Hampshire to Brisbane Australia

[Igor]

Hi,

I'll be moving to Brisbane hopefuly around August time this year. My fiance although British has dual citizenship having worked there for a number of years in the past, so we're hoping to go on the prospective spouse visa.

I'm really excited about the whole thing and yet petrified at the same time. There seems to be so much to do and not much time to do it in. Neither of us has kids so there's only really us to think about. She's got an open ended job being held open to her from her previous exployer and I've managed to get an "in principle" job offer as long as I get there and have a visa that allows me to work, so a few of the big hurdles are out of the way.

I'm planning on using the services of a migration agent who I first met at the Oz expo in London a short while ago. Is that something that is done by most people looking to move to Oz or is it a bit unnecessary? It's about £700 in all for their services and I'm a bit of a flapper so I see it as paying them to take some stress away as I've got a fair bit to do in the meantime working full time and getting my house straight to either sell or rent out.

I opened a bank account at the expo too and have been reading lots of good info on here about lists of things to do, some obvious and some I'd never think of in a million years.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's done it and anyone who's doing it and anyone with any thoughts on things to look out for.

Looking forward to getting to know a few of you and sharing the highs and lows of this process with you all as I go.

Igor.

[MichelleAlison]

Hi Igor and welcome to the forum.

If you go the Oz forum, you will find loads of helpful information.

Good luck

Michelle

[kaz101]

Hi Igor,

Welcome to the forum.

I moved your post to the Australia country forum since there's more info here for you.

You've probably already seen the sticky posts at the top of the Australia forum you'll see info on what to do before and after you move.

Several of us on here used agents since we wanted to get it right first time That amount money seems pretty good for an agent but it really depends on what they are doing since we paid more but they did nearly everything for us.

There are several people here moving to or already in Brisbane too.

Regards,
Karen

[jennineb]

Defo use an agent, I made the mistake of going alone and regretted it. My application was delayed a year because I didnt give enough information on my job, caused much upset. Plus I never knew what was going on or what stage I was at. At one point an email was delayed by 2 month as my name was spelt incorrectly on an email that was sent to me.

My friends have gone with an agent and he keeps them updated on where they stand.

[Igor]

Hi,

Thanks for the welcome folks. Thanks for moving my post Karen, I can see it will be seen by more relevant people here.

And thanks for the heads up on the Agent. One thing I keep wondering though is why we have been advised to go down the prospective spouse visa route which grants 9 months in which time we have to get married in Australia and then apply for the spouse visa. Would it be possible for me to go with my fiance on a 3 month visa and then we get married there and then apply for the spouse visa.

Is this something to do with whether you can apply whilst inside or outside Australia.

The more I dig at the moment the more confused I seem to get.

Thanks for reading.

Igor.

[Dolly]

Hi Igor,

We used the services of an agent, and it was worth every penny. If it weren't for them we wouldn't be sitting here in Australia right now. There are people that do everything themselves (if it's a pretty straightforward application) but ours wasn't.

I found doing heaps of research before you move over is invaluable (banks/suburbs/rentals/cars etc). We got bank accounts, a rental, car rental for the first couple of weeks and ambulance cover arranged before we moved. Most other things can be sorted in the first week you arrive.

All the best to you and your fiance...if you have an queries, ask away and someone will be able to help you.

Dolly

[kaz101]

Hi Igor,

You can always ask the advice of more than one agent if you want to confirm what they are telling you. Have you asked them why they think that visa is the best route?

Regards,
Karen

[Chrissygirl]

Hi there, we used Visa Bureau in London, they were fantastic and we got thorugh the visa experience pretty easily. I still call them now with questions, and we have our visas and have activated them, we will be moving to Brisbane in July this year, Cant wait. Good luck

[Igor]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Things moving slowly but surely. Went with 1st Contact agents, I think it's cheap becuase it's the prospective spouse visa (subclass 300) so is quite straight forward apparently. Police checks in at the moment and visa submittal imminent when that's back so will keep you posted.

Thanks.