grahamffc

It seems you are not comparing apples with apples. Many people in the UK would have exactly the same problem with London. If you cannot afford a capital city lifestyle you need to forget about it and ask would you rather be in parochial Australia or parochial UK.

I will be voting Leave. No side can predict the future so I don't buy any of this 'leaving is high risk' scaremongering, as is suggestions that the EU and rest of the entire world will cut off all business ties were we outside the EU. We do however have passed experience to go with remain and I'm not impressed, the U.K. is a net contributor and some of our European 'friends' (Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland) are always undercutting us on corporation tax, I'm not sure how that is defined as working together. I have also seen the difference not having competition for unskilled labour has compared to when I lived in Australia where everyone gets paid reasonably well. That said remain seems to be the clear favourite (with bookies) and if it wins I will get on with my life, fortunately my job isn't affected by immigration (touches wood) and I will continue to pay my Polish cleaner half what any English cleaners charge, and likewise enjoy other goods and services continuing to be low priced partly due to the effect of cheap labour.

I hope this is true, my partner is a teacher and the UK Government contributes 20% of her income (about £9k per year) to maintain the promised benefit. Would much rather have a lump sum!

Maybe you feel you are not 21 anymore and too old to backpack, take seasonal jobs etc. But I would gaurentee if you didn't scratch the itch as it were, you would be saying the same thing in 10 years time wishing you were 30 again.

For the year 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016 you have until 31 January 2017 to submit your tax return. To do this go onto HMRC website where it is fairly straight forward, there is a box in which you'll need to enter the years rental income, and a couple of others for all the expenses - mortgage interest, insurance, repairs etc. The site will then automatically calculate how much you owe. You will then also need to include it on your Australian tax return and include any tax paid to UK HMRC as this will be deducted from your bill from the ATO to avoid you paying tax twice on the same income.

I think a few people's sarcasm radars are off today.

I used CPA (as recommended by migration agent) but was only using my degree in Accounting and Finance as I wasn't fully qualified. I would expect that since ICAA have a reciprocal membership arrangement with ICEAW they would be your best bet though. For work experience I had my CV and references plus 3 payslips from every year (luckily I keep such things). For my then current job the agent said I could write my own reference and have it notorised by a solicitor to avoid telling my boss my plans. Pressumably that backed up with the payslips was sufficient proof.

Assuming you are near St Kilda (why would you move to Australia and not be near a beach!) try the St Kilda Sports Club on Fitzroy Street. They have bowls, cricket, darts teams and a weekly pool competition. A really nice bunch of regulars, as with anywhere you just have to get yourself out there and strike up a few conversations. Cheap drinks too.

Yes you can, I received a positive skills assessment and only have an accounting degree (I was ACCA part qualified). But the above post is also right, you may not need work experience for the skills assessment, but you will for the visa.

ACCA is not well known in Australia so expect some frustration as jobs ask for people to be CPA qualified, especially for larger companies where CV's are likely to be screened by some HR assistant following instructions. However persevere and you will find either expat Brits hiring, or Australians that have worked in UK or Asia that will recognise it, or simply a local person willing to give you a go (possibly having been told by a recruitment agency that it's the UK equivalent), but most likely this would be smaller, less proceedure driven companies. So in short she will find something but there may be a month or two of frustration first, which is very annoying given the workload undertaken to complete ACCA (especially compared to what I have heard about CPA!). Is it worth doing more study? Definitely not!

For what it's worth I used Go Matilda and found them very professiona, efficient, and friendly. How there prices compare to other agents I don't really know though. Could it be that their reputation (which contrary to your belief seems to be pretty favourable on PIO) means they don't need to give you the hard sell whereas others might? In such circumstances, not just with regard to migration agents, I find you're generally better off going with the company/product that doesn't need to sell themselves.

It is slightly different, but you can also buy the UK version in many places for about $20 though (due to shipping costs). I've sometimes bought both versions and found many of the articles are duplicated, so now if I'm buying one will have a flick through and pick one.

I think something to consider is whether you are likely to go in 10 or 20 years time when your parents are in their 80's or 90's and you might have children or too old there after to qualify for a visa. A way to look at it could be to go for 5 years, if you like it you can probably get citizenship in that time. If you feel the same about your parents, and God willing nothing has happened in those 5 years, go back and you then got the opportunity to go in the future when they are no longer around, even if you are in your 50's by then. Obviously there's a risk attached to those first five years, but it's as low as it can be without giving up on the idea of going to Australia entirely.

Sometimes, especially at this time of year but on balance no. London summer v Melbourne summer: London London winter v Melbourne winter: London London winter v Melbourne summer: Melbourne!

Glad it's worked out for you, everyone's circumstances are different. Probably more importantly than how much they like Australia is their quality of life in the UK, I don't think I've ever met anyone in the 'never looked back' category who talks about their life in the UK with any fondness, other than missing friends and family. Likewise I've never met anyone who has only positives to say about life in the UK but that Australia is even better.

Sorry to be blunt but I can't say I'm too suprised. Maybe a few lessons would be a good idea? I agree completely with your last point though, it's hardly as if every Australian citizen speaks the queen's English!

As above, took about an hour and a half mostly did to waiting between the different routines. Was stripped down to underwear and the (female) doctor even had a quick peek inside, not sure whether that was necessary! I was worried have I had a knee ligament reconstruction which prevented me from joining the RAF, but was fine and once in Oz met my English expat boss who had emigrated having had a leg removed. So I've no idea what they are looking for, probably just transmitable diseases.

Tax avoidance is perfectly legal, evasion is illegal. There is nothing 'grey' about it. I'd challange you to find anyone (corporation or individual) who pays more tax than they legally have to.

No, those 9 months would only be taxable in the UK

If anyone doesn't like that they can still go to Victoria or Tassie.

Asking a recruitment agent for the lie of the market will be a waste of time, they are hardly likely to dissuade a good candidate from joining their books, regardless of whether there are jobs or not. My advice would be to go on seek.com.au and apply for some jobs pretending you are already in Australia. Use a friends address (or make one up) and you can get an Australian mobile phone number through O2. It will be be time consuming but if you apply for a dozen jobs you'd be suitable for and are rejected from all that should set alarm bells ringing and it might be better delaying the move or at least saving so you have the resources to support yourself through months of job hunting. If you are contacted for interviews it might be frustrating but at least you can go there confident that not having Australian experience and the current market have at least should not prevent you too much. I really wish I had done this as it would have been less of a shock to get to Melbourne and have a small percentage of applicationa get through CV screening. Obviosuly you only want to apply for jobs advertised directly from the employer, not am agency on seek.

Not a helpful comment as it really is a tough call with your children, they only get one shot at an upbringing. Having watched some of the wanted down under revisited programmes people often say they are enjoying spending so much more time together as a family since being in Australia. Surely this is because in the UK with a wider circle of friends and extended family a lot of time is taken up with things like birthdays, weddings, visiting older relatives etc? I know people always say they miss family and friends but in reality is it not the case that by removing yourself from them you are forced to spend more time together as an immediate family, which may be better? For instance, with kids the ages of yours going camping or to the beach at the weekend is probably more fun and stimulating than going to a nieces/nephews first birthday party, where you kids would no doubt be bored and want to play on an iPad or something. It's a bit selfish and obviously depends how close people are to wider family, but it may be worth bearing in mind.

I agree with this entirely, I don't pretend to be an expert on all his policies but having never voted left wing doubt I would agree. However I read that he had the lowest expenses of any MP when all that hit the fan because he "already lived in London so felt no need to claim for a second property or travel costs. He also rebelled three line whips more than any other Labour MP when they were in Government. Seems to be very genuine and doesn't believe politics has to be a house of cards style horse trading game so he is growing on me.

This survey is completely subjective and meaningless, other than generating good publicity.

These are more or less the exact reasons multinationals don't go near many countries in the world, I think the UK benefits by not being on the list of countries that are considered politically unpredictable and risky. Agree fully on the non-doms, although I've never understood why if it has been around for centuries and always this tenuous not government, including some genuine left wing post war, has not done anything about it.