ABL275

Hi Leon, I had a similar query when I came over about 21 months ago and was initially offered the dollar equivalent of my UK salary (i.e. $1.6 dollars for each pound in my UK salary at the time). Having done a fair bit of research (I'm an accountant...zzzZZZ) the most significant factor was that the exchange rate had been around $2.2/£1 or better for many years beforehand and although the value of the pound had fallen, local prices hadn't so I went back and asked for a dollar salary of 2.2 times my UK salary - and got it. I also asked for an addditional $10,000 for schooling as foreign nationals in the ACT are required to pay 100% of the nominal cost of educating their children unless this is waived under their visa terms (it was 30% in NSW and 0% everywhere else) - and got that too. With $80,000 you could live reasonably well. $80k isabout the salary of the most numerous grade of civil servant in Canberra, and civil servant is the most numerous occupation, so it's probably about median for the city, but a great many families in Canberra have double incomes which would mean you'd see a great many others around you living more comfortably. Nonetheless Canberra is a place where there are no real poor areas; pretty much every part of the city is pretty decent as salaries are on average the highest in Australia and the Federal capital is maintained as something of a show piece. Of course it all depends what you do with your time and money. Having been here long enough to have done all the museums and found out that there really aren't many places worth visiting in less than hour's drive we're discovering that most people just enjoy the fantastic countryside. The best days to be had are undoubtedly there for the price of three bikes, a bike rack and an 'Eski' (cold box) full of sausages and drinks - you don't even need a BBQ as free gas BBQ's are provided all over the place. Shout if you need more.

....whenever we have colleagues flying in from Sydney or Melbourne the first thing they do is moan about how expensive everything is. Whenever I go to Sydney or Melbourne I'm pleasantly surprised that i can get a decent sandwich at lunchtime for around $6.50 rather than the $8.50 we'd need to pay in Canberra!

I just had to do this about 3 weeks ago for my spouse visa - it has to go by snail-mail and whatever happens - DO NOT OPEN - just stick it in an envelope addressed to your case officer (along with the usual reference numbers).

I think it's a good comment from 'Lastonealive', time and time again I've been surprised that Australian government and businesses issue hugely detailed forms for everything but in practice they seldom seem to expect you to be able to complete everything. Even when applying for a visa I was 'required' to provide copies of my military discharge papers which I simply listed as 'no longer available' and my visa application still went through in 10 days. In practice there seems to be a fair bit of discretion and wiggle room - though I suspect there's more so for applicants from English-speaking countries as the language and their familiarity with our home institutions means we're low risk compared to non-English speaking applicants.

"To get a bridging visa your previous visa must have expired..." - not necessarilly the case as I've just swapped a 457 for a spouse visa myself. You just need to meet the requirements for a spouse visa to be able to apply.

I've just swapped from a 457 visa (after being made redundant) to a spouse visa (as of yesterday). The conditions around the bridging visa were very confusing (even after several visits tomy local DIAC office) but the best explanation I heard was that a bridging visa effectively extends your current visa until a decision is made on whether to grant you a spouse visa or not. Once I finally got all my paperwork to Brisbane I was granted my new spouse visa in 14 calendar days. Happy to answer any queries that I can.

Hi Tim, I seem to remember having exactly the same problem; I ended up buying one-year travel insurance (anything over 4 weeks had to be, or was cheaper if it was for one year)apparently) as I was unsure how soon how quickly I could arrange the reciprocal healthcare. In the event is was arranged in a matter of days (the ACT is good at that sort of thing) and I was subsequently told that I could have taken out suitable assurance with BUPA Australia before travelling. You'll need some health insurance as a requirement of your 457 Visa as the reciprocal healthcare agreement only provides limited cover so best to talk to BUPA anyway (www.bupa.com.au). One final thought; Australia has recently introduced a 'healthcare levy' which essentially penalises the more affluent for not taking out additional healthcare (which for 457 visa holders would be above and beyond your visa top-up type health cover). Basically if you earn more than a certain figure ($140k p.a.?) then you incurr an additional charge of 1% of your annual salary above the threshold, rising annually to 2%, 3% etc. - so if you expect to earn more than the threshold it's worth discussing that with BUPA too. I've found all the BUPA people to be extremely switched on (a couple of times I thought they were spinning me a bit of a sales yarn so went off and did all my own research only to go back several hours later after finding they were exactly right) so you can save a lot of time by just going with their advice! Good luck!

I've just imported my car and moved over just on a year after buying it; the wording is a little grey in parts but essential you do need to have owned the car overseas and lived in that same overseas country for a full year prior to coming to Australia. You are allowed to have taken (a limited number of) holidays and business visits outside of your home country in that time. You're also required to submit a copy of every page of your passport to support this, together with a simple schedule of countries and dates on which you were outside your 'home' country prior to coming to Australia - so they have thought of ways people might get around this.

Excellent post mate, but just one other thing:embarrassed: (yes I know!) I keep hearing rumours about having the speedo changed and the wing mirrors and so on - are you able to throw any light on these or even point us in the direction of the regulations - have tried the 'Australian Design Rules' site but that's just more legislation without detail.