[EnglishGirlInOz]

Hello!
Well this is my first post for me so please be gentle on me.

My OH and I are currently in talks about moving to Oz on his 457 visa, as he has been offered a job over there.
He is in the trade as a mechanic, and at present we are still waiting for his new employer to confirm all the finer details, in regards to flights, visa forms, shipping etc, but we are wondering where we stand with bringing his tools over with us?

As you can imagine, they're not the cleanest things in the world, and he has a LOT of them. Would he need to scrub every tool clean to new condition for them to be accepted at the border? Or can they be transported as they are?

We've made a start on cleaning them anyway, but 8 hours later, we have only just finished the spanners - so i'd like to put a hold on a long process if possible!

Thanks!
EnglishGirlInOz

 

[Jayceee]

There was another thread on this recently and the upshot was the main concern of AQIS would be organic material. You may want to do a search to find it.

Solvent dips are used to clean greasy parts has he tried the tools in that ?

 

[EnglishGirlInOz]

Oh sorry. I did a search and couldnt find anything. We cleaned the tools in clutch fluid (it strips everything from anything!) then rinsed in warm water and dried. It took us hours just to clean all the spanners as he has collected hundreds of tools over the years! Waa just looking to see if it was a thankless task or one that had to be done.

 

[Jayceee]

I found it, it wasn't very helpful as it went off topic.

Without seeing them its hard to say definitively, but if you've put them through a solvent bath they should be ok as AQIS are only concerned with organic material.

They've pulled me up in the past for having muddy boots in my case, they just put them in a machine they've got in the arrivals at the airport and washed them.

If in doubt declare them on the arrival card they give you on the Aircraft. You'll never get in trouble for declaring something you shouldn't, but you will for not declaring something you should.

 

[Bizbomb]

I'm in a similar situation but my husband is a panel beater the feedback I got was clean them with jeyes fluid.