What you want:
To bring your beloved animals with!
What you think:
No problem - a few months in quarrantine is ok.
What they DON'T tell you:
Bad news, I'm afraid. We had 2 lovely chow-chow's - part of the family - that we had to leave behind. It was the hardest decision of all. The quarrantine period here is 7 MONTHS. That's insane! We couldn't bring ourselves to lock our dogs up in solitary confinement for that long, and then when they came out, they'd be weird and screwed up. So we gave them away to a lovely family in SA. Still breaks our hearts every day, but you're choosing a better, safer lifestyle for the rest of your life, so in the end it was them or us. Sounds selfish, but it was worth it.If you decide on solitary ;-) for them, they are well cared for by professionals, and you can visit as often as you like, but the centers are normally out of town. If you can deal with the heartache of deserting them every week (we can't), maybe it's an option. It's around R20000 to fly them out and around $3000 per month for them (times 7!), so you need to weigh up how much you need to get out of there... also, consider your housing when you arrive. Most rentals don't like pets.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
WTF - who to trust with everything you own on the planet!
What you want:
All your earthly possessions to arrive safe and sound halfway across the world - undamaged...
What you think:
It's very expensive, everything is going to break, and it probably won't arrive in Australia.
What they DON'T tell you:
We relocated with Crown International Relocations instead of Biddulphs for the simple reason that Crown offered an end-to-end Crown owned service, whereas Biddulphs used other service providers.
Crown was excellent.
The packing staff were great and thorough, and when we received our goods that were shipped on 20 October on 27 December, NOTHING was damaged or broken. Incredible, considering our whole house had gone via truck to Durban, South Africa, into storage, onto a container ship to Singapore, into storage, onto another ship to Melbourne, into storage, through customs, transferred to a new container, and eventually unpacked at our new home. Even our 40 plus bottles of wine and 80 or so glasses made it. Well done to them!
The packing process took 2 days and they pack it all. Loading is on the third day and takes most of the day.
Make sure you remove all animal, plant, untreated wood and grasses from your stuff. Don't try to sneak anything through. Customs and immigration unpacks the container into a new one on arrival in Australia, and they'll find most things. We had a honeymoon photo album with a banana leaf stuck on the front cover and they destroyed this - we didn't sneak it in, just overlooked it in the chaos.
Another thing to get used to - it took 8 guys to load the truck in SA, plus a driver to watch, and 2 guys to unload, one of which was the driver - bit more efficient and cost effective, methinks...
All your earthly possessions to arrive safe and sound halfway across the world - undamaged...
What you think:
It's very expensive, everything is going to break, and it probably won't arrive in Australia.
What they DON'T tell you:
We relocated with Crown International Relocations instead of Biddulphs for the simple reason that Crown offered an end-to-end Crown owned service, whereas Biddulphs used other service providers.
Crown was excellent.
The packing staff were great and thorough, and when we received our goods that were shipped on 20 October on 27 December, NOTHING was damaged or broken. Incredible, considering our whole house had gone via truck to Durban, South Africa, into storage, onto a container ship to Singapore, into storage, onto another ship to Melbourne, into storage, through customs, transferred to a new container, and eventually unpacked at our new home. Even our 40 plus bottles of wine and 80 or so glasses made it. Well done to them!
The packing process took 2 days and they pack it all. Loading is on the third day and takes most of the day.
Make sure you remove all animal, plant, untreated wood and grasses from your stuff. Don't try to sneak anything through. Customs and immigration unpacks the container into a new one on arrival in Australia, and they'll find most things. We had a honeymoon photo album with a banana leaf stuck on the front cover and they destroyed this - we didn't sneak it in, just overlooked it in the chaos.
Another thing to get used to - it took 8 guys to load the truck in SA, plus a driver to watch, and 2 guys to unload, one of which was the driver - bit more efficient and cost effective, methinks...
Sunday, June 10, 2007
WTF - to sell or not to sell?
What you want:
Start getting rid of the big things like cars, houses, furniture, pets in time.
What you think:
Start early so you're not stuck with it.
What they DON'T tell you:
For my views on what to get rid of, see this post.
Don't sell anything until the VISA is in your hand! A million things can go wrong in a year - the typical processing time for a PR/Permanent Residence VISA - so patience is needed. We started by getting a quote for the furniture relocation, which then let us understand how much space we had to pack into. We then measured up everything and decided what to get rid of. We also got settlement prices for the cars, and a valuation on the house. We prepared all the adverts for the household stuff, took some digital pics, and prepared an email to circulate amongst our friends... and then waited.
and waited.
and then the panic moment arrived. The VISA came through.
We sent the FOR SALE email to our mates and most stuff went within a week - you'll be amazed how effective this is - interesting to find out who's being coveting your possessions with lustful hearts!!! ;-)
Cars went within about 3 weeks with the right price -don't expect market value if you're in a hurry, but be careful not to get shafted. If you don't sell in time you can always leave signed papers with a lawyer or trusted friend to handle the transaction. It's not a big deal.
Selling the house is tricky because it's very dependant on demand in your area, but once you have a buyer and he's paid a deposit and all is signed, very little normally goes wrong. All the paperwork after you've accepted the offer can be done remotely, so keep things in perspective.
Pets were hardest, simply because we wanted to hand-pick the new owners.
So, repeat after me - Don't sell anything until the VISA is in your hand!
Start getting rid of the big things like cars, houses, furniture, pets in time.
What you think:
Start early so you're not stuck with it.
What they DON'T tell you:
For my views on what to get rid of, see this post.
Don't sell anything until the VISA is in your hand! A million things can go wrong in a year - the typical processing time for a PR/Permanent Residence VISA - so patience is needed. We started by getting a quote for the furniture relocation, which then let us understand how much space we had to pack into. We then measured up everything and decided what to get rid of. We also got settlement prices for the cars, and a valuation on the house. We prepared all the adverts for the household stuff, took some digital pics, and prepared an email to circulate amongst our friends... and then waited.
and waited.
and then the panic moment arrived. The VISA came through.
We sent the FOR SALE email to our mates and most stuff went within a week - you'll be amazed how effective this is - interesting to find out who's being coveting your possessions with lustful hearts!!! ;-)
Cars went within about 3 weeks with the right price -don't expect market value if you're in a hurry, but be careful not to get shafted. If you don't sell in time you can always leave signed papers with a lawyer or trusted friend to handle the transaction. It's not a big deal.
Selling the house is tricky because it's very dependant on demand in your area, but once you have a buyer and he's paid a deposit and all is signed, very little normally goes wrong. All the paperwork after you've accepted the offer can be done remotely, so keep things in perspective.
Pets were hardest, simply because we wanted to hand-pick the new owners.
So, repeat after me - Don't sell anything until the VISA is in your hand!
Friday, June 8, 2007
WTF - to take your stuff or not?
What you want:
To easily settle into your new life in Australia.
What you think:
Not sure whether to take your things with you or not. Some say yes, some say no...
What they DON'T tell you:
Our thought process started with listening to advice from 'others'. Bear in mind that each experience is unique, so you need to make up your own mind based on limited information. We were told that it's better to sell up everything and buy again when we arrived in Australia due to strict quarantine laws, different furniture styles, cheaper prices, etc. We were also told to hang on to everything for exactly the opposite reasons.
In the end, we compromised.
The obvious things that won't go through customs, like feathers, untreated wooden African souvenirs, anything made out of cane or grasses, or mud/clay, we gave away or sold. This included our lawnmower, weed eater and camping gear.
The other limitation was the container size. It's 30 cubic meters, which was 6 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters. Into this must go your whole life's gathering! Quite a challenge.
This had an upside - we finally tossed away all the crap that we clung onto for the last 20 years and moved from storage cupboard to cupboard and house to house and never used/looked at/ even knew existed until we tried to throw it away and couldn't.
I found this a very cleansing process - decluttering your life is amazing and refreshing. Even if you're not moving, I highly recommend it!
This included clothes, shoes, duplicate appliances, old sentimental furniture, papers and other rubbish.
We also decided not to take any vehicles with as the import duties are very high, and cars are about 30% cheaper to buy in Australia - I'll post about this later.
I also left my Jetski for the same reason.
...and yes, we did take our electrical appliances and TVs and hi-fi's etc - the power supply is the same as South Africa, so all it involved was a trip to Bunnings (similar to Makro in South Africa) to buy 25 new plugs and a morning to change them and everything worked just fine.
The only catch is that your TV has to be able to use the PAL B/G format. South Africa uses PAL I, so check this before taking the TV with. Most modern TVs can switch between the formats though.
We ended up taking only our best quality, most useful and most loved stuff and it was a very good decision!
I cannot tell you what a wonderful feeling it was when everything arrived thousands of kilometers away in our new country! It immediately makes your house feel like home, and settles you. And it's not a materialistic view - many things you own have good memories attached to them. We're very glad we decided to ship our stuff.
Another upside - settling into Australia is a lot of work initially - you don't know your way around, or where to find or buy anything. You also don't recognise brands or know what good or poor quality suppliers are, so I imagine having to buy your whole life back quickly would lead to some costly and regrettable decisions.
The next post will discuss relocation companies and our experience with them...
To easily settle into your new life in Australia.
What you think:
Not sure whether to take your things with you or not. Some say yes, some say no...
What they DON'T tell you:
Our thought process started with listening to advice from 'others'. Bear in mind that each experience is unique, so you need to make up your own mind based on limited information. We were told that it's better to sell up everything and buy again when we arrived in Australia due to strict quarantine laws, different furniture styles, cheaper prices, etc. We were also told to hang on to everything for exactly the opposite reasons.
In the end, we compromised.
The obvious things that won't go through customs, like feathers, untreated wooden African souvenirs, anything made out of cane or grasses, or mud/clay, we gave away or sold. This included our lawnmower, weed eater and camping gear.
The other limitation was the container size. It's 30 cubic meters, which was 6 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters. Into this must go your whole life's gathering! Quite a challenge.
This had an upside - we finally tossed away all the crap that we clung onto for the last 20 years and moved from storage cupboard to cupboard and house to house and never used/looked at/ even knew existed until we tried to throw it away and couldn't.
I found this a very cleansing process - decluttering your life is amazing and refreshing. Even if you're not moving, I highly recommend it!
This included clothes, shoes, duplicate appliances, old sentimental furniture, papers and other rubbish.
We also decided not to take any vehicles with as the import duties are very high, and cars are about 30% cheaper to buy in Australia - I'll post about this later.
I also left my Jetski for the same reason.
...and yes, we did take our electrical appliances and TVs and hi-fi's etc - the power supply is the same as South Africa, so all it involved was a trip to Bunnings (similar to Makro in South Africa) to buy 25 new plugs and a morning to change them and everything worked just fine.
The only catch is that your TV has to be able to use the PAL B/G format. South Africa uses PAL I, so check this before taking the TV with. Most modern TVs can switch between the formats though.
We ended up taking only our best quality, most useful and most loved stuff and it was a very good decision!
I cannot tell you what a wonderful feeling it was when everything arrived thousands of kilometers away in our new country! It immediately makes your house feel like home, and settles you. And it's not a materialistic view - many things you own have good memories attached to them. We're very glad we decided to ship our stuff.
Another upside - settling into Australia is a lot of work initially - you don't know your way around, or where to find or buy anything. You also don't recognise brands or know what good or poor quality suppliers are, so I imagine having to buy your whole life back quickly would lead to some costly and regrettable decisions.
The next post will discuss relocation companies and our experience with them...
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
WTF - everybody hates Paperwork
What you want:
You need to wrap up your local country affairs and get started on what you need in the new country.
What you think:
It's not much, I'll tackle it later...
What they DON'T tell you:
Start NOW! We worked from May 07 to October 07 for about 2 hours each evening/day to finalise all the 'small' things, like the Visa requirements - see 'WTF - which Visa?' and more...
This included the English Language Test,
the recognition of prior learning,
original copies of your qualifications from the University, Tech, etc,
recent work experience,
letters of reference for the last few jobs,
health checks (a rip-off),
character references,
unabridged birth certificate and marriage certificate (good luck if you're doing this in South Africa), police clearance certificates which required fingerprints (take these to Pretoria yourself, don't rely on the post to get them there - when you collect the certificate you'll understand why),
certified copies of every document you have such as all the above-mentioned (hours long wait at the police station),
wrap up insurance policies,
health policies,
health insurance,
sell your cars,
reduce your cellphone account to the lowest balance so you can buy yourself out (there's no way out of these contracts),
cancel your satellite tracking on your cars (also no way out of the contract, so sell the car with the tracking),
cancel your telephone and internet accounts,
cancel your TV Licence,
decide on how much furniture you're taking with you,
sell the rest while trying not to get conned through the JunkMail,
finalise your tax,
get a tax clearance certificate for money you want to take out the country,
sell the house,
sell any toys - Jetski, boat, etc,
fix up any little things in the house you're selling,
get rid of your pets to a decent home,
say goodbye to everyone,
attend 100 farewell parties,
get to know who your real friends are,
arrange temporary accommodation for the time before you leave,
throw/give away clothes,
extra appliances, etc,
book furniture removal,
micromanage furniture removal,
book flights,
try to pack 2 months worth of stuff (that's how long the furniture and household takes to arrive ) into 40 kg's,
get on the plane,
and .....whew!
Arrive!
and then this all starts all over again, but in reverse... but that's for another post.
I'll go into some detail about the above and the little things I learned along the way
in future posts - stay tuned!
You need to wrap up your local country affairs and get started on what you need in the new country.
What you think:
It's not much, I'll tackle it later...
What they DON'T tell you:
Start NOW! We worked from May 07 to October 07 for about 2 hours each evening/day to finalise all the 'small' things, like the Visa requirements - see 'WTF - which Visa?' and more...
This included the English Language Test,
the recognition of prior learning,
original copies of your qualifications from the University, Tech, etc,
recent work experience,
letters of reference for the last few jobs,
health checks (a rip-off),
character references,
unabridged birth certificate and marriage certificate (good luck if you're doing this in South Africa), police clearance certificates which required fingerprints (take these to Pretoria yourself, don't rely on the post to get them there - when you collect the certificate you'll understand why),
certified copies of every document you have such as all the above-mentioned (hours long wait at the police station),
wrap up insurance policies,
health policies,
health insurance,
sell your cars,
reduce your cellphone account to the lowest balance so you can buy yourself out (there's no way out of these contracts),
cancel your satellite tracking on your cars (also no way out of the contract, so sell the car with the tracking),
cancel your telephone and internet accounts,
cancel your TV Licence,
decide on how much furniture you're taking with you,
sell the rest while trying not to get conned through the JunkMail,
finalise your tax,
get a tax clearance certificate for money you want to take out the country,
sell the house,
sell any toys - Jetski, boat, etc,
fix up any little things in the house you're selling,
get rid of your pets to a decent home,
say goodbye to everyone,
attend 100 farewell parties,
get to know who your real friends are,
arrange temporary accommodation for the time before you leave,
throw/give away clothes,
extra appliances, etc,
book furniture removal,
micromanage furniture removal,
book flights,
try to pack 2 months worth of stuff (that's how long the furniture and household takes to arrive ) into 40 kg's,
get on the plane,
and .....whew!
Arrive!
and then this all starts all over again, but in reverse... but that's for another post.
I'll go into some detail about the above and the little things I learned along the way
in future posts - stay tuned!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
WTF are the Australian Visa options?
What you want:
Get a VISA
What you think:
It's almost impossible to get into Australia...
What they DON'T tell you:
Firstly, the VISA process is simple if you can read.
Depending on your situation, the common Visa's are:
Migrants Visa - go to http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/index.htm
Workers Visa - go to http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/index.htm
Students Visa - go to http://www.immi.gov.au/students/index.htm
Take the time to read through the site. There's tons of useful stuff and they've done a great job. When you do apply, complete everything 100% as they ask. They are very specific about the requirements, so don't take chances.
Australian Immigration now have an online application facility here. It seems to be speeding things up a bit. There's also the paper route here.
The next big question is whether to use an immigration agent or not. We decided not to because of the work situation, but I would not have used one either way.
They seem to be reputable and have to be registered, but they charge HUGE (R30,000 to R120,000) amounts of money by the time you're done to simply complete the online application form , read the website and double check your forms for your lazy self. Some claim to fast-track the process and according to the Immigration web site, this is not possible. You decide who to believe.
Once again - THIS IS NOT COMPLICATED, JUST VERY PRECISE. Do it yourself.
Good luck and see you here soon...
Get a VISA
What you think:
It's almost impossible to get into Australia...
What they DON'T tell you:
Firstly, the VISA process is simple if you can read.
Depending on your situation, the common Visa's are:
Migrants Visa - go to http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/index.htm
Workers Visa - go to http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/index.htm
Students Visa - go to http://www.immi.gov.au/students/index.htm
Take the time to read through the site. There's tons of useful stuff and they've done a great job. When you do apply, complete everything 100% as they ask. They are very specific about the requirements, so don't take chances.
Australian Immigration now have an online application facility here. It seems to be speeding things up a bit. There's also the paper route here.
The next big question is whether to use an immigration agent or not. We decided not to because of the work situation, but I would not have used one either way.
They seem to be reputable and have to be registered, but they charge HUGE (R30,000 to R120,000) amounts of money by the time you're done to simply complete the online application form , read the website and double check your forms for your lazy self. Some claim to fast-track the process and according to the Immigration web site, this is not possible. You decide who to believe.
Once again - THIS IS NOT COMPLICATED, JUST VERY PRECISE. Do it yourself.
Good luck and see you here soon...
Friday, June 1, 2007
WTF'kin start?
What you want:
Work & money
What they tell you:
get your PR (Permanent Residency), then relocate/migrate, then find a job - no worries...
What they don't tell you:
Get a job first! We looked at permanent residency, but the process takes ages - about 12 to 24 months - really. My brother started in March '07 and he's lucky if he's in by April '08. We were lucky enough to find employment first, which included a transfer (everything paid), and it was still very hard - emotionally, physically, and paperwork! It still took 6 months before we landed in Australia.
WTF:
Australia Immigration Site - use it! There's step-by-step instructions and if you make the effort you can DIY
Work & money
What they tell you:
get your PR (Permanent Residency), then relocate/migrate, then find a job - no worries...
What they don't tell you:
Get a job first! We looked at permanent residency, but the process takes ages - about 12 to 24 months - really. My brother started in March '07 and he's lucky if he's in by April '08. We were lucky enough to find employment first, which included a transfer (everything paid), and it was still very hard - emotionally, physically, and paperwork! It still took 6 months before we landed in Australia.
WTF:
Australia Immigration Site - use it! There's step-by-step instructions and if you make the effort you can DIY
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