JenJen

ello

Just wondering. the visa has been sent in now just waiting for confirmation!!!

So what should we be doing NOW do we get quotes for shipping/removal now or later?
When do we sort out the cats pet passport thingy?

Hubby's adament he's not putting house on market til we have got the visa, which i personally think could be a problem for us but there you go he apparently knows better, well he would wouldn't he being a man and all.

the other big question is when do we book flights? and for when?
in a perfect world we'd have our visa granted in 6 - 7 months???? is it too short notice to book the flights then for September??? bearing in mind we'll apparently need a bulk head seat so it's big enough for our youngests car seat ???

I enquired about removal quotes and they said you need to give them a delivery address for the other side? how can we do that when we may very well be staying with friends until we find a rental although we'd be hoping to find one before all our things arrive?

Is there anything we need to be doing NOW????

We've booked to go to Disney Paris in March just to see how duracell bunny is with the short flight and the disruption both of which he isn't used to, from there i'll judge to see if we need to ask the dr's for something to knock him out when we get on the long haul flight.
We're in the process of starting to do up the house ready for when we put it on the market.

I feel like i'm missing something out am i ??? or is it too early days to be missing anyhting out that we should be doing.

Jen

nurselindsey

Hi Jen

We are nearly in the same position as you - hopefully visa will be in the post by the end of the week (136 modl), What I can tell yuo is some friends of ours have just had to go out to Brisbane for a holiday/validation as they waited until they had there visa before putting house up for sale and I think they haven't had any serious interest. We intend to put ours on the market asap. I suppose it depends on how quickly the houses are selling near you?

I went out to Perth (although we are off to Adelaide) in March with our youngest (18months old at time) I took car seat - didn't warrant bulk head as he was far too big for bassinet - so I guess it depends on the little ones age. It was pretty easy travelling with car seat though - and I was on my own.

Good luck with the process


LIndsey

khoardiroy

We sold the house and rented for 6 months.

Your friends address is fine for the shipping - you can change it once here...we did.

We got visa in April and did shipping and cat in three months and arrived in the July. It was easier as the house was sold. The biggest bit was selling the car. It sold the week before we left.

That said we knew the shipping company we wanted and started getting quotes 6 months befor. Everytjing was packed to go to the rental so we only unpacked what we needed - a few suits and chairs etc. Easier to pack for the flight that way.

mark213

I'd agree with him. Dont sell it until you are really certain. These things can happen quickly. Mine took 6 hours to sell! Wait until you get the request for medicals. Up to then there is a long wait and things can go wrong or get delayed. Plan on 6 months min to wait. After that things can get organised within 4-6 weeks. The house takes longer but selling only up to you to decide how much risk you are willing to take. Also think of all the disruptions well before you need to go. Why have to move to rented for 6 months? Thats 2 moves instead of just one to Australia.

Well depends on where and when you want to go. So you'll have to validate it and that will be 1 year from the day your PCC or medicals are done. Dont book till you have meds done again incase things get delayed. Remember flights are cheaper in November and Feb. Its not like ryanair with flight prices changing drastically until you are so close to the date going. 3 months notice is ample time to get a ticket

Not quite true. I have just specified a port. You do need to know which city but thats it.

Hmmm - alot of reading really on here and websites.
- do the house up if you need to - ask an estate agent on how saleable it is
- sort your finances, consolidate savings and pay debts
-Look at the next stage of your visa process.
-Where to get meds done,
-money transfers,
-look around at jobs in the area you want to go to,
-maybe get a map book and study it.
-Look at real-estate and rentals for ideas, start selling things on Ebay you never never use,
-warm people to the idea you are going so relatives and friends are prepared for when you do go
-Maybe look at banks,
-prices for items that you are really wanting to ship - maybe you can buy them cheaper there.

I wrote this of my life up to now if you fancy a read...
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=417281

ShellnTez

we move to the gold coast in 13 days and my advice is to get the house on the market as soon as you can, we had a buyer for ours so i accepted a job offer in oz only for the sale to fall through 7 weeks into the sale, we now have another buyer lined up but it won't complete in time before we go and that is proving a big issue- i have to sign it over to my mum to sort out and have to leave without all the equity that is tied up in it, we've had to borrow money as the money we had has gone on flights, shipping etc - so what i'm saying is it could take time to go through even if you have a buyer. and you don't realise how much you need to spend as the time gets nearer, the dog is costing £2,800 + quarantine fees, blood test costs, collection fees etc also our house needed some work doind before we could put it up for sale so get that done as soon as you can.

don't worry about shipping, you can leave that till nearer the time, we are going with gb liners and they are actually packing us up on tuesday- 12 days after they came round to quote us. shipping insurance is straight forward too. the customs forms that have to be filled out for shipping ask for an australian address, that can be changed they told us, however if it's further away they can charge you more and also if it's higher than the first floor eg an apartment block they can charge more again. you definitely need an address for shipping animals in order to apply for an importation permit. you only need to give 4-6 weeks notice to ship animals if you go with golden arrow- they come highly recommended.

ebay is a good idea- get your stuff on there as soon as you can

think about the time of year that you'll be going. we have a motorbike up for sale and due to xmas/ new year it still hasn't gone, in hindsight we should have advertised it sooner.

think about airlines- some give extra baggage allowance eg singapore airlines unless you have already entered australia for validation which we did so now only get 20kg

you can set up a bank account over there now, we set one up with commonwealth through their london branch, otherwise you'll not have proof of address when you first get there

also do you need any requirements for work. i'm a nurse and still haven't got my registration back which allows me to work.

hope this helps
shell