Moving to Australia 1

Well, it's been 9 months since we've moved over to Australia from Singapore. Many people keep asking me why we moved over here and I guess it's hard to really explain. Thinking about it, I guess the whole process started many years ago. I've always enjoyed travelling and since getting married my wife has also picked up the travelling bug from me. During the trips, I guess that I've really come to appreciate that there's more to life than just a 9 to 5 job and living a life like a robot from day to day. Life to me is really there for us to grasp it and really experience it and I just don't seem to be getting that in Singapore. People are always complaining that it is so difficult having a quality of life and in many ways I do agree and I have this philosophy of don't just complain about something, do something about it. So since I was given a chance of getting Aus PR, why not. If I decided to move or not to move overseas after that, I can't gripe about it as I was given an option and it is based on a decision that I've made. Like I always tell my students, in everything we do, we should always do things so there will always be options for us to choose, the more options the better. We do not want to be stuck in a situation where we are forced to do something because that is the only option open to us.

Anyway after marriage, I discussed with my wife about moving overseas to work and as teachers, we applied to go to Hong Kong Overseas school but it wasn't successful. We even thought of going over to Indonesia as they were looking for teachers but after speaking with a friend who was there, we decided against it. So we looked at other options and one of them was to apply for a PR status in Australia, UK, US or Canada and then teach. Everybody keeps telling us that they are short of teachers everywhere. We discounted US and Canada (too far from parents), UK (distance again and cost of living) and so we settled for Australia.

When we decided to try and get our Aus PR, the first thing we did was to look for info and the best place to look for it is at the Department of Immigration & Citizenship's website. It is really very detailed in what you have to do and you can actually go through the whole process on your own. But after reading through all the guideline and info, we felt that it would be better to maybe approach an immigration agent for advise and personally to me, that was the best way to do it if you can afford it (It's worth it). Anyway the first consultation is free and they will be able to tell you whether you qualify or not, and if you do which Visa category to apply for to get the best chance, the immigration law is constantly changing as it is based on the country's labour needs most of the time.

We approach Philip Sim from nTrust and we made an appointment to meet up. He's a nice chap and the interesting thing is that his wife is also a teacher so I guess we kind of hit it off. When we met up after the initial meeting, his wife was always around and we kind of talked shop most of the time.

The first post

Well this is our first post and it's going to be a short one.

My wife and I were having lunch with our friends the other week and we were just discussing how much we enjoyed our stay in Perth so far although the weather has been getting a bit cold, but at the same time, wished that we had a lot more information than we did when we moved over. So we thought that maybe it's a good idea to just write down our experiences and share with people who might be going into the same boat as us.

Of course the blog is not going to be just about out experience in moving over but at the same time just talk about things that we both like, for example looking for places to eat, shopping (can't help it as we are Singaporeans), visiting the touristy places.

I guess that when I blog, I'll be talking about photography, books and things like mangas while my wife will be talking about her own interests like jewelry making.