What to do now

After getting off a 24hr flight, and jumping into the car for another 3 hours, needless to say you're not going to be all that that excited. It's been a loooong day. We had the fortune of being picked up by Ems family at Sydney airport who needless to say were very happy to see us.

For our situation we we're going to stay living with them until we could find a place to live. It was nice, being able to adjust with your second family for a while, rather than being plunged into the unknown.

The opportunity of a place for us to live came up just before we left the UK. Friends of Em's mum and dad we're going touring around Australia for six months and were looking for people to house sit. Of course we jumped at the opportunity.

So we had a place to live...now to get down to getting all the things I needed to get to start the process of being able to live here.


Spent about a month going around in circles trying to get the basics.

Tax file number, easy peasy, the rest of the things? not so easy.

Drivers Licence - Easier and quicker than the UK. Because I had a full UK licence, they simply swapped it with a full ACT one, you get your eyes tested and your photo taken there and then (So be prepared ladies) and they print your licence on the spot. All done in about 30 mins.

HOWEVER

You need to provide several forms of ID. Example, household bills (Which I didn't have as the bills remained in the house owners names) Medicare card (Public health insurance card, which I didn't have because you needed to show your Oz driving licence) Bank statement and card (which I didn't have because I didn't have a Oz driving licence or Medicare card)

Do you see the circle???

Eventually a very nice man at the Medicare office agreed to take a Statutory Declaration (A legal statement made by another person to say you know them, or vouch for them etc) from Em's mum so I could get my Medicare card. After that the ball got moving and I got my driving licence, tax file number, medicare card, and bank account all up an running. Phew.

I started to feel at least a little bit less of a foreigner!