Hi all.

Been reading the board for a month or so, getting loads of information, but not yet posted.

Well i am dual citizen by birth and as my family where one of the £10 pomes. Went over in 1969, me born in '71 but they went back to UK in '73.

We have made the decision as a family, me, wife and two girls (6) and (8) to move over to my homeland .

I applied for Citizenship by Descent for my girls last week and I got their certificates today .

Cost £50 for the first child and £40 for every other.

I will be popping down to London in january to Australia House to get all 3 of us an Ozzy passport.

Then i will be appying for a spouses visa for the missus. Have been told this shouldn't take long at all. a few months.

We are planning to move over in October time as i am leaving my job as a Lead Computer Programmer with a company i have been with for 13 years to go contracting in London to get some more money behind us before we go.

I will only have about 10-15k in bank if we didn't and i want to be more secure before we go. And contracting will hopfully get me that security.

Its a bit of a shame really as i have been corresponding with a company in Brisbane about a vacancy they have and it looks like they would take me on for around $90k a year if i could go quicker, but we are just not ready. Excellent job by the sound of it where they dont mind you working from home most days and commuting in a few days a week.

Any ho. At least i know my skills are needed.

Well that it for now, and thanks to you all for giving us plenty of information that we needed.

The Bulls

Congrats Bulls

Just a bit of advice!

1. The passport office closes once they have too many passports in to process so although it closes at 3.30pm - when we were there it closed at 12pm just 10 minutes after we arrived.

2. The passport office is at the other end of the Strand so is a very long walk from Charing Cross Tube station - better to pick another tube station but i cant remember which is closest.

3. Get your photos done at a proper shop not a booth and make sure that you take the blue form so that you can measure the head sizes against it - the shop had to reprint mine as for UK standards my head wasnt big enough - once they zoomed in again it was perfect. It only cost £5 in the shop and the booth was £4.50 and a complete waste of money.

Good luck - where abouts are you heading?

Thanks.

Yeah i have been advised to get there when it opens to make sure we get sorted.

We have family in Sydney, but i didn't really fancy it to be honest.

We are focusing all our research on Brisbane. We really like the area.

Yes I too have family near Sydney and friends in the area too but don't fancy it either - looking Sunshine Coast myself.

And i used to live in Hull LOL

Hi Bulls, we are from Hull and in the slow process of migration (as are my sisters family), where in Hull are you from? It sounds like you and my brother in law could help each other as he works in computers and has done a lot of research into job in Brisbane.

Regards Troy

Hi Bulls,

Your wife's visa may take a much less than a few months....partner processing in London is pretty fast, although as she will be going straight for permanent residency (i assume) there may be additional processing.

Re the job in Brisbane. $90k is good money but with your amount of experience and current position I would say you could certainly do better financially.....of course as you say if this employer is prepared to offer flexible working practices then it's certainly worth dropping a few $'s for a change of lifestyle.

What IT skills do you have if you don't mind me asking?

Cheers,

B

Thanks for the response guys.

Well for the people from the area, we are living off Gillshill Road/Lambwath Road in Hull so the house shouldn't be hard to sell. In fact my brother who lives in Brighton wants to buy it as an investment and rent it back to me until we go. So not only would we be saving hundreds a month, we can keep the girls in the same school and with friends until we move.

Regarding the skills i am prodominantly SQL Server/Vb.net/ASP/Web so a broad range really but data processing is my speciallity

Just thinking actually, I have been informed from Australia House recently that they are now only using an appointment system regarding the Passports, so long as i book an appointment, it should be fine.

Are any of you missing Hull at all.....................


Didn't think so..

Leaving the tigers is going to be my biggest sacrifice.

Cheers all.

Would like to keep in touch as we get nearer