Jacqui

Thanks for all your views. Whether or not we agree on any of this doesn't really matter, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. This is a major step for us, and our children. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we've been given, it's cost us a lot of time and money to get this far, and if we changed our minds now because of feeling guility about the children's future/upsetting the relatives/or whatever, then we would spend the rest of our lives wondering "what if?"

So now we can start making our plans and hopefully arrive in Oz within the next six months. We will give it our best shot, and if it doesn't work out, then at least we tried. We are fortunate in that we only have a small mortgage to pay off, we do have the backup of plenty of savings and on arrival we will be staying with my sister (the only person who is delighted with our decision!)

One good thing though, at least we are embarking on this adventure well-informed, thanks to the input from others on this board and elsewhere on the net, not to mention the piles of books/newspapers I've read through, it's good to hear about all experiences, good and bad.

Mandy Bale

Hi Jacqui, You've probably already done it by now as this is the first time I've
managed to log on for weeks so haven't been keeping up with messages. I went to
London and took the passports to have visa attatched. I got there for 9am and
basically you are given a number by the receptionist and then you take a seat and
wait for you number to be called. I waited about an hour so wasn't too bad. They are
open from 9am to 11am for this sort of thing so make sure you get there for 9am as I
did and there was loads of people in front of me!! The entrance for visa enquiries is
down the side of the building but it is sign posted. We got our visa just before
Christmas and we are off to start our new life in a couple of weeks. We fly out on
30th March. We had a great leaving party and now just have the container to pack then
we are ready!!

good luck with yours and hope it all goes well Mandy "Jacqui"
<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Having received the pre-grant letter this morning, I'd like to get excited that
    > we're almost there, but I guess we can't do anything planning-wise until the
    > passports are stamped. There are plenty of sentences in the letter that say "IF the
    > visa is granted" and a big paragraph in bold letters reminding us not to give up
    > the job, sell property etc, until the granting of the visa has been confirmed.
    > Since there have been no material changes in our application, I would like to
    > remain optimistic, surely we won't be turned down now that we've got this far??
    >
    > So does it make any difference which method we use for getting that all important
    > visa stamp put it? Travelling down to London would be no hassle for us, it's less
    > than one hour away by train, but do you have to make an appointment first, or just
    > turn up? Can just the main applicant go, or does the whole family have to attend?
    > Do the passports get stamped there and then and handed back to you? If we posted
    > them, roughly how long could we expect to wait?
    >
    > If anyone has experience of going to the Australian High Commission, I'd be
    > grateful to hear from you.
    >
    >
    >
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Mallysutton

hi "Mandy Bale" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:1015931170.9192.0.nnrp-14.c1ed6...ws.demon.co.uk...
    > Hi Jacqui, You've probably already done it by now as this is the first
time
    > I've managed to log on for weeks so haven't been keeping up with messages. I went
    > to London and took the passports to have visa attatched. I got
there
    > for 9am and basically you are given a number by the receptionist and then you take
    > a seat and wait for you number to be called. I waited about an hour so wasn't too
    > bad. They are open from 9am to 11am for this sort of thing so make sure you get
    > there for 9am as I did and there was loads of people in front of me!! The entrance
    > for visa enquiries is down the side
of
    > the building but it is sign posted. We got our visa just before Christmas and we
    > are off to start our new life in a couple of weeks. We fly out on 30th March. We
    > had a great leaving party and now just have the container
to
    > pack then we are ready!!
    >
    > good luck with yours and hope it all goes well Mandy "Jacqui"
    > <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    > > Having received the pre-grant letter this morning, I'd like to get excited that
    > > we're almost there, but I guess we can't do anything planning-wise until the
    > > passports are stamped. There are plenty of sentences in the letter that say "IF
    > > the visa is granted" and a big paragraph in bold letters reminding us not to give
    > > up the job, sell property etc, until the granting of the visa has been confirmed.
    > > Since there have been no material changes in our application, I would like to
    > > remain optimistic, surely we won't be turned down now that we've got this far??
    > >
    > > So does it make any difference which method we use for getting that all important
    > > visa stamp put it? Travelling down to London would be no hassle for us, it's less
    > > than one hour away by train, but do you have to make an appointment first, or
    > > just turn up? Can just the main applicant go, or does the whole family have to
    > > attend? Do the passports get stamped there and then and handed back to you? If we
    > > posted them, roughly how long could we expect to wait?
    > >
    > > If anyone has experience of going to the Australian High Commission, I'd be
    > > grateful to hear from you.
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > > --
    > > Posted via http://britishexpats.com