Moving overseas
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Category: General Chat
Forum Name: General Chat
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URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35873
Printed Date: 04 May 2025 at 5:18am
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Topic: Moving overseas
Posted By: Dani01
Subject: Moving overseas
Date Posted: 22 September 2010 at 8:44pm
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Hi there,
DD and I are going to Gold Coast at Christmas time and won't be returning. DH will come at Christmas and come back for a few months before joining us over there. It's been such a quick sudden decision that I'm at a loss of what needs to happen. Can you guys help me along, say anything that may be of use. Thanks!! ------------- http://tickers.cafemom.com"> 
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Replies:
Posted By: kiwi2
Date Posted: 22 September 2010 at 9:01pm
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Decisions to make:
Are you taking furniture/ putting in storage or selling? Do you own your house? If so selling if not giving notice to landlord? Are you on any fixed hps or cell phone contracts. Maybe settle them first before leaving. Student loans. You need to contact them first and then arrange to make payments. If you are shipping furniture or items you need to check how long you need to give them to arrange it. Gosh just the tip of the iceberg really. Good luck I have done three international moves. High stress and hard work but worth it. |
Posted By: kiwikid
Date Posted: 22 September 2010 at 9:09pm
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Start putting all the excess toys / clothes / furniture etc on Trade Me now, it can take a while to list everything and get it sold but its much better to have the $$ in your pocket to help with the moving costs.
Can you get everything sorted before Christmas and then have DH stay with friends / family until he is ready to join you, will save loads on costs. Vacuum pack bags are great for shipping linens / pillows / bulky clothes (which you wont need on the Gold Coast!!) but a bit useless for every day clothes, highly recommend only taking essential clothes - great excuse for a clear out and shopping spree in the sales! Good luck! ------------- 
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Posted By: luvmylittlies
Date Posted: 22 September 2010 at 9:13pm
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2 that sprung to mind that can get overlooked;
Redirecting mail or notifying people/organisations of your new address (every piece of mail from now on write down who sent it so you know all the people/organisations you need to notify later). Notifying utilities (water/power/landline phone) of the date you're moving out so that you don't end up paying for the next person. ------------- Adoring Mum to Talisin 8/9/11 and Kiara 18/01/10 |
Posted By: monikah
Date Posted: 22 September 2010 at 9:59pm
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if you need someone to talk/vent with DH is moving to sydney in 2 weeks. im left here with uni, 2 kids, a house to pack. ill be moving hopefully within the next 3 months so im going through a very similar thing myself ------------- 
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Posted By: BuzzyB
Date Posted: 22 September 2010 at 10:40pm
If you are wanting daycare, you should get on a waiting list early! We moved to Canberra when DS was 6 months and the waiting lists were 18 months plus! Put their names down anywhere and everywhere and make up your mind which one you like when you get there ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: kiwigal
Date Posted: 22 September 2010 at 11:38pm
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Following along as we looking at doing the same thing. Our house is going on the market early next week. The only thing we are not too sure about is our 7.5 year old is special needs and we don't know what kind of support he can get at school. |
Posted By: kiwi2
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 8:01am
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kiwigal
My friends moved to aus with a ADD child and the support they received over there was so much more superior than here. He is 22 now so don't know how relevant it is now. My suggestion is to email a dr over there or support service and find out what is available. Hopefully someone can come up with some names for you to contact. |
Posted By: pumpkino
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 8:05am
| We've recently moved back to NZ from overseas - I definitely advise shipping as much as possible and taking as little as possible with you on the plane. Once you've got carseats, prams etc it becomes really hard to carry everything! The advice you've been given by others is excellent so you're off to a great start :) |
Posted By: susieq
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 8:44am
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kiwigal we wanted to go to Australia a few years ago with an older special needs child, she is now 24 and would not have been able to get a disablity allowance or invalids benefit for her until we had been in Australia for two years because of not being australian born ------------- susie |
Posted By: kiwigal
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 9:29am
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Thanks everyone! The thing we are more concern about is help at school as he is non-verbal with very little language. Right now he is at mainstream and is doing extremely well being around normal kids. We did looked at special schools but most of the kids were worse off than he was off and didn't want him to cope their "behaviour" as he is the type of kid who would copy whatever they are doing. |
Posted By: Nutella
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 11:12am
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We moved to Aussie two years ago but no baby at that point, bear in mind that it can take quite a while for your stuff to be shipped over so think carefully about what you might need...and where are you going to live when you get here. It took over 6 weeks for our stuff to arrive but then it was going to WA. We then moved from WA all the way over to North Queensland and that took ages for our stuff to arrive then too, I think about 6 weeks.
You also have to think carefully about how much it is worth bringing when you are paying a bazillion dollars for shipping...lucky for us we had our stuff paid for by the company but the movers said that one person didn't want to take the air out of their swiss ball so it cost like $50 to ship lol.....so now I always think in terms of how much does it cost to ship compared to replacing an item...if it is small and expensive it is worth shipping, big and cheap then not worth shipping! Unless the company is shipping for you, then you can bring all kinds of crap....haha. It is a good time to do a clear out but even tho you might think you don't need warm things...you will!! I wear winter jammies up here, we have a feather quilt on in winter AND still used the electric blanket...but maybe we have acclimatised....It just isn't hot all year round (tho a lot warmer than NZ). ------------- 
 Oct 11
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Posted By: MrsH23
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 12:36pm
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I've just done the move from NZ to WA with DH and DS, we have shipped the bare minimum of stuff from NZ like Tali said, it takes a minimum of 6 weeks to get the stuff over and you will need alot of the stuff before that arrives!
If you have new/valuable furniture I've heard that it works out about the same cost to ship it over as buying new stuff. We got rid of all our kitchen stuff as we would need it well before it arrived with the shipping and now we are getting by with one pot and one pan. I would recommend contacting a few moving companies for prices. We have sent over 4m3 of stuff and it's cost around $2000. With the help at school, you may be able to find info from either medicare or centrelink (like winz). You need to sign up with medicare as soon as you arrive. Look online for accommodation, see if you can even book a furnished place for a while until you are set up and can find a more permanent house. If you use cloth nappies the vacuum bags are great for packing them in on the plane, otherwise they take up way too much room in the suitcase!! That's about all I can think of right now ------------- Lisa mummy to Ryan http://www.alterna-tickers.com"> 
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Posted By: susieq
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 1:42pm
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kiwigal, be open minded about special schools as your son gets older, my now 24 year old was mainstreamed until intermediate age and then went to a very good pdu unit and then a special school as the delay in her development got wider with the mainstream kids, guess they will have special schools in Australia ------------- susie |
Posted By: monikah
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 3:24pm
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we have done a wee bit of a cull as far as furniture and stuff goes. i did a bit of a pre-pack to see what we could fit and i managed to get ALL the kids toys, clothes and cloth nappies in 2 suitcases and all my clothes plus a couple towel and stuff easily in mine. we dont need to ship a single thing. it is cheaper for us to buy new cots and basic furniture from ikea than it is to ship it and we have it all pretty much instantly. becuase of the age of the kids i have to take a car seat on the plane so we are gonna take the other one as baggage so that we can get home from the airport and stuff. a friend of mine has done this trip heaps with 2 kids and 1 adult and they let her take the buggy right to the gate and made sure it was ready for her when she got off at the other end.
you will get family assistance no probs but no extras. i got told from another friend who has a special needs kid that the in-school assistance was amazing compared to NZ but like someone said, you wont get extra benefits to help with costs. we also have friends over there (our old boarders until a month ago) who we are going to be living with when we get there and they are finding us all a place now so we dont have to deal wtih it. its really hard to get a lease without aus refrences -------------
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Posted By: Nutella
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 9:30pm
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Haha, our shipping was huge! It cost like $13,000 or something like that NZ to WA...we took pretty much everything tho since the company was paying. We are even thinking of shipping our car home when we leave because according to my calculations it is worth it since we got it new and it would only be about $2000 to get to nz including nz registration. Whereas if we sell we will lose more than $2000 on it.
It does depend on how long you are moving for and the value of your goods. There are some things I won't be sad to say goodbye to but some things have sentimental value so would never be left behind. -------------
Oct 11
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Posted By: WestiesGirl
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 10:46pm
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For the most part, you wont get on a benefit of any kind. As a kiwi, gone are the days when you could walk into Centrelink and get on the Dole. The only thing you will get without any issues is Medicare, Family Tax benefit (same as WFF) and Child care benefit.
If you want to get a Centrelink payment (for yourself or your children) this is the general process: - Arrive in Aus, get SCV (special category visa) on arrival - Entitles you to live, work and play like an Aussie (except for collecting benefits and voting) - Live as permanent resident for 2 years on SCV - Then if you want, you can apply for permanent residency - If granted permanent residency, this is held for 2 years when you can then - Apply for citizenship. http://www.immi.gov.au/ - Department of Immigration Web site for more info. DH and I have been here 4 years and if we needed the dole because we lost our jobs, we wouldnt get it cos we are still on SCV's. We would only get it if we could show financial hardship (which is very difficult). Good luck with your move. We are in the process of planning our return to NZ  ------------- Our Angel July 08 Gone but not forgotten
And to complete our family, our princess has arrived 
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Posted By: Chickoin
Date Posted: 23 September 2010 at 11:51pm
Good to know, WestiesGirl, I thought once we'd been here for 2 years we could get help from centrelink if we needed to, didn't know you had to be a citizen 
Anyways, I found http://www.movingtoaussie.com/page0.php - THIS SITE so helpful before we made the big move. It is especially for kiwis moving to the Gold Coast, but a lot of it was still relevant for us going to Perth. -------------   
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Posted By: Dani01
Date Posted: 24 September 2010 at 8:55am
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oh my gosh, sooo much help! Thank you, and I bet the other girls are very thankful too.
I rang centrelink about benefits so knew all about that. Re the SCV though, do you need that if you are a Aussie citizen (born in NZ though so dual citizenship?) Thanks ------------- http://tickers.cafemom.com">
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Posted By: Nutella
Date Posted: 24 September 2010 at 11:05am
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If you have dual citizenship then I shouldn't think so, however probably depends what passport you come in on...I remember there being something about this recently. -------------
Oct 11
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Posted By: WestiesGirl
Date Posted: 24 September 2010 at 12:03pm
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Pleasure Amber. It is quite confusing. We wanted Jackson to have dual citizenship cos he was born here but he has to go through the same process as us. Or have lived here for the first 10 years of his life, where he is granted citizenship automatically.
Dani it shouldnt matter what PP you travel on if you have dual citizenship  You are a citizen so entitled to travel freely between both.------------- Our Angel July 08 Gone but not forgotten
And to complete our family, our princess has arrived
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Posted By: Chickoin
Date Posted: 24 September 2010 at 12:45pm
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I also found http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/factors/nz_policy.htm - this site that explains what kiwis are entitled to from centrelink.
I didn't think about what would happen if we have a baby here, we haven't decided if we will move home before or after #2. Sorry for thread jacking! I think the post way back somewhere about organising to put things on TM asap was the best advice that I didn't follow. I was so unorganised! -------------
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