa from the date it is granted, but you need to validate visa within 12 months of earliest date of medicals or police checks. So you have time to decide if you want to make the move and a holiday in Australia might help you make the decision.

 

Remember if it is the 176 SS you have, you have a moral obligation to live and work in the state that has sponsored you. If you were not able to find work or settle you can move to another state.

 

As for the agent, you are almost there, but is is your decision if you want them to help.

 

But all you need to do is upload your Police Checks - get through ACRO.

 

And Medicals done at a Panel Doctors that are uploaded by the clinic by ehealth.

 

Good Luck.

[Toni]

I think it also depends on the type of person you and your hubby are. If you are very close to your parents and they are still keeping fairly well then this might be the only chance you get to give it a go. If you are close to your parents and they are not that well then again it depends on whether you feel that you should be there to look after them or if someone else in your family will do that. As someone who has lost both parents, one only last year, I know that it was incredible to be able to live with my Dad and look after him until the day he died and my lovely Mum years before that. I have no regrets about not moving away but if I had wanted to do that, in retrospect, it would have been while they were still well and then I would have come back to look after them when they were older and not coping. This was right for me and my circumstances. But everyone is different. As I said if your parents are well and you want to give it a shot (bearing in mind that work is important) then this might be your only opportunity. I see a lot parents come to visit their adult children who live here annually and it has given them a lease of life in being able to travel to this lovely country also.

[Diane]

Also, house prices here are not actually rising, but the freefalling pound against the aussie dollar means if you are converting one to the other it will look like they are. Houses are actually staying on the market without selling for quite a long while, and people are having to lower their expected prices to sell - which is always a sure sign that the economy is not on the up and up

[Guest Beccy72]

Thanks for your reply Tamara. We thought this was a non starter so surprised it may be back on!! Seems such a long time ago. Applied on basis of state sponsorship so not really got chance to look at other states with this application. Want to give Danny better opps than here but if we can't find work it's not going to happen for him! It's snowing here which isn't helping rational thought!! x

[Guest Beccy72]

Sensible response I think! May be wasted money if we decided not to go but buys us time. Struggling to make decision in 2 weeks. Think this may be the way to go!

[Rammygirl]

Get an appointment for the medicals, and send off the police checks. Let your CO know you have done these things and send them a copy of the appointment etc.

 

The medicals and police checks do not have to be completed withing the 28 days as long as you have applied and keep your CO in the loop they will wait for the results. After all in some countries the checks can take months!

 

You will then have space to think.

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

Thanks for your reply Tamara. We thought this was a non starter so surprised it may be back on!! Seems such a long time ago. Applied on basis of state sponsorship so not really got chance to look at other states with this application. Want to give Danny better opps than here but if we can't find work it's not going to happen for him! It's snowing here which isn't helping rational thought!! x

 

Hi Beccy,

Thanks for this.

If I remember correctly I gave you the contact details for Ian and family (a school friend of my OH's from Batley....went to Batley grammar years ago ) and you met up with them for a drink in Mirfield? They did a reccie and moved here for good 16 months ago. It might be worthwhile contacting them again and seeing how things are and how they have settled. We see them every week and there are things about the move that are good, and others that are so so....you may get another point of view from another Yorkshire family (plain speaking like!). If you don't have the contact details just pm me and I will send it to you.

 

Take care.

 

Tamara

[jim and adel]

Yesterday's announcement by Holden that it's slashing 500 jobs (400 of them in Adelaide) reinforces some of the points from the first page of this thread. Hundreds of millions of dollars of tax payers' money in subsidies seems to have been well spent ...