Immigrating in 2020

[Lienno]

Hi everyone, 

 

We started planning our move to Brisbane at the start of the year, then the pandemic happened 🥺

 

During lockdown we decided to continue with our plans to move before school starts in 2021 so that the children can at least get a fresh start to the new school year.

 

We put our house in the market in Feb and got lucky in Sept with the third offer we received. By 1 December we need to be out of our home and will probably stay with family until our flight. Our container is booked for 23 November and currently we have booked a flight for 22 December. 

 

Any other people on the forum planning the move to Australia in the coming months? Would love to share some ideas and experiences. 

 

We obviously hope for the hotel quarantine to be lifted in favor of self quarantine by then 🙂

 

Best regards, 

[ChrisH]

Good luck with the move, you will love Brisbane!

[Lienno]

1 hour ago, ChrisH said:

Good luck with the move, you will love Brisbane!

Thank you @ChrisH,

 

We were there in 2018 for our Visa activation trip. Although we only visited a few places north of the CBD up to Bundaberg and didn't get to see much of the Gold Coast, we are thinking of settling in the Gold Coast region, Pimpama, Ormeau, Tamborine Mountain and surrounding suburbs.

I found your posts on North Lakes, Mango Hill etc. very helpful and they are also on our list of possible places to stay. We also looked at Moggill, Kenmore, Bellbowrie and surrounds. Still need to make the choice between Huntsmen and Mozzies  

School enrolment seems to be the current stumbling block for us as we don't yet have an adres in QLD and with the current quarantine requirement we might only have a place to stay mid January, which might end up being an AirBnb by the looks of things. Then to find a place to rent. The supposedly easy things became the most difficult during 2020 it seems.

Cheers!

[Riekie]

Just keep in mind any quarantine requirements - don't know how old your kids are but spending two weeks in a hotel room with kids could be quite the challenge.  Hopefully by the time you come over, that would not be a requirement anymore.  I've read that if you fly into NT for instance, the quarantine is in chalets instead of a hotel, which could make things a bit easier and worth looking into.  I'll try and find that article for you. 

 

[Riekie]

Found it! 

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-11/quarantine-in-darwin-howard-springs-facility-becomes-a-holiday/12648762

 

[Lienno]

On 10/14/2020 at 4:11 AM, Riekie said:

Found it! 

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-11/quarantine-in-darwin-howard-springs-facility-becomes-a-holiday/12648762

 

Thank you @Riekie, I read the same article and thought about maybe changing our tickets. Will see what happens on the 24th when they announce the new travel caps, hopefully they consider self isolation again. 

[hannesRSA]

Hi, we're aiming to fly to Brisbane in January but still have to sell our house, book a movecube, and flights. Also to try and get the kids there for the start of the school year, but more likely there will be some delays.

 

I'm still flipping coins on location.. trying to find a place where we can afford a property. Maybe Kenmore, Mansfield, Stafford heights if it is to be close to the CBD. Maybe in a more expensive area and hope for the best on job prospects.

[Riekie]

At the moment flights are still being cancelled all the time - even if you have a confirmed flight with an issued ticket.  Make sure you have a back-up plan for a place to stay and a way to support yourself if your flight is cancelled and you're in a holding pattern for a few weeks/months. When you book your flights, make sure you have fully flexible and fully refundable tickets.

 

[hannesRSA]

5 hours ago, Riekie said:

At the moment flights are still being cancelled all the time - even if you have a confirmed flight with an issued ticket.  Make sure you have a back-up plan for a place to stay and a way to support yourself if your flight is cancelled and you're in a holding pattern for a few weeks/months. When you book your flights, make sure you have fully flexible and fully refundable tickets.

 

Thanks Riekie! My back up plan is to rent unemployed living out of a suitcase after my wife and I resign (maybe start remote freelancing) and send the kids back to school. I guess there's no other way.

 

The flights seem to only be from Jhb... so for me this also means flying to Jhb in time for the international flight (which hopefully doesn't get cancelled last minute) with extra baggage.

[Lienno]

21 hours ago, hannesRSA said:

Hi, we're aiming to fly to Brisbane in January but still have to sell our house, book a movecube, and flights. Also to try and get the kids there for the start of the school year, but more likely there will be some delays.

 

I'm still flipping coins on location.. trying to find a place where we can afford a property. Maybe Kenmore, Mansfield, Stafford heights if it is to be close to the CBD. Maybe in a more expensive area and hope for the best on job prospects.

Good luck @hannesRSA,

 

It is indeed crazy times we find ourselves in and very few things are certain and "planable". We have come to realise that you have to be very flexible in order to stay sane. 

 

The travel caps into Australia is currently the single biggest issue for us as it determines much of the flight schedules at short notice.

 

We have friends that had their flights cancelled 4 times before they eventually took of in September on an almost 50 hour journey to Brisbane. Their MoveCube took 3 months to get from Pretoria to Australia. 

 

It seems that the Hotel quarantine is here to stay for a few more months, although they are considering alternatives, which we hope for due to the cost of the hotel quarantine. 

 

I will update this thread as often as possible to keep you informed of our progress. We have also not yet decided on where we would like to settle. 

 

All the best with your arrangements! 

 

Cheers, 

Hanno

[CurlyT]

On 10/6/2020 at 8:04 PM, Lienno said:

Hi everyone, 

 

We started planning our move to Brisbane at the start of the year, then the pandemic happened 🥺

 

During lockdown we decided to continue with our plans to move before school starts in 2021 so that the children can at least get a fresh start to the new school year.

 

We put our house in the market in Feb and got lucky in Sept with the third offer we received. By 1 December we need to be out of our home and will probably stay with family until our flight. Our container is booked for 23 November and currently we have booked a flight for 22 December. 

 

Any other people on the forum planning the move to Australia in the coming months? Would love to share some ideas and experiences. 

 

We obviously hope for the hotel quarantine to be lifted in favor of self quarantine by then 🙂

 

Best regards, 

 

 

Hi there! 

 

That is so awesome, have you received your visa already?

 

We applied for a SC 491 visa in April, and submitted all our documents except for biometrics before covid hit. 

With the opening of VFS on Monday, we finally managed to do the biometrics (whooohooo!), now just waiting (not so) patiently for the response on the visa. 

 

Our visa is state sponsored QLD, and we are hoping to settle in Mackay, as there seems to be many job opportunities for my husband. 

 

Crossing fingers that we may travel in December some time as well, to settle in and start with school in the new year.  After all this time we are honestly prepared to pay for the hotel quarantine even. 

 

😀

 

 

[Lienno]

On 11/4/2020 at 9:21 AM, CurlyT said:

 

 

Hi there! 

 

That is so awesome, have you received your visa already?

 

We applied for a SC 491 visa in April, and submitted all our documents except for biometrics before covid hit. 

With the opening of VFS on Monday, we finally managed to do the biometrics (whooohooo!), now just waiting (not so) patiently for the response on the visa. 

 

Our visa is state sponsored QLD, and we are hoping to settle in Mackay, as there seems to be many job opportunities for my husband. 

 

Crossing fingers that we may travel in December some time as well, to settle in and start with school in the new year.  After all this time we are honestly prepared to pay for the hotel quarantine even. 

 

😀

 

 

Hi @CurlyT,

Yes, we received our VISA in 2018, wanted and probably should've made the move in 2019.. 2020 seems to be a tad more challenging

 

I've kept an eye on international flight arrivals into Brisbane airport and there seems to be some movement. although I cannot find any information/statistics on the numbers and more specifically a breakdown of First-, Business- and Economy class passengers. As @Riekie mentioned flights are still being cancelled. Some economy class passengers are still being bumped from flights in favor of Business and or First class passengers, this is nasty, but I can understand from the airlines point of view they still need to fund the flight with only a handful of passengers that are allowed per week. I cannot find any statistics on the number of passengers being bumped of flights and the airlines cannot confirm if they do this or if they limit the number of seats per flight to cater for the caps as they get less later in the week. It is a very difficult time to plan anything and as Riekie mentioned, best to have a backup plan and be prepared to change at the last minute.

 

Good luck!

[TamTam]

On 10/7/2020 at 5:56 PM, Lienno said:

Thank you @ChrisH,

 

We were there in 2018 for our Visa activation trip. Although we only visited a few places north of the CBD up to Bundaberg and didn't get to see much of the Gold Coast, we are thinking of settling in the Gold Coast region, Pimpama, Ormeau, Tamborine Mountain and surrounding suburbs.

I found your posts on North Lakes, Mango Hill etc. very helpful and they are also on our list of possible places to stay. We also looked at Moggill, Kenmore, Bellbowrie and surrounds. Still need to make the choice between Huntsmen and Mozzies  

School enrolment seems to be the current stumbling block for us as we don't yet have an adres in QLD and with the current quarantine requirement we might only have a place to stay mid January, which might end up being an AirBnb by the looks of things. Then to find a place to rent. The supposedly easy things became the most difficult during 2020 it seems.

Cheers!

Kenmore is lovely, family friendly and only 10km from the city.

[TamTam]

On 11/3/2020 at 6:38 AM, hannesRSA said:

Hi, we're aiming to fly to Brisbane in January but still have to sell our house, book a movecube, and flights. Also to try and get the kids there for the start of the school year, but more likely there will be some delays.

 

I'm still flipping coins on location.. trying to find a place where we can afford a property. Maybe Kenmore, Mansfield, Stafford heights if it is to be close to the CBD. Maybe in a more expensive area and hope for the best on job prospects.

On 10/7/2020 at 5:56 PM, Lienno said:

Thank you @ChrisH,

 

We were there in 2018 for our Visa activation trip. Although we only visited a few places north of the CBD up to Bundaberg and didn't get to see much of the Gold Coast, we are thinking of settling in the Gold Coast region, Pimpama, Ormeau, Tamborine Mountain and surrounding suburbs.

I found your posts on North Lakes, Mango Hill etc. very helpful and they are also on our list of possible places to stay. We also looked at Moggill, Kenmore, Bellbowrie and surrounds. Still need to make the choice between Huntsmen and Mozzies  

School enrolment seems to be the current stumbling block for us as we don't yet have an adres in QLD and with the current quarantine requirement we might only have a place to stay mid January, which might end up being an AirBnb by the looks of things. Then to find a place to rent. The supposedly easy things became the most difficult during 2020 it seems.

Cheers!

Oops double post - sorry

Edited November 12, 2020 by TamTam

[hannesRSA]

On 11/12/2020 at 9:43 AM, TamTam said:

Kenmore is lovely, family friendly and only 10km from the city.

 

Thanks. Kenmore does look nice, except on the commute which I'm unsure of, and maybe odd roads adding 2km distance to the state high school.

 

So also looking around Chermside West / Stafford heights. I found some recommendations on Carseldine/Albany Creek a bit more North as well- not sure whether to consider them.

 

 

On 11/3/2020 at 8:37 PM, Lienno said:

Good luck @hannesRSA

 

Thanks - good luck to you as well. We may fly on 14th January. The kids will miss some school and it will be a rush so we also have to decide whether to settle blindly or miss another week of school to view the options.

[Lienno]

 

 

Hi Everyone,

 

We finally landed in Brisbane on the 23rd of December.

 

We are extremely grateful and lucky that we could get here with well-priced, economy class tickets, without one delay, cancellation, or being bumped off the flight due to the travel caps imposed by the Federal Government.

 

The flight out of South Africa was a bit uncomfortable, but more because everything was different than what we are used to when traveling than the actual flight itself, it is still almost 9 hours to Doha. We had to wear face masks and face shields for the entire flight, although we could take it off when eating, so I ate very slow and drank a bit more than usual, might have been to get the shield off or it might have been to take the edge off, how knows right ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Our transit in Doha went smooth and we only had a few moments before we needed to get on the flight from Doha to Brisbane. On this flight, we had lots of space for ourselves, as there were only 64 passengers on the plane. So we could each get our row of seats and have some proper shut-eye for a few hours. I don’t know how the airlines manage to still fly with so few people allowed on a flight, but we are very grateful that they did.

 

Once we landed they announced that the people going to Auckland should step off the plane and then re-board a few minutes later. I didn’t count the number of people getting off with us as it was a mad rush to make sure we have all the declarations, forms, passports, and PPE gear ready. At customs, we had to complete 3 more documents, the airline said we needed one per family, but we needed to hand one in for each person (I tried telling the hostess when she handed them out, but we still only got one), it was after midnight already and I could see that the staff wanted to get us through and processed asap as they had a long day, so they weren’t happy about us not having completed the forms, luckily it was everyone and not just us.

 

We went through to the baggage area and got our luggage, we were also handed a form for each adult, this was the hotel quarantine direction and had the hotel name on where we would be staying. From there we went to another area where the police and health officials explain the direction and sign the forms and make sure you have all the relevant travel documents. Once your documents are done you get escorted to a waiting area. When all the passengers completed their forms and direction procedure we were taken to a bus outside, the path was marked and separated from the rest of the airport. Outside the army waited for us and loaded our luggage into the bus, your name gets marked off a list and you can then board the bus. It was a short drive to our hotel, where we waited for another bus to finish their process, this took what felt like half an hour. When we got there one family at a time was allowed to leave the bus and escorted to a waiting area in the hotel. As soon as everyone was inside the police introduced the hotel manager and he gave us all information packs and explained the rules (a lot of them).

 

Again you have to complete a form and as soon as you are done you and your family can go to the check-in desk where you are assigned a room number and then get escorted to your room. We got one room with two queen-size beds, a kettle, a shower, a bar fridge, and a toilet. When we walked into the room and saw where we need to stay for the next 14 days with two small kids, without a balcony, no fresh air breaks, no windows that can open, I had a little bit of a breakdown deep inside, also possibly because it was 03:00 already. Luckily we got moved to a bigger room after day 3 and they allowed us to rent an exercise bike, now we have more space and can get some blood flowing. 

 

The hotel where we are at serves great food and we are thankful for that, I've seen some horror stories about quarantine food on social media. The staff here is super friendly and helpful, they sorted us out with simcards, some essential shopping and gifts for the kids. 

 

Currently, we are trying to organize house viewings for when we get out and I also tried to get car finance sorted out. This seems to be a bigger challenge than it should be. Partly since all the viewings of the houses in the areas we like are early in January when we are still in quarantine. The vehicle finance is difficult seeing that I still do consulting work for companies in South Africa and cannot produce payslips or employment contracts, I also have no credit record or rental history in Australia. We decided to rather buy a car cash and apply for a payment plan for our quarantine fee. I didn’t want to buy a car cash seeing that we might need some free cashflow later, but the only loan I could get was for 16% interest, which I felt was too steep.

 

We have decided to extend our one week Airbnb booking till the end of January so that we hopefully have enough time to view and secure a rental and enroll the kids in school. We keep our fingers crossed that the process of finding a house will be quicker than it seems from our hotel room as this will allow the kids some vacation time before the school year start, the poor little things have gone through a lot this year. This is where I’m very glad that I have a wife that can take care of them during the day and allow me to still work while we are serving our quarantine sentence.

 

If you are thinking of coming over while there is still hotel quarantine enforced, get the latest information on what is happening with regards to flights, entry requirements, caps, etc.. do yourself a favour and join the following Facebook groups if you haven't already. (There is a lot of information there, some might annoy you, others might be valuable, always fact check and if you use a travel agent make sure they are reputable!)
Australians/New Zealanders Stranded in Southern Africa
Queensland Quarantine 2020
Australians Stuck Around the World
Landed: From South Africa to Australia

 

Also, make sure that you keep an eye on the following web pages for updates:

COVID-19: Trying to get home | Smartraveller

Quarantine for International Arrivals Direction | Health and wellbeing | Queensland Government (www.qld.gov.au)

What I need to do before I travel | COVID-19 and the border (homeaffairs.gov.au)

 

There is currently a whole heap of boxes to tick, also a lot of false information going around, so please make sure you always follow and act on information that can be tracked to official sources. It is a mad time. It is tough and not always "lekker" but worth it. Read as much as you can about the quarantine process, requirements, and costs, it is the toughest part of the journey, come prepared! 

 

Fingers crossed for everyone that is currently in the process of coming over or waiting for VISA approvals, we hope you are helped soon and that all your plans will work out just great! It has been mentioned in this thread before by Riekie, make sure you have a backup plan!

 

I you have any questions, we will gladly answer them if we can.
 

Cheers!

 

Edited December 30, 2020 by Lienno