Hi,

As they say a new year a new start.

Today we intend to tell my parents and family that we have had enough of blighty and we wish to setup home in the new world.

We know we have got a long way to go - with visas, selling our house, moving and all that but at least its something to look forward to!

Hopefully the spouse visa will not be too horrendious an experience and we will get through it without any battle scars.

The amount of things to do seems endless i just wish there was a list available that would make things a little easier.

A few questions maybe someone has the answers...

Is a migration agency worth the cash?
We have a cat - what is the quarantine period to Aus?
Our son is in reception (born early in september) at the moment. However in australia the school years run from january to december so will he have to go up or down a year when he arrives as he will just be 6 we are wondering what effect this will have on his education.

Thanks and a happy new year to you all.

John (The Pom)

Good luck with your "journey"

We used an agent, which we are very pleased with. But if depends on your situation really. The agent in my opinion just made it hassle free for us.

Don't know about the restbut I'm sure the lovely people on here will help.

Wendy x

[Started writing reply but just lost it!

Goodluck with breaking news to family, that is one of my biggest worries.

Animals go into quarentine for about 30 days I think but there is also a big price for sending them over, up to £2000 I think. Bit of a worry, we have 2 cats and a dog who I would hate to leave.

Hy ya John and welcome to the mad house.

Yes, there is a long way to go and there will be numerous occasions when you will feel like hitting your head against a brick wall and thinking "why am I bothering" and sometimes you'll get to thinking there's a conspiracy against you but please just please just carry on because it WILL be worth it in the end.

I may only have the answer to one of your questions and its about the migration agents and personally speaking I/we don't think we could have done it without them, don't get me wrong there will still be heart ache along the way but they are at the other end to guide you through the pitfalls and all that.

Anyway good luck with the process and you'll get plenty of support and help along the way from the guys on this forum.

BRICKY ADE

What visa are you applying for? I believe the spouse visa can be frontloaded with the medicals and police checks etc?

good luck

Hi, Just wondering what agent you used??

Hy

The agents we used are

http://www.visabureau.co.uk/

Their offices are in London but they assign you to a case worker in Adelaide

BRICKY ADE

I use them, who have you had assigned to you?

Hy ya WendyC

Our agent is Brigid, who's yours and where are you heading

Yep, she's ours too. Lovely isn't she.

Were heading for Adelaide, just as soon as they send the visa!

Yeah, that were our thoughts too until it come out that she had made a proper FAX up of our main application and in doing so she set us back a few weeks, but at the end of the day she's pulled out all the stops and got us back on track.

We're heading to Melbourne ASAP .

Good luck John,

maybe a question for others out there as well, when did you guys decide to tell the family and friends ? My wife and I have only told her sister so far, and we are bursting to tell .

We have been working on applications for a couple of months, but there is a long way to go. Should we wait as long as possible or get it out of the way ?????

Paul

We told ours straight away, was really surprised that every one said to just go for it. Also the support they've given us was invaluable.

Isn't there the risk that the application gets turned down, and you are left looking a bit sheepish ???

All the more reason to have your family's support. You're family are not going to laugh at you if something bad happens, well I hope not anyway!

I didn't tell my friends until after we got the TRA back though. After that we couldn't keep quiet though even if we'd tried. People would have thought we were strange cos we couldn't stop smiling!