Its all happening for us, house has sold and instead of a leisurely 3 weeks to get out, the buyers want us out next week, so we got some shippers coming and they want an OZ address which I think we can get but also the Visa pages of our passports... Slight problem, still waiting after submitting £100k bond about 7 weeks ago.

The odds are we should get our visa before the shipment arrives in Aus (about 6 weeks!!) but its a risk.

Anyone done this or are we completely crackers

Yes we know people that done this! At the time I thought they were bonkers but we are now considering doing this ourselves They went with Allied Pickfords whole use of a container. We are only sending 10 boxes.
Most companies offer free storage for a number of weeks, maybe they will store it for you whilst you wait for visa.

Good luck fingers x'd wont be long now
Kate

We used Allied, although we shipped from Canada and they wouldn't pack our stuff into the container until they had a copy of the visa page from our passports. I don't know if (or why) it's any different from UK to Australia, but I would think it would be the same. What if for some reason you don't get a visa? What will you do about all of your belongings on the other side of the world with noone to claim it?

Well, if they want to see the visa pages of your passport you've got a bit of a problem haven't you? Why not give them a call and find out whether they will accept your goods without proof of your visa? I didn't have to show my visa to the shipping company, and it was a temporary one anyway.

Plus 6 weeks for the shipment to arrive in Australia? What about customs, quarantine etc?

They will store your good for you until you arrive, although this will be quite pricey.

It may be better to store your goods in the UK while you wait for your visa to be issued, then arrange for the goods to be shipped.

we were told that the visa pages are required by customs at the Oz end so are needed - we were also told that you have to be in Oz when the shipment arrives. Our shipment only took 3 weeks to get there and then another couple for customs etc.

In the end we put our stuff into storage with the shippers UK end and it left 3 weeks before we did and arrived the same day. It had cleared customs and was delivered to us the day we moved into our rental.

Why not just put it into storage in the UK?

I work for an International shipping co here in Perth and Customs WILL NOT clear your container until they have sighted your visas, you could incurr hefty storage fees . Best to put into storage in the UK until you have those important labels!

We didn't ship our things but we'd booked our flights before we actually had our visa. I wouldn't recommend doing it, it made the last few weeks far more stressful and I would wake up each morning feeling sick with worry. Can you put it into storage - it might only be for a week or 2 until your visa arrives.

I like the sound of that - how long after you landed did you move into your rental???

Hi

We are going to use Brittannia Shippers and they offer 4 weeks free storage before shipping so you could try them and we found they were the cheapest. We are in the midlands though.

Tracey x

Thanks all, we already signed up with John Masons (they better not be any tea leafs!), and we've now worked out a deal with them to store until we can get the visa pages (£200 extra though!!!) If the Visa had come through it;d be away and almost ready for us when we got there, now its pot luck.

Gotta get done in a few days as house sale is whizzing through to completion next week and we'll be sleeping on blow up beds for a while, Gonna be lots of fun with the kids and buga all to do, going to have to find all the best days out indoors.