We have now been in Perth for 6 weeks. We struggled to get things done in a timely manner in “Wait Awhileâ€. So, in order to help others struggle less and get things done slightly quicker, I compiled a list of suggestions on how to settle in Perth. I only hope that this might make your transition smoother than ours!
Please note that this list hasn’t finished and will be modified and updated as we go along. Also, these are things that pertained to us as a family with an existing Skilled Immigrant Visa and a job waiting for us.
I must confess that Perth is not what I would consider 100% “immigrant-friendlyâ€, in the traditional definition of the word ‘immigrant’. People tend to move here either for work or family ties, so there is a pre-existing structure for them to work from, as was the case with us (we had both work and family!). In that respect, there are no true immigrants, and as such, the government’s systems reflect that. Bare that in mind, have patience and all will be great!
The name of the game when getting your affairs in order in Perth is “WA Identification†– not even any Australian identification will do (as I also learned from my in-laws when they moved over from Brisbane and had to change their Queensland IDs over to WA IDs). So the more WA IDs you can collect, the smoother things will go for you.
We’ve discovered that, to obtain the best and least stressful results, there is an order in which to do things. Otherwise, you might find yourself in a situation (as I did) where you are required to submit an Aussie ID (e.g. Medicare card) in order to get an Aussie ID (e.g. driver’s license), thus wasting even more time that could have been better used.
So the following is a list of tips and steps on how to settle in Perth, WA, to do in a particular order, which can hopefully help speed things along… as much as Western Australian bureaucracy will allow.
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To read the rest of this blog please go to Cross Cultural TCK
Thanks!!