Time to go…

OK, the time has come to move to the other side of the world.

This will probably be my last time online for a while, we say goodbye to our house tomorrow for the last time and check ourselves into a swish hotel for the night in Manchester.

We then fly to Perth (via Singapore) in the early hours of Friday Morning.

I can’t believe this time has finally come. We stayed over with my parents last night for a nice meal and spent most of the time reminiscing. I also found myself doing a very good job as an Australian tourist official spending about an hour (after a couple of bottles of wine) raving about how fantastic Australia is.

I don’t think the folks needed much convincing, a son, daughter-in-law and the most amazing 4 year old grandson in the world is encouragement enough for them to get onto a plane.

Saying goodbye was harder then I’d ever anticipated. I guess I’d be putting things to the back of my mind. I’m pretty tough when it comes to emotional stuff a but I don’t mind admitting that this morning, me a 34 year old northern bloke cried when he had to say bye to his mum and dad.

Not big sobbing girly tears mind you, but a tear or two was still shed all the same.

I’ve spoken to the folks since and things appear to be OK now. Just time to pack! Yeh I know… Moving to the other side of the world, taxi picking us up in less then 24 hours and I’ve still to cram about a rooms full of stuff into two suitcases. That’s going to be interesting.

In other news, my company car is being picked up tomorrow…absolutely gutted but I’ve been lucky to keep hold of it keeping in mind that I left the bank I worked for over a month ago.

I guess that’s a benefit of working closely with the people who look after the fleet.

Anyway, I’ll see you at some point when I get to the ‘other side’

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The Cats go to Airpets

Well, the cats went to Airpets today.

I must say what a fantastic and professional set up they have there!

It took us about three hours to drive down to Staines and both boys took the journey well.

If anything, it was kind of comforting to see that that both cats slept for a decent portion of the journey.

I know it’s only three hours but thats about 25% of the time they’ll spend on the plane during the first leg from Heathrow to Singapore.

Anyway, chuffed to bits with the setup at Airpets. Both cats were put into a nice large kennal inside a heated room with other moggies bound for varous parts of the world.

They have a month at Airpets before flying out to join us in Oz on the 21st December.

I have a feeling they will lose their winter coat pretty damn quick once they get there

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One week to go and the shippers have been and gone

Well, who would have thought it but we are now only days away from catching a plane and starting our new life in Australia.

The shippers came on Thursday and Friday last week. The photo above shows our dining room after day one. What you see there (click thumbnail for a larger image) represents about 25% of the stuff we ended up taking to Australia.

Since getting our original quotation from white and company, I’m chuffed to bits that we managed to ‘loose’ the 10 boxes of ‘stuff’ that we needed to loose to fill only half a container, however we are still finding odd bits and bobs that we wished we’d packed and shipped when we had the opportunity, still, we always have the final suitcase cramming session to look forward to in the next day or so.

The shippers that we ended up choosing, White and Company did a good job packing all of our stuff although I was a little disappointed that the guys ran out of sufficient boxes and materials during day two meaning that we had to utilize some of the less adequate boxes that we’d already packed in the previous months.

Still, in general the service up to this stage has been excellent. The original advice from the chap at White and Company who did the original quotation kind of went out of the window.

We were originally told things such as no mixing and matching of stuff in boxes, no padding your plates with your duvet covers etc… That all went out of the window with our packers telling us that they do it all the time. It seems as long as everything is clearly documented there shouldn’t be any problems.

To be honest it was probably this that helped us cut down the total boxes required as originally we had quite a few half boxes full of certain types of stuff because we couldn’t mix and match. If this new advice leads to our stuff being stuck in Australian customs for 12 months then I’ll let you know.

Lots of stuff to update you guys on including the news that I’ve managed to secure a job in Aus but I’ll post this update when I have a little more time.

Popularity: 2% [?]

New Australian Photos section added

Well, I’ve been writing quite a few updates recently but I’ve always intended to share some of the photographs that I’ve taken whilst going on our Australian travels.

You’ll find in the menu on the left a link called Gallery, clicking on which will take you to some of the many piccies I’ve taken over the years.

I will still include pictures (where appropriate) in my posts but the new gallery section seems to keep them all in one place.

They are not fantastic pictures by any means but most will give you a good idea about how beautiful Australia is as a country.

When you click on the tab, click on the thumbnails to see a larger version. To see a full sized version of the photograph, click on the (enlarged) picture again. To speed up loading times I have reduced all the pictures to 1024 x 768 pixels which should still be sufficient for most viewers, if you want to use any of the pictures then please let me know

More and more pictures to be added over time. Both from previous visits to Australia and in relation to the new visits we undertake after our move in a few weeks time!

Cheers

Mark

Popularity: 3% [?]

Thirteen years of rubbish…

…. Is now in the skip

I can’t believe the amount of cr*p that we (Ok I) have managed to collect over the last 13 or so years but I must say it was a pretty gratifying experience chucking all of this stuff away.

As well as all of the rubbish you can see piled high in out skip (click thumbnail photo for an all inspiring larger version of the picture) there were also about 20 bin bags of stuff which ended up on our local tip!

If anything comes out of this move down under, it’ll be a much tidier house 

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Current Australian Immigration processing lead time as of 1st November 2006

Latest Australian Immigration processing lead time as of 1st November 2006 - Looks like there is a small backlog but they are slowly getting through it.

Acknowledgment of Applications

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 2 November 2006 the ASPC is receipting offshore applications received on 28 August 2006 and onshore applications received on 27 October 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 with effect on each Tuesday.

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 31st October 2006 the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre is allocating applications lodged on or before the following dates:

ONSHORE APPLICATIONS

Student/Graduate

Paper based applications: 24 July 2006 (subclass 880 ) and 28July 2006
(subclass 881) and 6 July 2006 (subclass 882)
E-lodged (online) applications: 18 July 2006 (all subclasses)

Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) (SIR VISA)

Paper based applications: 30 July 2006
E-lodged (online) applications: 1 June 2006

New Zealand

All applications: 7 March 2006 (all subclasses)

OFFSHORE APPLICATIONS

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

Priority Applications: In the range of 26 April 2006
Non-Priority Applications: 12 April 2006

Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) (SIR VISA)

Paper based applications: 14 June 2006
E-lodged (online) applications: 4 August 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. For further information on service standards see: service standards

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The sign has returned

Yay! After returning back to our old For Sale sign for a good few weeks I’m chuffed to bits that we are now the proud owners of a sold sign again.

To make things even better, we had our house surveyed again today and everything appears to have gone well.

The survey report should be completed by the end of this week and everything will be in the hands of the solicitors after then.

We are meeting with the solicitors on Friday to arrange for my parents to become Power of attorney so that they can sign on our behalf if the house sale completes after we move out to Australia. Not really sure if it’s going to be possible to complete the sale within the next three and a bit weeks, still anythings possible…right?

Popularity: 9% [?]