Australia Customs & Immigration

Australia probably has one of the strictest custom & quarantine regulations in the world. Everybody without exception will be checked once they arrived in Australian soil.

I found a “gift” on one of my package I sent from Singapore to Sydney:













First is the travel documents / visa. For some who hold certain countries passport, it could be as easy as apply visa online. For others, well… gonna takes more than just your time and money.
















After the travel documents, comes the quarantine section by AQIS. What you can not take into Australia? AQIS has provided the answer and brochure (PDF) for that.















Filling out “Incoming Passenger Card” can be quite an adventure for those who has no clue what the question is about. So help your self, download the PDF of Passenger Card and ask your friend or family to help you. Asking a stranger may not be a good idea to help you with this task.

And if you think Australian is not serious the immigration, for your convenience sake, they have made this whole customs & Immigration things into a TV series.

Moving out

Recently, my Koala Permanent Residency has been granted! I have been waiting for this news for almost 1 year. So without wasting another day, I throw my resignation letter and kiss goodbye to my old job.
















First problem is done, now comes the second… packing & sending my stuff. Oh how I wish I have Monica from Friends to help me with packing.















I had no idea how much stuff I had accumulated during my 4 years life in Singapore. What I thought would only be less than 100 kg, has swelled to a whooping 250 kg, spread over into 23 boxes!!!
















After asking around for shipping price quotation, I found out that Singapore Post “Speed Surface Service” does actually has the cheapest rate. Unlike cargo, they go by weight like a normal parcel, but still it’s so much cheaper compared to freight forwarders.















Singapore Post website states it would take about 5 – 7 weeks for my stuff to arrive from Singapore to Sydney. Well, in reality, it took over then 8 weeks before it arrived. So you might want to recalculate the timing.