EugeneS

Thanks for your responses guys! But can anyone also post a link to an official source stating the same? I tried to find anything related on the government site but didn't find nothing relevant.. Thanks!

Hi folks, I was just wondering whether the citizenship can be expired or canceled under certain conditions? For example if you've been granted a citizenship and the day after you decide to leave OZ for indefinite time period, will the citizenship be active\valid forever? Thanks, Eugene

Hi folks! Me and my wife are going to arrive at Perth in few months. Both of us are professionals but since we are going to be fresh immigrants, I assume that it will take us some time to find some decent jobs. Hence, I'd like to find some temporary job to support ourselves while we are looking for permanent one. So I wonder whether there are some sites, newspapers or some other local media where such temporary (or non-professional) jobs are offered? Any related ideas are greatly appreciated! Thanks! Eugene S

Hi all, I have posted this thread a long time ago but it seems that no one could help me with it.. So I thought maybe my topic isn't clear enough however I couldn't find a way to change it.. So I thought maybe I add some details to my question here and "pop-up" this thread to give it one more chance. If it won't work too, I'll consider deleting it and posting a new one with clearer title... So again, my question in 2 words... I want to send few boxes of baggage with some essential stuff to wait for me in OZ when I arrive. I have no family\friends in OZ so I have no one to send the boxes to. Hence I don't even have an address to send the boxes to.. Is there any way to send the boxes with no address? For example, maybe I can send it to a post office to wait for me there? Maybe there are other options I'm not aware of? Thanks again! Eugene S

Thank you for your answer. I wonder if anyone encountered this situation personally or heard of someone who had troubles since NOT transferring this amount of money? Thanks!

Hi and thank you for your answer. However I think that you refer to the general visa activation, not the nominated state registration.. I'm interested specifically in what will be the consequences of not arriving directly to the sponsoring state after arriving to OZ. Thanks again!

Hi folks, Me and my wife are going to arrive to OZ in Jan 13 with our 176 PR visas sponsored by WA. The thing is that we'd like to visit some other cities before we head to Perth, just to get an impression of their lifestyles and feel. I don't know how much time I want for this travel but rough estimation will be few months. My concern is not arriving straight to the nominated state. I'm afraid that this might get us into a trouble lately if we don't register immediately after our arrival? After taking a look at my State Sponsorship Agreement, I've found the following: 1. You remain living and working in Western Australia for a period of two years after obtaining your visa. 2. You keep the Wester Australia Government informed of your contact details after your arrival. Now I see that in both cases they state "After", but no specific time limit is specified. So it makes me think that our trip won't be a problem.. Even if it'll take some more time..? To say more, all this agreement doesn't seem too serious. I mean there are no dates, no specific requirements, it's not so clear how should I contact the Western Australia Government. I don't know.. This document just seems a bit odd to me.. What do you think? Thanks in advance!

Thank you for your answer! Somehow I didn't take into consideration but it seems to be a worst time to arrive to a new place. I didn't know that the holidays are so long, until Feb! What about different government services, banks? Are they on vacation too? This also means that I won't be able to actively look for a job in this period.. Anyway I have no choice since I have to enter OZ before 9 Jan to activate my visa..

Hi folks, We're moving to Melbourne this December and we obviously are going to need some place to stay.. The thing is I'm not sure how can I find an apartment remotely? Is it even possible? How can this be done? To complicate the things even more, we land at December 28, which is 3 days before Sylvester and it's also a weekend, so I believe that the city will be "paralyzed". I'm really stressed about this and I consider to move our flight few days forward to Jan 3. Any suggestions? Thoughts? Thanks!!

This sounds very frustrating indeed. However according to what thewebweasel mentioned here before, I see no reason why you stay there. You can just move back to Melbourne where you do have a job. The state commitment is important but in this your job and your family are more important.

Thanks so much! I guess couldn't expect a better answer :biggrin:. What do you mean when you mention the label? BTW, I now also see that I don't have the long number which appear above the "AUSTRALIA VISA" text, at the top of the example visa.

Hi and thank you for your reply! But are you sure that's just that? I always thought that I work directly with offices in Adelaide, that's where my immigration office resides.. I just want to be sure it's ok and not some kind of mistake which could cause problems when I arrive to OZ. Thanks again!

Hi all! Just received my passport with a 176 visa in it! Yeey!! :biggrin: Now the visa by itself include only some basic information regarding visa type, entry dates, validity, etc.. The strange thing is that I see that directly above my name appears "BERLIN". I am not from Germany and Berlin does not seems to be related to me in any way.. Does anyway have a slightest idea what could this mean? Thanks! Eugene S

Fair enough! So just to make it clear, the money which will be paid by me during a certain period while living and working in OZ, will remain there and wait until my retirement age. Then I assume that the total sum will be divided to a certain number of years (according to some lifetime expectancy parameter) and then it will be paid to me in small sums. Is that right? If yes, one more question. Since I will not be longer living in OZ, I also assume that I won't have any bank account there. If so how this procedure will happen? How will I be able to obtain the money? Thanks! Eugene S

Hi all and thank you for your replies! Actually my visa is a PR 176 so I guess that the rules here are different. I took a look at the 'DASP' (departing Australia superannuation payment) site but the information there is only regarding temporary workers. Any other sources? Personal experiences? Thanks!

Thank you for your reply. However I didn't ask about the possible profits the money will make. My question is: "Will I be able to access this money if I do not leave in OZ anymore the moment I reach the retirement age?". If yes, will be possible to take the whole sum or I will just receive a specific amount of money paid monthly? Thanks again!

Hi all! I have a question regarding the Superannuation pension scheme. As far as I understand it, superannuation is a compulsory element where employees are required by law to pay a proportion of their salary into a superannuation fund, which can be accessed when the employee retires. Now I wonder what will happen to this money if I decide to leave OZ after living and working there for few years? I suppose that the amount of money will stay unchanged until the moment I reach the retirement age and then I will be able to access the money. Am I right here? Thanks in advance! Eugene

This is a good question and I've been asking it for too long right now.. I guess that this is one of the main reasons which made me seek for a better life in OZ. Anyway, just to make myself more clear, my initial question was not "Why are the taxes so low in OZ?", but "Maybe I miss something?". BTW, as I already mentioned, all the countries which provide very high living standards take their price for that. And I have no problem with that since everything has to be paid for. Just was curious how a country can maintain high standards of living without being paid appropriately?

Hi there! Thank you for your reply! Can you please provide some details regarding the Aus superannuation you've mentioned? I'm not familiar with it? Is it an additional tax or is it just included as a part of income tax? Thank you!

No argue about that :wink:. However still there are countries which demand much higher taxes to support high standard of living comparing to OZ. Eventually the money must be taken from somewhere.. Take me for instance (not UK), I pay much higher income taxes in addition to 5% healthcare tax (comparing to the 1.5% in OZ, and even this in case you earn more than 75K$) and social security which is about ~6% of may salary. Eventually it all sums up to more than 30% of my salary and this is without taking into account excise taxes on gas etc... And after all that I'm not even close to all the public services available for free (or practically free) in OZ. I just want to understand how this situation can happen? Or in other words, where the money comes from?? :biggrin:

You can try this site, there are plenty of listening/writing/reading examples. I used it a lot. It took me 3 times to get the desired mark since 2 first times I was missing exactly 0.5 points on writing. So finally I came to a conclusion that I have take few lessons. Obviously few lessons won't improve your language generally, but if you can find a teacher who is IELTS examiner, he could provide you with very useful information specifically for that purpose. That what helped me eventually.. Good luck! Eugene

Hi folks! I wonder, how much money is being paid in taxes in OZ? According to my brief investigation (mostly from the internet), I've concentrated it in the list below.However it seems a bit strange to me and I'll explain why.. According to my knowledge (again - internet and people who I speak to in OZ), the standard of living is very high in OZ. And by saying that I mean the quality and availability of employment, poverty rate, hours of work required to purchase necessities, number of vacation days per year, affordable (or free) access to quality healthcare, quality and availability of education, cost of goods and services, economic and political stability and more... Considering the above, the taxes not seem to be very high comparing to the taxes in Scandinavian countries for example, which also offer a very high standard of living but the taxes there are much higher. Partly due to high social security payments (which as far as I understand does not even exist in OZ??). Could someone review the below list and correct me if I miss anything? If the below is correct, I'd be interested to find an explanation for this difference. So the first and the most significant - Personal Income Tax. Which is described pretty simple in the below table: [TABLE=width: 500] [TR] [TD]Taxable income[/TD] [TD]Tax on this income[/TD] [TD]Effective tax rate[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]0-6K$[/TD] [TD]-[/TD] [TD]0%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]6K$-37K$[/TD] [TD]15c for each $1 over $6,000[/TD] [TD]0 – 12.6%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]37K$-80K$[/TD] [TD]$4,650 plus 30c for each $1 over $37,000[/TD] [TD]12.6 – 21.9%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]80K$-180K$[/TD] [TD]$17,550 plus 37c for each $1 over $80,000[/TD] [TD]21.9 – 30.3%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]180K$ and over[/TD] [TD]$54,550 plus 45c for each $1 over $180,000[/TD] [TD]30.3 – less than 45%[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Capital gains tax - this one is obviously irrelevant for those who does not have any investments into capital assets. Goods and Services Taxes - Regular VAT (value added tax), which is 10% of most supplied goods and services. Property Taxes and Excise Taxes - those are the taxes for certain property (usually commercial and hence seems to irrelevant?) and taxes for goods like cigarettes, alcohol, fuel etc... Now that seems to be just it. So if we take, for example, a salary of 60K$ a year, the overall tax will be 4,650+0.3*(60,000-37,000)=11550$, which is just below 20%! Then if I add here the VAT, the overall tax will build up to ~30%, as far as I see it.. Which again - is not much.. Will be happy to get some replies here. Thanks! Eugene

Hi folks! We're heading for OZ approximately in the end of the year. As far as I understood from some of the older threads here, it is possible to open bank account before actually arriving and provide some arrival date estimation. My question is about how is it practically done? Can just do it online? If yes, how? And the second question is regarding money transfer. Can I deposit some money after opening the account? If yes, how that can be done? Please notice that I do not arrive from UK. Thanks in advance!! Eugene

Thanks! I hope you'll get a positive reply soon! For me now it's a time to start thinking about tons of other practical dilemmas which I postponed until the moment I get a visa...:goofy:

Hi folks! I think about updating my CV to be better fit for OZ. I was curious maybe the way the CV look in OZ are different or maybe there are some things in the CV which should be emphasized.. Are there any links which have some info on this topic? I'm specifically interested in the following kinds of jobs: QA Engineer Linux Admin Linux Eng Thanks! Eugene