A New Beginning Down Under

Australia, according to the 2005 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, is the best place in the world to live in! That is probably why the application for migration to Australia annually is extremely competitive as many people dream of starting a new life down under.

There are numerous factors attracting people to live in Australia - the quality of life easily achievable, abundant employment prospects, world-class education and good health care facilities. However, it can be very tricky to achieve permanent residence status in Australia because the competition for the limited number of visas given each year is intensive.

There are a number of ways for those who are serious on starting a new life in Australia to apply for residency.

You can apply for immigration for your whole family with the Skilled Visa Program if you have a specific skill set that is in demand in Australia. But, there are little people that applied for immigration under this particular scheme despite the intense demand for visas to live, study and work in Australia.

There are those who were put off at the thought of having to prove experience in their profession and demonstrate their skills should actually take this scheme if they truly possessed the skill and if their profession is listed in the Skilled Program List of in-demand skills, because they can stand a great chance of acceptance.

For those who find filling in millions of forms and turn up for lots of interview to be accepted for immigration horrifying, they need to be well prepared. Because, you will have to go through a series of interview, fill up plenty of paperwork no matter which program you apply for but in the end, if you are granted a visa, all these will be worthwhile.

A trip to Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane, Perth or Cairns will perk up your desire to immigrate to Australia if you are serious of starting a new life there. Cities like Sydney and Melbourne in Australia are considered some of the most appealing, interesting and enjoyable cities in the whole world.

The lifestyle is languid and carefree and yet the cities are modern and fashionable. Blessed with fine weathers and fun people, Australia is a country with so much fun and attraction.

You can apply for a visa to reside in Australia permanently with the Partner, Child, Parent or Other Family Migration schemes if you already have family living in Australia.

Those who already have a business and intended to relocate to Australia or those who wish to start a new business there and employ the locals have other alternatives available for them. There is a special visa available for refugees and last but not least, the option available to any one with lots of money is to invest a sum of money into a bank in Australia for a period of time.

Whichever scheme that suits your situation best, be sure to put in everything within your power to make your dream of starting a new life come true. As Australia has been voted to be the best country to live in, demand for residency there will increase significantly as we all move to Australia to get the best quality of life possible!

Article Source : emigration-center.com

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An Overview of Australia for Travelers

Australia is a very diverse country geographically and a hot spot for tourism. If you are thinking about heading down under, here is some information on Australia.

An Overview of Australia for Travelers

Australia is its own continent, the only country in the world that can say as much. It covers roughly 3 million square miles and is about the size of the continental United States. The capital is Canberra, but Sydney is the biggest city with 4.2 million people. The climate of Australia is extremely dry inland with more temperate conditions along the coast. The population centers are primarily along the coast due to soaring temperatures inland.

Australia was originally inhabited by Aboriginal tribes. In 1770, Captain Cook claimed the land for Great Britain. In 1788, the first colony was established in New South Wales. Most of the colonists were convicted criminals from Great Britain. Gold was discovered soon thereafter and Australia became a destination for immigrants seeking fortune and a new start in life.

On the far northern coast, Australia is home to one of the amazing sites in the world. The great barrier reef is a water enthusiasts dream. With incredible plant life, the reef is world renowned as a diver’s paradise. A watchful eye is advised given the presence of the Great White Shark in the area.

Australia is a Commonwealth. The federal powers are mapped somewhat after those in the United States, but no bill of rights exists. Unlike the U.S., the individual territories retain significant authority over their own affairs.

People in Australia are called “Australians.” The country has a population of just over 20 million, and the population is growing at a rate of 1.1 percent a year. Australians ethnicity is 92 percent European, 6 percent Asian and 2 percent Aboriginal. No religion dominates, but 27 percent of Australians considered themselves Roman Catholics. Life expectancy for males is 78 years while females live to 83 on average. Literacy rates are a surprisingly low 85 percent.

Australia was often considered the forgotten country. Long distance transportation changed that designation. Now it is one of the hottest tourist destinations year in and year out.

Richard Monk is with FactsMonk.com - a site with facts about everything. Visit us to read more about Australia.

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The Exotic North of Australia

Australia’s Northern Territory is a land of swirling, near-phosphorescent, ochre dust, rocky mountain-high thunderclouds and sky-shattering storms - a region of pawpaw (papaya) and mango farms, pearl oyster meat from the pearling industry, farm-raised alligator and Thai spices. Indigenous people still dive for lily roots and burn the forests to trap game and make passage through the undergrowth possible.

To journey through this land and taste it was one of the greatest privileges of my travel-writing life.

Equivalent in size to France, Italy and Spain combined, Australia’s Outback Northern Territory is bordered by Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. A vibrant, developing economy, the Northern Territory has one-sixth of Australia’s land mass and just over one percent of the population, but with the youngest, wealthiest people in the nation.

It has an environment that ebbs and flows with the seasons, of contrast and colour, where change is the only constant. Of awe inspiring iconic wonders - the World Heritage National Parks of Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta (Ayers Rock).

Darwin, the state’s capital, is so close to Asia that it’s much easier to head to Singapore than Sydney. Immigrants of every Asian culture have brought their foods and cooking traditions. At Darwin’s Hanuman, Thai Nonya cuisine meets Tandoor Indian: soak up the lemon grass and basil-flavoured sauce drenching the grilled rock oysters with warm naan bread. These are served in the trademark earthenware plates with little lids covering the oysters.

Australia’s Outback Northern Territory is renowned for its colourful characters. The type you’d meet at one of the legendary outback pubs, cattle stations or country towns. The gateway to Asia for the rest of Australia, or the window into the country for the rest of the world, the Northern Territory is a unique part of the most exciting continent on earth.

It’s almost hard not to fall in love with its down to earth attitude.

Don’t miss this great once in a lifetime experience. National Visas can help you get a Visa for Australia. Visit our website for more details.

Source: nationalvisas.com.au

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Sending our Cats to Australia - Almost

Well, the cats are sorted kind of. We decided to opt for a company called Airpets Oceanic based in Staines Middlesex.

We always knew sending our two cats to Australia wasn’t going to be cheap and the transport service provided by Airpets was pretty much what we expected.

Airpets will charge us £1469.00 to transport our two furry felines to Perth but within this cost they provide quite a good service.

To summarise, our £1469 will get us:

Freight (a spot in the plane)
I.A.T.A Air Travel Containers
Airline Handling Feeds
Delivery to Airport
Application for Import Permit
Application for Quarantine Space at Perth
Application for Ministry of Agriculture Export Certificate
96 hour paraciticide
Sealing of Air Kennels by Airport Vet
and a days boarding prior to departure.

Having spent the time to apply for our Visa’s I know that we could have pretty easily done a large part of this ourselves. However at this moment in time, with so much stuff going on it makes sense for us to get ‘the boys’ booked in as its one less thing to worry about.

On top of the £1469 to get the cats to Australia, we’ll also need to pay for a months boarding in Perth so lets call it a straight £2000 to get the cats there….gosh!

Now lifes never straoght forward is it so now we have a slight complication. When we initially enquired approx 10 days ago, we were told that we’d be looking at early to Mid November to secure a place in Perth for our cats. Now we’re looking at early December!

This could be a complication for us as potentially, if the house sale goes through in the timescales that it should, we might (Ok its very likely that we might) end up having to move out to Australia before the cats.

Airpets could pick up from West Yorkshire but they would charge approx £400 for the privilege, they do offer boarding though @ £15 per day for two cats sharing so worst case we may need to send them early, board them until their spot becomes available and then ship them out.

Ideally, we’d like to keep this boarding time to a minimal as were mindful that they will need to stay in quarantine for another 30 days when they arrive in Perth.

We could fly them to Sydney and then get an internal flight from Perth but we feel that the whole flying thing will probably be one of the more stressful parts of the whole journey so want to keep the time in the air to a minimal (if you can call 24 hours minimal).

Eitherway, pick up or boarding? This is going to have to be a decision we make once we know when the house is finally sold and when we are all likely to be made homeless.

Oh well, we’ll see how Airpets fair. So far the service seems very professional, the people we have spoken to seem very switched on. Lets just hope they do the best job for our boys

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We have it

We bloody have it.. Outside of our hose is a sparkly new SOLD sign

I know that we still have plenty of work to do (surveys to be completed, contracts to be exchanged etc) before its finally sold but the sign has really lifted our spirits. It seems we may be finally getting somewhere (at last!)

Happy days and what a good start to a nice long back holiday weekend!

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Are things finally starting to happen?

Well, dare I say it but things almost appear to be happening.

Spoke to the Halifax yesterday who are still beyond useless (not giving us the promised updates resulting in a number of ignored call-back requests). However it seems that we are now progressing with our latest buyers which is the best bit of positive news we’ve had from the Halifax for some time.

All of the mortgage paperwork has now been completed and the survey fee’s have been paid. The surveyors will not be instructed by the Halifax until the Mr of the buying party has his employees reference back. This is pretty standard practice apparently and is expected to be back by early next week.

The SOLD sign has been ordered and is expected any day. Daft though this may sound, this is probably one of the things we’ve been longing for the most.

I know getting the sold sign doesn’t make everything legally binding and it doesn’t mean the house is really going to see. Its just psychological I guess.

Driving around the corner every day when I get home from work to be confronted by our ‘For Sale’ really gets you down after a while. Being presented by a nice SOLD sign will really give us the boost we need to get us to the next level

The fact that the survey fees have already been paid is a good sign as this represents quite a big sum of money. As our home is just under 10 years old I hope that the survey doesn’t show anything up. If it does we’ll need to fork out the cash to get everything sorted. If its structural it should still be covered by our NHBC certificate but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

In other news, we’ve had a quote from a company (which appears quite reputable) called airpets for our two cats. It looks like all in all its going to cost us just over £2k to fly the cats out to Perth and house them for the 30 days they’ll need to remain in quarantine. Its a lot of money but we couldn’t leave the boys in Blighty, they are part of the family after all.

Anyway, fingers crossed and lets see what the next few days bring.

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More Eastern Europeans on the way to the UK

In 2004 the UK government saw an unprecedented number of eastern Europeans enter Britain when 10 new countries joined the European Union.

The Government estimated fewer than 20,000 would come to the UK but it was closer to 600,000 with Poland being one of the larger contributors.

It’s pretty apparent too. Walking through the city centre or into your local Asda, its pretty amazing how many eastern Europeans you bump into.

Romania and Bulgaria are to join the EU in the next couple of weeks but it looks like the UK government have learnt from these past experiences.

The UK Trade Secretary Alistair Darling yesterday revealed the government was seriously considering imposing a limit on the number of places available for new immigrants.

Britain was one of the few major EU nations to open its borders to new members in 2004 while France and Germany tightened controls.

Mr Darling hinted that decision was flawed.

When asked if the Government would allow a free for all from Romania and Bulgaria he said: ‘No. We will need to see what our requirements are so it is done in a managed way.’

I think this is pretty good news for the UK if these plans are implemented correctly. Following Australia’s lead and Identifying skills in demand could well be a good way to go.

Still, I think these plans are about 4 years too late, another reason why I’m so glad to be moving away to a country that developed a well managed immigration policy from the start.

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A new look at getting down under

Hi Folks

Well, I’ve grown a little tired of the old grey look that we were using here at getting down under so I thought I’d start with a clean, fresh look.

Hopefully everything works as it should, if it doesn’t please do me a favour and let me know by leaving a comment.

Cheers all

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Guess what - Nothings happened!

Do you know what, when we decided to emigrate to Australia, the emotions we went through when trying to gain our Visa kinda pale into insignificance when compared to those we are going through now we’re selling our house.

I guess it’s the sheer lack of structure which is the thing that gets to you.

With our visa applications we knew there would be a certain amount of ‘doing nothing’ once we had sent our visa applications off. We also knew there were hundreds, perhaps even thousands in a similar boat.

With our house sale there’s lot of unexpected ‘nothing’ happening which is enough to drive a family nuts!

The paperwork completion and surveyors instruction that was supposed to happen this Saturday didn’t happen.

Thankfully, the Mr of the buying party did go into the Halifax to complete the paperwork but the Mrs was unable to attend as she had a wedding to go to.

Now I’m not sure why she didn’t mention this when she visited us earlier this week. The same visit in which she told us that she would be going into the Halifax this Saturday to complete the paperwork.

Still, at least the Mr of the party went in.

The story from the Halifax (once we chased them) is that the Mr will get the Mrs to sign the paperwork this weekend. He will then take the completed forms into the branch on Monday where the surveyors fee’s will then be paid.

Enough info for the Halifax to mark our property as sold apparently..yay!

Still not enough for a slightly paranoid chap from West Yorkshire to feel relieved though.

Anyway, the brother-in-law comes for a two day visit today, he’s been in France for the last three weeks visiting his missus’s family before they all travel back to Sydney next week.

Perhaps his presence will be the good luck charm we need to finally get this bottomed out!

Here’s hoping eh?

I guess the key message for this entry is this. When were were applying for our Visa’s we felt better because we knew we were waiting with thousands of other wannabe Aussies. One you get your visa you’re only halfway through your journey.

Selling your house is a seriously big thing, especially from an emotional perspective and for those of you currently selling your house, be assured you are not alone. We will all get there…eventually!

Further updates on if/when the paperwork is ever completed later this week!

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The joys of property sales

Ahh the delights of selling a property or should that be AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The lady who was supposed to go into the Halifax yesterday to finalise the mortgage details and pay the surveyors fee’s was unable to make her appointment because she was to tired after working a night shift.

So, we’ve been shunted back to Saturday now. She did come back with her family for a second viewing last night though. They are a really nice family with a baby so our house is spot on with the pre-made nursery, fully enclosed back gardens etc.

We’ve taken the opportunity to swap numbers this time and it’s obvious that she really likes the property to!

Anyway, we’ll need to wait until Saturday now so we’ll see what this weekend brings…again!

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