My visa has been granted !

[FFR]

Hi all,

I have received an email this (AUS) morning stating that my visa (457) has been granted. I'm really excited about the move, as I consider Australia the best place to live. The employer is located in North Ryde, NSW.

Well, as my visa is a temporary one, I need to apply for a special permission to import the defender under the personal import scheme. If it were a permanent visa, the permission is given automatically.

Any advice about the procedure to get the permission is greatly appreciated.


Best regards,

Carlos

[Landy Smurf]

good to hear you got the green light

[dullbird]

congratualtions

[Psimpson7]

You should have no issue with applying to bring over the car on a 457 if you can prove ownership and use as per the requirements.

One thing you may stuggle with is if your car is LHD

[FFR]

You should have no issue with applying to bring over the car on a 457 if you can prove ownership and use as per the requirements.

One thing you may stuggle with is if your car is LHD

Hi,

Yes, it is an LHD, although I sourced a VGC bulkhead and the other bits in the UK to make the conversion. It must be done once in Oz, I have been told that I have six months once it passes the AQUIS/Customs to have it registered as a RHD in NSW... or have it destroyed/reexported.

[Landy Smurf]

was it easy getting a visa?

[FFR]

Hi,

once it passes the AQUIS/Customs to have it registered

Oh... it is AQIS, not AQUIS... I have nightmares with them... I'm cleaning the landy to the bare metal !!!

[FFR]

was it easy getting a visa?


Yes and No.

I feel that, once your application has been lodged, the visa is a question of time, mine took only 5 weeks, even considering that Xmas holidays were in between. The hard part is to find a employer decided to hire you, with an occupation really needed in Oz that can not be filled easily by the local workforce.

I can PM you with some details, if you want.

[abaddonxi]

Congratulations.

[Landy Smurf]

Yes and No.

I feel that, once your application has been lodged, the visa is a question of time, mine took only 5 weeks, even considering that Xmas holidays were in between. The hard part is to find a employer decided to hire you, with an occupation really needed in Oz that can not be filled easily by the local workforce.

I can PM you with some details, if you want.
did you get a 12month working visa. i am from australia and i have a 12month working visa in sweden it is i was wondering when my girlfriend comes back how hard it is getting in.but we have not even looked at that yet, with residentsy visas or citizenship

[slug_burner]

did you get a 12month working visa. i am from australia and i have a 12month working visa in sweden it is i was wondering when my girlfriend comes back how hard it is getting in.but we have not even looked at that yet, with residentsy visas or citizenship

You'll just have to marry her!:twisted:

[FFR]

did you get a 12month working visa. i am from australia and i have a 12month working visa in sweden it is i was wondering when my girlfriend comes back how hard it is getting in.but we have not even looked at that yet, with residentsy visas or citizenship


Hi,

mine is a long-stay (4 years) visa. Regarding your question, I have the belief that, if you are an Australian citizen, and you can prove that the relation with your GF is long, stable, genuine... she will have her visa granted if she is a normal/honest person. To my understanding, the visa system is complex, long, sometimes expensive... but it is not an unpassable wall to someone who complies with the requirements.

There are plenty of testimonials in the net regarding your particular case, so look at britishexpats, pomsinoz or the like.

[FFR]

You'll just have to marry her!:twisted:
YES !!!

[Marshall]

did you get a 12month working visa. i am from australia and i have a 12month working visa in sweden it is i was wondering when my girlfriend comes back how hard it is getting in.but we have not even looked at that yet, with residentsy visas or citizenship

Hi Tony,
A 12 month working visa is easy to get, just apply well in advance. Is it serious with your girl? maybe you want to go down the "defacto" path? if so, start getting your documents together now. you must be able to PROVE that you have been together for an "x" period of time, this is harder than you think. any documents (phone bills, pay slips the odd photo etc) that can show you living at the same address and preferably dated are very handy. put it all in one of those binders with all the clear sleeves and date it all, this takes away the guess work from the immigration "we love paperwork" dep't. (handy to start getting together documentation even if it is not that serious yet...)
My now wife is Dutch, I ended up staying in Holland for 6 years and marrying her! I initially had a 12 month working visa, then got a "staying with partner" visa. meant I was sweet to work and stay as long as I was with my girl... might be another avenue for you to consider?
Good luck!

Hi Carlos,
The company that has employed you could have done the 457 through an immigration lawyer, get them to track down the information you need to import your belongings, (LR included) maybe your employer will help pay for your removals?
And good luck to you too! (go via England, pick up a shed load of spares so we can enjoy your stay here in Oz too;))

[Landy Smurf]

thanks for your help guys and sorry for stealing the thread a bit carlos

[FFR]

Hi Carlos,
The company that has employed you could have done the 457 through an immigration lawyer, get them to track down the information you need to import your belongings, (LR included) maybe your employer will help pay for your removals?
And good luck to you too! (go via England, pick up a shed load of spares so we can enjoy your stay here in Oz too;))

Hi Marshall,

Yes, it was done by TressCox lawyers. The employer pays a whole 40 ft container, so I plan to import the 110 and the sankey, wich means small taxes to be paid under the personal import scheme. I must say that I'm tempted about the heap of cheap RR 300tdi being sold in UK, although this have to be imported in the same way the japs are sold in Oz. A 110, the sankey and a RR fit (tight) inside of a 40 ft container.

As I am not sure about the final decision (maybe I'm doing naive assumptions about the move and my initial settlement) what I plan to do is to bring just some essential items to Oz (hopefully flying there in 4 weeks) and then, once I have the authorization to import the 110 and the sankey (if it is granted) fly to Europe after 4 or 5 months to arrange the shipping of the car and my belongings. Tomorrow I will order the official translation of the landy ownership/rego documents to English.

Regarding the spares, yes, I have been thinking about it, so maybe I'll order some parts while in Australia to my parent's home in Spain (S/H is dirty cheap) and then bring the stuff to Oz with the container... not sure at this stage.

Sorry for the long post.

[FFR]

thanks for your help guys and sorry for stealing the thread a bit carlos

by the way, who's the one at your signature, the one covered in blue paint?

[Landy Smurf]

that is me. that is how i got the nick name smurf

[Marshall]

Hi Carlos,
Just check with your Oz employer that this is Ok... they may want you to bring everything with you now... and not in 4 or 5 months time. remember, you won't get the container for a good three months, this should be plenty of time to settle in.
Try and find out where you will be living here in Oz, you may be in an appartment with not much room for all the Land Rovers and parts you will be bringing...

[VladTepes]

Oh... it is AQIS, not AQUIS... I have nightmares with them... I'm cleaning the landy to the bare metal !!!

Hmm yes you should clean it very well, hiowever don't be at all surpirsed if AQIS clean it again and charge you for the privilege.

[Ivan]

When I brought the 2 90's over here from England, I had them professionally steam cleaned and waxoyled underneath. They both passed AQIS inspection with no problems.

HTH

Ivan

[geckos]

congratulations mate, 4 yeaRS is plenty of time to all of australia

regards geck

[FFR]

Hi Carlos,

Try and find out where you will be living here in Oz, you may be in an appartment with not much room for all the Land Rovers and parts you will be bringing...

Thank you (and the others) for your posts. Yes, this is why I prefer to make a small move with the basics close to the office, and after finding somewhere more suitable (dreaming with a small shed with a built-in house) make the big move. I realized how expensive was the real estate when I was there 5 months ago.

I hope to be there in four weeks, an eternity.

[Sully]

Oh... it is AQIS, not AQUIS... I have nightmares with them... I'm cleaning the landy to the bare metal !!!

Congrats mate!

Just make sure the majority of mud and the like is off. You won't have to go too crazy with cleaning it as they'll probably fumigate it anyway.

Welcome to the country.

[Ace]

Congratulations, we'll have to show you some tracks when you have the Defender here aswell.

[stewie110]

Hi all,

I have received an email this (AUS) morning stating that my visa (457) has been granted. I'm really excited about the move, as I consider Australia the best place to live. The employer is located in North Ryde, NSW.

Well, as my visa is a temporary one, I need to apply for a special permission to import the defender under the personal import scheme. If it were a permanent visa, the permission is given automatically.

Any advice about the procedure to get the permission is greatly appreciated.


Best regards,

Carlos

I have recently had the 'excitement' of dealing with the Department of transport for a number of items I imported personally after 7 or so years living in the EU. The department of transport is the easy bit. The big problems started when we had to deal with the RTA. There will be a few obstacles for you importing from Spain.
1. Left hand drive. Depending how long you stay the easy way is to use the Carnet De Passage.
2. Make sure that when/if you get the official import permits they are on blue official paper work. We got sent photo copies and had to jump through hoops to get the originals while we paid for customs/AQIS storage. We had no idea that we only got photo copies.. no where did it say we had to have special blue papers.. This was the same when we went for compliance plates and rego with the RTA in NSW.
3. The RTA is painful.. they decided they didn't have our import permits on file, then claimed we had created the forms outselves.. after ringing and pleading with the Department of transport in Canberra everything was sorted out.... it only took two weeks.. by which time the blue slips had expired and the joy began all over again.
4. You may find it easier and cheaper to just buy a defender here, its much less hassle.
5. Australia is an unofficial police state... when driving and riding around on my EU plates (with a Carnet and all the official paper work) I was stopped 34 times in 2 months.. each time they had to check and recheck my paper work to ensure it was legit.. not so much fun. Whatever state you plan on residing in you need to have registration asap.. It's illegal to drive anywhere apart from pre-booked inspections/rta/etc. That's something the police like to **** around with.. </end rant>.


The process is..
1. have proof of ownership, registration, purchase, passport, visa and license. Once you have that you apply through the department of transport. Being left hand drive you may have issues.
2. Once you have applied for the permit you sit back and wait. normally takes about two weeks.
3. once/if the permit is approved you need to organise for shipping to Australia. The car needs to be steam cleaned so that it can pass quarantine restrictions.
4. Once its landed in Australia you will need to pay for an AQIS inspection, The customs broker will normally be able to assist with all these sorts of bits. Once you have passed AQIS you will have a customs fee which is the import duty or a carnet for a temporary import. Once you have all the pieces of paper they will release the car.
5. Once released you can drive to a motor mechanic, if you have a carnet then your free to drive anywhere BUT you must have CTP insurance. if you can't use a carnet then you need a blueslip which is a mechanical/ADR inspection to show its road worthy. Once you have that you need to go to the RTA and apply for registration, however first you need to convert your license to an Australian one.

Overall its more about jumping through hoops than anything else..

[FFR]

Overall its more about jumping through hoops than anything else..

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your advice. Odd days I agree with you (I should sell the car in Spain, and buy another landy in Oz), but even days I remember that:

- It was retrofitted with a BN (not recon) 300tdi + R380 just 50.000 km ago
- It is a military, FFR defender
- small fortune spent in wolf parts (roof, cage, jerrycan lockers...)
- I'm an amateur radio, and have two pneumatic masts in the landy
- countless hours spent making manteinance
- I stock all the parts to convert it to RHD (including a vgc td5 bulkhead/dash)
- matching widetrack, disc braked sankey trailer
- 40 feet contaier for free (pays the company)

so it is a hard decision to leave it here. Maybe it is a wrong decision, ask me in 9 months :)

[mools]

Bring your landy - you'll regret it otherwise. What better way to see some of a new country than with a trusty old friend. Given the spec you quote you'd have to spend an absolute fortune to kit out a vehicle to similar spec over here. if you don't bring it you WILL regret it.

bon voyage.

[stewie110]

When I brought the 2 90's over here from England, I had them professionally steam cleaned and waxoyled underneath. They both passed AQIS inspection with no problems.

HTH

Ivan

Hi, Out of interest when did you bring the 90's over? even with steam cleaning they still had a massive tantrum.

[stewie110]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your advice. Odd days I agree with you (I should sell the car in Spain, and buy another landy in Oz), but even days I remember that:

- It was retrofitted with a BN (not recon) 300tdi + R380 just 50.000 km ago
- It is a military, FFR defender
- small fortune spent in wolf parts (roof, cage, jerrycan lockers...)
- I'm an amateur radio, and have two pneumatic masts in the landy
- countless hours spent making manteinance
- I stock all the parts to convert it to RHD (including a vgc td5 bulkhead/dash)
- matching widetrack, disc braked sankey trailer
- 40 feet contaier for free (pays the company)

so it is a hard decision to leave it here. Maybe it is a wrong decision, ask me in 9 months :)

I know the feeling all too well.. I have done the importing thing several times.. each time it has become more strict with the most recent changes (early 2010) making it more difficult. If your patient and have all the right paper work to jump through the hoops it is worth it, but it is now for the faint hearted. :) (it is best to go into the process with open eyes).