Originally Posted by wslee

just got our visa approved today after 2 months long wait ! I'd like to get advise by you all whether we need to get our passport stamp in Australia Embassy here for the visa or we can do it later in Australia (we will moving to Perth in Mid of February). Thanks.

Originally Posted by midwife-mandy

you are so lucky congratulations. Did you get an e mail telling you? I keep getting up and checking my computer, the waiting is killing me.

Originally Posted by wslee

mine was a full 2 months waiting :curse: !

Originally Posted by Tabbiespice

Shari

I was just wondering about your consent form. If you are having to do one then I assume that one of the children you are bringing to Oz has a different birth parent.....a stepchild of either you or your other half?

3 of our children have different birth parents than us.....2 from a previous relationship of mine and one from Steves first marriage. We also had to do the consent forms but we also had to get statutory declarations done to allow us to remove the children from the UK. Have you thought about whether this also applies to you?
We dont want to worry you unecessarily and we dont know your circumstances of course but we wouldnt want your application to be delayed because you need them.

Jackie and Steve
xxxxx
xxxx

Originally Posted by Shari68

Hi Jackie & Steve,

Thanks for your concern....but, I got myself totally confused hinking this form was to be filled in for anyone with children under 18....I emailed my CO, she told me I didn't need to fill it phew!!! here's me getting into a state over it! Just awaiting the children's full birth certs and we have meds/x-rays on Monday....then I can relax as all paperwork is done....I think! Shari

Originally Posted by Tabbiespice

Thats ok then....if you had of had to go down the stat dec route then you are looking at solicitor fees of £500+ and then if your ex didnt agree then a court order which would take months and months and can run into thousands of pounds.

Good job and what a relief eh? Hehehe

I reckon once your meds get finalised your visa wont be far behind......if you are lucky then you will get the visa a couple of weeks after.
However in our case we are still waiting for our visa and meds were final 3rd Jan
NBWA went in 8th Jan and I thought it would be quick after that but alas no......

Steve think end of Jan and God I hope so too

Shipping our stuff at the end of next week

Jackie and Steve
xxx

Originally Posted by Shari68

Hope ur right about our visa....although still not sold house!!! Fingers crossed for you it, can't be long now.....which shipping company are you using? we had two quotes Robinsons and Pickfords not had chance to get anymore...but, Pickfords seemed more professional and cheaper. Hoping to start making arrangements for dogs in the next few weeks.....does it ever stop!!!

Originally Posted by Shari68

Hope ur right about our visa....although still not sold house!!! Fingers crossed for you it, can't be long now.....which shipping company are you using? we had two quotes Robinsons and Pickfords not had chance to get anymore...but, Pickfords seemed more professional and cheaper. Hoping to start making arrangements for dogs in the next few weeks.....does it ever stop!!!

Originally Posted by JohnLor

Hi Shari,

who do you have in mind for your dogs and how much have you been quoted?
We have two miniature Scnauzers and are considering our options. I really don't think we could leave them behind.

Originally Posted by Shari68

Had quotes from Airpets £2235 and Overhill (Bristol) £1820, I think we may go with Overhill, I plan to have a chat with them though and maybe visit. We have been considering the dogs for a while now.....kids won't leave the country without them! we have two bichon frise. They need about 4 weeks notice to apply for import permit, which we will have to get soon as we want to go in March.
Shari

Originally Posted by Tabbiespice

We have had quotes from Doree Bonner, John Mason, Allied Pickfords and PSS.

All the quotes were back in today and we have decided to go with PSS. They were not the cheapest but they gave the best sales pitch if you like and we are impressed with their track record.

Luckily we dont have pets to transport and thank goodness when it can cost upward of £2000 to send them over and then quarantine costs on the other side! I doubt we could afford it. Fingers crossed for you and John in getting reasonable quotes.

Jackie and Steve
xxx

Originally Posted by ianhutch1

Bit of an update for you all, we accepted an asking price offer on the house yesterday

Really hope everything goes okay with it now, it will be a huge burden off our minds so keeping our fingers crossed but realise its still early days. Apart from that we have been busy sorting house stuff out and seeing family and friends as much as possible, everyone wants a piece of us before we leave and yesterday I was having major wobbles but feeling super positive again im like a rollercoaster ride at the moment!

Struggling to get a short-term rental in Perth for anything near reasonable so we are now looking at a 6 month rental which will at least give us some stability while we are like fishes out of water!

So much stuff to sort out with tax and pensions and cancelling bills, etc but think we will be okay by the time we go

Originally Posted by Jasonmb

Hi Jackie

We have had quotes from Crown £4231, Doree Bonner £3940 and John Mason £3745. Still awaiting a respone to a question from John Masons before making our mind up.

Originally Posted by Tabbiespice

Is that for a dedicated 20' container? Our quotes for a dedicated 20' GP container (not Reefer) are:

Allied Pickfords: £3525
Doree Bonner: £3480
PSS: £3666
John Mason: £3750

We really liked the approach the PSS rep took, as well as the positive feedback they get on here and other places, so we called them up to haggle a little and got a final price of £3500 from them.

Good thing about PSS as well is that their insurance companys premium is 2.8% of value (including Insurance Premium Tax), everybody else was 3% + IPT. (Insurance Premium Tax is 5% of the premium value).