AFreshStart Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 Hi Guys,Firstly, what an encouraging group, filled with helpful, friendly people and your collective knowledge has been most helpful and welcomed!We made the decision to move to Aus in October last year and are making headway collecting all our documentation for our VISA application.Outside of direct family and 2-3 close friends we've not made it public knowledge yet, we've decided to wait to share until we've logged, or maybe even approved. We’ve chosen to do it without an agent as for our VISA class it seems fairly straight forward, one half being Australian (by birth, having not actually lived there).As with many of you, my heart has been here in SA, but with two young children to consider and the daily news and those close to us being effected by various crimes we've made the decision to move and to hopefully offer our kids a safer and balanced life.We hope to be living there this time next year and at the moment are looking at Sydney, which almost ironically my brother has just moved to having broken the news to us in the same month we shared our decision to go, so being close to family is certainly a drawcard.My wife works for a global company with offices in Sydney and Melbourne and had a prelim interview yesterday, while there are no available posts at present they are hoping to expand over the next year and will be looking at her as a potential candidate to enlist as they do.The same morning we got that news we also heard our police certificates were finalized, so now we are just waiting on our eldest son's unabridged birth certificate before we lodge, though home affairs are dragging their heels, 6 weeks and no sign of progress and our daughters took 9 months to get! Going to wait out the 8-weeks and then look at using a third party service to speed things up.We've already been ‘looking’ at accommodation and schools and looking at North Shore, probably around Chatswood, Artarmon or Willoughby to be close to the city for my wife's work on the Northern Line.It's still a year away and we have lots to do, but just wanted to introduce myself, share our story and to thank you all again for your help/support and community.CheersMatt 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermoose Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 Good luck Matt! I see you're from Cape Town too ... it's a tough city to move away from, but new adventures (and safety, and first world comfort, and a currency that allows you to travel) await 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest May Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 I think being Capetonian you will like Sydney. Welcome. Good Luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFreshStart Posted January 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 Good luck Matt! I see you're from Cape Town too ... it's a tough city to move away from, but new adventures (and safety, and first world comfort, and a currency that allows you to travel) await Thanks! Yeah, it's tough, it's been my home now for half my life and we feel very much at home here, but I'd be lying is the stress and anxiety of always bein on guard hasn't gotten to me, esp. now that we have kids. Several of our neighbours have been burgled, we've had 2 attempted break ins and a couple in our Church were held up at gun point.We understand that crime is something you live with here, but we've made a choice that we don't have to, we have this option of going to Aus, so why not take it? I'm a dual national and after living there for 2 years our kids will be eligible for citizenship and so wed be foolish not to do so.I must say that at this point we are being a little idealist in that we feel that the next two years in SA will define the future of the country, and giving us time away will also give us perspective if it's somewhere we'd like to return to one day, I know from reading your other posts that this is the situation you now find yourself in and I think if I read correctly you might be moving to the UK?We are excited about the future, I must say I'm ancy since I wish we were there already, I'm rather impatient in that sense, I've committed to going, so just want to be there already, but there is still so much to do, we've not even been able file yet because we are waiting on my son's birth certificate, 6-weeks today, though they say 6-8 weeks, but I know my daughters took 9 months!I saw in another post you used Gawie and if it doesn't come through in the next 2-weeks I'll be using him to reapply, this waiting is so annoying and I can't understand how in the world it can take this long to action things... but this is Africa, as they say.I think being Capetonian you will like Sydney. Welcome. Good Luck.Thanks May! I've visited before, back in 2003, at the time I had no desire to move there, it was part of my global travels, but enjoyed my time there and found it to be similar in many ways to CPT, kind of feel it has the environment of CPT, but the pace of JHB, a mix of both of them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermoose Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 I must say that at this point we are being a little idealist in that we feel that the next two years in SA will define the future of the country, and giving us time away will also give us perspective if it's somewhere we'd like to return to one day, I know from reading your other posts that this is the situation you now find yourself in and I think if I read correctly you might be moving to the UK?We are excited about the future, I must say I'm ancy since I wish we were there already, I'm rather impatient in that sense, I've committed to going, so just want to be there already, but there is still so much to do, we've not even been able file yet because we are waiting on my son's birth certificate, 6-weeks today, though they say 6-8 weeks, but I know my daughters took 9 months!I saw in another post you used Gawie and if it doesn't come through in the next 2-weeks I'll be using him to reapply, this waiting is so annoying and I can't understand how in the world it can take this long to action things... but this is Africa, as they say.I think you're right. The elections in April/May this year will be a pretty clear indicator of things to come. While I think there'll be a splintering of votes away from the ANC and towards EFF/DA/etc, the reality is that it's a numbers game in SA ... and the sheer volume of votes going to the ANC is going to take another couple of generations to whittle down I think. Anyway, all of the political and safety issues aside, why not just celebrate that you're going to have a grand adventure and try something different in life? If you choose to go to Thailand or New York for a holiday, no one ever tries to argue about which one is better, they just wish you a happy trip. It's really the same scenario here, just on a bit of a different scale. We can go, stay, come back, go somewhere else, it's all a journey that we map out for ourselves .... and good for anyone who wants to do it. Or doesn't want to do it, for that matter.Posted about the home affairs email strategy on the other post. Give it a go before you try paying someone - it could very well do the trick! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCabes Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Welcome Matt and family!Sounds like you are very organised, hope that last certificate comes through quickly now.All the best 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFreshStart Posted January 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Thanks McCabes, yes, trying to be as organized as possible, collecting all the documents. I'd rather lodge with all the required info. My wife is applying for a spousal VISA, as I'm an Australian citizen by birth rights (a long, but interesting story), which makes it a lot easier to do as the forms are very detailed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCabes Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 That's awesome and should be far less complicated. The forms are very involved, a couple applying for a spousal visa was in the VFS office when we applied for the visitor visa for our LSD, and they hadn't filled in anything on the forms. They spent about 20 minutes with the lady at the desk, who explained why and what they needed to do and come back with, so if you have any questions (and if we can't help), they are really very friendly there. You're going to have to share that long and interesting story 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFreshStart Posted January 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 That's awesome and should be far less complicated. The forms are very involved, a couple applying for a spousal visa was in the VFS office when we applied for the visitor visa for our LSD, and they hadn't filled in anything on the forms. They spent about 20 minutes with the lady at the desk, who explained why and what they needed to do and come back with, so if you have any questions (and if we can't help), they are really very friendly there. You're going to have to share that long and interesting story Thanks, yes, I gather the VFS office is pretty helpful and I must say that even the local Aus guys in Pretoria at the High Commission have been helpful in answering questions over e-mail, normally within 24-48 hours... that's a lot better than the reaction time from our local Home Affairs.RE the story, the short version is my Great Grandfather was Sir Robert Torrens, the third Premier of South Australia. For his service to the Queen, men in his line of passage were given birth rights to Aus, so while I was born in Durban, I have an Australian birth certificate. They've since done away with those old laws, they ended with me, but my kids will be eligible for citizenship on me living in Aus for 2 years.So I've grown up in SA my whole life, visited Australia once, but have traveled globally almost exclusively on my Aus passport since I was a young teen.Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCabes Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Wow... that is seriously awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinierkie Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Good luck with the process 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFreshStart Posted January 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Good luck with the process Thanks! All a bit daunting, but the forum has been a great help with things like thinking about where to live, how to move there with tons of advice and support, and all this before we've even filed our application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
votties Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 Hi!Just wanted to introduce myself - hubby and I moved to Sydney, more specifically Artarmon 2 months ago. We love it here. The area is green, loads of birds, yet with nice little restaurants and shops in the village. It's also just a hop on the train to the city (15-20 mins), or to Chatswood which is very nice if you like Asian flavours - we find it very exciting, having lived in China for a while years ago. Hubby works in North Sydney, which is 4 stops away, and I cycle to work in Willoughby. Wouldn't swap it for anything.Hope to see you here soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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