Paul2680

I'd highly recommend a tutor, I know a good one I can put you in touch if you like. A friend of mine had the same issue as you, he got there on the 4th attempt after some tutoring. Hang in there it's more about technique with the reading and lots of practice.

We had ours within 24hrs but my occupation doesn't get a lot of applicants and the pool doesn't ever seem to get filled. As very stormy days I'd ask Go Matilda and also check on the immigration website for the queuing times for your occupation. Fingers crossed for you!

That's great news Jen, we put an application in today for a house so fingers crossed! Any pointers on the best places to buy furniture here??

This is very true Collie

We found Aldi was not far off in price to coles, their fresh meat seemed a bit better and they have some of the same stuff Aldi UK have so a bit of familiarity kind of helps lol Theres loads going on around Perth for Australia Day, I saw an advert on the train showing what's on, have a google and see what's what.

Ahhh it's great isn't it!! We've been here 3 days and also had those pinch me moments, although we haven't been nearly as busy as you guys have been lol We went out last night for a birthday party in Perth with some new friends and have met more new friends and already been invited to an Australia Day party at their house. Overall everyone we have met has been awesome and so so nice, Perth is amazing day and night and I'm here wondering why on earth we didn't do this sooner!! Glad you're all settling in well and good luck with the house!!

You can apply for an RRV in or outside Oz. Have a look at the immigration website, it gives you all the info you'll need.

So that's it, we've had our visas granted and everything is in place for our big move!! Jan 11th we fly out. Thank you to everyone who posted on this thread, all your advice and support has been greatly appreciated and hopefully we'll get to meet some of you soon. Now on to the next bit of actually getting ourselves set up, that'll be a whole other thread lol

We fly out on 11th too. Congrats on the house too Jen. New life here we all come

Wow!! Things just got real!!! Good luck to hubby, we've got everything crossed for him.

Yes we've found that out lol, however we are good at negotiating and have been offered a lush looking house in Mindarie for a bargain price. Stayz have quite a few too so we're going to sit down tonight and see whats what.

Well the dust has finally settled with our house move, we've lodged our visa application and now waiting for a case officer to be assigned. So we're now starting to look into the logistics of the big move, namely looking for a holiday rental for when we land, but it's looking a bit thin on the ground at the moment, does anyone have any contacts from when you moved over?? Providing the visas get approved this side of Christmas we'll be looking to come out around 12/13th Jan. Any help with this will be massively appreciated!!

We are using Immigration 2 Oz, they're a UK based agent and MARA registered. They've been amazing for us.

We got our invite to apply through today having lodged our EOI yesterday afternoon, yay!!! We're also in the midst of moving to a short term rental that we found and our house sale completes on Friday finally What a week and its only Tuesday lol

This is useful info Westhamfan, I'm an air con engineer hopefully coming out in Jan, so I will certainly be taking your advice. As I've been through the process for skills approval OP, I would get the process underway pretty quickly as the vetassess process is quite long and drawn out. Also they only do a few skills assessments over here at the moment, I had to wait 6 months for mine and they tend to do the three trades on the same day - plumbing, electrical & air con. So it could be as much as a year before you could get out there to work depending on vetassess. If this is something you and your family are fully on board with, I'd say go for it, if the worst happened and you came back at least you'd be able to say you've done and you will always be able to work back here without too much hassle. Good luck, whatever you decide!