Flights booked

We had been keeping an eye on the cost of flights and we decided to book the cheapest flight we found which leaves on December 31st in the evening!  We're going with Cathay Pacific and we're only allowed 20 kilos per person (NO more!) and one carry on.  So we've had to really limit what we can bring with us. I can't believe it has come this far.  We will stay in a cheap motel for one week when we arrive.  The plan is to go and show our documents to get access to our bank account, get our tax number, buy a car (which I'm dreading so I hope it's not painful) and see about trading in the driver's licenses.  Then we plan to go camping at a reasonably priced camping area in Tauranga until we get access to the house.  Since we still don't know when we can get access to the house, we don't know how long we can book the camping place for.

Now I'm working on keeping my medical benefits here which is proving to be a bit tricky, but I won't worry about that for too long.

We have something else in the picture too, but that will be staying out of the picture for at least another few months so we can focus on this move first.

Our news of moving will become public knowledge (to my current class and parents) this Friday.  OH can't wait to post it on facebook.  Then this no longer has to be a secret.

Now I will start writing to the housing company to see if I can push them into providing me any sort of answer as to when we can have access to the house.  Fingers crossed me writing directly can get somewhere.

Approved in "Principle"

Wow, the decision is finally made and the exact words are "Approved in Principle."  Let me explain in detail.

I can't believe I'm writing this now.... finally. Of course I wrote to my immigration officer two weeks ago on the Friday to ask if she received the missing paper and she said she didn't. I asked if she could confirm when she received it so I could breathe a sigh of relief. Last week started... no news Monday, no news Tuesday, Wednesday I wrote another mail to ask and say I was now worried, should I request another copy. I received a mail back saying the missing paper had arrived and now she had made a decision and forwarded it on to another officer with her decision. She would write back with the official decision when it was made. It was the shortest mail with no hint of what kind of decision. So Thursday I received an automated response from immigration that my status was updated online. I logged in and it said there "Approved." I wrote a mail to confirm saying I didn't want to jump to any conclusions with an automated reply saying she was out of the office until Friday (you can imagine holding my feelings in check until I really knew). Friday came and I did get an email saying, "Yes, in principle you're approved." All I thought was why can't it just say approved and leave out the principle part since I started then wondering what does that mean. However, research on the Friday confirmed that it means approved. I then received the paperwork stating that I just needed to pay the migrant fee. They are already sitting with our passports so I immediately emailed my signed copy for them to take the migrant fee. That she confirmed was ok to do!

OH will retake the IELTS and is hoping to get a 7.0 on the writing part of the test for University.

I'd like to add we've everything packed we want to take with us and had Crown relocations here today to give us a quote. They estimate we will need 8 cubic metres of a box to fit what we want to take with us so now we're waiting what they will charge us for that. Another place called Interdell will come on Wednesday to give us a quote. I thought packing would be a bit more fun (ha-ha), but was so much harder trying to bargain in what we have to have, don't want to re-buy and simply just want to bring with us.

I've also written last week to ask if they could now set us up for the house and provide us any information we need for it so we can provide an address to the shippers, but no email from them either so I'm just going to call them tonight my time since we want to aim to have our belongings there when we arrive or close to it.  (Did call since this is being written after the fact and waiting for the papers to be emailed for signing).

My next comment I'd like to make is about airlines and how much luggage you're allowed to bring with you. We've checked every airline and all of the airlines only allow you 1 bag per person, charging per kilo for any additional luggage so no set price if you bring an extra case so we don't know what to do in that department. We wrote to Singapore airlines to see about unaccompanied baggage, cost and do we need to pack in suitcases if shipping as unaccompanied baggage or in suitcases (maybe someone else here has done this and knows how it works and roughly the cost). They haven't answered my mail yet. (Called them today and they've agreed to allow 7 kilos per person extra for free so great we can now take 27 kilos instead of 20!).

Now I'm waiting on my current job to see how it will work with them so this can go smoothly through.  I've no words really to describe all the feelings in this process.  Seems like you leave one set of waiting to enter into another, but I suppose once the living is taken care of at this point we can move onwards. (Again, since this is written after the fact, it all worked out with my current job – couldn’t have been more pleased and they won’t ever know how thankful I am to them, as I genuinely am).

 

credit for picture from:  http://www.teaandsnippets.com/tag/kid-things-i-am-thankful-for