Some actions before moving....

There are many things we need to do before taking this big step and land on the other side of the world. Thinking about it makes me both exited and a bit nervous. I somehow get a bit closer to the reality of living in Down Under. Therefore to make a “bit of order” out of all those activities we have so far collected in our heads I have started to make an action list. Below are some of the actions:

Actions

• Australian citizenship for the kids – Already taken care of fortunately, so I guess this should be crossed out. The kids are now both Swedish and Australian citizens. My partner took care of this and he almost drowned in all the papers that had to be filled in. He recently became Swedish citizen (he is also still Australian citizen) and he thought that the forms that he had to fill in for Swedish citizenship was nothing compared to Aussie ones. The Aussies really want to make you work for the citizenship ;-)
• Spouse Visa – This is something I need (mom in the family)…. And of course like the citizenship application for the kids this does not exactly seem to be something you do during the coffee break or even during a whole work day. If that wasn’t enough I also have to do a medical examination, x-rays and include a police record to the application… well perhaps they even want dental records... It just seem a bit to much. They also seem to make sure you don't bring any unwanted things with you on the flight to Australia. Every time I travelled to Australia they even sprayed inside of the plane with some disinfect ional stuff just before we landed – It was like we were a bunch of flies! Never happened to me on any other flight to other countries before. Hmmm… well the guess the Aussies do not want to add any more dangers to what they all already have... ;-D
• Passports -Swedish and Australian. I will take care of the Swedish ones and my partner takes care of the Australian ones. Somehow when thinking about the effort involved I am quite pleased with me not having to take care of the Aussie passports…. :-D
• Organize the moving of our furniture etc. I have no experience of this and we have so forth been in contact with two companies. We really need to investigate this further. It’s both very expensive as well I am also a bit scared of entrusting all our personal belongings to an external party. Would be really nice to have some references here…
• Vaccination for the kids – We have to make sure that our kids are protected for diseases and that the vaccination program they have gone through in Sweden matches the Australian one. The WHO site seems to have useful information regarding vaccination programs see link below. Will bring it to our doctor.
  
  Immunization profile – Australia
  
  Immunization profile – Sweden
  
• Moving money – We have to exchange our money to Australian dollars. It is very crucial that we do it at the right moment since this concerns all our savings. This has made me almost obsessed with checking the exchange rate. I usually check the exchange rates at least once a day… It is starting to look quite good now so we can’t wait to long. Exchange rates seem to be a very tricky market – especially for a “newbie” in this area – which I am.
• Throw away unnecessary things – This is a good opportunity to get rid of things that are basically just there collecting dust. I am not very good at throwing away with things. Luckily my partner is the opposite. He will almost throw away everything – which means we will end up with a reasonable amount of things…….hopefully ;-).
• Cancelling the day-care for the kids –To my understanding it works a bit different in Australia for example that most moms stay home for the first 3-5 years. I will start looking into that.
• Work – Instead of quitting my job in Sweden I think I will apply for leave of absence. My partner will be on parental leave. This is just a solution for the first 3-4 months or so. Then we have a bit of security if things go totally wrong. After that I hope we can get jobs. Seems like the working market is good in Australia.
• Where to live – Fortunately the first couple of weeks we can stay at my partners parents house… Although it shouldn’t be for to long – then it might get a bit too much for all of us ;-). After that we hope to rent something while searching for a house to buy. I am looking at houses every week. Seen lots of beautiful houses in the Melbourne area (that is where we intend to live)…..although the houses seem very expensive as well.
• Change/cancel insurances
• Sell the car
• Book the tickets
• Goodbye party for friends!
• Goodbye party for family!