Blossom

Congratulations!

Welcome to the forum. Your first couple of posts will take a little while to be visible, do to us having to check for spammers. :-) Have you ever visited Adelaide before?

i don't remember seeing one at whyalla, but the place 45 minutes away, I think port Augusta, they do for sure. I actually quite like Whyalla.

Can your older two children not get NZ citizenship too?

Bump

I would contact an agent who deals with medical visas. George Lombard is apparently very good. Unfortunately the people on the immigration lines are far too well known for giving out false info. I can't imagine there is any way they would grant a visa without PASSING a medical. Otherwise what is the point of even having everyone do them?

i speak from experience. That doesn't help lol. They are useless. They kept giving me temporary Medicare cards which lasted two months as I didn't have an end date on my bridging visa. When I finally got PR they wouldn't believe it was pr as it said it expires after five years. I tried telling them they ALL expire after five years, but it's only the travel portion. You can stay indefinitely. It even said permanent visa on the bloody thing! I had a fair fight.

Geeee. What's the point of insurance if they won't cover you fully?

Your hospital cover is covered under Medicare if you are from the UK. You don't HAVE to have the overseas health cover.

Yeah. For the moment. They have been talking about bringing it right down, but it hadn't happened yet. :-)

I don't know how I missed checking back on this thread. I should have said Cambridgeshire rather than Cambridge itself (I come from about 8 miles out). I don't want to live in any city. ;-) Yes the house prices are high, but I could get much better wages there. I can't afford to buy a house here either, so I'd be no worse off. I drive an hour to and from work here, which is far worse than when I could walk five minutes to work at my last job in Cambridgeshire. My rent was less than here, although I'm sure that will have changed. I certainly never paid anywhere near that for a train ticket, even first class from Manchester. However, if you want to go to another city from Adelaide you are looking at at least that. Meals out, that totally depends on where you go. You can find cheap or expensive places in both places. As I said, my standard of living here is not as good as it was in Cambridge. That's all the proof I need.

I'm guessing you'd have a visa letting you be self employed? Getting an ann is easy and free. You need to take into account that if you are employed then you'd have 9.5% extra on top of your wage paid into a super fund. Self employed you'd not get that.

Do you mean import tax? You only pay that if it's over $1000. New look has a store too. :-)

My employer sponsored me for PR without a 457 first. If you can pass the skills assessment then it's more than possible.

I've never even heard of frank. :-/

Just me that lost my partner in the not very big Hallett cove store? I had to do a full lap to find him. Their chocolate brownie mix is great. As was their frozen pizza. Much prefer their nappies Coles.

Bridging visa b is $140 (plus credit card fees).

I have to agree with philly47, it's a different life, not a better one. The UK is better for lots, Australia is better for lots. You still have the same life problems in both places. Here it's worrying if you can afford to cool your home rather than if you can heat it etc. The driving rules have got a bit stricter for young ones here, but they can still be on the roads from 16. It's actually more older people I've experienced dying on the roads. Some caused by drink driving (it's FAR too common here, and people hardly even seem embarrassed to say they have been caught doing it), and accidents from driving the large distances inbetween places. On the spiders and snake front, I've hardly seen any snakes, and spiders I see less than I ever did in the UK )and I work outdoors with plants). The houses all have fly screens on the doors and windows so they don't get in as easily. I did get bitten on the neck while driving by one. Luckily it was a small one and I was stopped at lights so no accident lol. We see far more redbacks than huntsmen. But they stay in one stop so they don't bother me.

The field of work I left in the UK the pay is worse here. But for me to be sponsored I had to go to a lesser level job, with MUCH lower pay. That and the cost of living is higher here. I worry about the kids when they get to driving age. I've seen so many people here affected by people dying in car accidents. I also don't think there are anywhere near the same opportunities here. I've personally seen far more people into drugs here than the UK too.

I wouldn't say love it. Certainly not the best choice I ever made. But I do enjoy my life. But then I did in the UK. I'm worse off financially here and I worry more for my children here. I'm from Cambridge originally. I had been living in Manchester for nearly 5 years before coming here. I think moving back to Cambridge would have been better for me really, but then I would have always wondered 'what if'. I can't see me leaving now though. My partner is Aussie and we have a daughter and a second on the way. He also has an older daughter, so this is where we will stay.

I've been here 8 years and am on an employer sponsored pr. You can get permanent employer sponsorship straight up if you can pass the skills assessment (and assuming the job is on the sol or csol, but that applies to the 457 too).

Are you meaning sponsorship for PR or as a temporary resident? I know citizens who have had to wait 6 months once in a job. But I've also heard of people on 457 visas getting mortgages too. I think it depends if you are happy to go with whatever you can get no matter the cost or want to wait for a better deal.

I hate to be negative, but your plan doesn't sound like a great one. Firstly, you need a job on the sol or csol to get a permanent visa. Having family here makes no difference (unless you go for a last remaining relative visa, but most people wouldn't qualify for that). I came on a student visa. Student fees are mega high. As has been said, you'll be paying international fees, plus having to have health insurance. You are probably looking at about $20k plus per year just there (can be much more depending on courses). And you are right. Both of you are limited to 20 hours a week working. There is no way around this. My ex and I lived in a cheap house, had two cheap cars, no kids, and just broke even without taking into account the student fees and health insurance fees. Although you wouldn't have to pay international school fees for the kids, all schools have some fees that everyone has to pay. And if your kids are at preschool age you'd have to pay and couldn't claim any of the rebates. Then you come to the fact that it's near impossible to get a permanent visa once you have finished the course. You face the very probable chance that after paying out all that money, starting a life you enjoy, that you then have to leave the country. As for the coming on a tourist visa, if you were going to get a student visa you'd just apply for that from the UK. You can arrive a couple of months before the course starts (but can't work, either of you, until it starts).

Do you have to pay for a seat to get the bassinet?

I used to get some kind of rebate on my health insurance when I was on a student visa at tax time (you are a resident for tax purposes when on a 457). Some people have had their 457 visas approved by showing that they have travel insurance through their credit cards which covers them until they arrive and the reciprocal care kicks in. They word the visa like that as many people come from countries who don't have any reciprocal arrangements, or limited ones (like Ireland where only hospital treatment is covered).