A BIG hello.

[Guest Becster19]

Hi all. All this forum business is very new to me and I thought it was about time I introduce myself. I'm Becci, a secondary/behaviour teacher, my OH is Mitch a carpenter and we have a daughter who is 2. We lived in Adelaide a couple of years ago whilst on Working Holiday visas and have decided the time is right to come back. Unfortunately we have had to wait until I had been in my job for a year which has just happened, so all set to move forward except SA have closed the doors till July. Lets just say Im not the most patient of people and it looks like I will be made redundant next week, so keener than ever to get our new life started! So i thought whilst I am waiting this new life I would while away my time by getting to know some folks on here.

 

Any hints and tips that people think we should be aware of with this visa process thing would be fantastic.

 

Looking forward to hearing from people.

 

Becs:biglaugh:

 

Positive Skills Assesment 20/04/11

IELTS Passed 20/05/11

[Guest libbysmum]

Hiya Becs, welcome to the forum, just wanted to say good luck for your journey, hopefully it won't be too much of a rollercoaster ride for you as it has been for many over the past couple of years. My tip - keep using these forums, poms in adelaide and poms in oz are a wealth of information and sooooo helpful if you need advice on any aspect of the migration process. They also help you keep on top of what's happening in the world of Aussie Migration, DIAC have moved the goalposts so often in the past couple of years we haven't known whether we've been on our heads or our ar**s!! We've had to change our approach mid application!! Without the info provided here and on PIO we may never have managed to get our visas.

 

Any ideas on where abouts you fancy in adelaide yet? We are still researching, but thinking of more out of the city and suburban sprawl, say mount barker, victor harbor, gawler.

[Guest Becster19]

Hi Sarah, Thanks for the advice. We are already experiencing some of the changes with the changes to the points etc. Australia in particular does seem to be very complicated but it keeps me on my toes!

 

Areas wise we are thinking quite central. Both myself and my OH do a lot of commuting at the moment for work and we don't really live near anything interesting, so we spend a lot of time in the car. When we lived in Adelaide previously we lived in Glenelg and we loved that we could access city, beach and hills easily and that we did not have to drive to everything. Unfortunately Glenelg is a little pricey as we will be first time buyers but we are looking to be somewhere with easy access to the city. I love food and wine and the central market in the City is amazing so I would like to be able to access all this quite easily. I really fancy going the hills way or the eastern suburbs but at the end of the day it will all come down to price. We are planning to rent for the first year or so to save the money for a deposit but would like to live in or close to the area that we would like to buy in so that we can get our daughter settled for school.

 

Victor Harbour is beautiful, but a little far for me. We visited when we were there before and loved it. What do you and the OH do? Will you have to commute back into the city?

[Guest libbysmum]

My OH is a barber so will open up a barber shop wherever we decide to settle, commuting shouldn't really be an issue for him. As for myself I'm a biochemist/secondary science teacher, so Victor Harbor may for me be a little out in the sticks in terms of work, but to be honest I probably wouldn't mind what type of work I do, if when we go we feel Victor Harbor ticks all our boxes it may be time for a career change! I've not worked for 5 years now anyway as I have had a career break to raise my children.

Mount Barker may be better for me in terms of distance to the city for science work, but I'm torn between that and coastal living. Between finding an area that strikes the right balance for all our needs and the fact we have never actually been to Australia it's getting a little stressful.

 

We are planning on spending a month out there in holiday accommodation before we tie ourselves to a longer term rental, in maybe 4 different shortlisted areas, a week in each, and hope that this will give us more of an idea of where we feel is more suited to us.

[Guest Becster19]

Sarah, dont worry at all. The wonderful thing about Adelaide is that it has something to suit everyone living wise. I am the same about coastal and hills living. They are both wonderful and it is hard to decide. I think your right though to pick a few areas and try it out. My OH and I are luckily in that we are kind of like romany travellers and have been on the move a lot in the last 10 years, I don't think we have lived in a house for longer than a year since 2003!! Although this has been difficult at times, it has given us a clear idea of what we want from somewhere that we live as we have lived beach, country, city suburbs and have created a great list of the things that are important to us. I think the key is prioritising what you want eg space, beach, commuting distance etc. Don't worry though, there will be the perfect place for you in Adelaide.

 

I am also tempted by a career change away from teaching. Maybe wine tasting

[Guest louiesmum]

Hi, Good luck with it all!!! Others areas to consider that have good links into city are Semaphore, West Beach, Largs bay. (Semaphore is my favourite 'cause I live there LOL) Still fairly affordable too, when you head to Eastern suburbs & hills I think you will find they start to get more pricey !!

Anyway good luck with it all

[Guest Becster19]

Thanks Michele, I was actually looking at Semaphore and up around that area, it seems like it has a good vibe. Do you know what the schools are like? It still feels strange having to ask that question, when we have moved previously its always been, do you know what the bars are like?!!