Visa Activation Trip done and dusted *spoiler alert*

[bcuz007]

My experiences - hope this helps you and thanks to everyone that have helped me on the forum.

We are now official permanent residents of Oz as of August 2017  (me, wife and kids (4&6yo)) We received our 189 in June and were given till august to activate.

 

Our activation trip  was 16 full days & 3 cities (Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane). We stayed at airbnb's in all cities.

First tip - when renting a car (we used budget) it is $50 per day for insurance if you don't want to pay the $4500 excess if the car is in an accident (eina). This was not something we budgeted for and it was more than the price of the rental car per day. There is a cheaper option of $43 per day to reduce the excess to $500. Landing in Sydney jet-lagged and they tell you this my eyes were like saucers. We just bit the bullet and did the $50 per day. We bought an Optus starter sim card for our wifi hotspot and turned our cellular data on our phones to off. $30 gave us 14gigs which lasted us the entire holiday (sending pics in real time back home). all the airbnbs had high speed fibre internet (uncapped). There were also free hotspots all over the 3 cities we visited.

 

Sydney is amazing - we stayed in Brighton le Sands. The area is ok (not much to do there - other than activate our oz bank account) it is 10 minutes south from the airport but we much preferred North Sydney. We met friends and went to luna park with the kids after waking up late and hardly sleeping. Lots of open spaces and parks around, drove over the bridge and walked forever taking it all in. Afterwards we went back to brighton le sands beach while the sun was setting. Coffee is $5 each, so 2 coffees and 2 hot chocolates for the kids are over R200 everytime. Dont tip your waiter, restaurant service isn't as good as in SA (i think this is because they don't get tips), when you're done you go pay at the counter. 

Bondi beach is my favourite beach in Sydney . Driving around its weird to see no fences around the golf courses (things you notice). Parking at the beach is expensive (I think we paid about $15 for 3 hours at Manly beach). Manly beach has nice shops and restaurants right on the beach.

Driving around the suburbs we found a place called chipmunks (like a papachinos in joburg) for the kids. Lots of slides and mazes to spend a few hours in. Castle Hill has very nice homes and a big shopping centre like in SA. We only did a loop about 50kms in radius around the sydney cbd to get an idea of houses and suburbs. Self checkout at the grocery shops (Coles and Woolworths) was an unexpected surprise to me. Weirdly, they want you to deposit $2 in the shopping trolley to get a shopping trolley. Also at the airports you have to pay $4 for a luggage trolley.

On the last day we used public transport to the zoo. Bought 4 Opal cards 2 kids 2 adults put about $20 on the adults and $10 on the kids cards and went from our Airbnb to the Toronga zoo (zoo has 20% discount if you pre-buy the tickets online and show them the barcode on the email they send back). We caught a bus to train to another train to a ferry to the zoo. The zoo is absolutely amazing (it is built on the side of a hill so they have a cable car that takes you up from the ferry to the entrance of the zoo and its a downhill walk all the way back to the ferry). We then did the same trip back in reverse. It was so easy. Google maps and citymapper are the best apps to use for public transport giving you times and telling you which train to get on. Junior school kids by themselves on the train on the trip back without an adult also surprised me. Off to Melbourne in the morning.

 

Melbourne is beautiful. We stayed in St Kilda which is South east of the city on the bay. Roads are wide like in SA as opposed to Sydney where the roads and tunnels were quite narrow. Another Luna park in Melbourne and the most amazing parks with all the top end kid jungle gyms and open gym equipment for adults every few km's and right on the bay. We walked the prominade and had coffee on the restaurants overlooking the bay/beach. We drove down the east coast to meet friends in Carrum. Houses are very nice but obviously expensive along the east side of the bay. Had a braai in Carrum. We walked from our friends house with them and their kids and dog 5 minutes to the closest jungle gym. Drove back more inland to the airbnb to check the houses and suburbs out. On the last day we bought the Myki (public transport) cards to go check out the city. Again the transport is so easy to use with the apps on the phone. The tram system is amazing and we again winged it and were pros by the end of the day. Went to CBD had coffee, went to federation square (saw a Tesla electric car and walked through some of the expos they had), and lastly caught the trams to the star of Melbourne which we went on. Next stop Brisbane.

 

Brisbane - so warm... Time for cossies and shorts with slops. Winter weather was 25deg. Had the most amazing airbnb (2 story house for the same price as little flats in sydney and melbourne). we stayed in seven hills again a few kms south of the city, it had the most amazing panoramic views of the city. It didnt feel like I was overseas. We went to Mt Cootha which was on a public holiday so it was quite busy. Then we went to South Bank Parklands for lunch. Blue pools and man made beach to chill at on the river in the city. Kids went off like pinballs and lost them a few times on the jungle gyms (again the most elaborate jungle gyms ive seen). Amazing spot for kids. Again parking in city is expensive (it was also a public holiday $16). Would have loved to have caught a ferry ride down the river but didnt have time. Next day gold coast. skyscrapers on the beach big houses boats, huge entertainment parks on the way there rollercoasters etc. The sea and beach (surfers paradise) on the gold coast is amazing, so clean. Got a parking fine though $75, oops. Next day Sunshine Coast. So quiet and much calmer sea, had a picnic on the beach for a couple of hours. We then drove back on this scenic windy route back to brisbane cbd. The GPS took us this way because their was a fire on the main route but it was such a beautiful windy hilly drive with farms. The last day was super windy and we were all so pooped we just chilled in the house to recover for the long haul back.

 

And now the job hunt continues...

 

 

[189inprocess]

Sounds like you had a good holiday, best of luck for the job hunting

 

[Husky]

Glad it went well. So? Which city felt the most right for you?

[Rhazo32]

Wow

 

That sounds like a really great activation trip. All the best with the job hunt.

[bcuz007]

11 hours ago, Husky said:

Glad it went well. So? Which city felt the most right for you?

 

I'm going where I have found the most jobs for my industry which apply to me (mechanical engineer) which is Melbourne, second is Sydney, and Brisbane has the least.

My wife likes Brisbane the most for the weather, but it seems it only has jobs for civil engineers from all the job sites.

But any 3 of the cities I would move to easily they are all great. 

 

So  job, find schools, find house to rent in that schools area, bring over dog and container, rave about how wonderful it is so my family, cousins and friends can come join (haha).

 

[Fidjet]

3 minutes ago, bcuz007 said:

So  job, find schools, find house to rent in that schools area, bring over dog and container, rave about how wonderful it is so my family, cousins and friends can come join (haha).

Sounds like a great plan. Sterkte with everything

[Mel-B]

Just go where the work is, every city has its great points! They are all easy to love

[Samie]

@bcuz007 Great activation trip. Do you have any idea why you were given only 2months to activate, you mentioned were granted June & to activate August ?

[bcuz007]

@Samie I don't know why we were given the short notice, our agent did admit it was not normal as our police clearances were done in November and medicals in January. 

 

I later received this from letter from the dibp - but we didnt want to take the chance with all the changes in the visa laws going on 

 

NOTICE TO GENERAL SKILLED MIGRATION VISA HOLDERS ABOUT TRAVELLING IN BREACH OF THEIR VISA’S INITIAL ENTRY DATE
The grant of your General Skilled Migration visa included the following visa condition:
8504 The holder must enter Australia as the holder of the visa to which the condition applies before a date specified by the Minister.
This condition requires that an initial entry into Australia by each visa holder be made before the
date specified in the “Visa Grant Notice” provided to you when your visa was granted.
General Skilled Migration is aware that you and/or your family members who were granted a visa
as part of your application may not comply with this condition.
Failure to comply with visa conditions can render a visa liable for cancellation under the Migration
Act 1958 and visa holders are encouraged to make their first entry by the initial entry date.
General Skilled Migration; however; has no objection to visa holders travelling to Australia in
breach of condition 8504 and will not seek to cancel a visa where the only reason for doing so
would be the breach of this condition.
Visa Validity Period
This notice can only be used during the period for which you hold a valid visa. Information about
your visa validity period is also contained in the “Visa Grant Notice”.
If your General Skilled Migration visa has ceased for any reason then you cannot use this notice to
enter Australia as the holder of this visa.
Travelling to Australia
This notice should be sufficient evidence for a travel provider to be satisfied that the visa holder
can enter Australia as the holder of a General Skilled Migration visa.
Visa holder(s) may wish to carry a copy of this notice to present to the airline when checking in at
the airport and on arrival into Australia.
Please note that some delays may be encountered upon arrival into Australia while visa validity is
verified.

 

[Samie]

Ummm, a bit tricky hey. I think we might have the same problem as we also did our PCC in November last year and lodged in April.  Our visas are not yet granted. I once read a thread where some guys were saying PCC should be taken close to the lodging date so that by the time you get your grant, you won't have an early IED like what happened to you. Unfortunately, we only saw this after we had lodged. We just have to wait and see...Thanks for the info.

[RedPanda]

Wow, it's quite decent of them to give you a letter like that. Obviously they can see you have a very short notice. Thanks for sharing. I would strongly suggest that anyone fearing they might breach the entry date cut-off should contact DIBP directly and ask for advice.