21st May arrival day, any information about necessary action

[felix h]

Hi all,

my family (kiddies Isaiah:5, Aisha:11 and my wife Martha(33) will finally arrive in Perth. Yuppieh !!

I would kindly ask for some help :
What (besides opening a bank account and looking for an appartment and job) are issues we need to handle.
- Do we need to register at DIMA or any other local authorities in Perth?
- Any experience with schools (which docs do they require, as we will probably have just a temporary addess, but I do not want to let my kids miss any schooldays ?
- What to do regarding having access to Medicare?

anything else///??

thanks for your help

felix

[BullcreekBob]

Hi all,

my family (kiddies Isaiah:5, Aisha:11 and my wife Martha(33) will finally arrive in Perth. Yuppieh !!

I would kindly ask for some help :
What (besides opening a bank account and looking for an appartment and job) are issues we need to handle.
- Do we need to register at DIMA or any other local authorities in Perth?
- Any experience with schools (which docs do they require, as we will probably have just a temporary addess, but I do not want to let my kids miss any schooldays ?
- What to do regarding having access to Medicare?

anything else///??

thanks for your help

felix
G'day Felix

Lots of questions !! And they're all important ones too.

My advice is to not try and do everything at once. Do things the "aussie" way, chill out, take your time and just enjoy doing things at your own (slower) pace.

You can apply to Medicare after you've been here for 10 days or so, it takes time for Immigration to let the Health Department know you're here. Opening a bank account is pretty good and you do that straight away, you'll just need ID from a passport and drivers license or other credit cards etc. Of course having an "address" is important, but it's easy enough to change addresses from a temporary address to a more permanent address once you've got one.

Getting a TFN (tax file number) is fairly important and can be done online once you've got an address. After that, registering at Centrelink and signing up for Family Tax benefit (like family allowance) can be a good thing.

I wouldn't rush into getting the kids into school, especially while you're in temporary accomodation - give them a holiday to help settle in, go sight seeing with them. Go play with dolphins, visit a koala park or two. Probably the school they go to will need changing anyway once you've decided where you will be living.

Enjoy your time when you get here, don't let anything stress you.

[felix h]

Good day Bob,

thx for your input. yes, might be you are right, but as I will be there only for 14 days, I need to arrange as much as possible for my wife and kids.

Now, as I want to avoid living in a hotel for too long, we were looking for a possibility to rent a house for approx. 6 month, However, we could not find a furnished house. Is that not popular in Perth?

Any tips, where to find small appartment or house (2 or three rooms) for rental but need to be furnished.

One more question what do you think of Ellenbrook, is that recommentable? Dont want to live too far away from Perth City, but in a small community, as e.g Ellenbrook, where buying a house is still affordable.

ny suggestion?

[BullcreekBob]

G'day

If you are only going to be here for 14 days, why do you want to put your kids in School?

Ohh, then in the next sentence you say you want to rent a house for 6 months - I guess there's something that either I'm too thick to understand (quite likely) or something you've not made clear in your post.

6 month rentals are rarer than rocking horse sh1t. Good luck.

[felix h]

bob, thx again for your quick answer,

ok - your question is understandable. to explain the whole situation would take more space than available to write here, but in short
- I received a skilled visa, PR -, in 2002
- last day of entry : june 3rd, 2007
- I still need to finalize my contract in UK, CAN NOT stay longer than 2W in Perth
- However, my wife an kids will stay permanently in perth, I guess you got the point now (a later spouse sponsoring is the only way for me to finalize our australia dream), other option would be to quit my job here in the UK, before contract expires, : this would be financilaly wise a desaster, as I have a very well paid job here, and do not want to spoil my career with braking a contract)
-during the two weeks , i need to see houses, landproperty, rental possibilities, set up bank account, find schools for kids etc., etc., as much as I can manage in this two weeks
-rest needs to be handled by wife/kids on their own.
- I will be back in october and than for good (hopefully) end of december
ok, sounds stupid for you, I assume, however we needed to decide for that, as we gave up settling in UK, ist pretty ugly there, and Birmingham is no place to stay the next 10-15 years, especially for my family

I just want to avoid, renting a house for a full 12 month, but if you say this is difficult, than at least its a valuable input. for us and explains the lack of possinilities I found during the last two month saerching in the internet. I found some addresses for renting fully furnished houses / appartments, but that would be in the city : too expensive and to be honest, we dont want to live in the city anymore, thats what we do right now in birmingham, and I hate it.....

so in short, thats why kids should find school as soon as possible, as family stays, me however need to return for 6-8 month to UK
rgds
felix

[BullcreekBob]

G'day Felix

What I'd suggest you do would be something like this....

1) Rent an unfurnished property for 12 months in an area where you think you will want to live that is near to where you think you will work. Then rent/buy enough furniture t get by on. Garage sales are a good idea.
Renting a (short term) furnished property is at least twice the price of a long term rental. If you want to vacate before your 12 month lease expires, it is very easy to find someone to take over the lease.

2) Enrol the kids in the local school. The State school they attend is set by your address.

3) Open local bank accounts and establish internet banking.

4) Sign-up for Medicare

However, I must ask - how will you get back into Aust in December? Have you got citizenship? If your PR visa expires in June, then doesn't that mean you have to be here and resident by then. If you come here to validate then go straight away, surely you won't get back in after the June date, unless you've got a resident return visa (RRV) or citizenship. Both of which require you to have been here for two of the last five years and 12 of the last 24 months?

I'm not a visa expert but I think you should talk to someone very soon.

[ali]

Hi

We stayed in a furnished rental for 3 months on our arrival. The rents for furnished can be pretty expensive, but ours included all bills. I can send you the contact details if you wish of the rental we stayed in, or alternatively you could try www.movetoperth.com which advertises some furnished rentals.

With regards your children and school, school will want to see any vacination records for the children. I had the red book which was given me when they were born by the Health Visitor and all their vaccinations were recorded in them - so make sure you bring this info with you as the school copy it.

Ali