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-   -   Visiting Australia before emigrating? (https://britishexpats.com/forum/australia-54/visiting-australia-before-emigrating-792010/)

powellfamily Mar 27th 2013 11:35 am

Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
Hello,

I would like to find out how many people do/have visited Australia before emigrating?

We are both set on emigrating and currently researching everything and saving but to visit we would be looking at about £5000!

Many Thanks

Jilliebee Mar 27th 2013 12:20 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We did. I think it's a huge thing to move lock stock and barrel to a country that you've never even visited before! Especially if you're uprooting children too.

I know a lot who didn't though x

hoofie2002 Mar 27th 2013 1:15 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
I'd never visited before emigrating? During a visit you are in holiday mode - its very different to being here working, kids at schools, paying bills etc

old.sparkles Mar 27th 2013 2:23 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We visited for nearly 3 weeks before applying for a visa. We never spent anywhere near £5k but there are only 2 of us :)

northernbird Mar 27th 2013 2:46 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
No, moved to Canada without visiting and then to Australia, again without visiting before.

powellfamily Mar 27th 2013 3:01 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
Thanks for the replies, the figure is only a rough estimate but I have two children so looking around £2500 for flights if we go for 3 weeks then that would be about £1000-£1500 for accommodation and then spending money.

We both know its what we want so part of me would rather save the money

old.sparkles Mar 27th 2013 3:11 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by powellfamily (Post 10626899)
Thanks for the replies, the figure is only a rough estimate but I have two children so looking around £2500 for flights if we go for 3 weeks then that would be about £1000-£1500 for accommodation and then spending money.

We both know its what we want so part of me would rather save the money

I work with someone who 'knew it was what he and his family wanted'. They hated it when they got there, his wife and kids flew home, and he had to wait for his container to turn up so he could turn it around and send it back again.

I also work with someone who has a visa, but since validating, his kids have decided they don't want to move. He does have another 3 years before the enter by date, so they may change their mind.

It is an expensive holiday, but the visa process is expensive too, and if it's not for you isn't it better to find that out first before you put yourselves through a lot of stress.

Bermudashorts Mar 27th 2013 7:57 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We had both been to Australia, but for me over ten years before and I had no thoughts of emigration at that time. I honestly don't think a reccie visit would have helped, because it is a holiday not life. We did a reccie visit to Bermuda which was lovely, but I didn't like living there (to put it mildly).

I think it is something I would only recommend if money is no object and you can splash out without batting an eyelid.

Kapri Mar 27th 2013 8:15 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
I have been to Australia but like BS it was over 10 years ago.
For me, I know that choosing the right area is very important because I saw areas that I absolutely loved but I also saw areas that gave me the shivers :eek:

So having been there has given me a guideline but whether or not it will have any bearing on me settling once I emigrate, I couldn't say.

RedDragon2008 Mar 27th 2013 8:47 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
we came twice; once in winter and then the second time in summer. however, these visits are not the same as living here permanently as you know you're on holiday.

powellfamily Mar 27th 2013 10:21 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
Thanks for your replies will need to think more about weather it's worth visiting first

bluekipper Mar 27th 2013 11:31 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
If you can afford it, you should try to visit first I reckon, thats way you will at least have some sense of what it may be like living here.

msmyrtle Mar 28th 2013 1:29 am

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by old.sparkles (Post 10626919)
I work with someone who 'knew it was what he and his family wanted'. They hated it when they got there, his wife and kids flew home, and he had to wait for his container to turn up so he could turn it around and send it back again.

:eek:

astera Mar 29th 2013 4:00 am

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by northernbird (Post 10626859)
No, moved to Canada without visiting and then to Australia, again without visiting before.

That first one must have been a shocker. :) Although I thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with friends in Vancouver, I just couldn't imagine actually having to live there (though I have lived in Washington State in the past). Of course Canada isn't just Vancouver so I might have had completely different feelings had I visited Toronto for instance... :)

I would visit as making a move is a bold decision and not seeing the place beforehand might not be a good idea, though as someone mentioned if you do visit then you are in holiday mode so things might seem different.

Personally I think you'll miss the social side of the UK, the level of the press, tv, pubs, etc.

northernbird Mar 29th 2013 5:01 am

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by astera (Post 10630225)
That first one must have been a shocker. :) Although I thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with friends in Vancouver, I just couldn't imagine actually having to live there (though I have lived in Washington State in the past). Of course Canada isn't just Vancouver so I might have had completely different feelings had I visited Toronto for instance... :)

I would visit as making a move is a bold decision and not seeing the place beforehand might not be a good idea, though as someone mentioned if you do visit then you are in holiday mode so things might seem different.

Personally I think you'll miss the social side of the UK, the level of the press, tv, pubs, etc.

Not really a shock. We lived in Calgary and then Halifax. Both lovely places albeit very different.

The hardest move I ever made was leaving Lancashire at 18. Packing my 1 suitcase, 1 box into the back of my boyfriends Peugeot 205 and heading down the M6 was, with hindsight, truly terrifying. Perhaps that is why I haven't had an issue with moving since then.

Not everyone misses the things you mention, it is subjective. Now there is iPlayer and the like I probably watch as much TV as I did in the UK and I check the news online everyday.

I say give it a go. Coming and visiting may give you an idea of what the place looks like but when you are spending your pounds you are in holiday mode and IMO does not prepare you for actually living here.

Just my opinion of course.

powellfamily Mar 29th 2013 8:31 am

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
Thanks for the replies, We are sure we won't miss the social side to the UK, my job and wife job changes the way u view pubs and clubs. Tv yes we watch it but much prefer being outdoors and spend most of the time doing this, even in the shocking weather. News again although we like to keep upto date with current affairs again we view what the press report differently.

Good to get the different opinions

Jan4kids Mar 29th 2013 12:08 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We came on a 4 week reccy in a Camper Van ...with 3 kids under 5 (I don't recommend this :rofl:)

It was 'nice' to do it, but with hindsight ...a total waste of time, effort and money. We were hoping to find the place we'd like to live...just like that! :eek::o...but Australia is so vast and each area so different in feel I'd say it's almost an impossible task.

If you do come...fly between the different cities to experience their vibe and hire a car in each place...you'll cover more ground that way.

To decide your initial Geographical starting point without a visit go on job availability initially.

Good Luck (Scary isn't it?)

Jan

powellfamily Mar 29th 2013 5:08 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We decided on Western Australia, I know people and have distant family there. I think we have decided not to visit. We know in our heart of hearts this is what we wanna do! Now to get the ball in motion!

old.sparkles Mar 29th 2013 9:33 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by powellfamily (Post 10631053)
We decided on Western Australia, I know people and have distant family there. I think we have decided not to visit. We know in our heart of hearts this is what we wanna do! Now to get the ball in motion!

Good luck with your journey :)

Gill73 Mar 29th 2013 9:36 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We lived in WA from Oct 08 to Jan 10. We returned back to UK and we've recently got our Residents Return Visas.

Having lived in WA, we know it's not for us. We moved there without visiting first. It's impossible to know if we'd have still emigrated there if we'd have been on holiday there first.

We are thinking of moving to Melbourne, but don't want to jump in with both feet again. We plan to have a two week rekkie first before making the final decision to move or not. It's not a cheap thing to do, but the thought of selling everything again and making the massive move without checking things out first, is too daunting to us

powellfamily Mar 29th 2013 9:38 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
Gill73 what made WA not for u?

carolinephillips Mar 29th 2013 10:10 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We visited Australia as a big holiday. We had been thinking of emigrating, but were thinking of NZ. Going to Aus changed our minds and we decided to emigrate to Perth, which we all really liked. However, OH was offered a job in Sydney by his firm, so we came here instead.

You never can tell what the future will hold for you.....but if serendipity tells you to go, then do it!:thumbup:

DeadVim Mar 29th 2013 10:50 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
I hadn't been to Oz before I moved but I had spent a weekend in Hull, which by all accounts, is similar.

skinnygeorge Mar 29th 2013 11:11 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
I had been here in before in Victoria 1989. I liked the way of life. A friend has lived in Qld since about 1997. I came with wife and two boys in 2008. this was their 1st visit. For me it was much as I had expected, Obviously very new for the rest of the family. As previously said the holiday feel is very different. And to be honest that new experience feeling can go on for 6 to 12 months, then the daily life routine kicks in and you realise life is not hugely different. But you are 11000 miles from your old life,friends and family. This why people often return to the UK around this time. You need to do two years,Hit the lows and see through them. Then make up your mind. Personnally I`d save the money for here. You will need it. Lets face it you have a wealth of information and experience here. Ask the questions, Even the silly ones. They are often the little day to day things that can be important to your happiness. I am very happy with my move, My wife? maybe a little less.Boys? one big yes one little not so sure. Happy hunting and good luck.

astera Mar 30th 2013 1:07 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by Gill73 (Post 10631415)
We are thinking of moving to Melbourne, but don't want to jump in with both feet again. We plan to have a two week rekkie first before making the final decision to move or not. It's not a cheap thing to do, but the thought of selling everything again and making the massive move without checking things out first, is too daunting to us

Add Sydney to your rekkie and you'll forget about Melbourne altogether. ;)

Anything specific you didn't like about Perth?

h2oskineil Mar 30th 2013 1:37 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by powellfamily (Post 10626453)
Hello,

I would like to find out how many people do/have visited Australia before emigrating?

We are both set on emigrating and currently researching everything and saving but to visit we would be looking at about £5000!

Many Thanks

I came around 5 times over a number of years and back-packed to most places around the outside and up the middle.

Met my wife and had a child and then a few years later we were married in Sydney, which was her first visit to Australia.

Went back a couple of years later, visited Perth, Melbourne (Great Ocean Road) and Sydney and decided we wanted to 'give it a go', got a job 2 years later mid 2005 and moved here January 2006.

Can't imagine moving to a country and never having visited. Even if just one of you go, you'll have an idea if it's a place you would like to live and bring your family. It's huge financial gamble (IMO) to move here only to find you don't like it.

Been here now coming on 7 years and I am now thinking of Australia as home. We're now citizens and I'm starting to feel more Australian than British.... but it has taken a while.

Gill73 Mar 30th 2013 7:49 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We personally found WA to be very expensive and lacking in things to do and see.

We found it to be approx 10 years behind the UK. It was only as we were leaving WA that Coles starting doing home deliveries for your weekly food shopping. If you wanted to order furniture etc on-line, then forget it. I don't know if it's caught up with the rest of the world, but that's how we left it in early 2011. As someone who does around 95% of all shopping on-line, I struggled with this.

Once we had bought a plot of land, built a house and then a pool, it was like we had ticked all the boxes and got to that "what now?" moment. We couldn't then see a future there for our family.

My eldest daughter didn't settle in school and I couldn't find work. I've never been unemployed before and thought as a Business Manager in the chemical industry, I would have enough transferrable skills to work anywhere. This was not the case. When I spoke to recruitement agencies, I was told that there wasn't a chemical industry in or around Perth, so they had nothing for me! As if I only had skills that would work in one industry!! I applied for jobs which were half my UK salary and still got nowhere.

Our WA experience wasn't great and I would not move back there. Perhaps if I had found work, I would have been happier, but it still felt lacking. This is obviously looking at things from a very personal point of view. We met some lovely people who are still in WA and love their life there.

We were NOR, Burns Beach, and we found the area to be one of the cleanest places I've ever been to and to have glorious beaches within 5 minutes of where we lived was amazing - so it wasn't all bad ;)

rasen78 Mar 30th 2013 9:51 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We weren't planning on doing a recce, but DIAC put paid to that when they processed our Visa much quicker than was anticipated. We had to make our initial entry before ROMFT left the RN, so decided to do a recce trip.

We stayed in Sydney with relatives for a few days, then hired a car and did a road trip to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road which was fab. Then stayed a week just outside Adelaide to get a feel for the area, look at houses etc, then a 2nd road trip back to Sydney via the Hay Plain (got detoured because of the floods too:() and spent the last few days in Sydney.

I am glad that we did it now, as it helped reinforce the feeling that Adelaide was the right place for us. Sydney was nice to visit, but I don't think I could live there, and I loved travelling the GOR. When we are in older, I think we may do a motorbike trip down there - just the 2 of us :D

It didn't really feel like a holiday to me. We have never really done the holiday thing as our breaks have always been to visit family rather than to chill etc, and we were quite practical (as ever :rolleyes) on our trip, checking out areas, the price of things, even working out the petrol price routine:lol: Of course we did some touristy things, but not a huge amount.

chris and farideh Mar 30th 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We came to Melbourne about 16 years ago on business visa fell in love with it, then we visited Sydney for holiday & hated it, when we decided to emigrate we wanted to go some where laid back so we picked Adelaide & did a recci 7 years ago we really fell in love with Adelaide & decided this is the place we want to live in soon after moving there we realised getting a job for a highly quailifed engineer is like finding a needle in a hay stack.
after moving 3 states we now live in Sydney cause that's where the high pay jobs are for OH, I still hate the place but what can you do.
I really don't think doing a recci makes much difference except its very expensive but picking the right state is way more important for the jobs you do search for the industries which is related to your jobs.

eddie007 Mar 31st 2013 4:25 am

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
No reckie here... 4 kids and visiting somewhere in holiday mode and all that jazz...

Quite content here in WA miss the uk...gateway to Europe blah blah blah

Won't be going back unless it's without the OH and kids... Which today appears quite doable.

powellfamily Mar 31st 2013 9:27 am

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
Eddie007 how did you go about it ? Did you just fly out get temp accommodation then look for somewhere to live? Would like to hear your experience.

Gill73 Mar 31st 2013 9:48 am

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
We booked a 4 week fully furnished holiday rental. While in this rental, we started looking for a year long rental property. We found one about 3 weeks after arriving and then had to make do with the basics until our container arrived. We found that offering to pay 6 months rent in advance helped our application as obviously we had no credit history in Australia. We didn't bring beds with us from the UK, so we bought new beds in Oz and got knifes, forks, plates etc from Ikea. We bought a patio set from Bunnings (the WA version of B & Q) and used this as both a dining room set and the chairs to sit on in the living room area! It was like Christmas when our container arrived 2 - 3 weeks later!

eddie007 Mar 31st 2013 12:53 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by powellfamily (Post 10633098)
Eddie007 how did you go about it ? Did you just fly out get temp accommodation then look for somewhere to live? Would like to hear your experience.

Booked a holiday rental for 3 weeks from the uk, flew over... Found a rental in the second week.... This was almost 6 years ago though.... Search renting in Australia in the threads... Plenty of horror stories... But remember for every one doom and gloom there are a hundred good time stories not written.

Grayling Mar 31st 2013 12:59 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by eddie007 (Post 10633300)
But remember for every one doom and gloom there are a hundred good time stories not written.

And hundreds of bad ones not written either

brissybee Mar 31st 2013 1:04 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
My advice to anyone considering a move to Australia would be to visit for a holiday first.

At Christmas.

eddie007 Mar 31st 2013 1:18 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by Grayling (Post 10633312)
And hundreds of bad ones not written either

Ok...

Wol Apr 1st 2013 5:22 am

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by powellfamily (Post 10627762)
Thanks for your replies will need to think more about weather it's worth visiting first

As someone else said, if money's no object then stick your toes in the water.

But frankly I wouldn't bother: even six months on a sort of vacation won't prepare you for the real Australia. Living here is different. I had been to Australia many times, worked here for three four month periods, and thought I knew the place - but I didn't really.

Save the money - at least you'll be able to buy the return flight when and if you decide to get out.

brissybee Apr 1st 2013 12:43 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 

Originally Posted by Wol (Post 10634270)
As someone else said, if money's no object then stick your toes in the water.

But frankly I wouldn't bother: even six months on a sort of vacation won't prepare you for the real Australia. Living here is different. I had been to Australia many times, worked here for three four month periods, and thought I knew the place - but I didn't really.

Save the money - at least you'll be able to buy the return flight when and if you decide to get out.

That's a good idea.

Lindsaylou777 Apr 1st 2013 12:59 pm

Re: Visiting Australia before emigrating?
 
Hello the Powell family we have planned our trip and fly out to Perth in 3 weeks.
We have started the application process and currently awaiting state sponsorship approval. We plan to apply for the Visa on our return just to be sure.
We have 2 kids so flights and villa cost £3600.
It is a big move if it isn't what you expect when you get there!!:thumbsup:



Originally Posted by powellfamily (Post 10626453)
Hello,

I would like to find out how many people do/have visited Australia before emigrating?

We are both set on emigrating and currently researching everything and saving but to visit we would be looking at about £5000!

Many Thanks



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