u/joustswindmills

Hey again, we're moving next month and getting excited (and stressed!).

There's 3 Aussies and me. I've applied for the partner visa and just waiting it out for over a year now. I've called the Home Affairs and have been told that it's not a problem to come while waiting for the approval and that i'll get a bridging visa for my tourist visa which will allow me to stay.

My question is, when you immigrated, did you have to show a certain amount in the bank account? Was it a formal letter from the bank?

I'm assuming that there's no hard number but more of a 'can you support yourself while waiting for approval?'

If my SO is Aussie, does that then mean we can simply be a single income family while I wait and there's no amount needed ?

We have family that will be meeting us and picking us up at the airport. how long can i expect to be at customs/immigration for so that I can tell the family what time to come. I'm thinking it could easily a couple of hours

I hope that's the last of the moving questions. Thanks

We've pretty much got everything lined up. Dog has his vax up to date; quarantine stay settled; applied and waiting for my partner visa; place to stay and a vehicle; kids school sorted. We just have too much shit.

The 1/4 sea-can would cost 11k CAD; 4m sq on pallets would be 6k; and worst case scenario is extra bags at $225 CAD each.

Those who have made the move, what do you wish you took and what do you wish you didn't?

I've shed myself of my books, records, guitars. We're giving away kitchen accessories to family. Anything electronic is pretty much getting sold even if it's compatible. My kids have shed themselves of almost all books, almost none of their stuffies and none of their Lego, which I can live with. We want to bring some camping stuff but aren't sure if tents, etc. will make the crossover from Canada well and if it's even worth it---i'm sure we can just grab most from BCF for most but maybe not all. We think we're going to sell our bikes here.

We are planning on bringing our sports equipment: ice hockey, cricket, soccer, paddleboard, etc. and some of our wall art.

I'm debating on removing all the kids books and buying new ones when we get there. I'm debating on donating over 50% of our clothes and seeing what we need once we're there. I'm figuring that since we'll be coming into summer and even winter in Brisbane is sometimes warmer than summer here, it'll be a long time until we need winter clothes and by the time that comes, the kids will have outgrown whatever we brought with us.

How many bags/boxes did you take with you? We're a family of 4 with kids 7 and 10.

On a side note: it's depressing watching the thousands of dollars you've spent on CDs, DVDs, etc walk out the door for pennies on the dollar.

Hey everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone here has had experience with Non-Resident Property Managers. I searched and the only post was for Power Properties but it was from 12 years ago.

We're moving away for a few years but want to keep our house for when we move back for multiple reasons and would like to find a reliable property manager to look after it while we're gone.

If you have, who did you use? Would you use them again? What would you do different if you did use a NR Property Manager? Is there anything that I should consider that I may not realise?

I wanted to thank everyone for the suggestions when I came here to ask about things to do in Birmingham. We spent a Wednesday to Saturday morning at the end of April in Birmingham and, honestly, it wasn't enough.

We stayed at the Travelodge near the Bullring and Chinatown and while it wasn't a luxurious hotel by any means, it was super central and was perfect for us.

The first half day we went to Gas Street Basin area which was great. Walking beside the canals and seeing the locks, the old buildings/warehouses, etc was very cool for me. We decided to do a canal tour with Brindley Cruises and it was really well done. Super informative from a historical perspective for the amount of time we were on the boat for. I didn't really know about building of canals but (i wanna say, Scott) the host helped remedy that.

The second day we spent walking the Jewelry district and went to the Legoland place nearby the canal tour place/convention centre. I would say that as an adult Legoland was not worth the cost overall but my kids loved it--my opinion is that 9 years old is probably the top age of kids that you want to take. Whomever re-created modern Birmingham did an incredible job.

After Legoland we walked to the Library, which is awesome. I love the look of the building and one thing that I think Birmingham does well is mix all types of architecture. The super modern looking library right near the Art and History museum and the Town Hall, while the canals aren't too far away. The terraces are great too offering a superb view of the city and surrounding areas. I couldn't tell you which other cities you could see but there were a few. And while the terraces are great --I imagine a lunch break, reading a book on them would be ideal-- the real pleasure for me was the Shakespeare room. The first ever dedicated one and iirc the second largest depository of Shakespeare related artifacts behind the Folger in the States. If I hadn't have made the kids walk so much, I would have spent much more time in there.

My SO and the kids then went to the Bullring for shopping and haircuts (which we found out were very lucky to find a walk in appointment since every spot in the Jewelry Quarter was booked for two weeks--as a foreigner this seemed quite strange and very different from back in Canada). I then headed to the Coffin Works museum because of a suggestion on here. Unfortunately, a very British thing (in my mind) happened. I had to wait about 40 or 50 minutes until the guided tour started. You can't go through yourself because of Health & Safety rules about it being a working factory. I couldn't make it since we were leaving to meet family before the tour would have been over. I am still gutted about it and promised myself that if I return I'll make it a priority to go there.

My fall back plan was the museum. And I'm pretty happy overall about it. They had a small Ozzy exhibit which was good for the casual fan that I am and I loved the city history section that was there. I consider myself a history nerd so I was in heaven. The art portion of the museum was not great imo and I probably didn't even see everything that was there but the Ozzy and city history was enough for me.

The final day we took the train out to Dudley to the Black Country Living Museum. It was much bigger and different than I expected for some reason. We have something similar in Calgary called Heritage Park but whereas that is 'Wild West' sort of, this is industrial revolution and on. The walk down the coal mine was closed for repairs, which sort of sucked and the canal cruise through some rocks (which isn't part of the museum) we couldn't do because their tour times didn't fit our schedule. But the talks that the employees/characters gave were great. I really did learn a lot about coal mining, blacksmithing and brickmaking in the mid to late 1800s. Though the cost is high, I felt that the educational value is there (and if we lived in UK we could use the family year pass that came along with our entrance fees). A few suggestions from me would be: 1) don't wear white shirts or khaki coloured pants. i didn't actually expect coal dust and coal to be everywhere but my youngest was filthy from it and I was too a bit lol 2) source your lunch before the rush and 3) time the things you want to do so you don't have too much downtime. 4) The walk from the train station is doable but if you can get better transportation for a decent price, I'd do that.

Reflecting on the short time we spent in the city, I absolutely loved it. I would go back in a heartbeat and I think that it's unfair the reputation that it has from Brits I know. None of whom are actually from there to be fair. It really looked like a vibrant, cosmopolitan city with lots going on, a great mix of architecture and trying to be proud of its past while acknowledging where it's gone wrong but also with an eye on the future.

The next time I go, I'm going to check out the Coffin Works, the Back to Back National Trust thing, and eat in Chinatown. I am ashamed to say that I didn't even try Balti or any curries! That will also be remedied. On the plus side, I also didn't see one tourist kiosk selling kitschy shit like you see every other store in central London.

Sorry if this has been a long write up and for foreigners who may be reading this, consider going to Birmingham in the future. You may just be surprised how much you love it.