chiara

Thanks ladies. Yes they tried the six months rent in advance with us, but considering they wanted two months deposit and one month's rent in advance anyway meant more like 8 months in advance. Shall try to get a holiday rental for a few weeks and see how we go. Not sure entirely if it feels right, but Australia definitely felt wrong from day one, but a job was a job, so just glad to get back to the northern hemisphere and a bit of cold (we live in the outback, bleedin' roasting all year round!). Good luck to you too!

Thanks all, some very good advice on here. Yes organising stuff from here is ambitious, I was just anxious to get a rental so I could therefore get schools for the kids. As for cars, yes blimey just had a look, can get a decent 7 seater for around 3k which is really good. That solves that issue! As for the electoral roll, we're Irish so that's not possible. And there's no going back, job quit on a 457 visa and flights booked. Australia is beautiful and diverse and crazy but definitely not where I want to spend the rest of my days and I'm not the sort to spend years or months wishing I were somewhere else. Decision made, rightly or wrongly!

Thanks Snifter, it's a head wreck. Would it be easier to get a car loan then I wonder? That's just madness! What gets me is that you can have bad credit and still qualify!

So we decided, after a sudden job offer, to move to the UK. Things have moved speedily since then but we're now running into problems as we prepare to leave Australia. Namely that we don't exist! I've been trying to organise a house rental and the lack of UK addresses has sent everyone into a tizzy, been waiting two weeks to hear back about a rental because they've had to run all sorts of checks on us (paid by us), but fingers crossed. Leasing a car long term is proving to be massively problematic, having not been resident in the country over the past three years means that even the dodgy bad credit history companies won't touch us. Has anyone else faced this and what did they do? Am beginning to feel I rushed into this. Flights are booked for next Tuesday and I'm panicking. And I don't have anyone over there to go guarantor for me so not an option. Help!

Wow, what do you do? Hubby is a senior construction manager, can't imagine they're so stuck for choice over in the uk that they'd do that unfortunately...still,, good to know..

Good to know, thanks guys!

I think I already know the answer to this, but just out of curiosity I'll ask. Has anyone had a job offer in the UK which includes a relocation package? The last two countries we moved to (here and the UAE) we had flights and shipping costs covered, as well as being put up for a time until we found somewhere to live. One of the biggest fears about moving to the UK is the cost of setting ourselves up, and opting for an expat posting somewhere else seems a more attractive option on that front, but we are keen to move to the UK so will most likely have to suck it up.

Not everyone gets PR, and it is expensive. On the one hand we're being told that the country can't afford us, on the other hand we're being told 'go for PR' which will make us even more expensive. For our family the cost of the PR visa has tripled in the past three months. We will be trying to go for it - if hubby's employer is willing to sponsor us - but there's no guarantee of success. And yes, I will homeschool if I have to face these fees, and I'll be busily applying for Canada in the meantime...

Ronan20, couldn't agree more, very surprised by the vitriolic reaction to this. What is everyone so afraid of? And littlesarah I'm sorry but they ARE denying them an education! By saying you have to pay for it they're putting it out of reach for many families and many are facing some very tough choices.

You're wrong actually, we have several politicians involved. An education is a right as laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Australia is a signatory. Every child has the right to a free education and the WA government have completely ignored this through some clever legal sidestepping. What they are doing is wrong. Despite the very negative reaction on here, we are gaining a lot of support and are planning a rally at parliament house in a couple of weeks. Thanks to anyone who does support us.

The facebook group is not mine! Crikey, I just mentioned it because that's where the idea grew....so there was no 'shameless' plug, I joined it in the same way I joined this group. OK so nobody supports this, fine, thought I'd give it a whirl.

Well no, it has been a constant worry for us, and we are constantly trying to ensure the kids learn enough from us (through lots of books and educational stuff) to make up for it. But when they present us with a $20k bill next year, I will have a problem with it....

We may have considered staying, but now we're under pressure to get PR or leave so we're considering our options. I still fail to see how we cost more on 457s than on PR visas.... the fact that it costs us more to live here than PRs or citizens already seems to make no difference to you...and the fact that the kids' school is pretty poor is beside the point...

We lived in the UAE for three years, and paid the equivalent there for schooling. Difference was that we paid no tax at all...that was the agreement! Here we paid $50k last year. I fail to understand how when we get PR (which we'll have to now) makes us suddenly affordable? They recruited us from Ireland, they clearly 'needed' my husband's skills, but half way through it they are now saying 'whoops, we've changed our minds, sorry but now you must pay us 16k!' very stormy that is bullshit!!

And by the way, the biggest groups of 457 holders are the Indians, English and Irish....and last time I checked my English is pretty good...

Wow, thanks for the support guys!! Firstly, people on 457 visas pay tax the same as everyone else, and remember we're not entitled to medicare or any other bonuses that PR or citizens can expect. That's fine by the way. Secondly, the only way around it for the likes of me is to apply for PR, so explain to me how that suddenly makes my children affordable to the system? This is effectively forcing those on 457 visas to apply for PR, even though many of us have little or not interest in staying more than four years. It's silly. And remember, an Aussie child coming to Ireland can be educated in a state school for nothing. We in Ireland took endless amounts of **** from our government, and that is why we are here now, so yes it may achieve feck all, but we've learned the hard way that if you do nothing at all then - surprise surprise - nothing changes. Anyone who wants to support this, please sign. Thanks!

I'm sure you're all aware that the government are trying to push through legislation to make parents on 457 visas pay $4000 per child to attend a state school, from January 2014. For many this will create a financial burden on what is already an extremely expensive country. Personally we are facing $20k a year to send our kids to our local school if this comes through (and please if you want to post about how I shouldn't have them if I can't afford them, please post elsewhere, I've already heard it and taken note...) The government already cut the living away from home allowance (LAFHA) for 457 visa holders last year, cutting hundreds of dollars off our weekly incomes, so this is just another kick in the teeth. Please sign the petition , it may achieve nothing, but it might achieve something...we're also trying to get together and see if we can do something more proactive, so let me know if you're interested in being involved. Thanks! https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/the-department-of-education-wa-abort-plans-to-introduce-a-4-000-school-fee-for-children-on-457-visas

Thank you everyone for some very insightful posts! Lots to mull over. One thing I'll say re the work situation is, with five kids we've never and never would just go to a country on speck. We've moved about a lot in the past five years, but always on the dime of the company involved and with a job offer firmly in place. Trouble with WA is that those job offers - even when they go to the trouble of sponsoring you - just aren't very secure. I'd assume if a company in Canada were to go to the expense of relocating us there from Australia, they're not going to leave hubby fallow during the winter months. He's in the running for roles in both Alberta and Sascatchewen (which doesn't appeal as much) so we'll see what happens. To be honest I'm more in the mode of 'convince me NOT to go' at this stage. Like I said at the start, living long term in Australia never appealed (unless I could live in Margaret River!) and the living costs are crippling. Let's see if he gets the interviews!

That walkway thing sounds so cool! Living costs here are only bearable because hubby is earning good money (or he was...looking for another job at the mo!), but our groceries alone are costing us about $600 a week, and I don't buy a lot of packaged stuff. Add in rent and bills, not to mention clothes, shoes and trips out (not that we do much of that up here!) then a Perth salary of say, $90k goes absolutely nowhere. So it brings us back to the dilemma - live up in the bush forever or have hubby do FIFO forever. Neither of these prospects constitute 'livin' the dream' to me, and hold no long term appeal at all.

Calgary is the location. To be honest I'd prefer the east coast, but then there's always room to move later on. As for moving to another city in Australia, it doesn't appeal to me since the problems will remain the same - cost of living, distance from Ireland, work prospects. As for weather, I'm a winter baby and miss the cold and even the rain! Up in the Pilbara temperatures will be topping 50 degrees in the summer, which is just too hot, particularly when there's little in the way of infrastructure to take you out of it and into air conditioning, like you'd get in the UAE.

Ooh is it wine time yet? Lovely! Yes good point about the flying time, and with 5 kids flying home to Ireland is a financial not to mention logistical nightmare! I should have qualified my comment about work being either FIFO or regional, what I meant was that this is the only way of surviving financially we've found. We did live on a Perth salary for a while and had nothing left at the end of the week - the cost of living is astronomical (more up here in the Pilbara, where 2 litres of milk can cost more than six dollars in places!)

Thanks for that. He's being put forward for a couple of positions with a couple of agencies, so I presume that if he got the job, there would be no question of not working during winter months. For us here in Australia, him working has meant either FIFO which we all found unbearable, or living in a remote area - which we are right now, and although the experience of living in Outback Australia is amazing, and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity, I couldn't do it for more than a couple of years. It all just feels so temporary here and his last employer sponsored him knowing full well that they were on the verge of going out of business! They knowingly allowed us to relocate our family, take kids out of school, give up our Perth rental, and then just said three months later 'sorry, no more work'. I don't know if that sort of thing happens in Canada - I'm sure it does - but we feel very exposed here and so very far from home.

Hi there We've been in WA for a year and a half now and are wondering what to do next. We never really wanted to stay in Australia long term - at the time it was a means of employment - but my daughter is starting high school next year and I feel if we're going to leave, we'd need to do it now. It's all fine here, but for me it was always too far from home. Also, as my hubby is in construction, his job never feels too secure - he's been made redundant twice since we came here - and the stress of living on a 457 is too much at times. Canada has always appealed more, but I'm wondering if anyone here has lived in both places (being from neither of those places originally), or if anyone else is considering moving to Canada. We want to settle down for a few years, after five years of constantly being on the move, and it seems a good, safe place to be, and where a flight home to Ireland won't mean taking out a mortgage. Any opinions?

Well he's been offered a fifo role also, and honestly I don't think I could do it again, so yes I would go home I think. He's waiting to hear about a city job, although the money isn't as good as the regional. Think we'll go regional for a year, if nothing else it will give me something to write about!!

Thanks guys, well he's been offered two jobs - one a fifo role (no way in hell) or a regional job in the arse end of nowhere (no choice!) - word of warning to anyone coming out to Perth in search of construction management positions - you will struggle to find anything in the city itself!