Hello,
We just wanted to introduce ourselves, I am Michelle,32 and am married to Henk,40, we have 2 kids, Lucy,6 and Harry,3. We have been following this forum for the last year and this is our first post, Hi to everyone who has inadvertantly been answering all our questions and many thanks!!! I am English and Henk is Flemish and we are currently living in Belgium (for the last 5 years) and are hoping to join the MASSIVE international community in Perth early in 2008 ( all being well! ) We began our process in Feb this year and have passed the TRA with no problems so far. We have just received acknowledgment of our 136 visa application so now it's a waiting game we guess! We have been told that they are snowed under at the moment, which is crap as we can't wait to get away from this shitty weather!!! Fingers crossed we get through in a reasonable amount of time. Expect a steady onslaught of posts from us throughout the next part of 2007!!! You all make us giggle at regular intervals, aswell as giving extremely prudent and thought provoking advice, and know, that we think it is soooo important to hear all sides.......forewarned is forearmed, right?!!!! I look forward to making cyber friends and eventually, firm friends in the flesh!!!( only kind comments please!!! )
Michelle, Henk, Lucy and buggerlugs Harry!

Hi, just wanted to say welcome! Hope all goes well for you with your planned move

Hi and welcome

you will get loads of advice on here, most of it good

good luck with getting to Perth i hope it all goes smoothly

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Nothing in your post for unkind comments!!

shears

A few things you should know:

- if your second son was born in Belgium, then if you've not already done so, you should get him a British consular birth certificate from the British Embassy. Also, when he is older he needs to know that he is British "by descent" and children he has in Australia (ie your grandchildren) may not be British citizens automatically.

- both your children can have both British and Belgian passports (assuming your husband is a Belgian citizen)

- if your older daughter was born in the UK, she may have to take steps to retain her Belgian citizenship when she is aged 18.

- Belgium recently changed its law on dual citizenship, so your Belgian husband should be able to become an Australian citizen in due course while keeping his Belgian citizenship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_nationality_law

You should keep in touch with any future law changes in either Britain or Belgium.

Hello and welcome to BE.

I am in Perth too.

Good luck with the move.

Hello folks and welcome. You should have joined in yonks ago instead of hovering, so we could tell if you were all nuts or sane.If sane, get out now before its too late.

Thanks to all who have welcomed us!
JAJ, my girl was born in the UK and has the 2 passports you mentioned, and my boy WAS born in Belgium, we were on the ball (oo er) and registered him with the British embassy so he now has a consular birth cert. Ta!
I guess only time will tell if I am craaazzyyyy enough for you guys! I'll try my best! Reason we were hovering is cause we wanted to be at the point of having a reasonable chance of getting there, and that now looks plausable so WATCH OUT I'm a comin!!!!
Michelle...............

Welcome. I was a Belgian resident and British citizen when I did my visa application so let me know if you need any help.

Wow!, That's interesting! What's your story? Did you find the process long, short, hard, easy(we've been warned that it may take a little longer as my hubby is Belgian, certainly Dutch and Belgian couples wait the longest, but we are hoping the fact that I am British might speed it up a bit) On the Dutch forum my man follows they are speculating that the checking of translations slows things down. Great to know that I'm not the first person running from Belgium (with my heels on fire!!!!)
Michelle..............

Our situation is a little different as my wife is a UK citizen too. Being in Belgium didn't cause any specific problems. In fact, getting the Belgian police letters was easier than the UK ones; just go to the Commune and pay €7. You do need to have them translated to English by a NAATI approved translator but that only takes a couple of weeks. I also had my medicals done very cheaply (compared to the UK) and easily by a very nice chap in Antwerp.

The Australian Embassy in Brussels cannot evidence your visa and put it in your passport, you need to go to Berlin to do that. There is an option to do it by mail but trusting your passport to La Poste (in Wallonie anyway) is equivalent to flushing it down the toilet so the trip to Berlin is pretty much mandatory.

*waves* hello - and good luck with the adventure.

Hello and welcome.

Good luck with the move to Perth.

Thanks guys!
Gonnago, your hubby is a welder, same as mine? They never get their hands clean right?!!!You still in UK? How's it goin? Same question for TeresaG?!!!
For HCJ, you couldn't be more right about the Belgian post, but I learned the hard way, now I've got their number! We are sooooooo distrustful of the whole service that we drove twice up to Nijmegen in Holland to our agent with important papers that we dared not to send!!! WHY were you here in the land of no manners? Where are you now? (hubby is one of the few, he has actually travelled out of Belgium, unlike most, and seen there is more to the world than being 'Belgian'!!!) We had heard that our police checks would be quick, but we must also get ones from UK as we both lived there for a time. Glad to hear about the medical, that is a bit of a concern for me, think my liver might let me down!!! Do we HAVE to go to Berlin?We were thinking London or Paris would be easier?
Ta v.much!!!
Michelle........

You definitely cannot do it in London. When I tried they told me that the Consular Section in Berlin is responsible for Belgian residents so you have to go there. The website for the Paris Embassy now also directs you to Berlin. The Berlin Embassy is on Wallstrasse so it's reasonably easy to get to on the U-bahn - Märkisches Museum station I think.

I will dig out the contact details for the Doctor I used and PM them to you. Mrs HCJ was very worried about it but this guy was first class and spoke perfect English.

I was a pilot for a major cargo airline when I was in Belgium (you can probably guess the one!) I am now working on a short term contract for a German airline to pay for the lavish palace that Mrs HCJ is constructing on the Gold Coast. We will move permanently to Australia next year.