Kerry and Paul made their migration to Perth in April 2004 and are in the process of having their own home built in Ellenbrook.
Kerry & Paul’s migration to Perth story begins back in 1998 when they met in Australia when they were both over here on a working holiday, they were both on a working holiday visa.
When they returned to the UK following their working trip they had thoughts about migrating to live in Perth but were not sure if that was what they really wanted or if they would qualify for a permanent resident visa.
However, a year after their return to the UK Kerry and Paul decided that they would like to migrate to Perth. They were missing the weather and the easier lifestyle of Perth.
They looked further into what points they qualified for and what they would need to do in order to migrate to Perth, Australia. They completed the free assessment provided by Australian Migration Associates to see how many points they would qualify for. It was good news.
Kerry was a qualified heaf Chef, although working as a second chef at the time of application, a skill on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL). She needed to have worked for 18 months in her profession working for the same Company before she would be able to apply for a Skilled Migrant Visa. Because Kerry had taken time out to travel she needed to work as a Chef for a little while longer before they could apply to migrate to Perth.
Paul would be able to migrate to Perth with her as her partner but they would need to prove that they were in a genuine relationship first.
This involved showing evidence of:-
Shared bank accounts,
Photographs of them together,
Engagement cards received from family and friends from when they got engaged,
Letters from two professional people who had known us for a year or more to state that we were a couple, and
A signed statements witnessed by a solicitor.
Kerry and Paul submitted their application to Migrate to Perth in March 2001. Kerry applied for a skilled migrant Visa as a Chef and as part of the process she had to write down details of her work and qualifications and provide copies of her certificates to the Skills Assessment Authority.
They applied via the Australian Migration Agency, based in Manchester. They were looked after by Sheila and paid around £600 for them to process their application. They asked for everything they needed and sent everything themselves. They even filled in parts of the forms for us where they knew the details.
Once Kerry had her qualifications and work experience confirmed she no longer needed to work as a Chef and so she moved occupations. Kerry wanted to work as an accountant and so she started to study for her junior accountants qualifications “Association Accountants Technicians”
The Australian Visa process took 18 months and in October 2003 they took another holiday over in Western Australia to get their Visa stamped, they were migrating to Perth on a BN resident sub class 136 visa and their migration to Perth was almost complete. On return they put their house on the market and once sold and everything organised migrated over to Perth Western Australia in April 2004.
Kerry and Paul hired a car at the airport for the first two weeks and spent the first few weeks of their time in Perth stopping with Kerry’s Uncle. It was not ideal living with other people Kerry told me so they soon found a place in Guilford to rent. The house is a 4×2 with family area and formal lounge and cost them $185 per week. It’s a little close to the flight path and in hindsight they would have rented some where else but once they had signed a 6 month contract it was not easy to just move to another home.
It took 5 weeks following their migration to Perth for them both to find work. (Migrants are told to expect it to take as long as 18 months to find the right job but I have spoke to many people who have been working within a few months of ariving in Perth.)
They searched for work by using the internet, recruitment agencies and checking out the jobs on the local and national papers. It was through an agency in the end that they got lucky and got Paul the interview for his job.
Conveniently they both found work with the same Company in Bayswater. Paul had gone for an interview as a fork lift truck driver for a company and during the process of the interview it was mentioned that Kerry was looking for work in accounts.
As it happened the Company was looking for someone in accounts too so they interviewed Kerry there and then. They offered her a position in accounts receivable a couple of days later. This arrangement has worked well for them because they can share the same car saving on the cost of two vehicles.
It took Paul a little while to settle in when they first arrived in Perth. He missed his family and his local pub and found it difficult to settle in at work.
Living in a rental property stops you really making yourself at home which is difficult too. After about 9-10 months Paul started to feel settle and he is much happier.
Work is much better and his family have been over to visit which has helped. Additional factors that have helped Paul to settle has been learning to windsurf, a sport which he is loving and takes up his time most weekends along with watching their new home being built.
Kerry and Paul are still living in their rental property in Guilford while they have their own place built in Ellenbrook.
Having a new home built in Ellenbrook all came about by accident. Kerry and Paul entered a competition to win a new home. They did not win the competition but it did make them think about building their own home. So they went to look at some show homes. Building a new home generally works out cheaper than buying an established property but you do need to be aware of hidden costs.
Paul and Kerry signed the contract for the build in Aug 2004 and were told the build would take about 9 – 12 months. 7 months later they are still waiting at the moment for the brick work to be finished and will be looking at a completion date of July(ish) 2005.
When asked to sum up their life since they migrated to Perth, this is what Paul and Kerry had to say …..
“Migrating was hard to start with and the area we are living in is not the best, but our new house will be built soon and we can move to a better area.
The work life is fine, a little hard sometimes but the same as any job anywhere in the world. The cost of living in Perth is cheaper than the UK which gives more pleasure money. The out of work life is great with plenty of places to visit and things to do and the weather is great too.
The hardest thing about migrating to Perth is missing the family but with webcam’s and cheap phone call companies, family are never that far away.
It is almost a year now since we migrated to Perth and the time has passed so quickly it is almost too quick but I am glad we made the move”
