Australian's considering moving (house, to buy, calculator)

[Mrroo]

G'day again,

Just read some more of your replys that leads me to more typing. As I said we live about an hour north of Pitt in a smallish town, 6000 approx. great school district, about 5 hrs to NY, a little over one hour to erie. The summers are humid and the winters can be a bit extreme but I do love the whole white Christmas thing! The cost of living is better than Aus and the local folks are great.

To help you compare where in melb are you? I ask because if your inner melb with all the great restaurants, and services the change of pace will really shook you but if your more croydon, werribee, or diamond creek you'll be fine. Good luck and remember life is not a dress rehearsal so take a chance and dance in the light centre stage cause even the challenges are great eventually!!

Ps contact the American women's auxiliary at the royal children's hospital as they're all US gals and would love to help you with advise.

[Gettingouttahere]

Originally Posted by Mrroo

Gday there,

Lastly you will need to consider all the entry red tape. I am a dual citizen and the tests, interviews and general hoops we leapt through were excessive, costly and time consuming.

Finally after nearly seven years did I make the right move? Traveling with four kids all the way to pa to open an Aussie cafe. You better believe it!! My wife goes back yearly and I visits every couple of years but yes for us it has all been worthwhile so do your homework, check out the red tape costs and time needs and then go for it and good luck.

Dual citizen here too (Mum is American0.
But very interested to hear of an Aussie cafe. We often go to Erie and want to hear more! D"you have sausage rolls? I'm DYING for a good sausage roll!!!!

[greg42]

Heh, I was also curious where the Aussie cafe is. If you're an hour north of Pittsburgh it might be on our way somewhere and we could stop in sometime.

[Mrroo]

Thanks for the interest.

We are are a mobile catering/cafe service, red roo fine foods, with a base kitchen in Grove City Pa. We operate from our home, our whole basement is a commercial kitchen, and cater private events for miles around.

Our event catering is the Tuckerboxgrill which we are launching this summer.(coming to Facebook soon)

We will be in Erie at the end of May for the Rib Fest but we cook Aussie burgers, remember with egg, beet root and pineapple! We also serve up fish and chips and potato cakes/scallops. Later this year are hoping to have a location in the Strip district of Pittsburgh where we can play a bit more with our menu so yes you can get fresh made sausage rolls, pavolvas, caramel slice, lemon bars, etc. if you can remember it we can make it. Drop us an email, tuckerboxgrill@gmail.com and we can probably hook you up with the treats we all miss.

Cheers,

Camm and Emma

[ImagesbyKateElizabeth]

Camm and Emma, thank you so much for that information. Very helpful to see if from the side of someone who's been there done that! The home loan is the bit that I'm worried about. I assumed we would have to buy cars outright, but I didn't know you had to own one to get a license. Do you sit a driving test in your own car? Just like when you first get a license here? We were thinking of renting for a while while we decided where to buy, but it seems (online) that rental are few and far between, and they are more costly that a mortgage. Once he has a job offer we can focus more on areas, and as he will need to fly over for interviews I will spend that time just driving around, and hopefully talking to people to see what areas are like. We're you applying for a green card from melb or did you already have duel cit? Shannon would more than likely be applying for the e3 visa, it's only for Australians with a degree, and is only a 2 year visa, but is renewable indefinitely. It is a temporary visa, but while on it you can apply for a green card if you decide you want to stay. Who knows if we will want to or not. That's something we can really only answer after years and years of being there. As all my family is here,, I'm guessing that after a while, I'll want to go back, but you never know. Are you telling me that burgers in the USA don't have egg, beet root or pineapple? Guess we will be making our own burgers unless we come to visit you, lol.

[greg42]

I've definitely had burgers with egg and with pineapple, but not both at the same time.

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by Mrroo

Thanks for the interest.

We are are a mobile catering/cafe service, red roo fine foods, with a base kitchen in Grove City Pa. We operate from our home, our whole basement is a commercial kitchen, and cater private events for miles around.

Our event catering is the Tuckerboxgrill which we are launching this summer.(coming to Facebook soon)

We will be in Erie at the end of May for the Rib Fest but we cook Aussie burgers, remember with egg, beet root and pineapple! We also serve up fish and chips and potato cakes/scallops. Later this year are hoping to have a location in the Strip district of Pittsburgh where we can play a bit more with our menu so yes you can get fresh made sausage rolls, pavolvas, caramel slice, lemon bars, etc. if you can remember it we can make it. Drop us an email, tuckerboxgrill@gmail.com and we can probably hook you up with the treats we all miss.

Cheers,

Camm and Emma

Good luck on the Strip location, that is a busy place on Saturdays.

[Mrroo]

G'day guys,

Yes rentals can be a little tricky to find but generally there are always some avaliable. The real fun we found was what we paid, a lot and what we got, very little. For the first four months we rented a two bedroom house that would have suited two lovesick pygmies very nicely. It did have a washing machine dryer and fridge but we went without a tv which with four small kids was actually great fun. We did choose to have a short lease (more expensive) because we had preselected some buildings from Australia to make offers on. To be clear on the license issue, first you have the physical, next comes the test (don't tell them it a rental they won't know or play it safe and borrow a car (if your near me call I would love to go through all that again!!) Ha! After that you can get insurance but since your technically a 'new' driver expect to pay and now you can buy a car.

Regarding the e3 that shouldn't be to difficult to obtain but the easiest way to get the old' green card happening is to tell Shannon it would really help if he could be extra fabulous so his employer can sponsor his application. :-) I have been a US citizen since birth. Not sure if this helps but the former head of the aquatics at the Pittsburgh zoo was an Aussie who has now taked up a job at sea world in Florida. He may be able to give some local industry advise, great guy, married with young kids. There is an Aussie group in Pittsburgh and we are getting together on April 21st, Anzac day weekend so I'll see what the group can suggest to help. Lots of mums lots of different backgrounds but a major lack of melbournians so hopefully you guys can help fix

Again good luck and go for it, Camm and Emma

If you are flying over for interviews let your fellow Aussies know as I am sure some would happy to show you around if your close by them. I and Emma are good for any where from Pittsburgh to Erie so let us know.

Hey Greg, if you're ever able to catch up with us first burger with the lot is on me.

Wanneroo, thanks for you well wishes on the strip location we hope to take up some space around Penn-Mac (near 18th street I think) from late September till thanksgiving. Stay tuned on our site selection success.

[greg42]

Haha, thanks. Good luck with your new ventures. Would definitely check out a shop in the Strip sometime so will watch for news of this from various outlets. (I suspect some of the other things I read would notice and write about a new Aussie place in the Strip.) Space near Penn Mac will put you right in the middle of the action, a good thing!

By the way I'm not sure what happened in your case, but I am not aware of a particular prohibition on taking the driving test in a rental car. Given that one would be already legally licensed enough with an Australian license to drive a rental car, this shouldn't be a problem. (A person who was never licensed before would have a problem, as they wouldn't be qualified to rent the car, but the rental agency wouldn't let you leave with a car in that case anyway.) I could think of one possible issue: they may not want you to take the test in a car with an out of state license plate, which happens at rental agencies a lot. Don't know, seems a little odd to me.

Also not aware of the medical exam aspect, apart from a vision test, but it has been 20 years since I was licensed in PA, and that was a transfer from another US state where I was originally licensed a few years before that. So I suppose that could be a quirk of being a first-time licensee in the States these days.

The other hurdles, like someone wanting a PA license for you to purchase a car or insurance, are I believe not set in stone by law or anything. Those may be possible without getting a new license, with some shopping around. Sometimes this is just people getting hung up on procedures or the unfamiliarity of the situation. Some banks are stupid about having a local ID I remember, won't even open a checking account with a license from another US state!

[Shenandoah]

Well, I can recommend the Western area of Pennsylvania because I'm from here, and live here.
If you want a more 'cosmopolitan' feel, then look to the eastern part of PA. If you're looking for a more friendly and growing area, I'd say look at the western part of the state. I live about 30 minutes south of Mroo, in the Ellwood City area. There are a few larger vet hospitals in the Cranberry Township and Darlington areas. Both have excellent school districts for your children. Cranberry Township is growing constantly, so lots of opportunities there, but for a vet, it'd be more of the dogs and cats and exotic bird jobs for your vet hubbie. Darlington is more rural, but upscale with lots of horses, with a polo field, along with the working and house dog and cat clientele.

Mroo, sounds YUMMY! I'll have to check out your Facebook page, so please IM me when it's up.

Welcome to the area!

blessings, Shen