Dreams of Oz

Hello
We are a family of 4 coming over for a holiday/recce in April this year.Visas are in the process of being granted - hopefully.We will actually get a decision when we are over on holiday!!
My question is.. where to stay ?
We want to be in Brisbane ultimately and have friends in Ormiston,Cleveland and thought it would be a good idea maybe to settle there as they have tried out the schools etc and seem very happy.
I read on here the other day though that Ormiston is very quiet with not much going on.This could be a problem as i have a 17 year old daughter who will need LOTS going on.She has just started going out over here and would miss that i know.
Therefore we need to be near enough a big enough suburb with clubs or shops or pubs whatever but also near colleges for her to study hairdressing which is what she wants to do over there ( much to my dismay! )
I also have a 9 year old boy who would love to be near ish a beach but good schools are more of a priority for me for him.
It would be great if we could hit this fantastic suburb for our recce in April.
If anyone has any sites for holiday rentals in the suburbs they suggest that would be even better!
Thanks to you all.....

WS

Hello,

Just wondering, I think you said you were applying for a 136? If so, how can you get a decision/visa grant when you are in Australia if its an offshore visa?

Dorothy

The visa will be granted via email and then when they get home they send passports off to have the visa placed in them. When they decide to come over for good they move. No big deal

WS

Ooops, Sorry. I thought if you were going to Australia, you had to let DIMA know so they didn't grant an offshore visa whilst you are in Australia.

Billabong

WS99 is right. You cannot be in OZ when your visa is granted unless DIMIA are aware of it.

bridie

Correct

DrWho

You're right... You also cannot be onshore when you apply for it... We came here on a 1 year tourist visa and had to go to NZ when we applied for our 164 and back again when we were notified the visa was ready for granting...

JAJ

In fact if it's an offshore visa (other than special exceptions) then it doesn't matter whether DIMA are aware of it or not - visa cannot be granted onshore.

JAJ

That's incorrect information.

Did your tourist visa have a "no further stay" condition? Otherwise I cannot see any reason why your 164 could not have been lodged while you were still in Australia (you'd still have had to leave for visa grant).

DrWho

Not sure about the no further stay, but it did have something about not being able to apply for anything else while here... Does that make sense...? I'm pretty sure it's correct because we had George Lombard look at them and he said we'll have to get offshore for both the application and grant...

Dreams of Oz

OMG!I never even thought of this.We will be on our recce when all of our paperwork is due in.The CO has given us a deadline of 20th April to have our medicals and police checks in and also to get a stat dec from my daughters dad.We will be in Aus until 23 rd April.
I have told my agent this and she hasnt said there will be a problem.
Any suggestions on places to stay ?

Wendy

What I'd do is, get your agent to contact your CO when you submit all the rest of your paperwork informing them of the dates of your holiday.

Then the CO will probably either wait until after your holiday (which it could be that the visa isn't going to be granted before you come back anyway depending on how long your holiday is for) or he/she will ask you to arrange a short trip to NZ to enable them to grant it.

Just make sure you leave holiday contact details with your agent AND CO.