Want to move from Ireland to Brisbane - so many questions!!!

[surhythms]

Hi everyone

I hope somebody can help me - I am seriously considering moving from Ireland over to brisbane. I know that visa's take along time to process and I am wondering If i have to choose where I am living before applying for a visa.

Also - what is the best way to apply - should you get an agent?

I have a 10 year old daughter so I am looking for an area that is close to schools but not too far from the city either. Can anyone recommend good suburbs in Brisbane?

Any advice would be great

Thanks

Suzanne

[kaz101]

Hi Suzanne,

Welcome to the forum.

It really depends on the visa whether you have a choice of where you live. We went for the skilled independent visa since we could live where we wanted and change professions if we wanted too. However that visa took us 2 years to get. Some people come in on a sponsored visa and that means the visa has decided where they will live, and there are regional visas too which say that you can live in certain areas (ie not the big cities).

Some people say you should get an agent, and others say you can do it on your own. We went for an agent and got the full service since we wanted to get it right first time, and didn't think we would be an easy case.

There are a few people from Brisbane on the forum and hopefully they can answer that one for you since we're in South Australia.

Have a good look around the forum since there is loads of advice here and of course we're all here to answer any questions you may have. We all have loads of questions when we're going through this process

Regards,
Karen

[Dolly]

Hi Suzanne,

It depends on which visa you are applying for. For example:

If you're applying for a Skilled - Independed subclass 175 you don't have to choose where you want to live before you get your visa. If you are applying for a Regional Sponsored or Desginated Area Sponsored you will be tied to a State/area.

We used the services of an agent, it was fairly expensive (probably just over £3K) but worth every penny. Depending on your own individual application, if it's a fairly complicated one, it's definitely worth using an agent.

Couldn't advise you on suburbs/schools in Brisbane as we live in Victoria, but I'm sure there's someone on here who'll be able to help.

Dolly

[michelle.ritchie]

hi there,

Welcome to the forum, i actually live in Brisbane myself, if i can be of any help to you please get in touch.

Good Luck

Meg Ritchie

[Nikki6999]

Hi Suzanne, Welcome, We are a family from co Clare, Ireland who are moving to Brisbane (my home country) in June this year, hubby is Irish, so cant help you with the visa questions unfortunately as we have residency for him through me, but just wanted to say hi.
I have been here for 8 years and been back 6 times to Brisbane on holiday to visit family. We are planning to settle in suburb Samford, it is a semi rural acreage suburb of Brisbane, 13 miles from city, about a 20 minute drive, we like it cause your still close to city but gives you space and smaller town feel.
Schools are everywhere in the suburbs, no shortage there.
Good luck with your visa process.... Nikki

[surhythms]

Thanks everyone

Meg I have sent you an email !!

Nikki Im just wondering if you know the area Nudgee - I want to live fairly close to the beach - I dont mind being 30 mins from the city centre as I live about 50 mins from Dublin city centre at the moment - If you work in the city centre is the commute very far?

For those who applied for a visa without an agent do u just contact the australian embassy?

Thanks

Suzanne

[scottishcelts]

Originally Posted by surhythms

Thanks everyone

Meg I have sent you an email !!

Nikki Im just wondering if you know the area Nudgee - I want to live fairly close to the beach - I dont mind being 30 mins from the city centre as I live about 50 mins from Dublin city centre at the moment - If you work in the city centre is the commute very far?

For those who applied for a visa without an agent do u just contact the australian embassy?

Thanks

Suzanne

Hi Suzanne, just a quick bit of info re the suburbs, Cleveland isn't far from the city and is at the beach, it also has a rail link into the city center.

I myself have done a lot of research on the eastern-south eastern suburbs as we are hopefully moving there in September/October and Cleveland is beautiful, although the Beaches in Brisbane aren't up to much, you'd have to go up to the Sunshine Coast for a real beach, or down a bit to the Gold Coast (life is hard isn't it)

Good luck.

[Barrow]

Hi,
Firstly if you want to live near the beach the gold cost or Bribie island are the closest beaches to Brisbane. Either are anything upto an hours train ride to central bisbane. ( I do prefer the sunshine coast to the gold cost though - less comercial) Cleveland and Redcliffe etc are on the bay - but lovely none the less.

Nudgee is a nice enough and about 30 min commute into the city. most areas have good schools so no problem there.

Cheers
Brent

[jam]

hi, we're moving to brisbane in jan 09, we're applying for the 457 visa, we're not going to use an agent, you can doenload all the information required from the australia house website, goodluck jaime x x