Our Emigration Experiences

My husband and I got married in the Daintree Rainforest in Cairns and fell in love with the country and relaxed lifestyle.

Together we ran two succesful businesses working over 70 hours per week and realised that we were working to pay our mortgage, bills and the tax man!

 

After deciding that this was not our future we contacted Visa Connection on the 23rd May 2006 who told us that as my husband is a qualified panel beater we had enough points to move to the area of our choice in Australia.

 

After many hours seaching the internet we compared all of the states and decided on Queensland.

 

We flew into Brisbane in November 2006, hired a car and travelled to the Gold Coast which we found too commercialised, expensive and over built so we drove up to the Sunshine Coast and fell in love with the picturesque landscape.

 

We decided to visit a real estate agent who told us that as we were foreign investors we could not buy a second hand property but we could either buy a new property or some land and build a house.

 

We were advised to open an austalian bank account and contacted a solicitor who in turn contacted the Foreign Investors Review Board and obtained their approval to build our house whilst we were back in the UK.

 

We viewed many show houses, were introduced to STR Builders and together designed our house whilst back in the UK.

 

Back in the UK we provided Visa Connection with references proving my husbands skills for our BN136 visas, followed by our medicals and then our character references from the police.

 

Our visas were granted on the 21st September 2007, we put our house on the market and contacted many shipping companies for quotes.

 

The shipping comany packed our household belongings on the 10th and 11th of January and we moved out of our house and stayed with my mum for three very long months!

 

Then sold our remaining business, arranged for the funds to be transfered to our Bank of Queensland account via an exchange company which are much cheaper than any bank.

 

Our contents were shipped on the 26th February 2008, we sold our remaining belongings and said all of our goodbyes at endless amounts of parties!

 

We flew into Brisbane on the 1st April 2008, found a rental unit on the 3rd April which was a private arrangement and very, very lucky indeed and our household contents arrived in Brisbane on the same day.

 

We then sorted out our paperwork and applied for our tax file numbers, medicare cards and Queensland drivers licences.

 

Chose the fixtures and fittings for the house including tiles, carpets, kitchen, bathrooms and the build is well on the way.

 

I completed a real estate course at the Real Estate Institute of Queensland and commenced working with a real estate agency in Mooloolaba.

 

My husband started his new job working for a Panel Beating company on the 21st April isn’t stressed any more no longer has migranes.

 

Our belongings cleared customs and were delivered to a local storage company on the 8th May whilst the house is completed.

 

Our emigration has taught me the importance of engaging the assistance of proffesional companies who keep you informed at all times.

 

It is vital to ask questions if in doubt, often we found that our concerns were very minor after we had spoken to the correct person.

 

We had many stressful times but our minds were always put at rest after an email or telephone call. We have now moved into our house, have unpacked all of our belongings and wake up every morning listening to kookaburras!

 

I quit my job at the real estate agency and have started designing sites like this one, as well as training horses and giving lessons. For the first time in my life I am actually doing something that I enjoy rather than something I must!

 

We have kept in touch with all of our friends in the UK, have made many new friends and have lots of great contacts on the beautiful Sunshine Coast and the first guests have booked their flights!

 

Nowadays the world is a lot smaller thanks to emails and computers!

 

I have set up this website to help and advise other migrants going through the same stressful process that we did and I do hope that you find it useful!