1

For visas, start with UK Border Agency website - http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/

You'll know your details regarding ages, skills, health, criminal convictions, grandparents from UK, EU passports etc and find the right advice about the right visa for your circumstances there. Until you can be reasonably sure you can apply for a visa and be reasonably sure you'll each be granted one, there's not a lot of point looking at things like accommodation, employment etc.

2

Hi....

You might like to find a book (if there is one) comparing the UK and Oz climates.
There's a huge difference ! !
Best of luck with everything.

3

it will be cold during winter, colder than you ever thought imaginable unless of course you live in Hobart. Then you will have experienced for a couple of days in winter how cold it will be for weeks on end.

if you are from Queensland/NT I wouldn't even think about it, you won't survive.

4

To a first approximation it works like this. You could be in one of three categories.
(1) You are already entitled to British citizenship. Probably you need at least one British parent for this, though in itself this might not suffice. All you have to do is apply for your British passport, but it might take a while to get it. If it is only one of you who is British, it should be possible to get your bona fide unmarried partner in with you, but in practice it is quite difficult to navigate the bureaucracy and curiously it will be easier to get your unmarried partner into almost any country in the EU apart from Britain. If you get married, it gets easier.
(2) You are entitled to an ancestry visa. This is the most common way Australians come to Britain. You need a British grandparent. If it's only one of you, you'll have to investigate the possibilities of the other one coming too, I wouldn'tbe hopeful.
(3) You aren't British and you don't qualify for an ancestry visa. Now your only chance is a general work visa, study visa, or the like. To get a work visa, you'd better be very good at something that UK requires, because the present govt has said it is reducing the number of people coming to work here, and has take measures to make it a lot harder.

But you need to read the fine print as #1 says.

5

Two year leaves you ample time to plan.

If you arrive in Scotland as a British citizen, sponsorship rules have recently been tighten considerably (check UKBA's website).
Ironically, if you arrive on an EU passport, sponsorship rules are more lax because they are EU rules, not UK rules. If you have a grandparent on either sides who was born in Ireland (including Northern Ireland), you may qualify for an Irish passport, a much better alternative to an AV as Irish citizen are considered settled in the UK at the moment of disembarkation ( under UK law) with all the privileges of a British citizen. It takes a year to get registered, so if eligible you might want to start collecting documents now.
Best of luck!

6

Accommodation - myeasyroommate.co.uk, the gumtree site, there's lots of them out there, but I'd start with the visa stuff first. Accom won't be hard to fix up.

7

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the advice. One of my parents is from the UK, along with there whole family- so getting a British passport shouldn't be the issue- more getting my partner a visa. We have talked about my partner's visa and getting married isn't an option- we will do that eventually but not for a visa but because it is the right thing in our relationship.

We are technically a de facto in Australia and someone has suggested that we can get my partner a visa easier because of this. I'm not sure how to go about to apply for a visa or British passport... Do I get the forms from a website, post office etc.

8

Getting a visa: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/
Getting a passport: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Passports/index.htm

9

http://www.talentscotland.com

10

I hope you have done some research on the climatic conditions that you will experience