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!

We figured the house would be the sticking point and we decided we'd move regardless, it took us 8 weeks to find a buyer and a further 12 weeks to get to exchange, now we're frantically trying to find a local short term rental, which isn't easy, but Deb reckons if the worst comes to the worst we'll just camp out at the airport till the visas come through lol We won't be completing till end of October so that buys us a bit of time!! Good luck with the house, keep us posted and hopefully see you early next year on the other side.

Now things can start moving along a bit quicker, I had a successful outcome to my skills assessment so now it's on to the EOI stage!! We are so happy right now!! Oh and the house sale completes in a couple of weeks, so we'll be hobos for a while :-)

So I only went and passed the IELTS on the first attempt, with - R9 L9 W8.5 & S9!! So happy I don't have to go through that again!! Next up is skills assessment outcome, which I did yesterday, so fingers crossed for this now. Slowly getting there!!

They were pretty reasonable if memory serves me correct. We have some friends who live SOH and when they go for a night out in Northbridge they stay at some apartments very close to one of Verandah's places so I'll find out the name and let you know, might save a few cents!!

I can highly recommend the Verandah apartments in Northbridge, within walking distance to the CBD and all the restaurants and, we found the apartments very comfortable and spacious, plus they have secure parking.

:jiggy:woohoo!!!

Hey mazey, its great to hear from!! So happy you made it there and are settling in. Hows the house hunting going?? I've been keeping an eye on the weather over there and saw its been quite chilly, but it'll soon be summer, so the jumpers can go back in the suitcase lol We're progressing slowly at the moment. My skills test is booked for 24th sept and my ielts for 10th sept, until those two bad boys are passed we're in limbo. I did a practice paper the other day and got an ielts tutor to mark it (freebie from the migration agent!!) and I got 7's which isn't bad for a first attempt, so the real deal shouldn't be a problem with a bit of revision. In the meantime we're getting the various bits of info ready for the visa application, oh and we sold the house which is taking forever to go through!! Got a feeling it'll all happen soon and fall into place so watch this space lol Keep in touch and let us know how the job hunting goes, fingers crossed you'll both find something quick!!

So, a quick update on where we are with our application for those that might be interested. Got a date through for my practical assessment and all booked onto the next one available..24th Sept!! Bit of a bummer having to wait so long as we can't progress until I've passed this. So we've adjusted our plans somewhat and it gives us even more time to deal with the other stuff like the house etc Ive also been in touch with an IELTS tutor and have a couple of practice papers to do and get checked to see if I need any help to pass it, watch this space on that one ;-) So it seems we'll have yet another manky winter here, but on the bright side at least it's summer now...well sometimes :-)

Hi mazey, yes patience is certainly a virtue when it comes to the visa process, something we are lacking in at the moment :-D still in the grand scheme of things what's a year or so when you have the rest of your life to live! We've just put our house on the market and waiting for my practical assessment date to come through, got to book an ielts test next and practice like mad to make sure I pass it!! Good luck with the move, im sure it will all work out for you!!

Hi Shaz, thank you for the warm welcome. We started the visa process in September last year but it took forever to get all the paperwork required together mostly due to the references taking months to get from people, it seems no-one wants me to leave the UK lol It should be smoother from now on though fingers crossed! We've been using the forum to gather info on various topics for a few months and have found it invaluable and a hopefully a great source to network a bit and start to make some friends as we will know literally no-one when we move!!