smoothhound

We are a family of five - 2 adults, 3 children. My husband is a qualified plant engineer. We have recently done a points check and been told we qualify for a skilled visa. What happens next?
Do we need an agent?

We've just been looking through other peoples questions on this and other forums and are now worried as the two eldest of our children have a different father who they don't see, can they stop us from taking those 2 children with us as we read that we have to get their fathers permission which will be near impossible!

Also we have had bad credit in the past, does this come into the equation?

The other thing is, we hear that most brits emigrate to perth, is there a particular reason for this? We're undecided on where to go, been looking into Brisbane, can anyone tell us what its like?
If anyone could give us any info we would be very grateful.

Many thanks.

thebutts

Hello

just wanted to say hi and welcome, and lots of luck for your "journey" with all its highs and lows.

With regards to your questions, i am no expert, but re the children, you will need a solicitor, and i think you do a declaration saying that the children ahve had no contact for x number of years, that you have been unable to contact him ect, etc, there are numerous people on here with children from previous relationships, and i think the problems arise when the father refuses to sign the forms but even then you can go through the courts to get the right.

Re bad credit history, (has anyone got a perfect one???) it certainly wont stop you getting in oz, as long as you pass the points test, pass the medicals and the police checks, your in. And i believe that once your there you start from scratch re credit history.

Good luck, hope other people can contribute more specific info.

Sarah

scrubbedexpat001

If there has been "no contact" with the biological father (no cards, presents, phone calls) and you have "no way of contacting him" (ie: you have moved away, he's moved away, there has been no contact since birth, you don't know how to contact him,) then it may be worth speaking to a solicitor regarding a Statutory Declaration (the Aussies seem to love these !). It may be worth speaking to a Migration Agent or a family solicitor.

As for where to move, personally we moved to Perth because we've lived in Sydney and found it too busy, it always seemed that everyone was going to the same place at the same time. Journeys that would take 10 - 15 mins during the day could take the best part of 1 - 1.5 hours (seriously). Plus the house prices there were just too much, we would've been living so far out in order to afford to buy that I would've spent around 2 hrs driving each way to get to/from work (along with everyone else !). My wife was originally from Melbourne and she didn't want to move back there. That's just our experience.

We moved back out to Perth in Nov 2007 as my wife transferred to WA Police and so far we've not looked back. We did a reckie in July/Aug 2007 (it was originally booked as our overseas holiday for 2007 but when we started looking at coming back to Oz we turned into a reckie).


Why we picked Perth:

1 - Wife had a job offer prior to us coming back from our reckie so we had 1 guaranteed income (very handy)

2 - It's much quieter than the Eastern states (in our opinion)

3 - The weather (I like it hot)

4 - The Indian Ocean on my doorstep (well less than 1 km in a straight line)

5 - A better lifesytle

6 - did I mention the weather !


There are drawbacks as well to living in Perth:

1 - Most shops are not open on Sundays unless you travel to Fremantle or Mandurah

2 - Supermarkets shut @ 6pm unless you o to an IGA (they close at 8 or 9) so no more going to ASDA at midnight when your a little peckish

3 - The Weather - sometimes it can be a tad warm (42c @ Christmas) plus the other 2 think it's always hot

4 - d*ck h*ads who think it's "cool" to do "donuts & burnouts" - still don't understand why they do it - guess I never will.

5 - Sometimes it's just a little "too quiet"


My advice to anyone is - if you can afford it do a reckie - not a holiday (you tend to walk around with rose tinted glasses when on your hols, everything is nice). I know many people dont do it, people even move out here without ever visiting the country - they are mighty brave in my opinion ! (I'd been to Oz twice before moving here and twice since I moved back to the UK)

Get out and about, drive round areas, look at the job & house markets (there are still bargains to be found), speak to people (Wife did a first aid course and got to find out which school to steer clear from) get a feel for an area, go out at night as well as during the day as some places change. Even consider visiting the local Police Station to try and get information about the "good & bad parts of town".

Don't expect it to be like Neighbours or Home & Away, Australia is like any other place in the world, there's graffiti, anti-social behaviour, crime etc but personally I don't think it's anywhere near the same scale as the UK and besides, life is what you make of it.

Hope this helps & good luck.

budda1

Hi, have been going to Perth for 10 years now to visit sis and 2 kids, she's been in Kinross for 5 years now and loves it, she's a towny though, I'm more a country girl, but need to see the sea, as we are from Jersey channel islands, the only things i can suggest is -

1. dont bother with agents, what a waist for time and money, they just keep you hanging around and it took 2 years for us to get visa, could have done it in 6 months but were scared of the unknown....Doh....

2. Take into account why you want to move, it's about the same price all round, food, houses etc., but a good clean lifestyle if you like to be outdoors.

3.. There is a much better family orientated life and room to be free and so many great things to see and do.

4. Don't panic, chill out and make sure you visit all area's as they all differ considerably, family life is the mani thing and great future for you're kids education.

deaprting soon forever
can't wait
budda1

smoothhound

Thanks for all your helpful replies, its made things a lot clearer, i will be ringing my solicitor re. children, as soon as i've finished this message!!

George Lombard

Dear Smoothhound,

Not sure what sort of plant engineer you are and it may be that you don't need an agent overall but I would definitely get professional advice about the non-custodial father and no I don't think a UK solicitor would be sufficient for that purpose.

Cheers,

George Lombard

smoothhound

My husband is a heavy plant engineer dealing with plant maintenance and construction on diggers, dumpers, earth movers etc.

George Lombard

Dear SH,

No worries, most likely it's an occupation on the skilled occupation list but not necessarily a MODL occupation, see http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/gener...-in-demand.htm; next issue is how he qualified, eg through an apprenticeship?


Cheers,

George Lombard

smoothhound

He did an apprenticeship and gained NVQ level 2 and 3 which also includes qualifications for welding, slinging and signaling etc. Will check out the link, thanks.

smoothhound

I just checked that site, his occupation is on the MODL list. Thing is, he hasn't done that job for 6 years, do you see this as a problem? It's difficult to get that sort of work in our area. For the last 3 years he has been a security engineer (cctv, alarms, door entry systems etc), previous to that he worked on machinery but not plant. That was for 4 years. Although he has no qualifications for the last two jobs.