Graemsay

It's a capital offence, mate. You're for the electric chair, and they'll charge you for the juice used. :biggrin:

I think that in some sense both refusing to pay back a loan or bankruptcy are immoral. When you borrow money you're entering into a contract with another party, and in a sense that's a legally binding promise to repay them. Credit is only available to adults, so as I said earlier, we're all big boys and girls and should be willing to bear the consequences of our actions. However, I'd argue that declaring bankruptcy is more moral than absconding. In the former case you're trying to make some amends, and the creditor will probably be paid something, even if it's only pennies in the pound. It's not all black-and-white though. Some of the pay day loans companies charge obscene amounts of interest, and I'm really surprised that the government hasn't regulated the companies out of the market. Agreed. I've had business dealings with several organisations who have either sought to rip me off, or ignoring my commercial interests as a way of furthering their own, despite being in a relationship where they were allegedly representing me. That doesn't mean you need to act dishonestly yourself, but you do need to be careful. But a business acting in its own best interests is entirely rational. A bank isn't going to lend money if it thinks that there is a good chance it won't get it back. Unfortunately the financial industry has been over-cautious in recent years, and that has caused real problems.

I was thinking of making the same mistakes again. Incidentally, I'd be interested in hearing the OP's story. From previous posts it sounds as though they sold their house, got screwed over by their relatives, and came to Oz sometime last year.

If I could make a suggestion, anyone considering doing a runner to escape debt should check out sources for help first, and try to resolve matters that way. There are various helplines and services, and the Motley Fool has a Dealing With Debt forum which offers advice to those seeking to help themselves. (In particular check out this post by Gostevie and follow up the links about how he turned his life around.) If bad spending or saving habits are part of the problem then the chances are someone will get into trouble again in five or ten years time in Australia, Canada or wherever they end up.

Largely it's our money. The banks borrow from us when we deposit funds into an account, or from the money markets. If a bank fails then the government will either intervene and inject fresh capital, or guarantee our deposits to a certain level. In which case the loss is socialised. So if enough people get into financial difficulties then we all suffer.

I'm cautious about saying don't buy a house because it is a risky strategy if you time it wrong, and markets are hugely unpredictable. Who would have predicted London is up by 20% or 30% from 2007, despite a credit crunch, a near death experience in the financial system, and the longest, deepest recession since the 1920s. If you make the wrong call, I think that you could end up a lot worse off. I wouldn't buy right now, but accept that might be a mistake. The trouble is I won't know for another four or five years.

I should probably add to my comments above that Australia strikes me as being a bit like Ireland before 2007 or 2008 right now: High house prices, high debt, and an unshakeable belief that there isn't a property bubble. No idea how it's going to play out, but I reckon that not buying a house unless you've got a very substantial deposit is possibly a good strategy.

House prices had a long run up from the late nineties, and rose at above inflation rates for most of this time. This was true in Ireland, the UK and Australia. The Southeast of England was considered 20% overpriced in 2002 or 2003, and Mervyn King warned of a property bubble at about that time. Don't believe me, take a look at this article. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2002/nov/20/housingmarket.houseprices Or this piece from the Economist in 2003, which mentions a number of countries worldwide. http://www.economist.com/node/1794873 MissusB, I feel sympathy for your sister, but ultimately she made a bad financial or investment decision. But saying that she should run away from her debts, and feel no guilt, is disingenuous. That said, it sounds like the Irish government has initiated a mortgage forgiveness programme, and that is probably her best way out. Oh, and I've spent most of the last four years way down on what I was in 2008. This year my income so far hasn't covered my rent. I disagree with Colinmaclec that is was all the bankers' fault. Rather the whole of society was complicit, and took advantage of cheap and easy credit. And no-one complained about them when property prices were doubling or tripling.

I disagree with Missus B. Her sister is a big girl, and made a decision that turned out to be the wrong one. She could have held off buying a property and rented instead. That said, I suspect that the situation in Ireland will involve a degree of debt forgiveness and modification to ease the burden on those who bought in at the top of the market. Otherwise a large proportion of the population will be financially stuffed over the long term, and that'll be a major drag on the economy.

Channel 4 doesn't have an in-house production arm. (Wikipedia confirms this.) If you're being completely paranoid, doing a WHOIS on raisetheroofproductions.com shows that the domain is legitimate, and registered to the address given on their website. A WebCHeck via Companies House on RTRP Ltd or the company number (SC368618), both of which can be found on their website will confirm that the business exists.

Raise the Roof Productions are behind the various Phil and Kirsty shows. I'm guessing that this will be another series of Phil Down Under or a similar programme.

From a pragmatic point of view it would be worth trying to come to some sort of arrangement over your debts. Roughly one in three migrants return to the UK, and if it doesn't work out then you don't want to arrive back to several years worth of credit card interest.

No idea what the odds are, and anything I add here is rampant speculation. But good luck with the application, and I hope it works out. :biggrin:

I don't know how the system works now. Back when I did it the process would be you'd get a skills assessment and optionally a state nomination, and then submit a visa application. At that point you'd pay the £2K fee. My understanding is that the process now is you get an assessment and state nomination, submit a smaller fee to lodge an expression of interest, and then pay a £2K fee when you're called to make an application. Hence you don't have to pay it before you're invited to apply. I'd have thought that an agent would have asked "Do you have any expensive medical conditions that might cause a problem?" early on in the process. When you're paying a chunk of change for a service then they should be looking out for the best outcome, even if that is to save you the cost of applying in the first place.

I don't know much about front loading medicals, but I'm sure that I've heard people doing it in the past. The theory was that spending £100 or £200 on them, and getting an official opinion on anything that might be questionable before paying agency, visa or assessment fees would be a money saver. Bear in mind that this was from the days when you'd pay £2K for a visa fee upon application, rather than the current expression of interest system, so the risk of rejection would be more expensive. I don't know the ins and outs, but it'd be worth investigating to see if you'd be a straight write-off. Alternatively try to get in touch with the medical assessors in Australia and get the official line.

Vicky, I'm really sorry to hear about your diagnosis, and I hope that treatment is successful. My mother's been through a couple of rounds of chemo, and is about to embark on another, so I'm aware how tough it can be. She found that good quality Belgium chocolates helped, but I think that's a cure for most things. With regards to immigration, I believe that whether or not you pass a medical is dependent on whether future costs are likely to be in excess of something like $20,000. From a look at the Cancer Research page, you're at most risk of it recurring within two years, so my guess is that you're more likely to pass a medical after that date as the chances of having high care costs will have been reduced. My suggestion would be to have a chat to an agent with a background in these sorts of cases; submit a query to DIAC asking what the position of the Medical Officer of the Commonwealth is likely to be; or contact the local panel doctor who would conduct your medical, and see what they can tell you. If you want to apply for a visa then it would be worth front-loading the medical to make sure that you're eligible before submitting your application. That'd be cheaper if you were turned down. Good luck with both your treatment and Australia. And remember, as I keep on telling my mother, your hair might fall out, but it'll grow back again unlike mine!

I'm a freelancer, and I did much the same as Justin. In general my engagements with clients were anything from three months to three years, so I approached all of them and got a reference saying when I'd worked there, and what my duties were. I'd suggest using invoices and your (business) accounts to show that you were working on a self-employed basis. If you can get a reference off any of your clients then that will help, but also put together a statutory declaration saying who you worked for and what you did during that time. What I'd do is put together a form letter along the lines of "Between Year/Month and Year/Month we hired MissMalone on a full (or part) time basis as a graphics designer. During that time she did..." Send this to your clients in an email, and ask them to print it out on company paper and have someone sign it. You'll also need references from your current and previous employers if possible too. If they've gone under then write a statutory declaration explaining what you did there and what happened to them. DIAC might be a bit conservative on how they count employment, but worst case is you'd get 10 points and that should be enough.

If you're reckoning on £5000 then I'm guessing you're looking at using an agent. A DIY application isn't that hard, most people find the skills assessment to be the trickiest part, and filling in the visa application form is just a case of answering questions. I'd suggest doing the skills assessment yourself, and see how you get on. You're going to need to gather up employer references and proof that you've been working as a graphics designer even if you use an agent. Where one might be useful is dealing with your ex, particularly if the courts get involved. With regards to applying as a graphic designer, have you been working as one recently? The old 175 and 176 visas required that you had worked 12 out of the last 24 months in your nominated occupation, but I'm not sure if that condition applies to the 190 though. Bear in mind that it's likely to take about a year to get a visa through even if things go smoothly. A skills assessment itself can take a couple of months to be processed. And after being granted it, you've got up to another twelve months to make your first entry, and you don't have to migrate immediately. I'd suggest getting things moving sooner rather than later, and keep the possibility of doing your PGCE here next year open. Your age is frozen once you apply for a visa, so it doesn't matter if you delay things. That said, I'd compare course fees for the UK and Oz, and see which would be the cheaper to study in.

If you're looking at a regional visa, it's probably worth pointing out that the whole of South Australia including Adelaide counts. In contrast, in Western Australia you'd have to live away from Perth. See: http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/regional-growth.htm The fact that Adelaide counts as regional led a friend to emigrate there some years ago. I'm not sure what visa he went over on, but after a couple of years he was awarded permanent residence, and has subsequently become an Australian citizen. So there is a pathway there. There are restrictions on what property holders of temporary visas can purchase. You'd need to check with the FIRB for more details. But that's a way down the line.

I'd check what NSW's requirements are for offering state sponsorship. In the past they tended to be narrow, such as only C++ developers, not Java. Victoria has tended to be more permissive. Why not email the appropriate organisations and see what the situation is? I got my visa two and a half years ago, and the system has changed twice since then. Sydney tends to have more IT opportunities than Melbourne, the wages are slightly higher, but housing is significantly more expensive. (The median house price in Sydney is around $700K, whilst Melbourne's is around $500K.) Sydney has the beaches and the harbour, and a better climate, whereas Melbourne has a more vibrant cultural scene. If you're good at what you do, and the economy remains reasonably buoyant, then you probably won't have too much trouble finding a job in either. But I think that it would make sense to look at being somewhere you'll be happy.

I'm not an accountant, but I'd expect you'd pay capital gains on any growth from the point at which you converted the house from your residence to a rental. The house in Perth would be your residence, and therefore not subject to capital gains tax. Personally, I'd be inclined to sell up in London. Prices here are still defying gravity, rental yields are low (in some cases 4% or so), and managing a property on the other side of the planet will make things more difficult.

The rules on the First Home Saver Account are that you can't access the funds before you've deposited a minimum of $1000 in each of four financial years. If you kept to these rules then the soonest you could withdraw the money would be sometime in the second half of 2015, as the Australian tax year runs July to June. Look on the bright side, prices are slipping in Australia. You might get something a lot better in a few years time. Edit: Ah, looks like I was wrong. Thanks Eera.

Fill in Form 80, put down which countries you've visited in the last decade (I couldn't remember all the details, so just gave approximate dates for what I could), and get it uploaded. I can't remember if it needs to be signed. If not just upload it directly. (Or if you're running late, upload an unsigned version, and follow it with a scanned and signed version.)

The ECB is taking more decisive action now, and is intervening to keep bond yields in the struggling Eurozone countries down. The problems have tended to be political as much as economic. Overall debt and deficit levels in Europe are below the US, for example. If the markets can be convinced that this will actually work, and some of the press suggests it might, though it's a bit late, I'd expect the Euro to strengthen against the Australian Dollar. The Dollar is also a beneficiary of both the commodities boom (which appears to be tailing off as China slows), and being seen as a safe haven. My guess is that it'll slump in the future, but I'm not going to hazard a guess as to when that will be.

And if you're having trouble, covert a DOCX into PDF using Word. (If you haven't got it, download Open Office.)