Good Things Come To Those Who Wait…

The last few months have been pretty quite around here as we waited around for our Residency Visas to be granted but now, we are happy to say, the wait is finally over. On the 7th of November we were granted the Permanent Residency we have been chasing for the last 12 months. This has been a huge relief to us as our lives are no longer up in the air as we were on the tourist visas due to expire on the 24th November! Finally we can start making plans to move forward.

Around the time of this I decided not re-new the Carnet for the Land Rover and trailer and to just throw everything at getting it registered here in Victoria. This process involved getting vehicle import approval (VIA), paying customs duty/GST, getting an engineers import approval/inspection (for the Defender), an import decal, a roadworthy and a final inspection and interrogation (along with more money) from Vicroads here in Geelong.

The VIA process was done earlier and was surprisingly easy. The engineer was the simple part for us as we use a friendly fella called Bill (Talk Torque Automotive) at work for GVM upgrades. We went up to Melbourne to see Bill and he approved not only the import, but the modifications (roll cage, extra fuel tank etc) also. After a few hours we were on our way, picking up the import decal/plate on the way home. We also took the opportunity to stop in at Tullamarine Airport to visit Customs House and get the carnets stamped out. After a lot of confusion (they thought it was on a ship and coming here so I told them to look out of the window) they finally stamped them out meaning we can now get some of money back from the RAC in the UK, although we are not holding our breath it will be anytime soon.

After a bit of palaver with the roadworthy which included them cracking my steering box we finally got the 90 back a week later. Down to Vicroads for a quick check of the VIN and engine number and they finally issued me with my registration and number plates (after some more extortionate fees).

Hurrah! it is finally over!

We are in, the landy is in and the trailer… well that still needs registering but that can wait.