Hello From Northern Ireland - Moving to Melbourne (Hopefully)

[GoLfMan]

Flights booked. ETA Melbourne 26th November for a 2 week visit and a bit of job hunting.
Any VW enthusiasts wanna meet up and show me the sites?
I can compensate you for your time with alcoholic beverages.

mate you land on The Day of the Volkswagen!!! what time you come in... im sure us melburnians can organise something to meet up with you sometime
hmmmm beer

[mikevr6]

A the time fast approaches I'm becoming more nervous.
Is December a good time to come looking for work or is there a recruitment freeze at this time of year.

Also, how long does a working visa take to come through and can anyone recommend a way of speeding it up?

Cheers
Mike

[Tim]

is that a supercharger i see?
ohh are those BBS RDs? i come soooo close to getting a set of them for my car. Until i got a good deal on my SSRs

[Golf Loon]

A the time fast approaches I'm becoming more nervous.
Is December a good time to come looking for work or is there a recruitment freeze at this time of year.

Also, how long does a working visa take to come through and can anyone recommend a way of speeding it up?

Cheers
Mike

A working visa takes 6 weeks I think, unless they are busy, then longer. I actually left the Uk without one and applied in Thailand and it only took two weeks. You can apply from any country outside of Australia.

Australia basically closes at Christmas and re-opens in February. Not a good time for job hunting, as everyone goes away. If you have a specialty, try and T something up from the UK.

Dont wanna sound negative, It`ll work out great. Are you bringing the Corrado straight away?

[mikevr6]

I'm going to Thailand on the 19th November for a week too.
Just got back from there on Monday past, great place.

Hmm. Sounds like I may have to rethink my plans a little. Maybe use this trip as a fact finding mission and return later in the New Year to try and secure a job. Is it called a Working Visa or does it have a more official sounding name. Are these agencies that handle Visa applications any good?

I'll not be bringing the Corrado with me initially. I'll wait until I get settled and then get her shipped. Need to get accommodation with a garage or drive for my baby.

is that a supercharger i see?
ohh are those BBS RDs? i come soooo close to getting a set of them for my car.

Well Spotted Tim. It's a Vortech charger. She's been dyno'd at 267BHP
And BBS RD's. I also have a set of BBS RXII Splits but I only put them on for shows.

[Golf Loon]

Look up on the UK govt website which kind of visa you need.
I didn`t use an agency and it wasnt that hard, but depends what visa you get.

[mikevr6]

www.immi.gov.au the Australian site?

[OEM G60]

You can get a year long working holiday visa straight away online as long as you're 30 or younger with 2000 pounds in your bank and proof of a return flight.
If you want to live here then you need residency, you can apply whilst in the country, to bring the Corrado you'll have to get residency.

If your trade/profession is on the shortlist for 'occupations in demand' on the immi site, then you'll jump the Q. If not then it can take a while, mine took about 18 months, hope that doesn't put a damper on things, its just that there's so many people applying.
A good way to find out more is to get a list of questions together and take them into Australia house in London or over here, you could see an immigration lawyer over here aswell, i did years ago, she charged me $50 and went through the best way for me to apply. I later realised that if i had of just read the website etc i could of found all that info myself. I think they're a rip-off basically, a mate who i work with payed about 3000 pounds for his visa through an agency, mine cost about 1200 pounds !!

Easy way is to marry an Aussie girl like Mr Loon did !!

Good luck mate, hope you enjoy it over here, take a drive down the great ocean road south of Melbourne if you can, its amazing .........

Matt

[Tim]

if you bring the corrado with you ill marry you!

[WABIT]

And a little sneaky pic of under the bonnet. Can you guess what it is yet?

supercharged 2.8 vr6 engine

nice!!! whats news on importing it to melbourne??

wabit