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Well, we have had our weekly update today. Ok, perhaps not an update as such just a voicemail from the Halifax (after being chased).

Hopefully, it’s just a case of no real news is good news!

The expectation from the broker was that our buyers would have paid the survey fees by now.

The news is they haven’t!

The woman who is looking after our sale (I use the term ‘looking after’ very loosely) finished at 4pm today so that’s it for the rest of the week.

I’m pretty much done with dealing with the Halifax for a while.

We’ve agreed that the missus will be taking over from next week, as I’m finding it harder to speak calmly to these guys on an ongoing basis.

If we are still dealing with the Halifax after another week I’ll make the calls again.

We also need to seriously start thinking about a contingency plan. If nothing happens we may even need to start thinking about re-marketing the property.

Would we do this with the Halifax? I’m not sure. At the end of the day, its been 6 weeks since anyone was last shown around the house so it would be very unlikely that they’d not have found somewhere else by now.

There’s also the option to take what cash we have in savings now and move to Australia before Christmas, in the hope that I could get sorted out job wise in 3 – 4 months.

If we do then we have all the time in the world to sell the house, if we don’t then we’ll need the house proceeds in order for us to have something to live off.

A very big gamble and with a four years old in tow, perhaps one not really worth thinking about until we have to.

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Hi Guys

Just to let you know that we added the .com and .net domains to gettingdownunder today and although the .co.uk domain and all pages will continue to work, we have decided to adopt the .com as our main URL.

Therefore, please use http://www.gettingdownunder.com as our primary address

Hopefully everything should still continue to work ok (and any old .co.uk bookmarks will still work) without any issues but in the mean time please let me know if you have any problems. Continue Reading

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Well, after becoming seriously vexed with the Crapifax yesterday, I’ve finally managed to compose myself enough to take a step back and see where we are after finally getting a call back.

The buyers who had their mortgage app refused at the last minute by the Halifax when their P60 couldn’t be obtained have now completed a second mortgage application with a broker which is going to be sent off this week.

They will also be instructing a survey (once they have paid the fee’s….again) which should take place within the next couple of weeks.

Hope of all hopes that they get the mortgage this time. If they do then great, we’ve only lost a couple of weeks.

If they don’t then arse! We’ve lost months.

The house has been under offer in one way or another for the last couple of months now. If this falls through then we really need to ask the question. Is there is any real value in remaining with the Halifax?

The answer to this is a pretty big no, unless of course we can avoid paying any fees due to the astronomically poor service we’ve received so far.

Back to the waiting game…

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Halifax Estate Agents Service is rubbish

There, I feel slightly better now.

I am waiting for a call back that was promised for me yesterday.

The buyers should have hopefully been in contact with the morgage broker since the Halifax declined their mortgage application. Doing a quick search on the term Halifax Estate Agents Service shows me that I’m not alone.

This poor guy was on the buying end (not the selling end like us). Hopefully our buyers are getting a slightly better service from Halifax Estate agents then we are!

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Bollocks, B*stard and Sh*T!

Had a call from the Crapifax this morning (aka Halifax estate agents) to advise us that there is a problem with the mortgage.

The buyer has lost their P60 and even though the Halifax Head Office gave the buyer the go ahead to proceed with the survey, it now seems that unless they can find their P60 the Halifax isn’t willing to lend them the cash to buy our house.

So, they have now been passed onto a mortgage broker (the same broker that the girl used who couldn’t get a mortgage) to try and identify a lender who’s criteria for lending isn’t so strict!

I am totally and utterly dumfounded. I had a bit of a go at the girl who is looking after (using the term looking after loosely) the sale of our house, explaining that I have given my notice at work on the basis that things seemed to be progressing so well, but don’t worry. When you feel your down there’s always someone at the Halifax to make you feel even….worse!

Well, I wouldn’t go booking any flights says the advisor. We recently dealt with a customer who had booked his flights to Australia and he was in a chain of four buyers. When his house was surveyed he was told that he had over valued it by £20,000 so had to drop his price by £20k in order to catch his flights.

Great! At least its unlikely that we have over valued our property, however we need to get the house surveyed again! So its going to be a number of weeks before any thing positive happens.

We’ve gone from a high to a barrel scraping low! We should know in the next couple of days if our buyers can get a mortgage with another lender but in the meantime its legs,arms,toes and fingers crossed.

We’ll probably try and phone our buyers direct tonight to see if we can get any inside news on whats really happening.

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A new Migration Occupations in Demand List has been published and comes into effect today.

The new MODL can be seen below, and several new IT specialisms have have been added.

The additions are as follows:

- Child Care Coordinator ASCO Code 1295-11
- Computing Professional – specialising in C++/C#/C, Jave, J2EE, Oracle, and Peoplesoft all are assessed under ASCO Code 2231-79
- Mechanical Engineer 2126-11
- Surveyor 2123-13

3 occupations have been removed from the MODL:

- Nuclear Medicine Technologist ASCO Code 2391-15
- Radiation Therapist 2391-13
- Flat Glass Tradesperson 4982-11

The Migration Occupations in Demand List is a mechanism used to facilitate the entry of migrants with particular specialist skills who are applying for permanent residence. Only those occupations where a significant shortage of skills in the Australian labour market has been identified are included on the MODL.

Applicants applying under the General Skilled Migration Program for a points tested visa who nominate an occupation on the MODL are eligible for the award of an additional 15 or 20 points (the latter applies if there is a full time job offer and other requirements are met).

Applicants nominating a MODL occupation are also given priority processing.

Source : Go Matilda

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The other day I wrote about the posibility of the Australian government increasing the number of years you need to be a resident from 2 years to 4.

Well, it now looks like the bill has gone through. Click Here for more information.

Highlights are:

- FOUR years lawful residence in Australia immediately preceding the application
- absences of up to 12 months in total will be allowed, with no more than a total of 3 months in the final year
- at least ONE year of the four years must be as a permanent residence. (in other words up to THREE years temporary residence can count).

It seems that current permanent residents will be exempted:

“The new residence requirements will apply to people who become permanent residents on or after commencement of the legislation. Current permanent residents will not be affected by these changes.”

Commencement day for the new laws is still scheduled to be 26 January 2007.

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Well, the next stage in our whole moving process kicked off this week with our first formal quotation from a shipping company. It proved to be a useful and informative visit.

A representative from White and Company came to visit and had a good look at all the stuff we want to take so that they could give us a rough estimate of the amount of storage space we would need and therefore advise if we needed to book a full container or could share a container with someone else.

The advantage of taking a full twenty foot container is that it gets there quicker as they don’t need to wait for the remainder of the container to be filled by someone else before its sent.

A 20 ft container gives you 1150 cubic feet of storage apparently, anything over half of this (lets say 600 cubic feet) needs to go in a full container, anything less then 600 cubic feet goes in what is refereed to as ‘groupage’ (shared).

After doing a full review of our stuff were looking at 650 cubic feet. I.e. borderline.

Having a full container would be good as we could take more then we originally planned, having said that moving to Australia is a great chance to spring clean.

For me, this is a real necessity. Being a typical bloke I have about 30 years of crap that I’ve kept ‘just in case’. I blame my dad for this

There is also the all important cost element to bare in mind.

A twenty foot container from White and Company, sent to Australia would cost us £3,500! A guestimate for our 600 cubic foot is approx. £1800. We’ll be going for the half container I think!

We should easily be able to get under the 600 cubic feet. The footage is calculated by the number of boxes you’ll take and half of the boxes that we have already packed are only half full.

As well as the boxes of stuff we’ll be taking, we are also taking our bed (which is about 6 months old and cost us over £1000 new – think Nasa space foam mattress), our TV (2 years old) stereo and some nursery stuff (you never know) like the little lads old cot, changing table, etc.

There’s actually a lot of stuff but it will all go in half a container say the experts.

Some interesting things that we’ve picked up which should be kept in mind when shipping your stuff to Australia:

• You can’t ship out any wicker, bamboo or natural fibres
• With your shoes, they have to be thoroughly cleaned, the cleaner the better (with the recommendation being that you use strong disinfectant on the soles that is so strong that it can be smelt if checked!)
• It’s recommended that for shoes and cloths, take them with you when you fly out. Remember you get double the baggage allowance (40 – 50 kg) on many airlines when flying one way to Australia (with the sole purpose being to emigrate) so use the extra space for shoes and other similar items.
• Any electrical items shipped that are less then 12 months old are subject to import tax
• All items need to be categorised and boxed separately. I.e. China goes in one box, glass goes in a separate box and bedding goes in another – no cross packing.

This latter point is because the import guys in Aus will select 3 – 5 boxes at random for checking so only the stuff labelled on the box should be found in it.

No chance for accidental mix ups either! The shippers need to check everything packed to ensure its labelled correctly so it looks like a lot of the stuff we’ve already bubblewrapped will need to be unwrapped.

I’m assuming they need to sign a declaration themselves confirming there are no illegal substances or objects being shipped so in a way this makes sense.

It will take 14 – 16 weeks for our shared container to arrive (if you took a full container of your own you’d be looking at between 12 – 14 weeks.

We need to dismantle the bed and any other large items and take all of the stuff out of the loft before packing.

Lots to do by the sounds of it.

The in-laws used White and company when they moved to Australia earlier this year and they were ‘quite happy’ with the service.

So far they seem to know what they are doing. Time to get a couple more quotes in first though.

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According to a story over at News.com.au, migrants to Australia will now have to wait at least four years before becoming Australian citizens.

This is under a Federal Government proposal expected to be announced today.

They will also have to take an English language test – failure to past the test would also stop them becoming Australian citizens.

The measures will be listed in a discussion paper to be released by Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration Andrew Robb.

Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday the English language requirements feature “prominently” in the package.

“I am keen on everybody learning the English language as soon as possible,” he said. “It is absolutely essential.”

It is understood the proposals also include an increase in the waiting period for people to become citizens from three years to four years.

The requirement was last year raised from two to three years in an attempt to contain the home-grown terror threat. At that time, then citizenship minister John Cobb said the longer migrants spent in Australian society before gaining citizenship, the less vulnerable they were to “falling in with extreme groups”.

He said the extra time would allow migrants to “get a job, make mates and go to the pub”.

Personally, this doesn’t bother me. I’ve always struggled to get my head around those people who migrate to Australia with the sole intention of getting their Australian Citizenship and then coming back to the UK.

I’ve never quite followed the logic with this but can only assume that folks come back to the UK, work the rest of their working life here and then bugger on back to Australia to retire.

For us, were in it for the long haul.

Although having an Australian Passport will be great, 3 4 or 5 years doesn’t really make that great a difference.

We’ve already spent three years getting to the place where we are now, another few years won’t make to much difference!

They will have also have to take an English language test – and failure would stop them becoming Australian citizens

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Well, I wondered if I should type this so soon in case I risked giving the kiss of death to recent happenings but hey, you only live once right!

Things continue to go well. The survey was completed on our property today and the house has passed the inspection with flying colours.

Surprisingly, the surveyor only took 15 minutes to give the house a good going over and a big portion of this time was spent talking to the missus about the family his in Australia.

To be honest, I wasn’t really surprised that it passed. The property is still under 10 years old and is pretty ‘new’ by previously owned house standards. Still its a comfort that we passed this survey without any hidden surprises. After all, had we been told that the property was structurally unsound and we had to spend thousands on fixing it then that could have certainly thrown an iron into the works.

In less positive news, we went to get a cash in value for our endowment policy yesterday and even though we have only been paying into it for the past 9 years, the cash in value was about three thousand pounds less then we were anticipating. Arse!

Having said that, we never really counted on the endowment, if anything it’s been one of those things you automatically contribute into directly from your salary so after 9 years you almost forget that the things there.

Although the cash in value of our endowment policy is a lot less then we were anticipating, it will still give us a big cash boost and acts as a nice little Insurance policy now that I’ve decoded to hand my notice in.

Anyway. Onwards and upwards. Were starting to work on removals now.

We have a company called Atlantis Overseas removals based in Leeds coming to visit us on Thursday to provide a quote so we’ll see how much moving our stuff out to Australia is going to cost.

We’ll probably get a few quotes and go for the one that gives us the best vibes. We won’t be taking too much but the stuff we will be taking is the kind of precious stuff that we don’t want to leave behind. Whatever happens I’ll ontinue to update our blog as we get more news.

Tara for now

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I’ll tell you what, the Byford Quarantine Station in Perth gets busy damn quickly

As I mentioned in a previous entry, we’ve decided to use Airpets Oceanic to ship our two cats from the UK to Perth and the last time we spoke with them we were looking at early December before we could get the place.

Since applying for the appropriate permits for both cats and confirming a place, we are now looking at 20th December before a place becomes available.

So, it goes without saying that we snapped this place up. Both Cats are booked onto a Quantas flight for the 19th December flying to Perth via Singapore. In the meantime, if anyone drops out at Airpets and a spot becomes available we’ll try and get first refusal on that.

It looks like there will be an element of boarding involved at the Airpets cattery before the boys fly out. We want to be out there well before Christmas, the sudden climb in air fare prices during the Christmas period is the main driver for an early departure so it looks like the furry felines will have a 2 – 3 week stay before their flight departs to Australia.

Our experience with Airpets so far has been really good. After the pain of dealing with the Crapifax (Halifax) estate agents for the sale of our house, Airpets have been true to their word and have kept us in the loop, making regular contact by telephone to give us updates as and when we need them. I’ll make sure that I do a full review of our experiences with Airpets when we all finally get to Perth.

As for the house, well I’m pleased to say that things appear to be going well, yes that’s right, things finally appear to be going Ok for a change!

The Mr of the buying party has had all of his references back from his employer to complete the bridging loan / second mortgage application that they are going to take out to buy our house. The surveyors fees have been paid and the surveyors have now been instructed. We are trying to arrange another visit from the buyers this weekend,. We have quite a bit of furniture we’ll be leaving behind so we’d like to give them first refusal.

We plan to include most of the furniture with the house sale. The kitchen will include the dishwasher, washing machine etc, Ikea’s finest wardrobes will be included in the bedrooms and anything they don’t want will probably go to Catholic housing or a similar charity.

I guess we are working on the basis that when we excepted this second offer, it was a few thousand more then the original offer we excepted when we were messed around by the buyer who couldn’t get a mortgage.

The difference in the two offers far exceeds any cash we would have got had we sold the furniture so we’re counting ourselves lucky in that regard.

Also whilst talking about selling stuff, the young lad who lives next door to us with his mum and dad wants to buy the car off the missus. He’s always liked it apparently so assuming we get a half decent offer for it, this will be one less thing for us to worry about!

Today is a pretty key day for me personally as I’m going to give notice at work (or at least verbally confirm when my last day will be which I’m aiming to be in about six weeks time).

Originally, I wasn’t going to hand my notice in until the contracts were exchanged on the house, if we were to do this (and the contracts took the expected 5 – 6 week timescales to complete), then after working my one months notice I’d be looking at Mid November before I could leave work.

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The ASPC is current experiencing some delays in receipting and acknowledging applications and regrets the inconvenience this may be causing applicants and their representatives. While this backlog exists information will be provided here daily about what applications are currently being receipted. This backlog in receipting is being addressed and will be rectified over the next few weeks and your patience during this period is appreciated. Please note that these delays do not affect the date on which a valid application is recorded as having been received and is the date used for processing purposes.

As of 5 September 2006 the ASPC is receipting offshore applications received on 2 August 2006 and onshore applications received on 9 August 2006.

Please note that the update on allocation dates follows. The information will continue to updated for each Tuesday and you only need to email this mailbox once per week if you are seeking current information on allocation dates.

Processing and Allocation Information

The information below is updated weekly on Tuesdays.

As advised on the DIMA website processing of an application will usually commence within seven (7) working days of its receipt by the department. This means that an application is receipted, acknowledged and a file number is allocated.

Once this has occurred a case officer is appointed to assess each application as soon as possible, however, the ASPC receives a large number of applications and you will not be contacted immediately. Applications lodged on the dates shown below are currently being allocated to case officers for further processing.

As of 5 September 2006 the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre is allocating applications lodged on or before the following dates:

ONSHORE APPLICATIONS

Student/Graduate

Paper based applications: 13 April 2006 (for subclass 880 ) and 5 April 2006 (subclasses 881 and 882) E-lodged (online) applications: 19 April 2006 (for all subclasses)

Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) (SIR VISA)

Paper based applications: 11 May 2006
E-lodged (online) applications: 1 May 2006

New Zealand

All applications: 28 November 2005 (all subclasses)

OFFSHORE APPLICATIONS

Applications for Classes BN, BQ and BR (subclasses 134, 136, 137, 138 and 139)

Priority Applications: 20 March 2006
Non-Priority Applications: In the range of 25 January to 1 February 2006

Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) (SIR VISA)

Paper based applications: 24 April 2006
E-lodged (online) applications: 18 June 2006

Notes

Onshore: means that the visa being applied for can be granted while the applicant is in Australia.

e-lodged: applications lodged online have quicker processing times.
See: Online Services – General Skilled Migration

SIR visas: All applicants for a Skilled – Independent Regional [SIR]
visa receive priority processing.

Offshore: means that the visa being applied for can only be granted
when the applicant is outside of Australia.

If a visa application was made before the earliest relevant date as shown above and you have not been contacted by a case officer please contact the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre at: adelaide.skilled.centre@immi.gov.au

Applications eligible for priority processing

1. Applicants whose nominated occupation is on the Migration Occuptations in Demand List (MODL)

2. For applicants whose nominated occupation is not on the MODL, applications for any of the following visas are given priority:

a) Skill Matching (Migrant) (Class BR) – Subclass 134 – Skill Matching
b) Skilled – Independent (Migrant) (Class BN) – Subclass 137 – Skilled -
State/Territory-nominated Independent
c) Skilled – Australian-sponsored (Migrant) (Class BQ) – Subclass 139 -
Skilled – Designated Area – Sponsored
d) Skilled – Independent Regional (Provisional) (Class UX) – Subclass
495 – Skilled – Independent Regional (Provisional)
e) Skilled New Zealand (Residence) visa class (Class DB) – Subclass 863
– Skilled – Onshore Regional-Sponsored New Zealand Citizen
f) Skilled — Australian-sponsored Overseas Student (Residence) (Class
DE) – Subclass 882 – Skilled — Designated Area-sponsored Overseas
Student

Eligibility for priority processing does not mean that any processing requirements can be waived.

Finalising Applications

Please note that the information provided above is not about the time it will take to process an application to completion. The time it is expected to take to process a General Skilled Migration visa application to completion is detailed in the department’s service standards. Service standards are specified for applications lodged with complete documentation. Individual cases may take longer than the service standard depending on the completeness and complexity of the case.

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If there is a man who personifies everything great about being an Aussie Bloke, its a man by the name of Steve Irwin, also known as the Crocodile hunter.

I’m actually gutted to hear that Steve Irwin was killed today by (of all things) a stingray which struck Steve in the side of the chest whilst diving off the great barrier reef.

The animal kingdom has lost a great advocate and Australia has lost a great person. I really hoped that we would get to Australia Zoo in Queensland when we moved out to Australia, I hoped more so that I would get the chance to meet the great man himself. Now the latter will never happen.

Steve Irwin’s vibrancy and enthusiasm were an inspiration amid the drab cynicism of the modern world. Whatever people thought of him, the wildlife of this world has lost one of their friends.

RIP Mate.

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