3 month update!

[Guest Adelaideboundsam]

Hi

My husband and I moved here from Nottingham on the 11th September and I thought I would let you know how we've been getting on. We came over on a 457 visa my husband got sponsorship from a company he is a car mechanic, we had never visited here we didn't really choose where we wanted to live we just moved to Adelaide as that's were his job offer was! (good reason I know:huh:). We saw a post on Poms in Oz asking for car mechanics and 3 months later moved to Adelaide! I spent many hours on this site before we came but haven't had a lot of time since arriving as you can imagine. When we arrived we had a holiday rental for 2 weeks in West Beach and a hire car for 2 weeks so didn't really give ourselves lots of time to get things sorted but we managed to find a house rental within that time in Marion not far from the Westfield centre that also allowed pets. We found a cheap car that we only had 2 weeks and someone wrote it off so then had to find another one! (not going to comment on the standard of driving here:arghh:). The insurance company we are with were very good and gave us more money for our car than we paid for it:smile: not that I would choose to do that. As soon as we had an address we got our drivers license's, TFN numbers and medicare cover sorted out, we already sorted our bank accounts before we left the UK with NAB they were really helpful and I would recommend them.

My husband started work 3 weeks after we got here and that's when I had a mini break down and wanted to go home I think until then it had felt like a holiday but then I was alone all day and didn't know anybody or have any family here and couldn't ring them for a chat as they were all in bed. I started applying for jobs a week after we arrived, I must of applied for about 100 jobs but only had one telephone interview! I just did an admin job for the NHS in the UK. I applied to about 10 agencies and didn't hear back from any of those so I started ringing them and went in to Hays the lady who I saw there was very nice and from Scotland so understood how difficult if was to find work when you first arrive, long story short about 10 days after I saw her she rang me with a 2 month contract for the government. While I was working for them I got offered a permanent full time job that started 1 week after my contract ended . So in short we have been here 3 months we both have permanent full time jobs, all our furniture is here and our cat arrived 2 weeks ago, and having hated it to begin with now love it and are better of than we were in the UK and are now applying for PR.

Sorry its a bit scatty but I tend to ramble on and type things as they enter my brain. If I can help anybody please feel free to ask me any questions I know it's really scary moving away from everything you know and your family there are still things I miss about the UK I'm glad we did it and if they sent us home tomorrow wouldn't regret having done it.

Thanks for reading

Sam

[evojoan]

Hi Sam

Glad to hear you are settling in well and enjoying your new life. Could I please ask which removal company you used and would you recommend them ?

 

Thanks Jo

[Guest Adelaideboundsam]

Hi Jo

Yes we used John Mason and they were very good we only had half a container so had to wait for it to be consolidated so it didn't actually sail until about 2 weeks after they collected our furniture. They were very good nothing broken until I dropped a dish last week!

[Guest moonraker1959]

Wow great news about your job hey?THats half the battle.If you're both earning,all the better!Congrats on the jobs and here's to a bright and happy future!xx

[Karen_Jon]

What a lovely post. I defo agree that the job is the main worry. But perseverance is the key for sure . We stayed in West Beach last April when we validated our visa and I found it lovely.

 

Jo I have used JM for shipping too. We fly from Manchester on the 27th jan and we had everything packed up by JM on the 10th dec. As far as I am aware it is still in Liverpool. I have found them to be very helpful etc so far.

 

Cheers Karen

[Guest DougandLou]

Hi Sam

Lovely to read your post, we are flying out on the 29th Jan 2013.To start our new adventure. I only have a tourist visa for 6 months whilst my permanent visa is being granted. I am a little nervous that I will become home-sick whilst im not working. hoping to throw myself into voluntary work and make lots of friends to keep myself busy. Dougs permanent visa has been granted so he is able to work straight away, he is constantly checking websites for Stonemasonry work. We are so excited and nervous, just need to finalise a few bits here and work out what to pack as we are only taking suitcases!! eeek

louise and Doug

[Guest gormusoglu]

Hi Sam, congratulations on making the move and loving it after a little wobble. Can I ask, you went on a 457 visa in September and you have mentioned you are already applying for a PR. Can you do that after only a few months? I thought you had to wait 2 years?

 

If you can help, I would be very grateful xx

[Guest Adelaideboundsam]

Yes we could as my husbands company said they would sponsor us for this, but he would of needed to take the mechanics tests (sorry can't remember what they are called). So we decided to wait 2 years so that he doesn't have to do that, we will still need sponsorship from husbands company.

hope this helps.

[scott&kerry]

Hi Sam, do we need to have a permanent address to get our TFN and Medicare sorted? We are in short term rental for our first 6 weeks so could we use that address to begin with? Was hoping to get all that sorted as Soon as we can on arrival!

Thanks kerry

[TomJonesDad]

You can use any address, we are in a temporary rental and have registered for medicare, TFN and have SA driving licences and registered the car here. It just means you have to change them all when you move which people may want to avoid by holding fire until they are in a permanent address.

[scott&kerry]

You can use any address, we are in a temporary rental and have registered for medicare, TFN and have SA driving licences and registered the car here. It just means you have to change them all when you move which people may want to avoid by holding fire until they are in a permanent address.

That's good to know thanks for that,

kerry

[Guest kate11]

Great to hear its going well, well done for getting everything sorted! We are in Nottingham too and hope to be where you are as soon as possible!

 

Kate

[Guest Adelaideboundsam]

We are from Stapleford, what area are you from? Good luck with your move

Sam