purpleal

Are you serious?!! Is this a windup?! Just the kid of dishonest people we DON'T want in Australia. In other words, you want to work here, get paid cash, pay no taxes, yet live and use everything that everyone else's taxes go towards! UNBELIEVABLE......

I don't usually get involved in political discussions - but this made me chuckle....''No Investment by this government..' -YES!!!!! Because Labour stuffed up the country so much - the the Cons inherited such a MAMMOTH deficit that they have NO money to invest! Anyway, my belief is that if you are not paying your own way in life, you quite rightly don't have a say in where you end up.

Hi, Can snyone help with this? Many Thanks

Hi, I have a friend who moved here early 2010 on a 457. His company submitted his PR application (direct - no migration agent involved) about 5 months ago, however they have not had any correspondence since the initial submittal confirmation. The worry now is that his company has lost a major client and is on the verge of folding. What are his options if this does indeed happen before PR is granted? The obvious answer is to find a new employer but what he does is quite specialized and jobs like his are not that easy to come by. Would there be any chance of an extension to the normal '28 days and then you are out' rule' - or us this the end for him ? Many Thanks, Purpleal

My husband and I both have comprehensive cover - life insurance, TPD, Trauma and Income Protection. Seeing the premiums come out of the account each month hurts! But not as much as it would if something happened to one of us and we didn't have any of the above!

An alternative would be an aupair . Cost is between 150 - 200 per week, you pay for food etc. You would need a spare room though as they would need live in.

Welcome to PIO - how exciting to be considering a move to Oz! Firstly, Have you been given consent by the biological father of your eldest child to allow the move to Australia? Despite you having raised the child, this is something that is necessary and it is pointless even considering a visa as one will not be granted until consent is given - either voluntary or via the courts. Purp

Drugs..alcohol....gambling...prostitution- these have been around for hundreds of years. People don't want to give them up - they enjoy doing them. Do you have any idea how wide spread recreational drug use is? Not talking about addicts here - just normal, professionals like you and I - who enjoy going out on a friday night, pop a pill/have a line with some mates and have a good time? I had a very close DENTIST friend, worked hard by day - played even harder by night. He died of an overdose eventually - he just wanted to get high and try new things. You see, people get bored and drugs offer an escape to the mundane, boring routine that we all eventually end up in. Smugglers are always sorry - but not for the lives they will destroy - just sorry for themselves that they were caught. Drug Syndicates - Do you really think smugglers are going to allow some old lady to take 2,400,000 dollars worth of narcotics on a first run? Usually, mules do a number of runs, the size of the imports increasing along with their brazeness. Why was she involved with these so called Thai gangsters in the first place (if they even exist)? These people don't just walk down Gloucester high street, randomly choose someone and then threaten their kids lives. From reports, she has never been a particularly nice neighbour nor a nice person and in fact caused a lot of trouble. Don't let the make-up free plump granny fool you people! It's just a facade to make people think 'oh, poor me..look at me, oldish, frail, plump, mental health problems, they made me do it blah blah'

From someone who has experienced first hand what drugs can do to people (not myself personally - but to a few very close to me) - she deserves everything she gets. As AJ said, it was hardly one or two spliffs - $2,400,000 worth (YES! two point four million dollars worth!). Do you have any idea what kind of devastation this amount of drugs can/will do to people on the street? Not only the addicts - but their families....friends.....

My brother is a sparkie in London and has been finding work more difficult as the Poles/Eastern Europeans charge next to nothing. They live in shared properties, sometimes 4/5 to a room and send their wages home. On the plus side (well, for him at least - not the people paying him!), some of his work is actually FIXING up the botched jobs that the foreign workers are responsible for......................

If you can, try have a rough idea on where you would like to live. Then, contact the schools and make sure they will accept you provided you live in catchment boundary - most schools provide a map of this or have it on their websites. Generally speaking they will - I only say this though as the school in the area from where we have just moved on will NOT accept any pupils, even in catchment - if they are not a permanent visa. It is a very popular school whose enrolments have skyrocketed and they just do not have capacity. We were one house away from catchment line and they would not accept us - we had to go to school 2 k's away in the next suburb even though we were about 3 mins walk away from the school. House prices tend to be expensive more as to proximity to the city than to being near a good school. Depending on where you live, all the public schools are all as good as each other.

Doable - probably, but it would be a struggle with not much room for luxuries. We are a family of 5, in Sydney on more than that and still we do not get by some months. Of course, it will depend on where you will be living. In Sydney, you would be looking at at least $500 (for a unit/apartment) per week = which is already $2172 a month before bills. However, as you are a family of 5, I would imagine it would be a little more than this figure. Have a look at www.domain.com.au, this will give you an idea on what you could expect to pay. Rent for eg would be much cheaper the further out of the city you go, but then again, may not be convenient for you travel to work etc. There are always things cropping up. This month, we have to buy 2 x full school uniforms, shoes, trainers, backpacks, library bags, stationery. We have to pay for my 3 year old kindy fees for the quarter upfront ($55 a day). We will get the elder two's invoice for school - most probably around $300 each. Next month, we have to pay for our cars rego, CTP (which is compulsory) and service (which was due 3,000 k's ago - we have been putting it off). We are also expecting in the next couple of weeks our quarterly electricty and gas bills. We do have a mortgage, so therefore life insurance and building/contents insurance/ council rates which we have to pay. Food is about $350 a week - food and other essentials such as toilet rolls, detergents etc. I cook from scratch and we eat alot of fresh fruit and vegetables. I make my husbands lunch which he takes to work, my children take food to school too - they very seldom get food from the canteen. At our local public school, they eat three times a day - 10am, 11.30 and 1.00 pm. When I get time to travel out of my area, I go to Aldi - this cuts the grocery bill down substantially. Their meat, especially the grassfed steak is fantastic quality and very good quality. Fergal is correct about every outing costing you money. I took my kids to the local park the other day - 3 ice creams, a coffee and a bottle of water was $20. We took the kids, along with my mother down to the beach for some Fish and Chips last weekend - cost $92.00 - nothing fancy, just your regular fish and chip shop. Whilst the experience was enjoyable, I wonder if it was worth it, as I have had to cut the budget elsewhere, so we shall be eating baked beans twice maybe three times this week. I hope that this hasn't put you off and that you have found this info helpful. These are just the facts of life here in Oz - and rather you have an idea what to expect than come here and find that you cannot afford it. All the best, Purp

Hi,I cannot advise on the majority of your post, however I can on point 3. A very close relative is employed by Geoffrey Nathan and is contracted out to another company. They seem good to work for - the down side is the 'fees' or commissions (or whatever you want to call it) that have to be paid to GN. I think my relative pays 8% of the monthly salary and then the employer also pays along the lines of 12% of the monthly salary or thereabouts. Finding a company willing to pay the market rate salary plus 12% may be a bit of an issue. My relative was lucky, as they worked for the same employer in the UK - however the Aussie branch was unable to employ permanently due to freeze in headcount and recruitment - employing her on a contract basis through GN was the only way for them to get my relative here working for them. Hope this helps.

We have just moved to the Northern Beaches (Forestville) from the Lower North Shore (where we lived for 7 years). Our daughter just makes the cut off date - 11th July - however we decided to start her in Kindergarten this year 2013 at 5 and a half. We have another daughter who is now going into year 2, and despite having an October birthday was one of the youngest in her class - some of the kids were already turning 7 in the Jan/Feb. If we had started our 2nd daughter last year, she would have been 4 and a half in a class with some kids going on 6. Finding a preschool place can be difficult, depending on where in the NB's you want to live. We put our son's name down for our local preschool beginning of last year and he got a place for this year - we did say that we did not want him to start last year, so not sure if any places became available during the year. I do know however, know of a family who moved here mid year and their child was in the preschool when we went for our orientation towards the end of the year. In saying that, Sydney is transient - there are always people coming and going and even at our daughters previous preschool in Mosman, despite them having a long waiting list, I never heard of someone who wasnt accepted. With your son being 4, he would get priority over a 3 year old for example as they give precedence to children who are older as they will be starting school sooner. We had a friend move to Cromer and she ended up sending her son to two preschools as she was working 4 days and each centre only had a two day position available. Another thing to consider is that the preschools usually only do a two day or three day program - at my son's preschool, you have the option of Mon/Tue or Thur/Fri and then Mon/Tue/Wed or Wed/Thu/Fri. At the girls preschool, they only had two choices - Mon/Tue/We and then Thu/Fri so it can vary between places. I am not able to compare Scottish and Aus schools, but if you check this link out, it tells you what you can expect your child to learn in Kindergarten: http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/parents/parents-guide-to-the-nsw-primary-syllabuses/early-stage-1 Your son, from mid to year end should have the basics included in what they do in preschool. Hope this helps. Purpleal

Thanks all for your responses. The husband is in Finance/Investment - I am not sure what visa he obtained initially - it is a permanent visa though. I have had a look at the link kindly provided and from what I have read, they certainly do not qualify for any RRV - they have no compelling/compassionate grounds on why they havent moved here. As far as I am aware, they do not have any financial links to Australia. I am fairly certain that they do not have any bank accounts here nor any money invested. As the main visa holder is 45, am I correct in saying that should they allow the PR to 'expire', it would almost be certainly an impossibility that a 2nd visa would successfully be granted? Many Thanks, Purp

We have friends who validated their PR visa's about 3 years ago. They seem pretty settled in their life at home and seem to have no intention of moving to Oz in the next 2-3 years. They claim to know someone who 'just extended their PR' as they didnt move in the required timeframe and seem to have the belief that they can just 'extend' their own PR visa's despite the fact that they would not have set foot on Oz soil since their validation trip. Is this possible? I know there is the RRV, but I thought for this to be granted, you need to have lived in Oz for at least 2 years out of 5 prior? I don't want to burst their bubble but would like to set them straight with the facts now, so as not for them to have a shock in the future should they decide they do in fact want to move here. Can anyone advise? Many Thanks Purpleal

If you are sending your children to a public (state) school, and you fall within the catchement area, the school has to take you. Some will accept out of area (my daughters school does) if they need to make up numbers or if you have special circumstances which require a change of school. In saying that, there is a public school in our suburb in the Lower North Shore, which will NOT accept children that are not on permanent visa's even if you are in the catchment area. This is because they have tiny grounds and have over 800 pupils. They have to stagger start times and recess times to accommodate all the children that they have. There is a website http://www.myschool.edu.au/ in which you can type in the school name and it will give you all the school info as well as their NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) scores and how they perform against similar schools.

Obviously in the labour camp there Harpodom - a supporter of - Juliar 'there will be no carbon tax' Gillard?........

A gross generalisation if ever I heard one! That is like stating all Brits are p***heads that spend all day in the pub and start fights.

Hi Elizabeth, Personally, I think their request is a bit cheeky, especially as they are family and they insisted you stay with them instead of going into short term accomodation. My sister stayed with us when she arrived and we didnt ask for anything, we even paid for her food. After about 3 months, we decided that it would be nice if her stay with us could be permanent - she then started paying rent of about $70 a week including all bills and food. I am not sure where you are, but I thought I would give you an indication of what our quarterly bills are for a 4 bedroom townhouse in Sydney - will give you an idea of what they are spending on the utilities they are expecting you to contribute towards. You may find that your 'not wanting to insult them amount' is almost the same amount of of what their bills are - no fairness in that either! Water usage PER QUARTER about $80 (total bill is about $260 per quarter, but this is for sewerage etc, which is what they would have to pay anyway, regardless of water usage). Electric PER QUARTER is about $450 but we are a family of 5 and I use the dishwasher, washer and dryer once/twice EVERY day. I dont have Gas at the moment, but did at my old house and this was very cheap, about $100 per quarter from memory. Telephone Telstra Landline - about $60 a month. Other things, such as internet, TV/Foxtel etc I would definitly not include in any contributions, as these things are set and they wouldnt be spending anymore/less than they would if you werent with them. Hope this helps, Purp

I arrived in the UK in 1999 from my original country in Africa somewhere. I wasnt entitled to benefits of any kind - Despite my husband and myself having a combined income of almost 6 figures. Now, as you may say, we wouldnt need benefits on that salary, which is true - but that is not the point. If my husband and I were to have lost our jobs, or our home - as temporary residents, we had NO RECOURSE TO PUBLIC FUNDS - so we would NOT have recieved any financial assistance from the government, NO assistance with housing benefit, NO child benefit / Family Tax Credits or whatever the family benefit is over there. And that was just the way it was - unfair definitely, considering the amount of tax we were paying, but we accepted it and moved on. No point in moaning and whinging - nothing was going to change any of the above unless we became citizens. Of course, we knew all this before we moved, but we took a calculated risk as life in the UK would be far better for our future than the hole in Africa that we came from. What I am trying to say is that these are the laws of the land that you chose to come to. This isnt some hidden rule - it is common knowledge on all emigrating forums and doing a simple Google search would bring it up. As I said in a previous post, educating a child in an Australian public school actually costs $13,000 so despite what many people think, 457'ers children are being subsidised by the government to the tune of $8,500. And, really, in reality, there isnt such thing as a 'free education' in Australia anyway. I have three kids in public school here and for term 1, my bill for each one was almost $300 (with $90 voluntary contribution each- which I DO pay). For term 2, I had to pay $180 each and I suspect term 3 and 4 will be the same. Regards, Purp

This post may offend some, so apologies, that is not my intention, just stating the facts. People on 457's are not permanent residents - they are TEMPORARY. The government INVESTS almost $13,000 per child per year to educate them, of which a 457 visa holder pays $4500. This means that the TEMPORARY resident is still subsidised by the government to the amount of $8,500 a year. Once the temporary resident becomes PR this education becomes free and rightly so. I can see the point of the government, why should they pay the full amount towards educating a temporary resident who may in two years move out of the country. By the bye, one school in my area will not even accept children on temporary visa's - they are very oversubscribed and this is just their policy. Discriminatory, perhaps - legal, most probably. I doubt that they can just decide what their policy is before taking sound legal advice.