ShaunGibbs Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Hi Everyone,We are the Gibbs family currently living in Surrey, England. We applied for our 175 PR visa in June 2009. We are waiting for a CO and hopefully get our visa's at the end of the year.We are only planning to move to Oz in Sept/Oct 2010.Initally we thought we'd like to move to Perth, but now it seems Brisbane has caught our interest.We used to live in Assagay (Upper Highway Area) in KZN. We really want a change after being in England for almost 9 years now. The drab winter weather here is depressing.So I'll be hoping to get more infomation from a South African perspective as apposed to a British Expats forum which I also post on.C ya!RegardsShaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricaC Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Hi Gibbs family!Your 1st post! Welcome to the family.......hope your up and coming journey here to OZ goes smoothlyand yes, there are very clued up people on this forum who can help out where they can!!GOOD LUCK with your process!!Erica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunGibbs Posted September 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Cheers Erica and thanks for the warm, speedy welcome.Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serendipity Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Welcome Gibbs Family to the forum and as you are already riding the extreme roller coaster sure therewill be plenty of Q's and possibly answers to you can give other forumites.Enjoy the ride and again WELCOME Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordy Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Welcome guys. I am sure you will love the SaAustralia forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alida Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Hi, Gibbs family ! Welcome to the forum ! We've found that the SA immigrants and the British immigrants have quite different take on things for the initial period in Oz at least, because of what you are used to where you come from. But enjoy 'our' take on things and hats off to you for being open enough to integrate a different perspective into your experience ! Hope you benefit and I think we can learn quite a lot from you too.Welcome again ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTNCO Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Hi and welcome to the forum Gibbs family. Good luck with the visa process. Guess we all in the same boat!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunGibbs Posted September 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Thanks for all the hearty Welcomes. No doubt we'll bump into each other in other threads from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibella Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Welcome!! Where in Surrey do you live? We live in Guildford. Yes, the winters here in the UK are the pits, but we are still having lovely weather at the moment so now I'm pretending that winter is not happening soon!We are still in the process of applying for ACT state sponsorship, but having second thoughts every second day as we are kind of happy here, except for the weather of course. But we've only been here 2 years, 9 months and 21 days (whose counting) so maybe it just gets to you more the longer you are here?Anyway, good luck with your big move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunGibbs Posted September 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Welcome!! Where in Surrey do you live? We live in Guildford. Yes, the winters here in the UK are the pits, but we are still having lovely weather at the moment so now I'm pretending that winter is not happening soon!We are still in the process of applying for ACT state sponsorship, but having second thoughts every second day as we are kind of happy here, except for the weather of course. But we've only been here 2 years, 9 months and 21 days (whose counting) so maybe it just gets to you more the longer you are here?Anyway, good luck with your big move.Hi Sibella,We live in Fetcham - just outside Leatherhead. The UK has been good to us and we are very happy here, no major complaints. Probably itchy feet and the kids are nearly finished school. Our son will have finished A levels next year and our daughter finished GCSEs. A good time to move. They are also very keen to move.We also want warmer weather where we can live outdoors a lot more, like we did in SA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eva Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Welcome to the forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rajesh Posted September 21, 2009 Report Share Posted September 21, 2009 Hi Shaun,Welcome to this cyber family, If you need any info, advice or just chit chat, this is the one place where you will find almost any piece of info you require. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doran Posted September 22, 2009 Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 Hi Shaun & familyWelcome to the forum and good on you for (maybe) aiming to come to Brisbane.Brilliant place to live and work.All the best with your plansCheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted September 22, 2009 Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 Hi Shaun and family, and welcome... I'm also from KZN (Northern) and also spent 8 years in the UK (lived in Weybridge Surrey in 1998, my first year there, but the rest of the time in London). Shout if you have any questions from an SA>UK>Aus perspective... Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunGibbs Posted September 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 Thanks again all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeInOz Posted September 22, 2009 Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 Hi ShaunAt least the licence comversion is very simple, they copy it and issue you a QLD licence Brisbane is great. Traffic sytem is undergoing some serious upgrades to be mostly complete by 2011No beaches worth speaking of near the river. Only good beaches are Redcliffe north and way south of the river Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunGibbs Posted September 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2009 Hi Lee(?)Yep, because we changed our SA licenses to UK ones, we can just swap them in OZ. I am also getting my 17 yr old one to do both his car & motorbike licenses here in England, so he can swap them in OZ as well.It's hard to believe that SA can't be swapped in OZ. Silly really.CheersShaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele R Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 Welcome to the forum Shaun and family!All the best with the visa and keep us updated with your journey! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 It's hard to believe that SA can't be swapped in OZ. Silly really.I dunno, when you see the difference in quality/security between the actual SA drivers license card and the Aus one, I’m not surprised they’re suspicious of SA drivers licenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyn Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Welcome Gibbs family - from another ex Highway saffer !! Im sure you will love wherever you decide to settle in Australia.All the best with your plans, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunGibbs Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Cheers Michelle & Lyn! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunGibbs Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I dunno, when you see the difference in quality/security between the actual SA drivers license card and the Aus one, I’m not surprised they’re suspicious of SA drivers licenses. I agree. It just seems silly that genuine Saffers spend huge amounts of money getting their visas with legit documenst, police clearances etc... Why would they have a dodge SA drivers license? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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