Newbie - Nervous, Excited, Long road ahead.

[MyAusJourneyIB]

Hi everybody, this is my first post (Yay) and I have to admit that it is nerve recking....

A little about myself, I'm married and a mom to a beautiful 3 and a half year old girl, Bella.

My husband and I have always been open to moving from SA, me more than him.

I guess the reason for that is because my parents lived in Moz until '74 when they had to flee as the rebels were looking for my dad, came into SA with nothing and

have build a good life here, but I was brought up as an immigrants child, even though i was born in SA my parents always made sure that if anything happened

we had things ready so that we could up and leave, but my mom has always refused to leave as she loves SA and I guess she hasn't seen the turn in SA that she saw in Moz.

Having said that I don't necessarily want to leave either BUT all I can think of is 10-20years from now, what then? What will be left for my daughter?

Already now I hate it that if we don't live in a closed complex/estate you won't sleep at night without waking up to the slightest noise. Granted some suburbs are worse than others and you not 100% safe in a complex/estate either, but none the less.

And the thought that my daughter won't grow up in a town where if she wanted to walk to the library on her own she could, I'm 33 and I can so vividly remember living in Vereeniging (born there) & being able to walk to the library on my own, and my mom allowing me to walk 5-8 blocks to the tennis courts where i would meet all my friends. This must have been when i was 7-10. NEVER will that be possible in Vereeniging again or where I live now Fourways.

My husband(40) so often tells me of when he was 4 and his mom would pack a bag for him and he would go out (Belfour (SP)) in the morning and only return in the afternoon when he was hungry. And when he was growing up in JHB/Randburg how he use to go and play/fishing by the Jukskei river with his friends.

I guess it's memories like that, that make my husband and I want to move to a place where our kids can make those type of memories. At the moment, the only memories are a jungle gym at papachinos or an indoor play area, or Monte Bird park, or playing at the back of your garden.

Anyway, that was a mouth full.

So last weekend, my husband and I decided to start doing our homework on immigrating to Australia. Friends of ours made the move the beginning of this year and are LOVING it. I guess that also gives us some inspiration. We've given ourselves 3-5 years, and the reason we've given ourselves that much time is because my husband has his own business and it's not that easy to pack and go.

So here I am, looking for advice and guidance as I know that if/when we do make the move... it will be a hard. You guys will be my support group as we have decided not to tell any of our friends and family for now, I guess it's still early days.

To everybody that is already there... I envy you (in a good way) and to everybody almost there... good luck and I can't wait to read about your experiences and adventures.

Over and Out.

LL

[shannonc4]

Welcome and best of luck in your journey.

[MyAusJourneyIB]

Thank you shannonc4

[Lyn]

Welcome Lilly,

and all the best with your plans to get Down Under

[Mara]

Lilly L, welcome and I trust you will find many of your questions answered here on the forum.

Please keep in mind that the cut off age, for the main applicant, is 45, also, the older you are the less points you get for age!

[LadySnoo]

Welcome,

Great post and minus actually having a child already (hopefully soon ) my husband and I are moving for very similar reasons. I think it's a good plan to keep it quiet for a while , I think we told everyone too soon and now I keep having to explain things and it gets frustrating and I see myself constantly hurting family members just by talking about it. I try avoid it now but the questions keep coming.

Anyway good luck and as much as this is all up to your family unit my advice is don't wait too long. Age becomes a big factor in points and occupations get knocked off the list all the time. Act now and once you have it then there is the choice to activate on a holiday and then you can tie up all your loose ends.

We might have to do that too. My hubby is in his own - family business which definitely complicates things !

All the best and I look forward to hearing your progress...

[rikamarie]

Hi there. Welcome to the forum! Good luck with the journey ahead!

[Gillian1]

Welcome Lilly

Reading your story I completely relate (I have a 6 and 4 year old). I wish you everything of the best on your journey. I reiterate what LadySnoo said, try get a visa asap and then you can activate it on a look and see trip and then enter at your leisure.

Good luck and once again welcome

[MyAusJourneyIB]

Thanks for the heads up Mara.

LadySnoo thanks for sharing and I wish you all the best. I will definitely post my progress.

Could somebody maybe let me know if once you get the Visa and activate it, is there a deadline by when you need to move? And what is the time line to activate it?

Thanks Gillian1, I should have read your post before I posted my previous one as you answered my question. :-)

[Gillian1]

Hi Lilly

I think the way it works is you get one year from the time your visa is granted to activate it (normally one year from you police clearance certificate being issued or from date of medicals). After you have activated it I think (I do stand to be corrected) you get 5 years to then move to Australia. Also bear in mind that if your circumstances change (health, police record) this may affect whether you can enter Australia, even after being granted the visa. I might be wrong on this but I have met 2 people who after getting their visas had a baby with health issues and they then had to go through a huge process. In one case the Australian immigration said no based on baby's medical and in the other case they took Australian immigration to court and fought to be allowed in. They won but it was costly. Like I said I'm not entirely sure how it all works but these are two couples I have personally met.

[MyAusJourneyIB]

Wow okay. I'll keep that in mind! Thank you so much!!

[LadySnoo]

One more bit of advice...

Apply for passports , unabridged birth certificates and unabridged marriage certificate for everyone now. These could really delay the process. The sooner you have these the better.

[MyAusJourneyIB]

Thanks LadySnoo,

I have all the passports sorted (I'm assuming you mean the SA passports),

Question though.

What happens if we get the visa but then my daughters passport expires before we leave but after we get the Visa? Will the visa still apply to the renewed passport?

Also for anyone else who might still need to get their certificates, I used a company called www.Bunnyhop.co.za 2 years ago when i was applying for my daughters EU passport and I got it within 2 weeks and no need to go stand in line at home affairs, they are pricey but i'd rather pay than stand in a que and wait for months on end.

UNABRIDGED BIRTH/MARRIAGE/DEATH CERTIFICATES

Processed within 30-40 days

Otherwise known as "long form certificates", these documents are required for, amongst others:

· Applying for certain foreign passports including British Passports, · Applying for certain visa's, for example any child under the age of 18 requires an unabridged birth certificate for an Australian Visa Application. · Emigration

[LadySnoo]

Oh gosh....now you tell me! He he he ... I waited 8 months I think.

Anyway I'm sure someone else can help you with you're questions cos I'm not sure. But I reapplied for passports for us even though ours were still valid so we could have maximum years on them. I told a porky-pie that they were stolen.

There must be some way that the visa is still connected to her passport cos if I'm not mistaken kids have only a few years on their passports. I hope someone can help...

Edited October 12, 2013 by LadySnoo

[Kath]

Welcome Lilly and good luck with the journey.

[Bams]

Hi Lilly and Welcome

I so relate to your story.

I grew up in Vanderbijlpark and when I visit my parents there now, I am shock at the state of the place not to even mention Vereeniging. I also used to walk or ride my bike where ever I wanted not just in side the complex like my daughter (aged 6) has to do.

We are in the same area as you guys (I work in Fourways and stay in Allens Nek) so if you ever want to meet up for a cup of coffee to chat, let me know.

Adults passports are valid for 10 years and kids are for 5 years.

From what I know if you get your VISA and your child's passport expires you can get a new one for her and let the AUS government know that they can link the VISA to the new passport. But please do check this as I don't know it for a fact.

Are you going to use and agency or do this yourself?

Have you got an idea of where in Aus you want to go?

Good luck on the journey and feel free to shout whenever you want to know something.

[debbieschutte]

Hi Lilly

We received our visa in June 2013, flying to Perth on the 20th January 2014. My oldest sons passport would have expired in December 2013 so we applied for a new one, emailed a copy of the new one to Aus immigration and it was linked to our visa. No problem.... received the confirmation email within a day.

I can just say that nearly the same happened to us. Decided to apply for the visa and then we would activate and return as we had just started our own business which as doing well. So the plan was to stay the full 4 years we had left in SA before we had to be in Aus.

But even before the visa was granted we decided (due to strikes, more murders, the problems in schools and universities) that to be in SA for another 4 years was a risk and not worth it so 4 days after our visa being granted we booked our 1 way ticket!! Our house and business is sold and we are on our way.

Good luck with your journey and you might just also find that that precious visa puts one in another mindset

[JET1]

Hi, our kids passports expired, we got new ones, scanned and emailed them and got confirmation on the same day that their system was updated. I still have the old passports and the confirmation email just in case, but they said we shouldn't have a problem.

Good luck with everything, welcome to the forum and this journey.

[Lynnie]

Hi Lilly,

Welcome to the forum and may your journey be smooth - it is hard, but SO worth it

[McCabes]

Welcome Lilly

All the best for your journey, hope it's a smooth one

(PS my youngest's name is also Lilly, two Ls )

[Toitjie]

There is a form on the immi website that you download (search for change of passport details), fill in and scan this with the child's old and new passport to your CO. I did that and got confirmation same day that the details have been updated

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Hey Lilly, welcome to the forum and congratulations on taking the first steps toward a better future.

I have very similar memories to those that you shared and am now very greatful that my child can make her own happy memories with friends and can reach her full potential based on merit and not gender or race.

It's a long and tough journey, but the peeps here in forum land are awesome and very supportive no matter what. They carried us through some tough emotional times.

[Toitjie]

HEOJ - bloody hell...I thought I was the forum insomniac but you are worse! it must be around 2am there? when do you sleep

[MyAusJourneyIB]

Hey @McCabes, she must be a wonderful child hehe. I see you have your LSD booked for the 28th of Feb, can't wait to read about your thoughts, where about are you going?

@Lynnie, thank you!!

@HadenoughofJuJu thanks, so far this forum has been the best source of information yet, I am so grateful.

Thank you to everybody (and it's just the beginning)

@Toitjie.. lol i was thinking the same thing about @HadEnoughofJuJu.

[HadEnoughofJuju]

HEOJ - bloody hell...I thought I was the forum insomniac but you are worse! it must be around 2am there? when do you sleep

It's on my phone and there is no sleep for the wicked and parents with small children. I haven't been sleeping much lately, between building a new content management system and Aus TV, sleep seems like a waste of time.