toan

How are you all,
will give you a call friday all being well,
take care

Tony

Sally Simpson

Oh sorry to hear that Damned UK housing market
Will send you some house selling karma & hopefully you will be here sooner rather than later

lolylew

yeh all good thanx...looking forward to a nice long weekend!!!!
any luck with that job info i sent you?

lisa

toan

Thanks Sal,glad your doing well

toan

No not heard yet and thanks,talk friday

pomerz

Hi All
Trust you are all well wherever you may be

Down to business.......

We are as mentioned before coming to Perth on 15/06 to validate, can people who have already been through this process give us 'newbies' some tips on, must do's whilst in the country (only a week) with a view to ?

Also any 'New' Western Australians could you give us some ideas for the few days we have free (if any ) to see some must see sights ect?

Do i as the main applicant have to present my passport first when we pass few immigration at Perth Int and do we still enter in the normal line or is there another one for visa validations ect????

Thanks all replies appreciated
M@

direct2dubai

Congrats Pomerz....we did our first entry at Perth also....
No special que for first entries at immigration. It doesn't matter whose passport is shown first. I guess they figure it out (we only had 2 passports)....

Perth airport is not that great - very basic with sniffer dogs in the arrival area once you collect your bags.

Swan River (river ferries. restaurants)
Kings Park (beautiful views of the city)
Rottnest Island (day trip)
Cottlesloe Beach
Scarborough
Fremantle/ Subiaco

lolylew

hi pomerz,

great to hear you're finally coming over for your validating trip...bet your soooo excited!!!!!

no you dont have to do anything special when you validate, as the main applicant we were told to present their passport first or have it on the top, not sure if its right, but thats what we did.....i was quite dissapointed actually as i was at least expecting a fan fare or at least congratulations, lol!!!!
(someone actually asked me the same question the other day....and i said you have to take the validating pledge, read out a script saying you abide to their laws and customs......i dont think it went down too well as i havent heard from him since - so thought i'd be honest in this post )

i think if your only over for a week its important you research all the areas your interested in, probably mean alot of your time in the car, but worth it!
if you look in the local property papers, it might be worth looking at a few houses to see what you get for your money......every weekend, they have what you call 'home opens' thats when you can view peoples houses, you just turn up at the allocated time and look around! they'll all be advertised in the papers. you can also have a look around some showhomes, just be aware they're only open certain days - usually afternoons only, by us its mondays wednesdays and sat & sunday!
also do do some stuff for yourselves take time out for the beaches, perth CBD & kings park...i do think it depends on the weather and what part of perth your staying in. if your further up north, perhaps a trip to hillarys boat harbour, the aquariums there, or mindarie marina - if your south perhaps
freemantle, the prisons there or mandurah.
do you know where your staying yet?

if u need anymore info please ask
lisa

pomerz

if u need anymore info please ask
lisa


Thanks for the tips direct2dubai and what a coincidence as we are coming via Dubai and spending 10days there on the way back!
Mrs Matt had all of those places listed as things to tick off when we are there but thanks for confirming them

Hi Lisa
Thanks also for your detail we are extremely excited about coming back to Australia for a second time especially in light of the visa grant so this time it feels more real if you know what i mean?

After having accommodation cancelled by the vendor last week (aghhhhhh bit short notice and all!) we have secured another fantastic house in Quins Rocks so to answer the question we are North but with a big old hire car Perth and surrounding areas are our oysters

As bad as this seems our research of the areas are limited and there are some reasons for this documented on the posts over the last 2 years

I suppose the main concern has been all the talk of recession gripping Australia in the press and the balance of pros and cons UK vs Oz (this wasnt helped when Oliver passed the 11+ and was offered a place at the only Grammer school in the area )

However that decision may be taken out of our hands 12/06 when my employers announce which 450 employees they are letting go in a massive redundancy situation..... If im in the mix then my validation trip may be one way from my point of view and who knows another door may open

Right questions

1. Job situation WA is it dire or only dier if you normally wouldnt adapt to whatever was available?
2. Any good sites for long term rentals (should we have to pull the emergency card in June)
3. We ideally would like to settle Noth of Perth how we we go about selecting a district with a good reputation and a decent set of schools?
4. Cost of living....You guys have been there for a while what sort of minimum earnings would be required to live a reasonable existence ( not luxury just happy)
5. We are attending the jobs exbo in the Perth exhibition centre are these events worth a look or would we do best to pick up a local paper (which one?)
6. Bank account commonwealth or wespac again which one was easiest to kick off or do you have any other suggestions.....


Sorry you did ask lol....And im sure there will be more if you dont mind over the next couple of weeks

Thanks guys hope you are all well and look forward to our Mid June Adventure

lolylew

ok....here goes, lol!!!!

1&5.jobs are generally getting worse here....however probably nowhere near as bad as the uk.......it also depends on your occupation...cant remember what yours is offhand, but certain jobs are very much still in demand!
i think it deffo worth a trip to the expo , 'the western australian' is the best paper to get for jobs, (think and i only think the jobs day is wednesday or saturday - could be both not sure....im sure someone can confirm this for me.)
probably worth a look at jobs websites before you come, you could apply for a few before you come, make sure you state you're a on PR visa....although probably best to expect not to hear anything as they seem to prefer to look at you if your only in the country.
this is how we ended up coming over premanently - andrew applied for several jobs, heard nothing, and then weeks later...probably when they couldnt fill the position they emailed him, they did a telephone interview, and we told them we were coming over to validate in a few weeks and they asked to see him. so deffinatley worth a try!

2.a good rental websire is www.realestate.com - you probably know that one tho.....thats the one we used to look on most. i'd also make a note of the real estate agents that cover the area you want to live in and look on there own websites, as sometimes real estate is the last to be updated!

3. area & schools. you'll probably get a feel for the areas you like when you're driving around....as regards to schools...genaraly i'd say private schools are best...im sure i'll get quite a few people say their happy with the state schools (sorry if i've offended anyone)
mine are in private and its fairly cheap...especially compared to the uk. what is expensive is the stupid scool uniforms they have to have, even down to the same bags!!!! i'm sure thats where the schools gets most their funds from, profiting on uniform sales

4.cost of living...well generally i'd say that everything is as expensive, & probably more than the uk!!!!!!! that is appart from petrol (half pice!) and a few other things, council tax..sorry mind gone blank!
things i wish i'd bought new before we came over: another setee, we did buy a new dyson (glad we did), beddings fairly expensive and not as much choice i think, cusions, washing machines are fairly expensive and they dont really do silver ones, dishwashers are expensive - have a look at harvey norman and the good guys websites!
how much to earn....well i do think that depends on whether your going to buy a house, and how much your mortgage will be!
at the moment we have rented our house out in the uk....we are going to build but are having a heavy mortgage, so need to earn quite a bit!!!!! once we sell the house and can pay off some of that mortgage we wont need as much! have a look at the rental website and see how much it is to rent.

6.bank acct - i would DEFFINATELY open an account when your over - we didnt and regretted it! much easier in person than over the internet form another country, and we couldnt really use the acct until we had showed ourself in person - although funnily enough they let us deposit money, lol!!!!
we're with westpac, only because they're the only ones we could see that would let you open an acct from another country (could be wrong tho'!) we did have to go in to activate it and it took bloody ages....she said it'd take about 45 mins....it took about and hour and a half!!!!!!!!
not sure what the commonwealth are like tho'!

i hope thats helped you a little
lisa

pomerz

i hope thats helped you a little
lisa


Thanks Lisa we really apreciate the time taken to reply with such great info

We have planned an itinery for the week and taken on board your comments (printed your reply as a crib sheet to bring!)

One final question is the weather in June any good......or shall we bring our winter woolies


Roll on Juneeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Anyone flown with Emirates....Any feedback and if so any tips for surviving the long flight? Last time we came via Hong Kong with a long stop over but this time its a 90 min stop the onwards from Dubai

Sally Simpson

Hi Pomerz! Glad to hear that all is progressing & you are doing a reccie
We have friends who did a trip to perth in UK summer & they found it quite warm although chilly at night. It's all relative!
Have fun & enjoy

lolylew

glad i was of help

cant really help you with the weather in june i'm afraid as we havent been there in that month yet.

i would definately bring some warm clothes for the night time, when we were here last october it was quite chilly when the sun went down! hopefully you should get a bit of sun too?

we flew with emirates via dubai.........good inflight entertainment - my OH summed it up well...... 'like sitting in a child seat for 18hrs', but i think thats pretty std on all planes. when we came back in january we flew business class and that was good but your still confined to 1 seat for hours - appart from that thay were great - i'll be happy when they invent teleportation

we stayed in quinns rocks when we were here last year! check the chippy out by coles supermarket, he's scottish and does amazing gravy, mmmm!!!!!
if u go down to hillarys theres a nice restaurant called portofinos worth checking out, almost opposite the beach area inside hillarys.

have a fab time
lisa

pomerz

Hi All

Very Very Excited about the validation trip see you down under on Monday lol

Pollyana

Enjoy the trip!!!

I'm going to relocate the thread too now as its no longer full of visa questions