IMMIGRATION

The hardest thing I have ever done

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Information Page

Before you sell your house, quit your job, contact the removalists, shop for airfare tickets and organize your trip to the airport there are a few things you should know and do first.

First of all, grab a pen and a piece of paper.  Sit down with your spouse or partner and children (if you have any).  Talk amongst yourselves on the reasons why you wish to leave South Africa. You must talk about the positives and negatives of South Africa and the positives and negatives of Australia.  From there you will make your decision on whether or not to immigrate.  There are positives and negatives for both countries.  

Realize that Australia is huge.  Everybody in the world knows about Sydney and the bridge and the Opera House.  But do they know where Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Alice Springs, The Outback, Mackay, Noosa, Bundaberg,  Woolongong,  Tweed Heads and the Gold Coast are?  What the weather conditions are?  That the Gold Coast and Durban have the same weather. Hot and humid in Summer.  Do you know that the Aussie culture is a very relaxed one?  They love the outdoors and they just love sport.  Does that sound familiar?

My suggestion is :  Read all you can about Australia and the Australian people. Visit web pages about Australia.  If you can, visit Australia first for at least a month.  Not just Sydney, not just Perth.  Talk to Australians about Australia, NOT to South Africans about Australians.  The reason for this is, some South Africans did not do their homework and they seem to be very negative just about everything.  AUSTRALIANS in general are very friendly and helpful people, IF, you are friendly back towards them.  If you treat them with arrogance or are stand offish then they will back away and leave you to your own devices.

Now, go the Australian Embassy, I was lucky because I come from Pretoria.  Therefore the Australian Embassy is in Hatfield, Pretoria, opposite the American Embassy.  You buy your immigration package (+-R50.00) or you can download the package from the internet, using your credit card. Fill out every detail on that form, then go immediately to the South African Home Affairs Department, and apply for a full handwritten birth certificate. (This can take ages!!!!) Keep in mind that the Aussies do not have id books.  They want a full certified handwritten birth certificate!   Then you have to go for a Police Criminal Check.  A certificate will be issued.  When you have all your bits and pieces together, take everything back to the Australian Embassy. When all this is done, the Australian Embassy will send you and your partner and kids older than 16 years, for a medical check-up.  A blood test is also required.   Now you will have to pay for your visa, and wait till you hear from them.  This can take up to 52 weeks !! Make sure all passports are in order and still valid!  And most important make sure you have a valid drivers license.  

In the meantime, go to your bank and tell them about your immigration.  They will ask a lot of questions about your assets and money that will be going out of the country etc. You must go there personally, lots of forms to be filled out and signed. The next stop is your local tax office. Once again, go there in person.  Believe me, you don't want to leave the country and on the airport when you hand over your passport, hear that you have to turn around because you still owe the taxman R50 !! 

When the Australian Embassy sends you a letter that your visa application for immigration has been accepted, take your passport and go back to the Embassy.  They will now place your visa for immigration in your passport.  You go home, sit down with your family and get organized.  When, where etc.  This is the time you sell your house,  contact the removalists, buy the plane tickets, quit your job and say goodbye to friends and family. 

Realize,  to immigrate is not easy.  You start over.   If you are going to come to Australia with a negative attitude, or you are not prepared to start over, do not come.  If you have very strong family ties in South Africa it is going to very hard for you.  Starting over, means finding a place to stay in Australia, find some wheels to drive around with,  find a job, find a school,  and find the bus, first the bus stop, then the bus. Find a shopping center.  Find things in the supermarket that are more or less familiar to you. Getting use to your new money, dollars in Australia and not Rand.  The Aussies do not have 1c and 2c pieces. Therefore if you buy something that is $1.97, you pay $2.00.   I want to give you an example what I did.  When I was in South Africa, I would buy R10.00 of polony for the kid's school lunches.  And then I got heaps!  I went to our local supermarket here for the very first time and bought $10 devon (polony) !  People, I got a truck full of polony!! Here they say, "I want 200 gram of devon, or a couple of grams salami or, a couple of this and a couple of that."  Can you imagine my kid's  faces when I pushed a trolley full of polony to our car? 

You will feel homesick, there will be days when you ask yourself "What have I done?"   You will miss South Africa, you will miss your family, your friends.  You will ask somebody in South Africa to send you a bottle of Mrs Balls Chutney and an Afrikaans magazine.  You go online and read the Beeld and Rapport.  BUT then!  Your Aussie friends ring you up and invite you to join them at the local pub for drinks.    Your dog barks and you realize he or she is not barking because somebody wants to enter your property to cause you harm.  You go outside and you see your dog is barking for the possums on your roof.  You see your Aussie neighbour in his garden and he greets you with a smile and a "Giddy Mate" and guess what, you realize you don't live behind 6 or 8 feet walls! 

My advice to South Africans immigrating to Australia, make friends with Australian people.  Learn from them, in fact, they can learn from you too.  They don't know what the Big Five is.  Can you believe that? Well, there is something to talk about *smile* They don't know what a hi jack is.  A hi jack is a greeting! SOME Aussies know all about South Africa, yeah! right, they know who Nelson Mandela is, they know who the "Spriengboks" are.  They know who Hansie and Ernie and Gary Player are.  But they don't know about Hermanus, Knysna, the Wilderness, Sun City, and they don't know what biltong and potjiekos are.  This is where they can learn from us.  And they like that.  I make my own biltong and I make my own koeksisters.  I invite my Aussie mates for a LEKKER potjie or braai and we talk and laugh the night away.  Don't stay at home the whole time and feel sorry for yourself! Go out, see places, and drive around on a Sunday.  How exciting to discover and see all the new places.  Write long letters or emails to your friends and family in South Africa.  Stay positive.   Tell them about your nice Aussie friends and neighbors.  Have a laugh.  Call your friends in South Africa mates, tell them how safe you feel, how safe your kids are and tell them about all the wonderful opportunities this country has to offer.  Focus on the positive.  ALWAYS! And remember, God made heaven and earth.  Not just South Africa.  There is live after South Africa.  You just need to find it and realize that you and your family have been given another chance to start over! How good is that!  

I am totally in love with Australia.  I love it when they call me "mate" .  They love my accent and I can be proud to be a South African here.  It amazes me that SOME ex South Africans can be so negative here in Australia.  All of a sudden they miss Mrs Balls' chutney and one guy told me he even misses the crime !! Australia has chutneys too, just pull of the label and it is the exact same taste en texture.

Differences :

43 Million people in South Africa - 19 Million in Australia.   South Africa is the size of the Australia state Queensland.

There is 90% less crime in Australia than in South Africa.

The unemployment rate is 6 % ~ incl. the aged care and children.

Interest rate to buy a house ~ 6.9 %. 

Credit card ~ 16.5 %

Cars are very cheap ~ houses not.

CURRENCY :  SOUTH AFRICAN RAND ....... AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR ..... +- R5.00 to R6.00 for 1 AU $

A cell phone is called a mobile phone.

When you are an Australian citizen, and you are unemployed, you receive a Government payout every 2 weeks.  They call it the dole.  

They encourage women to have children.

The Government helps you financially when you are a first homebuyer.

No beggars.  Nobody that sells stuff from pavements.  

You HAVE to stop at a pedestrian crossing.

Not many stop streets but lots and lots of round-a-bouts.

A jersey is a cow and a jumper is what you wear over your arms when its cold.

Tea is a meal  -  When somebody says "lets go for morning tea" it means "lets go get something to eat"   A braai is a barbeque.

Fireworks are illegal in Australia.  Only people who have a license may have a fireworks show, with the permission of the Local Council.

Tekkies are sneakers and genuine is fair dinkum.  A robot (robort) is something computer but a traffic light is where you stop when it turns red.  Go when it turns green.   Lollies are sweets and a Liqui Fruit is a Popper.  Nothing is ever a problem in Australia therefore their most common saying "NO WORRIES MATE"    A geyser is a grumpy old man and a water heater is that "thing" in the roof that heats your water in your house.

The Aussies shorten everything.  Brisbane is Brizzie, breakfast is brekkie, Melaney has become MEL, a barbeque is a barbie.  A bakkie (a van) is a UTE.

Petrol or fuel :  You pump your own gas and you walk into the shop and just say "Pump number 4" (example) and the guy checks on his computer and say "That will be ten dollars thank you mate" 

Schools - The first thing I saw were girls going to school with make-up, boys with long hair.  They do not have an after school practice in sport.  If you are a keen football player, you join a rugby club, or if you are a keen netball player you also join a netball club etc.

Australian kids start Year I when they are 5 years old.  Therefore my kids were too "old" for their school year when we left South Africa.  They both skipped a year.  I was terrified, BUT all for nothing.  These two Afrikaans kids of mine are doing just fine in school because they get all the help they can.  The Australian schools have programmes for children from a non-English background and as a matter of fact they encourage children from different countries and languages to attend their schools.

Similarities

South Africa and Australia are in the Southern Hemisphere.  Therefore our weather and seasons are the same.

Both Australians and South Africans love the outdoors and good food.

South Africans and Australians drive on the same side of the road.

A school year is from January to December. 

South Africa and Australia share the same sun.  I had to put this on my page, because some immigrants from South Africa will say "Oh I miss the South African Sun"

We have the same plants and flowers.  In fact, a lot of the South African plants come from Australia.  Example Cordyline Australis.

Both countries love sports.

 FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO

www.australia.co.za

A VERY VERY GOOD SITE WITH A LOT OF INFORMATION.

Always remember

midi the lion sleeps tonite

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