Me, Mrs Doug & the dougettes have been granted State Sponsorship for SA

• We have about 3 weeks left out of the 60 days before we have to submit our Visa application.
  
• We are having a bit of a wobble so would like you guys to give your opinions on the variations / possibilties that we have .......
  
  
• Go for a 2 week SA holiday to try and suss out the area's / schools / work situation and weather we will be able to cope beimg away from our life here in that short of time?
  
• But if this happens then I don’t see the point in the £2500 that the visa / meds / sparky coures's for work entails aswell as the £3-4000 holiday because we are going to see if we like the area, what if we don’t ? then we have blew the visa & holiday money & been the other side of the world and not made the most of it seeing sights / friends / family etc
  
• Another option would be that we delay the visa app and go for a proper reccy / holiday 4 week jobby, and visit our friends and family in SA / south sydney / north sydney / north brisbane and if we dont like it then we could at least say we made a good holiday of it and met the people that we may never see again !
  
• We could rent out here and move out there for a year without the holiday expense but with the visa expense and then have one of us return to sort things out here if we wanna stay ???????????????
  
• Or do we just put all our eggs in one basket think F it and pack up sell the lot here and make the most of it in SA

Let us know your thoughts please


Regards


Dougie & Louise

Dougie,

My thinking is that the money will be worth it even if it falls through after a couple of years and you return. There will be no more wondering what if and you would have had an experience you can talk and moan about for the rest of your life. But.... If it does work out well you will be wondering why you never made the decision sooner, one thing is certain, you will ALWAYS be able to earn a decent wage and get work in the UK so what have you really got to lose, a few grand?? so what! in the great game of life the sums of money that have to be commited are piffling poarticularly as most of it will normally come from house equity which is not earned anyway.

On the recce trip and costs, I would normally reccomend a recce trip but as you have commited to SA it does seem a bit of an extravagence but don't forget you can have a recce/ visa activation visit and you only have to spend a total of 2 of the 5 years of the visa term in Australia to qualify for an automatic 5 year extension, you could holiday next year say and go for certain in 2-3 years from now, a lot can happen in that time and I think it would be wise to keep your options open and make the most of the work you have already put into it.

Oh and just to add a bit of urgency there is talk of the trade coming off of the MODL list too, if this happen the states may well (probably will) follow and you will be screwed if you want to go anytime in the next 20 years (not this bad but it will be a while!)

Good luck!

Chuck all your eggs in one basket and go for it!!!

Will this affect me thou as I already have my acceptence from SA for the sponsorship ??


Hope not


Sounds like a plan Kar



Dougie

GO FOR IT! Does that 'sound' clear enough?! I've been putting off Aussieland for the past 6 years and once that visa is granted, I'm outta here (that is, when the house is sold) Go for it, if it ends up not working out, it will NOT be a 'tail between the legs' scenario when you return to the UK! It'll be a 'been there, done that, didn't work out, big deal!' scenario! Don't go through life thinking 'what if' just GO GO GO FOR IT!!!

knows her shizzle!!!
Were selling up and just going for it
gonna give it time and our best shot.....then see what happens :-)

Just dont burn any bridges and you should be fine.

If your SA state sponsorship expires then you are back in the mix with everybody else, I took it you had 3 weeks left to lodge your visa application or the SA SS route is gone?

I have a friend who is a fridge engineer, he decided not to cut short a holiday for the april vettassess, they then cancelled the July one now the Refrigeration Mechanic is off of the Queensland SS list, he is absolutely sick and going to have to find an employer now once his visa is lodged to have any chance of making the move in the next few years. If he'd done April vettassess he'd be home and dry. The rules change all the time and the best advice i've been given is if you qualify NOW apply NOW as you may not get a chance to later. In other words...


GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!

OK the visa App is nearly complete got to the payment section and they only take Credit cards !!!!!

So will sort in the morn


Dougie

Get the visa first.
Yes it costs a bit but now you can get it and in a few months things can change a lot.

I got the visa first (SA sponsored as well) and than went on a reccie to check the place out.

Worked out great for me.

Moved a few moths after the reccie.

Another tip, if you are coming here for a looksee do it in spring or summer, avoid winter.

Why's that then ?

Is it really that bad in Winter an I'll think I am still in England ?


Dougie

No, its not that bad.

I would actually say avoid coming in mid-Summer. If you lots of things you want to see/do/fit into and short period of time, then having to do it in 40c in Adelaide probably wouldn't be much fun.

we arrived 2 weeks ago and we are glad we came in winter it is beautiful in winter here blue skys around 23 in the day AND GO FOR IT!!! we did and we love it so far lol dont waste your money on a holiday iv never been to oz either and we just packed up and went good luck

There is a bit of difference between QLD and Adelaide as far as winter weather is concerned

Why not reccie in the middle of winter?
Over last few years when looking at various forums I have noticed that a much larger percentage of people doing a reccie mid winter go back with bad impressions that at other times.
Also a large percentage of people moving here late autumn or in winter end up leaving so keep that in mind as well.

Creature above is also correct in saying that peak of summer heat is not the best time to do the reccie.

We did a reccie to Melbourne at Xmas time and the weather was gorgeous, the sea was beautiful and everyone was in real holiday mood. We are now going back in wintertime (to validate) just for a comparison and to see if Oz still feels the right place to be, so I would say it's definately worth a wintertime trip.

One other thing I would say is that your children will have 'repeated' a year of schooling in Oz and if you then come back after a year they will be a year 'behind' and may find it a bit daunting to fit back into the system, which is something to think about (depending on what ages they are of course).