pilkster.com » Australia visa

New domain resolutions :)

pilkster — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 23:47:39 +0000

Well, not new domain (although I might take the .com.au), but new home/house/life…

Sort out a (good, original) theme for the blog. ‘Enhance’ the structure.
Revisit some neglected sites rather than spending on new projects.
Exploit to the maximum some of the advantages I have.

Offline resolutions;

Spend less than an average of 12hr/day driving the tube
Get some exercise (and lose the two stone I gained over the last two years)
Eat fresh! (thanks Subway)

When we find our place in Oz I will have these things in mind:

Barbeques Galore
Sea View
Peace
No commute (not that I have one now lol)

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Woooo! We’re off to Australia

pilkster — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:28:42 +0000

Wayhey! Thanks to Jenny, Anna and Lee of STA travel in Preston we are now proud holders of electronic tickets to fly us from Manchester to Sydney via Dubai and Bangkok. We leave mid October, and arrive in Sydney 12 days later.
Deciding on a route has been a real tough process, and deciding whether to book a return or not was even tougher (we ended up tossing a coin!) so it feels great to have the decision made. Monday should be fun giving notice on my engineering contract and also formal notice on the lease!

Please forgive me if I am a bit slow with emails and payments over the next couple of months, I’m gonna be too busy having fun!

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Preston Guild celebrations 2012 to be held in Australia?

pilkster — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 10:59:48 +0000

An ex-pat by the name of Bernie Tucker is planning a party to be held in Perth, Western Australia, to mark the Guild in six years time. Bernie emigrated from Lostock Hall 36 years ago, and still misses English pubs.

For the last Guild in 1992 Bernie organised a live telephone link-up with Sir Tom Finney and the Guild mayor Harold Parker. 460 ex-pat Prestonians joined Bernie from all over Australia for a night of Lancashire fun including

morris dancing
a brass band
hot-pot supper (yum!)
miss Preston Guild competition

Bernie can be contacted at burnt (at) iprimus.com.au and should be able to respond when he returns to Australia at the start of September. I will be there for sure, and you should be too!

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Australia application complete

pilkster — Sat, 20 May 2006 18:52:45 +0000

Well, everythings done. Medicals, Police Clearance Certificates, $100k investment – all done. Guess I need to sit back, relax and have a few beers. Guessing it will be 5 months before we get an answer… November’s weather is better in Sydney than Manchester.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

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Australia Investment – interest rates

pilkster — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 19:33:11 +0000

Overview & contacts from IMMI

South Australia
NT currently 5.3% (3rd April)
NSW: Capital Investment rates change on a weekly basis and are 4.72% as of 03 April 2006.
QLD: The current indicative rate for a capital investment is 5.26% This rate changes daily.

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Australia notes – investment, PCC and medicals

pilkster — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 18:57:51 +0000

Whilst we were on our research trip to Egypt we were contacted by our immigration case officer (Monday 20th March to be exact). We have 70 days to provide:

The 70 days expires 29 May. This may sound like a lot of time, but we lost one week by being away (I was determined not to check my mail for a whole week!) – and there are other problems too. I wasn’t expecting to have to provide the capital investment for several months and was even considering re-mortgaging to take the pressure off financially, but we don’t have time for this now! Some of the investments I am having to call in are in notice accounts – and still registered at my old address. None of the investments can be operated online, so this means writing (yeah, letters, stamps etc.) to the banks and building societies, which can take a week to get a response. Already we are down to 55 days!

Medical exam and x-ray’s are booked for the 20th & 21st of this month, so hopefully everything will go OK with them & we can get them sent off in time.

Police clearance forms were posted today, but they can take up to 40 days to be returned.

Oh, and the immigration want certified copies of documents, not originals, so it is yet another appointment with the solicitor!

I will be really glad when this lot is done!

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Australia update

pilkster — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:17:32 +0000

Laura phoned this morning & got us out of bed (probably about time too as it was 10am!). Her & Stu are planning to travel up from Bris to Cairns in about 4 weeks, stopping in at the Whitsundays and a few other spots on the way. After working the dry season in Cairns they are planning to travel over to Canada, then visit the UK at some point. Think Stu wants to work in London for a while. Depending on the timing of our visa we could miss seeing them here or in Oz!

This got me thinking about our application, so I have checked out a couple of things. I registered with the excellent Austimeline and put in some of our information. I had a hunt around the site, and noticed that many of the applicants had sent their police & health clearances prior to being asked for them – to speed up the process. Going to have a think about this. The other potential problem is that the $100k bond/investment is requested prior to visa grant, which I think we knew but had never thought of. Time to scratch up some money!

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Spreading the load

pilkster — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 12:59:30 +0000

I have been talking with my new pal Pete (whom I recently bought a certain health site from) about working together. I am constantly pushed for time, what with the full time job too, and it seems that Pete has become disillusioned with the affiliate/adsense business, so I am paying him a fixed fee to produce a site for me. Hopefully this will blossom into a long lasting working relationship & help me build the business to a level where I can rely on it as my main income. Although I haven’t made any new years resolutions this year, one ‘goal’ for 2006 is to have a strong online business (in whatever form) by the end of the year, to enable us to live in Australia (or wherever) for the English winter.

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Aus application receipt

pilkster — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:21:11 +0000

Receipt came yesterday – maybe no more horrid, horrid winters in the UK. I am driving up and down the M6, M61 & M60 all week to Sale, Manchester to learn CATIA V5. Not a nice commute in this weather. In the news yesterday 400 cars were stuck in 4-6 inches of snow in the Glossop area. How pathetic.

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Australia here we come!

pilkster — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 12:39:40 +0000

Anne finally posted our emigration application on Tuesday. What a relief. Maybe only 14 more cold wet months to go.

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