thricenightly

You could always ship it separately. There are plenty of companies who would ship such a regular piece of furniture. They'll knock up a protective frame for it, which isn't as expensive as you might think. It's hardly a carpenter's job. Depending on how it's contructed you might be able to dismantle it a bit. Or if you have to pay the full volumetric price, pack it full of clothes and other stuff. You need to talk to a shipping company before you decide to leave it behind.

Yes, that's about it. You get an invoice when it gets to customs. I guess those guys won't look at it until you've paid them their fee. Then you get a text and/or an email asking where and when you want it delivered. Phone them up, give them an address, and they bring it to you.

We got back to the UK at Xmas, and are in exactly the same position: large deposit, but not large enough for a cash purchase. And yes, it's a problem. Banks in the UK are very fussy lenders these days, and having a large deposit isn't enough to convince them you're worthy of a mortgage. Whatever employment history you can provide from Australia isn't relevant; whatever you earnt in Australia isn't relevant; whatever UK credit history you had before you left isn't relevant (ours was fine, and we were only away 2 years) and nor is your Australian credit history. What they want is a history of UK residence and employment, demonstrated by your P60s. Basically you tick none of the boxes. We went to a specialist broker who tried various weird and wonderful lending institutions. He got most interest from the international credit banks, who are like less likely to be phased by getting overseas tax returns, credit references, etc. But he still got no offers for us, and even if he had, the rates they wanted were off the scale. We've given up and resigned ourselves to renting for a couple of years.

My Movecube back to the UK arrived a few days ago. I've just had a bit of a financial shock I would like to warn people about. Firstly, storage of it. If you're not ready to receive it, SevenSeas will store it for you at their depot until you're sorted out. They wanted £135 per week to store our large 'cube! You get 2 weeks free storage, so get yourself sorted out quickly! Also, make sure you start by getting a quote for it to be delivered to the right place. I wasn't sure where I'd be living back in the UK so I got a quote to have the 'cube delivered to Greater London, knowing I'd be in the south of the UK. How much more could it be? Well, they took it to their depot in Swindon, and when I phoned and told them I wanted it delivered to an address in Cambridgeshire, they told me it would cost £570 to take it there! Bottom line for extra time and delivery to Cambridge was the thick end of a thousand quid, which was about what they charged me to collect in Perth and take it all the way to the UK!

You'd be mad to ship food here. Quantine would be all over it like a rash. You can't import anything containing fruit, seeds, dairy or even things which you'd assume are perfectly harmless like added vitamns. As soon as Quantine see anything edible in your packing list they'll pull the whole consignment apart, and you'll have no idea what will and won't infringe their regulations. Leave it all behind.

You should definitely get the citizenship and passports. You just never know what the future holds; you might want to retire to Australia in however many decades that might be. Once you have it they can't take it away. Passports come through pretty quickly (just a couple of weeks IIRC), but cost a bomb! My partner and I did the same thing: waited out our residency period, did the Citizenship Ceremony, and were on a plane back to Blighty a few weeks later. But we got the passports, because once you have them in your hand there can be no question of them not being granted. 6 years later we returned to Australia and we just walked in the door, so to speak. The only other thing I can think of is to try to avoid getting on the Electrol Role. They have people outside the Citizenship Ceremony waiting to pounce on New Australians and get them signed up. If you sign up you'll have to get "unsigned" again when you leave, which appears to be rather tricky.

For anyone interested in going the other way, I've just shipped a large MoveCube from Perth to the UK. It cost AUD$1785 inc GST, plus the unavoidable inspection fee at the other end (£120). Personally I think it's a great idea. Instead of having a bunch of ham fisted blokes descend on your possessions like locusts, you get to pack it all exactly as you want. You can squeeze in as much as you can, carefully filling every single gap to get the most for your money, and ensuring that all the fragile and valuable stuff is well protected. When you're done the contents are photographed, the door is clamped shut and the whole thing shinkwrapped. No one opens it or touches it until you open it yourself at the other end (although obviously Customs are entitled to open it if they so choose). Having done it the other way, where everything gets crammed into cardboxes boxes and those boxes are then humped into a van (followed by more processes you don't get to witness) I thought the MoveCube was a much better approach. I'd definitely use one again.