Ken

We're decluttering and have for sale a cot, crib, high chair, baby gym, travel cot/playpen, baby bath seat and a walker. If anyone is interested please pm me for futher details/photos.

What you really need is flexibility in when you can leave your short term rental. Landlords will typically want you to view the property this week and move in next week. If you don't want the property for 4 weeks they're not interested.

devon67 you may want to update your location. It says "devon, but melbourne soon". Unless of course you are trying to warn us there are huntsmen spiders running around Devon?:err:

I'm a bit confused about some of the comments regarding university fees. Don't you need to be a permanent resident before you can apply for citizenship? Aren't university fees the same for permanent residents as they are for citizens?

The two or three boxes we had labelled "Inspected by AQIS" were inside our move cube so they definitely opened the move cube itself. Just not sure they actually opened the boxes or if the label just means they x-rayed them.

I thought everyone needed an 8.0 in each section of IELTS to get in these days - why would they need English Classes?

Two or three of our boxes had stickers on them to say they had been "inspected" - but I couldn't actually tell that they'd been opened.

Back when my wife and I had our medicals in 2008 the hard copies were posted to DIAC. By the time my son's medical was done in 2011 the hard copy had been abolished and they were submitted online to DIAC. These were all offshore I don't know what happens onshore. I've not heard of anyone receiving a hard copy themselves - besides it breaks the chain of evidence if the applicant is able to intercept the medical report himself (mind you DIAC don't seem to have any trouble with that when it comes to skills assessments).

I can tell you that SAP is widely used in Australia - it seems to be the finance software of choice for most large businesses. I find that rather annoying as it's a software I haven't used but it should be good news for you. I'm not in IT so I can't comment on whether they've got enough SAP IT people or not but I'd imagine there must be a demand for them. Best to speak to a migration consultant to find out if you can score enough points if it's not easy for you to calculate.

That's right. Many many years ago now you did only need to be resident for 2 years (so you probably heard that figure from an old timer) but they increased it. The rules change all the time so beware any advice given here on PIO may already be out of date (who knows perhaps it's already taking more than 2 weeks to get a 189)!:laugh:

4G still isn't available in the UK so you might not even have thought about this but you might want to check what 4G the iPhone5 uses and whether or not phones sold in Australia are different. I know there was a big fuss about the iPhone4 when it was first launched only having the US 4G installed on it so it wouldn't work on the Australian 4G system. Apple were fined in Australia and had to refund some customers for not making this clear. I haven't heard anything said about 4G on the iPhone5 - possibly because the issues been fixed but I really don't know.

France never scores well in these surveys because the survey forms are all written in english and the french refuse to fill them in.

E-bay, car boot, gifts to relatives and civic amenity site for the stuff that was truly worthless (we'd been planning the move for years which meant carrying on using furniture that was truly knackered because it wasn't worth replacing it before we went).

You need to have lived in Oz for 4 years (not all of which need to have been as a permanent resident although for those of us who didn't live in Australia before getting PR the difference is academic) to be eligible for citizenship. PR visa allows you to enter Australia for 5 years, after that if you need to leave and re-enter Australia you'll need another visa (usually an RRV - Resident Return Visa) if you haven't obtained citizenship. If you don't need to leave Australia between your PR visa's travel validity expiring and obtaining citizenship you don't need an RRV as the permanent in PR means you can remain in Australia indefinitely.

Your wife's application might be eligible for extra points based on you having a skill too. I know it used to me very difficult to get those extra points - both occupations had to be on the same SOL schedule for example, so you'd better check what the rules are now - but you'd undoubtedly need the skills assessment to get those points if eligible. Incidentally ACCA members have a choice of skills assessing bodies - either CPA or ICAA. Don't know if either is easier or cheaper.

Your wife sounds an excellent candidate to get a permanent skilled migration visa. However unless she works for one of the big firms (KPMG, Deloittes etc;) who might sponsor her themselves she's very unlikely to find a sponsor while in the UK. Accountants generally have to come over and then look for work once they get here. While still in the UK I'd advise her to try and get some experience with SAP and/or MYOB to improve her chances of employment in Australia. The Tax Institute run some distance learning courses on Australian Tax Law which she could also do.

I don't think it's really the freezing that is the problem. I know chippies in the UK that use frozen chips but they're still far superior to the Ozzie version. I think the real problem is that the Ozzies aren't using large enough vats of oil. It's the same problem as with using a deep fat fryer at home versus the one at the chippie. They don't taste the same whether you use fresh or frozen. Because the vat isn't big enough the chips don't cook the same way. Presumably the temperature in the centre doesn't get as hot.

But where are they? Unless you're offering to deliver we need to know approximate location.

SAP is very popular in Australia. Most large corporations seem to use it so presumably there will be a demand for "techno functional guys".

If you are Australian Residents (if you are in Australia on a Permanent Visa you are Australian Residents whether or not you have a house in the UK) then you have to pay Australian tax on your worldwide income. There's a double taxation agreement between the UK and Oz so any tax you've paid in the UK can be offset against your Australian liability but if you are paying less tax in the UK on this income than is required in Australia then yes you need to pay more tax. The dependent spouse tax offset that you are referring to is being phased out and is now received by very few couples. To qualify the taxpayer has to be earning less than $150,000 (that's including all fringe benefits, pensions and other income), the spouse has to be earning less than $9,702 (to receive anything and less than $282 to receive the full benefit and again that includes all fringe benefits, pensions and other income) and the spouse has to have been born before 1st July 1971 (or meet some other eligibility requirement). I'm not aware of any tax deductions being available for having a son at Uni but I'm sure it's expensive so perhaps we should start a campaign for one.

Could be the discovery of the century - changes the whole course of natural history as we know it. Alert the press:laugh:

If we all knew what exchange rates were going to be a year ahead we'd all be millionaires. Personally I reckon the rate will be somewhere between $1.30 and $2.30 - but I could be wrong.

Actually I would be telling them that. I found it much easier (and cheaper) to cancel contracts when the suppliers knew you were going abroad. They don't want you to go to a competitor which is why they put the road blocks in your way. Once they know you're not going to a competitor it's not a problem. Of course with mobile phone contracts it's also down to whether or not you've paid for the so called "free" phone as the phone company doesn't want to make a loss just because you've moved.

Sat Navs (like most electronic goods) are more expensive in Australia than in the UK, but if you buy a UK model you'll have to buy the Australian maps for it which will outweigh the saving on price. We did bring a UK sat nav with us which we bought Australian maps for but that was basically for the convenience of having the sat nav in the hire car from the airport. Your Kindle will work in Oz (well mine does - or at least all the books I downloaded in the UK are on it as I haven't tried buying any new books since we arrived). And finally, yes your brain is working normally - I felt just the same in the final preparation to leaving.

You might want to check out what is the earliest your partner can take maternity leave from and travel to Oz whilst on maternity leave - that way she'll still get all the maternity pay she would have been entitled to in the UK (although she'll be able to start it later if she has the baby in the UK). Also check out the rules on the baby bonus. I'm sure your partner should be entitled to that if the baby is born in Australia but I suspect she'll miss out if the baby is born in the UK (but as I said check out the rules I don't actually know how it works in your circumstances). Having family around when your first child is born is extremely important - I honestly don't know how we'd have coped without it (it's hard enough now he's a toddler). You won't be able to get medical insurance for a pre-existing pregnancy but several poms on here have had a chilld on medicare and say the service they've received (for free) is as good as (if not better than) the NHS.