lornznpaul

Congratulations! Good luck with your move!! Lorna x

Hi Karen, We're just off Grasmere Road, near Firbank school! No children, just me and the hubby (carpenter). We've had the house up for sale for a year and no movement yet so just reduced the price, lets see if that helps! We have a validation trip booked for September and will get the chance to have a good look around. We got extra luggage allowance so will be leaving a few suitcases in our friend's house so we have more stuff out there before we can get there permanently and wait for a container to arrive. Deffo up for a 'meet' with you - would be good to exchange our stories so far and then be able to see you on the 'flip side' when we get there! Lorna x

Hi to you both! We're from Royton! Had our visa granted this month but not going anywhere fast as we still have our house to sell! arrggghhhh! We're doing a validation trip in September and having a good look about, we'll be staying with friends from Shaw and Chadderton! Hopefully you'll get your visa soon - it's a great feeling! Lorna x

Congratulations!!!! Lorna

Congratulations!!! Good luck with your plans!! Lorna x

Thank you all for your lovely comments! We can't wait for our validation trip in September! The plan is to stay with family friends in the Golden Grove area for a week and have a look around the north, a few trips into the city to activate bank accounts etc and then stay with friends in the south for the last few days and have a look around all the areas and work opportunities. Hubby is a carpenter and I'm currently a reception manager in the UK. We currently feel drawn to the south but that may change when we get there - we're both looking forward to exploring though and getting an idea of an area that will suit us both! Only 6 months and counting.... Lorna x

We finally got our 176 visa granted yesterday after 18 months!! We still can't quite believe it and things seem very real now! Our medicals were only received in Sydney on Monday so the visa was granted within 24 hours! We've booked flights to validate the visa in September and will spend two weeks staying with friends and having a good look around Adelaide and the place we will be calling home in the not too distant future - nervous but VERY excited!! Good luck to everyone who is awaiting their visas - the feeling when you get that email is well worth the wait! Lorna x

Hi! We are in exactly the same position as you. We have had our medicals etc and just waiting for our visa which hopefully shouldn't be too long - fingers crossed! We have had our house on the market for over a year now so we're not in a position to go just yet. We are just waiting for the visa and are going to book flights to validate in October/November time. We plan to have a good look around and stay with friends for a few weeks so we will have a better idea of where we want to base ourselves when we make the move and in the meantime - hope the house sells!! Good luck with your plans! x Lorna

Thanks for all your replies!!! As well as staying with friends for our validation/reccie trip, they have also offered for us to stay with them when we make the move, just until we get ourselves sorted out with jobs and a rental. They have said that we can use their address too so I'm presuming that will make things a little easier for us and we would be able to sort out tfn's etc whilst still on a validation trip? Thanks for the advice on the luggage too Django, will deffo be doing that and leaving some of our belongings over there - is there anything in particular (paperwise) that we could bring over too rather than putting it in the container and wishing we'd have brought it in our cases? I'm going to have a look at some of the banks and open an account which we can then activate on arrival and if we can get some of these other practical jobs done (as well as trying to see as much of Adelaide as possible that you can do in 2 weeks), when we eventually get there, things will be in place for us to crack on and start our new lives! After waiting for 18 months - it's all getting very exciting, but nerveracking at the same time!! When we get our flights booked, we'll be looking out for any meet ups which we could attend and hopefully meet some new people and ask the hundreds of questions that we will have!! lol Lorna x

Hi All, I posted on this forum in October 2009 before things ground to a halt for us! But have always followed the other posts whilst waiting for things to move for us again. Well, we got our case officer on 1st February, had medicals on 18th February and we are expecting our police checks back any day now! As our house hasn't sold, it looks like we will be doing a validation trip later in the year and staying with friends in both the north and southern suburbs, that way we will be able to have a good look round all areas and have a better idea of where we can base ourselves when we make the move. So the questions begin... Will we be able to obtain our oz driving licenses even though we're not making the permanent move just yet? Can we sort our tax file numbers and medicare? Which banks have branches which are based in the north and the south for easy access? Is there anything else which we would be able to do whilst on a validation trip which will save us time when we eventually get there? It's just me and hubby and although we will be staying with friends we would love to meet new people too - anyone fancy a beer!! Any other advise and tips? Thanks Lorna x

Congratualations on your Vetassess! We sent our paperwork in for SA SS on 15th August, it was acknowledged on 27th August and we were approved on 15th September! It did say on our status that it would take anything from 6-8 weeks, but was granted in 19 days. So hopefully you'll be lucky too! Good luck! Lorna

Good luck with your move!! I'm a 'newbie' on here too even though I've been a frequent visitor on the site for quite a while. I'm sure you'll find all the answers to your questions!! Lorna

Hiya Mandisfam, We haven't got any medical problems...that we know of! So hopefully everything will go ok for us! Just another hurdle to jump before we reach the finishing line! I honestly thought that we'd have to pay out more money for our medical records from our GP to take with us to prove our medical history and wanted to find out how much more it would dent the pocket! I'll just have to Google how to loose a stone a day for a few days before the meds now!! lol Staying off the wine and soda's may help a little I suppose! Lorna

Thanks for that Haley! Good luck with everything!

Well, we received the email from our agent today to say that our SA SS has been approved today! It was sent on 27th August so it's been sorted in 19 days!! Now we have to sit back and relax (the words of our agent - not us!) and wait for our meds to be requested! Now I'm nervous about the meds!! Does anyone know if we have to contact our GP for our medical records to take with us to the meds? If so, how long would it take for us to receive them? This will now be the start of many more questions!!! Thanks Lorna