Graham

i know there are hundreds of sites to plow through, but just wondered if anyone knows of a good cheap family room to bed down in. we are coming on our validation trip with a 5 year old and 7 month old and will arrive in the night. we coulddo with a room close to the airport so we can fall into bed. Some hotels say they cant shuttle children under 12 ?? we only want to stay a couple of nights to chill before moving on. anybody used any good places. dont really do posh!! any ideas would be great. cheers x x

Hi there. With the photos, we just got copies of the passport size photos certified and uploaded the document. we waited until we hada case officer for the medicals and police checks. we had to put our application on hold while we had our second baby. Bear in mind that you only have 1year validity from the medicals and police checks. once visa is granted they go from them dates. We therefore do not have much time left on our validity

Hi there, just had our evisa granted this week and we also did it ourselves. Sorry cant also remember the questions just know that it was one big head ache. Dont .panic about the uploads as i think you have 30 days, i seem to remember going to the solicitors with a heap of information to certify. Dont let them rip u off, i never made any appointment and turned up with all the employment history (wageslips, references, accounts, p60's passports, marriage certificates, birth certificates and as much proof as skill as possible, vestassess pass certificates etc..)i left it there for them to sign and returned later to pick them up with their letter head and business card. I never paid a penny and have been back on several occasions to get other things certified. maybe i was lucky or just bloody cheeky. once u have finished the application u are given a TRN number and then you use this to upload documents that are further requested. hope this helps. I remember feeling sick as a dog filling it in just incase i messed it up. Good luck xx

thanks for that. Phew! I thought we could have been in trouble then. Just waiting for visa to be granted and then we will be coming for a validation trip. heading down south of perth with camper.

Been looking through some books and it says that in some regions you have to pay school fees if you are a temp resident. However, nothing was noted for WA just QLD and NSW etc... (some saying $3-4000 per year) Does the 176 count or is that classed as permanent. We have a 5 year old who would need to start primary. Large fees would obviously affect us and we dont want it to bite us on the bum later! I can see relatively acceptable contributions. Any help or advise would be appreciated. On information overload!

yeah, its going to be totally different than working in the Uk, we ve done quite a bit of research especially when doing the vetassess. Change may be agood thing!!

thank you. we will look into those when we are there. He works more as house builds etc.. than a bench joiner, although can do both. we want to just try and enjoy the little time we have there rather than trapes our kids round hords of companies. just looking into flights now. 2 years into the process. i Hope its worth it!!!!

Just on our last leg of the visa process. Going for medicals next week and have been told by immigration that we will have until october 2012 to validate our visa. this is the final push and due to the short time, we will have to come over for a validation holiday to look at work, houses and get a feel for the place. We are looking at hiring a campervan as we have 2 little ones. (5 and 5months) anybody done a validation trip and know of any cheap companies? we basically need to go on the cheapest flights and for maybe 2 -3 weeks. we are looking at bunburry / busseltown area, although are flexible (just dont like big cities) Any info on these areas would be great. husbands an experienced carpenter and we need to look around areas with plenty of work. Any help from those who have taken the plunge would be greatly appreciated. thanks